Blogs from South Shetland Islands, Antarctica, Antarctica

As we compose this blog the ship heads further south, and unfortunately back in the open ocean and...yes rollers. Being a small ship, we have 175 souls aboard, she is more affected by waves, especially abeam. Yet, we are also able to enter places larger ships cannot. In fact, no ship that carries more than 500 passengers can land anyone in Antarctica. We'll take the small, nice ship, thank you and this one is only six months old. As an added "benefit" we occasionally feel a bit of a "shimmer" as we encounter an iceberg. Ventura is expedition built PC-6 rated hull capable of plowing through many of the icebergs we encounter. On 1 February, Bird exited the ship for the initial occasion. She bounded into a zodiac, then climbed onto the conning tower of a ... read more

Our last stop in Antarctica was at Telefon Bay. This is actually a caldera as the surrounding land is called Deception Island.which is an active volcano. Fortunately while we were anchored there there was no eruption. It was a very windy day and again we were told there was doubt anyone could get ashore. But the weather improved somewhat and the sun was shining. The island was spectacular, with the black of the granite showing through the snow. There were tanks and sheds ashore which were remnants of a former whaling station. To enter the caldera we sailed through the narrow entrance known as Neptune's Bellows because it is very windy. We successfully anchored in the bay and the expedition team went ashore. An hour or so later we were told that groups could go ashore ... read more

Friday. We slept until after 9:00 and so missed breakfast. There was to be bird-spotting on deck with Lancy, the ornithologist, from 9 to 11. By the time I got up there it was 10:30, grey skies, no birds and no people. It was drizzling a bit so I returned the binoculars and camera to the cabin before returning to the top deck with Nathan to do my exercise walk. The ship returned to Deception Island since options were limited due to weather conditions and we sailed into the caldera again, this time to a different area. Much of the snow that was present on our first visit had melted. It was overcast but only occasionally drizzling. Our group wasn’t scheduled to go ashore until 4:30. Once we got there, the beach was black sand and ... read more

An incredible start to our Antarctic experience, penguins on ice flows, a tor, calving glaciers, ice caves, porpoising penguins, the Polish Arctowski Antarctic station with their supply ship anchored nearby, all in Admiralty Bay on King George Island in the South Shetland Islands. We were outside at 8am this morning all rugged in our Antarctic gear. I lasted about 40 minutes and the cold, 0 degrees, drove me back inside. The deck on the bow of the ship was opened up so everyone could see ahead. We crossed 60 degrees latitude last evening so are now officially sailing in Antarctic waters. The usually treacherous Drake Passage was incredibly calm. Our Expedition Team is giving us a running commentary on what we can see. It consists of a geologist, a biologist and a historian who have told ... read more

Tuesday & Wednesday 19/20 February: DAY 18&19 / KING GEORGE ISLAND (ANTARCTICA) – RETURN TO SOUTH AMERICA – OVERNIGHT x 3 in PUNTA ARENAS This morning we said our goodbye to our expedition team and transfer ashore by Zodiac……eventually! We were woken by Kaylan at 6.00am although she tricked us by saying it was 4.45am!! It wasn’t! After breakfast, we were told that loading would start at 9.00am which was when our luggage would be loaded on large nets and craned over the side into zodiacs and taken to the beach on King Edward Island. Several of the zodiacs were off loaded and luggage in place. Then, all of a sudden, the seas changed. Waves started to come over he zodiacs … with our suitcases in it. There were several zodiacs that made it to the ... read more