Going to Antarctica? Have gone to Antarctica? Want to go to Antarctica?

Linda,

 

Thank you very much for all of your hard work in putting together this daily travelogue! We will be in the cruise in reverse order this December and so are getting more and more excited! And then there is the academic content as well. Where else in the world? No wonder this was your best cruise ever!

 

And I am grateful for reminding me of the clothing basics and timings for the landings so that I can assure myself that we will be prepared.

 

Happy and healthy sailing!

Thank you. I do a travelogue on most of my cruises now so I can relive/remember the trip at my leisure and for the enjoyment of my friends and family.

This was such a wonderful experience. What would have made it better, aside from having the full 6 days in Antarctica of course, would have been doing it in your direction, as after Antarctica, the Chilean fjords are a bit anticlimactic. Have a wonderful time.

Linda

Great report, Linda. Many thanks for sharing!

Thanks for the great travelogue. I'm doing the Santiago to Buenos Aires cruise soon and am even more excited after reading this. Thanks a lot!

Thank you. I do a travelogue on most of my cruises now so I can relive/remember the trip at my leisure and for the enjoyment of my friends and family.

 

This was such a wonderful experience. What would have made it better, aside from having the full 6 days in Antarctica of course, would have been doing it in your direction, as after Antarctica, the Chilean fjords are a bit anticlimactic. Have a wonderful time.

 

Linda

Thank you Linda, I had so much fun reading your excellent travelogue and re-living our excellent early December 2014 cruise to Antarctica on Quest; it also rained in Montevideo for us and we also had an itinerary change (to Porto Mont on our way to the Falklands to enable some parts to be flown out from Italy for our gyro compasses.)

I would also like to do the second cruise of the season, (so I could visit South Georgia)

You sound like a fun person, I hope to meet you one day on Seabourn

Thank you Linda, I had so much fun reading your excellent travelogue and re-living our excellent early December 2014 cruise to Antarctica on Quest; it also rained in Montevideo for us and we also had an itinerary change (to Porto Mont on our way to the Falklands to enable some parts to be flown out from Italy for our gyro compasses.)

I would also like to do the second cruise of the season, (so I could visit South Georgia)

You sound like a fun person, I hope to meet you one day on Seabourn

Thank you. We had so much fun. I, too, would like to visit South Georgia Island on my (dreamed about) return to Antarctica. In the meantime, we are looking forward to next month's Montreal to Miami cruise. I plan to wear my antarctica parka...

Linda

Antarctica Odyssey on the Seabourn Quest: Part 5- The End

 

To summarize: This was the best cruise ever. The memories will last forever. For those of you who persevered to the end, I hope you enjoyed it. For those of you going to Antarctica this season, Have the time of your life.

Linda

Thanks for the fabulous travelogue!

Thanks for the comprehensive write-up. It gives us a hint of what to expect as we are on the same voyage this coming January (2018).

I do have a question that I'm hoping you can clarify. Our docs list all sorts of inner/outer wear to bring for cold (and wet) weather.

The question is: How cold does it get?

I'm a skier and have been in very cold and windy weather at the top of mountains ... down to close to zero (F) in 30 mph winds (very cold). Do we need to prepare for these types of conditions?

TIA

Thanks for the comprehensive write-up. It gives us a hint of what to expect as we are on the same voyage this coming January (2018).

 

I do have a question that I'm hoping you can clarify. Our docs list all sorts of inner/outer wear to bring for cold (and wet) weather.

We must be on the same cruise. To what docs do you refer? Where did you get them? I didn't get any weather-related clothing advice. :(

[quote=Kane;54191148

I do have a question that I'm hoping you can clarify. Our docs list all sorts of inner/outer wear to bring for cold (and wet) weather.

The question is: How cold does it get?

I'm a skier and have been in very cold and windy weather at the top of mountains ... down to close to zero (F) in 30 mph winds (very cold). Do we need to prepare for these types of conditions?

TIA

We were on the first cruise of the second season (early December). We came from early summer in Australia and it was very hot in Buonos Aires, however we didn't find Antarctica particularly cold.

I wore marino thermals, 2 pairs of socks, padded ski pants, the supplied Seabourn padded jacket/Gore Tex jacket and the supplied Penguin beanie.

My wife really feels the cold, so she wore an extra top and a neck muff.

We had touch screen gloves plus ski mittens (for in the Zodiacs)

It's generally not windy as they can't do landings if it is.

My wife suprised me by wanting to eat lunch outside at the Patio Grill, even when it was snowing (her champagne didn't warm up!)

My coldest experience was poking my face over the glass windshield on Deck 11 to take a photo while sailing into a strong head wind in the Chilean Fjords. It was like having liquid nitrogen applied to my skin !

We must be on the same cruise. To what docs do you refer? Where did you get them? I didn't get any weather-related clothing advice. :(

Correction: not in docs ... on web site.

https://www.seabourn.com/pageByName/Resp.action?requestPage=expedition.antarctica.packing&showHeader=true&showFooter=true

Strange ... no mention of gloves. I assume ski-gloves would do.

The recommendations don't seem to indicate dress for extreme conditions. It sounds like antarctic summers are not that bad. I guess they don't want us dressing to the point where we waddle around like penguins.

Correction: not in docs ... on web site.

 

https://www.seabourn.com/pageByName/Resp.action?requestPage=expedition.antarctica.packing&showHeader=true&showFooter=true

 

Strange ... no mention of gloves. I assume ski-gloves would do.

 

The recommendations don't seem to indicate dress for extreme conditions. It sounds like antarctic summers are not that bad. I guess they don't want us dressing to the point where we waddle around like penguins.

Ski gloves and mittens are a problem if you are taking photos, we wore touch screen gloves with mittens, easy to slip the mittens off and let them hang off your wrists while you take photos .

BTW. it's almost impossible to see a screen (phone or camera) because of the glare from the snow, a camera with a viewfinder as well is preferable

There were days in Antarctica that were warmer than they were those same days where I live in the D.C. Area. One of the expedition staff said that this was the warmest it had ever been during his multiple seasons on the continent. I didn't need gloves when I went kayaking, to give you an idea of the temperature and wind chill.

On shore, I wore silk long underwear or leggings and waterproof pants on the bottom with sock liners and wool hiking socks under the rubber boots I rented from seabourn. On top, I generally had a layer of silk underwear, a sweater, a scarf, a hat, and the seabourn parka combination. Sometimes I had to take off the outer parka layer because i was too warm walking around the landing sites

I rarely if ever had to wear my ski gloves over my lightweight touch screen gloves. It just wasn't that cold.

All summer long, I usually wear a sweater when I'm inside public spaces because of blasting air conditioners, so I am not someone who is always hot.

When I got home, there was still a lot of cold weather gear I never used in my suitcase. Fortunately, I had left the tags on and was able to return quite a bit of stuff.

I hope someday I can repeat this cruise as everything was so spectacular.

Say hello to the penguins for me. And see if you can include some of the expedition staff when you have dinner in the TK grill - the young girls we hosted really enjoyed that opportunity and we really enjoyed their company.

Linda

We were on the last trip back to BA in Feb of this year. the only time we felt any real cold or wet weather was on the fun Zodiac rides to the shore. It is a great trip and Seabourn was the way to do it, at least for us.

Thank you so much for this very detailed review. My wife and I are planning on doing this trip in 2019, and you have summarized it beautifully. Thanks again for the details, I hope we have as much fun on our trip as you had on yours.

Thank you for re-creating the best cruise ever! I was on this cruise in Nov.-Dec. 2016 and would go again in a heartbeat! Great combination of luxury, education and nature! Thanks again, Linda. Happy travels.

Joan

Wow! Thank you so much for posting your travelogue. Alan (Wovoka) forwarded it to me despite my protests that we would not be on the same ship, itinerary,etc. I hate admitting he was right, but I have cut and pasted virtually all of your wildlife and lecture info and am trying to "prepare myself mentally" for weather, medical emergencies and other problems which may impact our trip. Many people(artists, adventurers, photographers, etc.) in our seaport community of Port Townsend, WA have worked in Antarctica in various capacities for several seasons or, insanely, even solo-sailed its "waters"! Kudos to you again. With gratitude, Desiree

You'll have a great time

LINDA

What a GREAT experience you had, Linda. My husband & I are going on this cruise next month and we can't wait! The details that you provided have helped us immensely figure out what we need to wear, which shore excursions to take, etc. We're still looking for "the right" camera and clothes to bring for the formal nights. Otherwise, we're virtually packed and ready to go.

Glad it was helpful. We are currently on the Quest, stuck in St. John, New Brunswick, because of high seas and high winds in the North Atlantic. People are very disappointed because so many of us were looking forward to spending Halloween in Salem Massachusetts. Bar Harbor has been cancelled as well. Plan B: We were supposed to tie up for two nights in Boston instead, but that’s looking really unlikely as the Captain decided to spend the night in St. John and there’s a possibility we won’t leave in half an hour as was announced last night. I suppose we’ll get to Charleston eventually. Linda