Antarctica 2023
AT SEA
Feb 2
It has been a long time coming, since we originally thought about Antarctica as a destination, and since we actually booked this trip 3 years ago. Here we are standing in line on a pier waiting to walk up the gangway to our expedition ship...
The M/V HONDIUS
M/V Hondius was built in 2019, as the first-registered Polar Class 6 vessel in the world, meeting the latest and highest standards for ice-strengthened cruise ships. The Ship is 107.6 m long, has a 15 knot average cruising speed and has 2 ABC main engines (hopefully someone knows what that means). The Ship carries a maximum of 178, but we have 160 passengers, 10X as many than were on our Galapagos boat, but 1000's less than the other cruise ships that left before us.
GPS Position: At Port Ushuaia
Wind: SE-2 • Sea State: At Port • Weather: Partly Cloudy
Air temp: 17°C • Sea temp: 12°C
We boarded and settled in to our room, it’s great! After waiting for 3 years and letting Oceanwide hold our money, we got upgraded to this room, and it is appreciated. Also appreciated is the bottle of champagne they left for us.
It all started with a Safety briefing and practice Lifeboat drill, then an introduction and overview. The lifeboat holds 100 Passengers... I don't know how. Each of those blue barrels holds enough supplies (food, water, shelter) for 10 people to survive 10 days, or something like that, I should have paid more attention.
We took a little time to check out the rest of the ship
Front Desk and the Gift Shop
The Library
The Lecture Hall
The Bar and Lounge
At 6:00pm we set sail, and pull out into the Beagle Channel towards the open sea.
Goodbye Ushuaia
At 6:30 it's our first official Expedition Introduction and the Captains Toast. In Galapagos we had Captain Tony, this time we have Captain Toni, he's from Finland but looks like a pirate. Captain Toni tells us, that we should really lower our expectations because we just don't know what the conditions will be as we arrive at each area. If we lower our expectations then they can try to exceed them and make it the best expedition for us.
Right away we would learn how being on an expedition is different from a typical planned cruise.
The Original Plan (clock-wise)
We meet our Expedition Leader Pippa, and she tells us that with expeditions plans can change, and our original itinerary was Plan A. Pippa and the Captain use a weather forecaster called Windy.com to look at wind conditions on our route. Rain, Snow, and temperatures will very rarely affect our plans, but wind will create waves and swells, which really affect Sea conditions and landing options. Due to predicted extremely high wind conditions (60-70 knot winds) over the Falkland Islands and South Georgia, we're moving on to Plan B the ship route is being reversed... We are going to Antarctica first, Yay! That also means our first few days at Sea will be crossing the Drake Passage, Boo!
Next up we met the Expedition crew, a collection of experts in varying fields; Arctic/Antarctic experience, Whales, Birds, Geology, History, Medicine... everybody brings something unique, and over the next 18 days we would be hearing from all of them, on the water, on the land, and during lectures while we are at Sea.
THE EXPEDITION CREW
Rear: Tiphanie, Pelin, Dr. Rieneke, Georgina, Jakub, Felicity, Sasha,
Julia, Simon, Elizabeth
Front: Saskia, Marcos, Adam, Ursula, Pippa, Marcel, Fiona
After the overview we spent time on the deck as we passed through the Beagle Channel and watched South America slowly disappear.
3:18pm +2 hours
We met some Australian ladies, and heard their terrible story of the airline losing all of their luggage. They were completely prepared with a wide array of Arctic wear, and ended up having to replace it all with basics before boarding the ship. Some of the other passengers also lent them some basic clothing that they brought extras of.
We had dinner with an English ex-pat brother and sister. She’s in Chicago, He’s in Central America and an avid bird-watcher.
Tonight was a buffet, but typically Breakfast and Lunch would be buffets and Dinner would be selected from a menu. After dinner we passed the first penguin colonies, and watched the sun set.
It was a long night of swells, trying to lay flat in the bed while the ship rolls. You can't lay on your side because the rocking will flip you over and you are awake again.
Feb 3
GPS Position: 57° 05.4 S, 62° 00.9 W
Wind: NW-3 • Sea State: Moderate • Weather: Variable, Foggy with Occasional Sun
Air temp: 7° C • Sea temp: 2°C
We are woken up to our daily morning announcement, Pippa always gives us the coordinates, the weather and the upcoming activity.
Today was our first full day at Sea, and we're crossing the Drake passage. It didn't seem too bad at first, but you always need to keep a hand free to grab a railing, or table, or chair, or wall... I do not know how our servers can carry trays of drinks or plates.
We don't want to rush down when they announce Breakfast or Lunch because everyone else does, and you'll just be standing in a long lineup. So we wait about 15 minutes, and then just ask to join someone at an open table. Today we would have Breakfast with a couple of Australians.
After breakfast was a mandatory Zodiac and IAATO briefing, same basic instructions as we had for boarding and unboarding in Galapagos. If I can see the horizon, the swells aren't too bad, but after watching the presentation, I'm not feeling great. This is with wrist bands and ear patches, looks like I'll have to break out the Gravol.
Now that we knew how to get in and out of the zodiacs, we had to collect our ship-provided Muck boots. They are Heavy Duty waterproof and cold weather boots that were surprisingly comfortable, and we would need them for our wet landings as we would be stepping from the zodiac into the surf on beaches, and we would need them for the snow and penguin poop covered beaches.
Norine went to Simon's presentation on 'Birds of the Drake Passage' while I slept off some Gravol.
Buffet Lunch was shared with a girl traveling alone from Colorado, she worked for Google.
The Zodiac Launching area
After lunch we had to head down to the launching area for a Biosecurity check. The crew scan all our boots, tripods, backpacks and outerwear for sand or other contaminants, especially in the Velcro or little grooves. Anything that was going ashore had to be thoroughly inspected, including being vacuumed and picked at with paperclips and tweezers. We're shaking our heads as we are watching people go back up because they can’t read or don’t listen and have to go back and get something, usually tripods.
This afternoons lecture was a presentation on 'Whales of the Southern Ocean' by our expedition guide Felicity, she's from Vancouver and is doing whale research with our local University SFU.
At the end of each day we get a Daily Briefing and Recap, it usually consists of an overview of the next days activities, expedition news, and some short presentations on key things we saw or will see. A good section of today's was on the weather and the Drake Passage. It looks like day 2 of the Drake Passage Crossing is going to get even more exciting with some strong winds.
Tonight's dinner was our first non-buffet meal, we had fish and duck, and the Dinner was good, followed up with Apricot cheesecake.
After dinner we spent some time at our favourite spot on the back of boat... watching the birds, the waves and the sun not setting. The temperature is dropping and the winds are picking up.
Sunset below the clouds at 9:25, but still bright out.
By the lounge is a checklist of all the marine life we could possibly see, today there was a bunch of the sea birds ticked off... Wandering Albatrosses, Southern Royal Albatross, Grey-headed Albatross, Black-browed Albatross, Soft-plumaged Petrel, Black-bellied Storm Petrel and Slender-billed Prion all masterfully predicted by Simon's Birds of the Drake Passage lecture.
My little Garmin Satellite tracker sits in the window so that friends and family can track us as we go, as we go rocking and rolling through the night. I took a couple sea sickness pills to try and get a good sleep.
Feb 4
GPS Position: 61°16.5’S / 062°58.5’W
Wind: NW5 • Sea State: Moderate • Weather: Overcast
Air temp: 2° C • Sea temp: 5°C
We woke up much closer to Antarctica, it’s now 2 degrees. It's way less choppy than expected, but there's still good swells, more importantly I had a decent nights sleep.
We had breakfast with some of the expedition crew and a North Carolina good ole boy, I'm going to call him Colonel Sanders. You'll hear more about Colonel Sanders during this trip.
The ship has an open bridge policy during the day, so we checked out the bridge
Today Marcos did a presentation on the geological formation of Antarctica, I may have slept through part of it. Getting out on the deck is really the best way to stay awake and remove any queasiness. Plus, there's birds!
Our first sighting of land is at around 4:30, it's the Shetland Islands. Smith Island is on the Starboard side, and Snow Island is on the Port. We should arrive at the Antarctica Peninsula around 9:00pm. We are starting to see penguins darting through the water.
The waters are much calmer now that we have entered Bransfield Strait.
I don't even remember eating lunch today, that Gravol really knocks you for a loop. For dinner we ate with John and Ranajoy from Washington, D.C., we would become good friends over the course of the cruise. I do remember sitting on our back deck and watching the sun set over the frozen continent. A contest has been started to predict at what time and location will we see our first Iceberg. The winner gets a drink from Saskia, John got his entry in.
Tomorrow would be the first day where we get to set foot on the continent of Antarctica, completing not only a years long wait to get there, but also completing the goal to visit all 7 continents.
