3/3/18

We took full advantage of all the hotel amenities today- we used the gym and had a nice swim in the pool/hot tub after a large and wonderful breakfast.

At 4 PM, the company picked us up to transfer us to the ship. We were greeted with a champagne toast, some snacks, and given a briefing about the ship. We watched the boat being cast off. We are really headed to Antarctica!

Dinner was served shortly afterwards. We realized that we will not be going hungry on this ship. To save time and space, we aren’t going to post pictures of food during the cruise but to give you an idea the first night, we had a starter (cauliflower tart), a soup (cream of asparagus), a salad, a main course (halibut or duck confit), a desert (strawberry custard or bread pudding), and a cheese platter. We were stuffed. We went to the bar for an after-dinner drink then headed to bed.

3/4/18

Overnight, we definitely started feeling the rocking and rolling of the ship. The waves are 3-5 meters, which is apparently pretty mild for the Drake passage, so we consider ourselves lucky. Alejandro wasn’t feeling amazing, but he got through it (with some help from medication the ship’s doctor handed out to everyone). Today is an all ocean day. There is a 4^th floor deck that has a walkway all the way around, so we walked a few miles throughout the day on that. The fresh air helped Alejandro’s seasickness a bit. From there we could also see the different petrels and albatross’ flying around the ship!

We went to 6 different talks throughout the day- whales, albatross, penguins, the history of discovery in Antarctica, a daily recap, and myths and legends of the sea. Between all these activities, we actually stayed pretty busy! Breakfast and lunch were scattered throughout these, which are served buffet style and both very large with great food.

3/5/18

The next day was another day at sea. Today wasn’t quite as nice of weather as yesterday (a little cloudy and rainy), but we didn’t have to go outside much, so it was ok. We had a general orientation to shore landings as well as checks of all of our equipment to make sure we weren’t bringing any foreign plant matter to Antarctica (specifically hidden seeds). We had some lectures in the afternoon including Pinnipeds (seals and fur seals), Introduction to Glaciers, and a daily recap. In between, we did some walking on the decks and went up to visit the bridge to see the navigational equipment. We saw our first whale in the afternoon around 3:30- a fin whale, the second largest in the world. Last talk of the day after dinner was Medicine at Sea about how doctors started working on ships. Here is an example of our daily schedule.

3/6/18

We woke up today in Antarctica! First activity was watching as the ship cruised through the Lemere channel. It is a narrow channel with beautiful glaciers and mountains that go from sea level up to 3000 feet. First penguin sighting was in the channel. We also saw Minke whales around. There was also the option to eat our meals outside on the 5^th floor deck so we never had to leave the beautiful scenery.

We hopped onto the Zodiac boats after breakfast and headed to land at Petermann Island. There were Gentoo penguins everywhere! There were two walks that we did- one to the other side of the island for a great look at some glaciers (and more penguins) and the other was to look at a few scattered Adelie penguins. We also saw Antarctic cormorants and fur seals.

We came back to the boat for lunch, then headed back out for some stand up paddleboarding! We were near Vernandsky station, a Ukrainian research station. We hopped on the boards and paddled through the channels near the island. We saw some beautiful ice walls as well as a humongous crabeater seal. Only one girl in our group fell in- at least we had dry suits!

 

We had a nightly recap again then had dinner and headed to bed early.

3/7/18

Today was a long (AND AMAZING!) day. First thing this morning after our alarm went off, we looked out our window and immediately saw multiple humpback whales “fluking” (showing their tails). We saw three more humpbacks before we even finished brushing our teeth. Good morning Antarctica!

Gangway time to get on the Zodiac was at 6:30 AM. The Zodiac took us over to Cooverville Island, which was another Gentoo penguin colony. The penguins were super curious here, and kept waddling up to us. So adorable! There were a couple walks to do here to some great viewpoints, but we also just spent time hanging out with the penguins.

We headed back for breakfast then left immediately afterwards for an extended Zodiac cruise. First sighting was a humpback whale that dove right under our boat! They are sooo big that close up! Next sighting was a leopard seal swimming around in the water. It was so curious; it just kept circling around the boats.  We saw our 5^th type of penguin on this trip, called a chinstrap- you may be able to tell why. As we started to head back to the boat, someone announced that they had seen an orca. We headed over to where they had been seen swimming towards, and we saw 2 orca pop up! It was sooo cool, and we were the only ones in the Zodiac boat that got to see them that close up. After that, it was back to the boat for lunch, which was interrupted by a pack of orca now swimming towards the cruiser. What a great morning.

Then we had our third stop of the day, Paradise Harbor. There was an Argentinian station here and a large overlook that we hiked up to. It was a little foggy, but still beautiful.

After the hike, we hopped back on the Zodiac for a ride around the harbor. We saw some beautiful ice formations. At one point, our guide turned off the motor so we could hear the sound of the ice. We also ran into another Minke whale, but this time, super close up. So majestic! Last surprise was a leopard seal up on the ice. We couldn’t believe how much we saw today!

Last activity was the polar plunge. The crew turned on some music and one third of our ship took turns jumping into the freezing water, Alejandro and I included. The water was 0.4 degrees Celsius. Brrr…

For dinner was a barbecue outdoors with all sorts of barbecued meats. They said with the swimming and barbecue, it was their version of a pool party!

3/8/18

There was an amazing sunrise this morning!

We ate breakfast at 7 to be ready for the passage through Neptune’s Bellows at 8 into Whaler’s Bay at Deception Island. We headed out in the Zodiacs around 8:30 towards the beach where we were met by hundreds of fur seals. They were scattered everywhere! It was somewhat treacherous to navigate the beach and avoid the seals (and FYI, in case you ever have a fur seal charging at you, DON’T turn away and run, try to make yourself big and clap/bark back at them instead).

We had amazing views out of Neptune’s window on one side of the island. On the other side we saw the ruins of the prior whaler station plus the first airstrip and airplane hanger that made it to Antarctica (the first flight was in 1928!). One of the guides put together a display of things that had washed up on the beach, including krill, brittle stars, salps, and an isopod.

After this we went back to the boat for lunch. And it was again interrupted by orca, this time on the hunt for fur seals! It was exhilarating.

 

In the afternoon we hopped back on the Zodiac for a trip to Half Moon Island. Here, there were a lot more fur seals, but at least we didn’t get attacked this time. We also saw two younger elephant seals and our 6^th type of penguin, the Macaroni penguin! For some reason, this one Macaroni penguin has been hanging out with this colony of chinstrap penguins for the last 15-20 years. The glaciers in the area were again beautiful.

Upon returning to the ship, we took a group picture, then dinner was served. We took advantage of the relatively nice weather and ate dinner outside with a beautiful sunset bidding us farewell.

Most of the ship crew is from the Philippines, and tonight was their night. We had Philippine food for dinner, then they performed a show with some traditional dances and singing.

That night was bittersweet as we bid Antarctica farewell and started back through the Drake passage on our way back to South America.

3/9/18 – 3/11/18

The next couple days were (thankfully) uneventful at sea. We even had an unbelievably calm Drake “Lake” so seasickness wasn’t an issue either. We had 2 days packed of more lectures and reminiscing about our expedition. We finally arrived to port on the evening of 3/10 though didn’t disembark until the following morning. Our last meal and toasts by our expedition leader and ship captain were followed by a fun dance party on the deck of the ship. The next morning we finally came back to land and spent the day roaming around Ushuaia until our afternoon flight to Buenos Aires.