All around the Antarctica Peninsula are islands, small bays and floating ice. Our expedition involved six landings and zodiac cruising. The 189 passengers were divided into two groups with one group landing and one group cruising. Each day included a morning and afternoon expedition. and The expeditions took about two and a half hours. There was much changing of clothes because each time we went out into the below freezing weather we needed a base layer, clothing layer, waterproof layer, warm gear like hats, gloves and buffs and life vest. Oh, and don’t forget the binoculars and camera. Outside those layers of clothes were great but as soon as we came back to the ship we were stripping it all off as fast as we could.

Each of the twenty-three expedition staff is an expert in a certain area ranging from geography and photography to whales and lichens. In addition to providing talks on the ship they also piloted the Zodiac boats. Each cruise was different depending on the specialty of the person driving the boat.

Mikkelsen Harbour, our first destination, is a small bay, surrounded by glaciers. It was discovered in about 1904. Our landing site has breeding gentoo penguins, whale bones and ship remains from the whaling era in the early 1900’s. One of the most fun things is that the Penguins are not afraid of people, they just continue about their business of walking around, fishing and feeding their chicks.

Wilhelmina Bay was discovered in 1899. In this bay is a grounded whaling ship that caught fire while carrying a cargo of whale oil. The captain ran the ship aground to save the crew. No one died that day.

 

 

Paradise Harbour was named by whalers for its protected anchorage. Deep and glaciated, it is a great location for zodiac cruising. This region supports nesting Antarctic cormorants, Cape petrels and Antarctic terns on the nearby cliffs. From the landing, it was possible to hike up to a high point for spectacular views of the Harbour.

 

 

 

 

 

The Lemaire Channel is a mile to half mile wide passage that separates Booth Island from the Antarctic continent. There are towering peaks on either side. The channel is full of icebergs and sea ice. As the ship went passed, the Penguins scurried off of the slabs of ice and the seals raised their heads to see what was going on.

 

 

 

 

In addition to the landings and cruises there was the opportunity to kayak (it had to be purchased before the expedition and was $1,000 extra) and to camp overnight on Antarctica. There was a Spanish film crew on board making a global warming documentary. It was fun to watch them at work. The grand finale activity was the polar plunge… no we did not do it but we enjoyed watching those brave souls who did.

Each day brought new beauty and amazing sites. We saw hundreds of penguins, seals, whales and countless sea birds. I could write for days but we will let the pictures do the talking…