Antarctic Circle

We crossed the Antarctic Circle at 7:30 this morning: 66° 33’ 39”. A cheer went up on the bridge. From this point South, on the longest day of the year, the sun will not set.

This is the earliest in the season the crew has ever crossed the circle, the furthest south they have ever ventured at this date. The effects of global warming experienced firsthand.

What is the allure of this arbitrary line? Is it the distance from the rest of the world and the rarity of venturing there? The barely faded footsteps of Captain James Cook and the first Antarctic explorers? More than two million people live North of the Arctic Circle, the more accessible sibling, but there are no permanent residents South of the Antarctic Circle.

In this twenty-first century, it remains a terrestrial frontier.