We had a fantastically smooth trip across the Drake with barely a ripple to disturb our sleep. A quiet start but hopefully an adventurous trip nonetheless as we are aiming for the Argentine Islands which are further South than we have been this season and offers a fantastic maze of twisting narrow channels to slip through and explore in a zodiac. Within the islands is Vernadsky station, which is now run by Ukrainian researchers but was once run by the British under the name of Faraday – actually it is the location where they first discovered the ozone hole over Antarctica and trigger global concern over the effect of CFCs in the atmosphere. The important part however, is that they are always happy to receive guests and are quick to offer a free shot of home distilled vodka…