March 2017

After several incredibly full-on days in Antarctica, we headed back across the Drake Passage en route to the Falkland Islands.   Not much to do over these couple of days so the crew put on a lot more talks and social activities, including an auction to raise money for several Antarctic charities, and a tour of […]

Over lunch we motored from Cape Lookout to Point Wild, with some more amazing whale sightings against incredible backdrops. Point Wild is a narrow spit of land where Ernest Shackleton left 22 of his men from the Endurance under the command of Frank Wild, while he and 5 others sailed off to South Georgia Island

We were warned often and well in advance that what we may or may not be able to do today was very, very dependent on weather conditions and swell – and so to be prepared for worst.  Elephant Island (part of the South Shetland Islands) basically sticks out into the Drake Passage and has no shelter,

Last night I almost fulfilled one of my bucketlist items – I almost saw the midnight sun.    I say almost, because at the latitudes where we are, the sun does actually set briefly, but I definitely stayed up to see the midnight twilight 🙂   Here’s the proof – a picture of Rosamel Island, the entrance

After leaving Esperanza Station and yet another amazing lunch, we continued to be lucky with the swell and the ice, and could actually land at Brown Bluff – a site with another Gentoo Penguin colony and an Adelie Penguin colony – something like 90,000 nests in total! Here I saw lots of Gentoo chicks –

Up at 7:30am for yet another bacon and egg breakfast (loving it – though there is a vast array to choose from on the breakfast buffet) before heading out to an Argentine Antarctic Base – Esperanza Station.   Another amazing overcast day with no wind, and the approach to the base before breakfast was awesome

The One Ocean crew were super-excited that the weather was calm, as it looked like we would be able to get to Spert Island – one of their favourite places on the trip.   This is a volcanic island that is quite exposed and therefore difficult to access in zodiacs.  Quite often, and although they have this on

Cierva Cove Super-early wake-up call today for an early-morning zodiac around Cierva Cove.   This Cove houses a colony of Chinstrap Penguins, which, to date, we’d only seen swimming in the Drake passage.  These penguins are named (obviously) for their white chinstrap, and for me at least, are the most attractive of the penguins we’ve seen

The morning of Day 4 saw us exploring the Gentoo Penguin colony at Cuverville Island and, over lunch, the Vavilov re-positioned to Wilhelmina Bay for our second excursion of the day (yes, they planned to keep us busy)!     This time it was a zodiac cruise to look for Antarctic mammals – particularly pertinent after Derek’s

We’ve arrived at Antarctica!   Not surprisingly – it is absolutely beautiful, even with heavily overcast skies!  The great thing though – no wind and little swell!  Two excursions today and the first time actually stepping onto the Antarctic Peninsula! For the first excursion, they recommended that we put on lots of layers so we could