Blue skies and sunshine greeted us this morning near the northern end of Snow Hill Island, a place rarely visited by guest ships because of the usually heavy ice conditions. Here we went ashore to visit a very important historical site, the hut left by Dr. Otto Nordenskjold's Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901-04. A small Argentine field party hosted us as we visited the hut and explored the surrounding area, keeping an eye open for fossils of marine invertebrates.

The distant landmass in today's photograph is the immense James Ross Island. During the night, the Caledonian Star successfully penetrated the poorly charted and ice-strewn waters of Prince Gustav Channel and Admiralty Sound to circumnavigate this island. This was impossible until five or six years ago, because the island was permanently connected to the Antarctic Peninsula by a huge ice shelf.

This circumnavigation of James Ross Island is a remarkable achievement, made possible only by the skill and experience of Captain Leif Skog... not to mention the capabilities of the ice-strengthened and sonar-equipped Caledonian Star herself. Only two other ships are known to have succeeded in "rounding the Ross," making a total of no more than 350 people in the history of mankind who have done this. That is the true spirit of expedition cruising.