Blogs from Antarctica - page 5

In the beginning: Our most recent blog was an example of how we just could not wait to share our experiences. We simply could not help ourselves and wanted to jump into our trip to tell you about the breath-taking Falkland Islands and show you some penguins, which are so amazingly cute. It was also an attempt to capture your interest so that you will continue to read along. Okay…mission accomplished (or so we think). At this point, we will take a quick step back now and tell you about the beginning of our trip and our orientation to life at sea. All told, we were gone a little over three weeks. Three weeks on a ship might seem lengthy, but we would let you know it went by blazingly fast. Included in our journey were ... read more

We have just returned from Antarctica which is our 7th and last continent. (Also my 104th country as per Century Club classifications) Our trip was supposed to start from Salt Spring on Jan 3d but projected wind conditions on the Georgia Strait give us pause about the ferry so we left on the 2nd and did a few touristy things in Vancouver. As usual it was raining and our visit to Granville Island and Gastown included umbrellas. Our Air Canada flight departed YVR at 1030 AM on the 4th, putting us into Toronto at 1802. The big news is that Air Canada got two more best airline/good service awards (they have their own awards department filled with imaginative people who probably trained with Sarah Huckabee Sanders) It was a five hour flight from Vancouver and the ... 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

3 Types of Expedition Ships For the reason that the Antartica is a famous destination, numerous cruise ships sail to the peninsula. These Antarctica expedition cruise ships can be classified into three types: research ships, expedition ships, and luxury ships. First, you will need to determine which category of cruise ship suits your need. After that, make sure you pay attention to factors like on-board facilities, workers ratio, and meal quality. Every Antarctica cruise ship provides something unique, and it is always worth paying more to get your first preference. Let's look at the three types of cruise ships in Antarctica 1. Research vessels Research vessels are meant for those travelers on a budget. Previously, the research ships were utilized as research vessels, and now they have been a transfor... read more

7 Charlotte Bay, Antarctica Today was a 7.00am wakeup call as we had become used to, with wonderful smoothies served in the bar at 7.15am for those who got up early and breakfast served at 7.30am. During the Antarctic section of our expedition, the zodiacs were craned into the water from the ship’s deck by 9.00am. This morning we were going for a cruise around the Bay looking for whales. We were astounded. It was a feeding frenzy of whales for over 2 hours. They were all humpbacks. Many times we had whales all around us. We constantly looked for the bubbles coming up, which indicated that they were below that surface. On one occasion, surrounding our zodiac was bubbles everywhere. We didn’t know when and where they were going to surface. All we knew was ... read more