I'm a sailor. I intend to sail my yacht to Antartica in the next 4-5 years. I know sailors that have been there. They were not met by naval warships and told to turn around. They have no reason to lie to me about their trips down there.
Trevor Robertson is from my home town. He is the only man in history to have solo sailed his yacht unassisted and allowed himself to be frozen in for both an Antarctica and Arctic winter. Here is a link to his blog - you can find other articles about his exploits.
@sift666 - there are many ports that a sailor can depart from and NZ is certainly one of them. Patagonia is the closet to Antartica and a very popular launching pad.
Awesome - yeah I know people who have been right up to that wall of ice but penguins told them to go home :)
you crack me up - those dastardly penguins must have been trained by the UN ;)