Ship Sinks Off Antarctica

Sounds like these people did not have as good of an experience as I did down there:

A Canadian cruise ship struck submerged ice off Antarctica and began sinking, but all 154 passengers and crew, Americans and Britons among them, took to lifeboats and were plucked to safety by a passing cruise ship. The entire vessel finally slipped beneath the waves Friday evening, about 20 hours after the predawn accident near Antarctica's South Shetland Islands, the Chilean navy said. No injuries were reported although passengers reportedly endured subfreezing temperatures for several hours as they waited in bobbing lifeboats for a Norwegian liner that took them to a Chilean military base in the region.

Thankfully, everyone survived.

I voyaged on an ice-breaker and kayaked in Antarctica and can actually imagine the conditions the passengers faced while in the lifeboats. It would be freezing and harrowing to say the least. It will also be a fantastic story to tell when they make it home. Many adventurers to the continent have suffered far worse fates. (Read about Earnest Shackleton and his Lost Men.)

Here are some pictures and a video of my own trip down there.