Part II, Rounding Cape Horn & Antarctica

[bobpatj]

Jan. 12th, Rounding Cape Horn. We got up early, as it was expected to be near Cape Horn at around 7:30 am. It was very windy, on deck, but we were able to take some pictures of the Cape, bathed in morning sunlight. We had near gale winds with us most of the day and dishes were broken in the Lido and slid from the tables in the dining room, at breakfast. What an adventure! It was never this rough for the rest of the cruise. A "Base Camp" display was set up in the Crow's Nest. Capt. Toomey placed a map there and would mark our course, each day, in Antarctica. Jan. 13th - Day 1 in Antarctica. We're "Explorers," now. Words and pictures cannot describe the serene beauty of the Antarctic Peninsula. You just have to experience it for yourselves. Though a cloudy day, the waters were free of ice and we were able to cruise the Bismarck Strait to Palmer Station (US), on Anvers Island, as planned. Scientists from Palmer Station came onboard in zodiacs for part of the day and gave presentations in the Queen's Lounge, in the afternoon, on what they do and how they live at the station. We saw whales, penguins swimming by the ship and seals floating by on icebergs. We sailed into part of the Lemaire Channel, until reaching too much ice to continue. This was our fartherst point south. There are restrictions in Antarctic waters that keep activities onboard to a minimum. No shows were given in the Queen's Lounge at night, only movies. Jan. 14th - Day 2 in Antarctica. If you had channel 5 turned on in your cabin, you were awakened at 7 am by one of our Exploration Series gentlemen, to get up and see the beautiful scenery. We did and it was! This was a beautiful sunny day. Imagine! Of course, it was very cold outside, but dressed for it, a lot of time could be spent on deck. The bow was a good place for viewing. We covered a lot, this day. Without a map or if you've never been there, this probably won't make a lot of sense. We sailed Dallmann Bay and Scholaert Channel to Gerlache Strait. Then Neumayer Channel, stopping to view Port Lockroy. Paradise Bay, viewing two stations, Almirante Brown (Argentine), and Gonzales Videla (Chilean). Then the Waterboat Channel to Andvoord Bay, to Neko Harbour. Later, we sailed Errera Channel to Cerlache Strait to Bransfield Strait to Deception Island. Whew! With such a beautiful day cruising all these areas, we were much later that planned sailing by Deception Island, midnight! That was too late for us and we watched it on our cabin TV on the bridge cam channel. Jan. 15th - Day 3 in Antarctica. Again, we had a 7 am wake-up call! There are a few more clouds, today, but lots of sunshine. We're so fortunate! Today, we see many tabular icebergs, portions of ice broken from the ice shelves. They are flat on top and are huge! We sailed south in the Antarctic Strait to Rosamel Island, then the Weddell Sea to Paulet Island and back. This island is home to Adelie penguins, but without binoculars, they were just specks. Penguins did sail by us on icebergs or "bergie bits," as Dr. Stonehouse called them. From Rosamel Island, we sailed off Esperanza Base (Argentina) and then sailed northbound in the Antarctic Strait - "Iceberg Alley." From Bransfield Strait, we sailed around Elephant Island. Viewing it in sunset, it was a beautiful sight. My thanks to Capt. Toomwy for the explanations of where we sailed each day. Thrilling 3 days!!! This was the first time that so much was available for us to see, of all of the Amsterdam Antarctic cruises, this season. The Filipino Crew Show was presented later, as we were now sailing away from Antarctic waters. We're "Passengers" again. Next, Northbound ports.

[obriendan]

Enjoyed your description of your days in Antarctica. It bought back memories of our cruise on the Ryndam in January, 2002. Like you, we found the scenery breathtaking. We did the tour beginning in Rio and hit the different locations in the opposite order, from Elephant Island to Palmer Station.

 

Thanks for the report and keep 'em coming!

[Aussie Gal]

Pat,

 

Keep it coming. I am so enjoying your description of your great cruise.

 

Jennie

[jhannah]

Wow! I so want to do this cruise. Now more than ever. It sounds absolutely fascinating. Thanks for the travelogue.

[RuthC]

Oh, Pat, you're bringing back such vivid memories. Thank You!!!

 

I wanna go baaacccccckkkkkkkkkk!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[juliejoe]

I am grateful to Jennie (Aussie Gal). She pointed me in this direction, as we will be sailing an Antarctica itinerary together next January.

 

Thank you Pat for sharing your experiences! Your descriptions help us visualize whats in store for us! You are doing a great job - keep it coming.

 

Julie

[Bill S]

pat: thanks, again for sharing with us! It sounds like you had pretty good weather, sea and ice conditions for your "exploration". It is hard to describe just how awesome a place Antarctica is---I still marvel at it through the photos I took while down there. It IS a cruise of a lifetime and I am looking forward to hearing more about your adventure!

[Pete Jackson]

Brings back memories of our Antarctic cruise on the Ryndam in Jan-Feb 2003.

 

For us, Cape Horn was almost completely calm! The commentator said that he had never seen it this smooth. Later that day and following night, it got rougher in the Drake passage, but not as rough as you had.

 

Unfortunately, we didn't get the sun until the last day; there was a low stratus cloud overhead, but you could see that it was clear over the land portions of the Antarctic peninsula. But we didn't get rain or snow. Never forget the first night, parked near Palmer station with the whale spouts going on everywhere in the distance!

 

The last day, we were near Argentina's Esperanza station on the lee side of the Antarctic Peninsula when we finally got the sun. We were in the Crow's Nest, and must have been more than 100 people on the Sky Deck above. If a floe with Penguins went by on one side, you could hear the rumble of all the feet above as people scurried to that side.

 

A sight we'll never forget, and which I haven't seen written up elsewhere, was a long river of thousands (literally true - I made a 'crowd' estimate of about 3,000 penguins) of penguins swimming a few hundred yards off the starboard side. At first, it looked as though they were heading out to sea, and we were watching them navigate the crooked path through the bergs. But they kept zigging and zagging, getting nowhere, until it became clear that they must really be dining on an enormous school of fish or krill near the surface!

 

Then the captain got his chance to navigate back out to sea between all the tabular bergs. It was so exciting to see and feel the huge ship turn skillfully port and starboard, as much as ninety degrees, to find a way out. Which of course he did, uneventfully.

 

They described the host of tabular icebergs (gigantic icebergs with flat mesa-like tops) as not the norm, but rather the results of the breakup of the Larsen ice shelf to the south the previous year. Were they still around this year for your visit?

 

It became apparent that seeing things from a cruise ship, with its great height perspective, was exciting even for the professional guides, who had been there before, but in much smaller craft.

[Budget Queen]

Did either of you get off the boat and on to Antarctica??? Were any tours available for you to do so?? I am looking at a Lindblad trip 1-06 with the landings a priority for me. :)

[wander]

Budget Queen,

 

If you can afford it and really want to experience Antarctica I strongly recommend you stick with Lindblad, Zegrahm, Quark, Clipper or the like which carry around 100 passengers. Of course, these trips are very pricey in comparison to the large ships such as those of HAL or Princess or ...... An intermediate option is going on the Marco Polo. There they have something like 400 people (ship not full, numbers limited).

 

We went with Zegrahm. FANTASTIC EXPERIENCE.

 

For many of the landing sites in Antarctica and surrounding areas there are strict limits on how many folks can be on land at one time. In most of the places we stopped it was 100, for Prion Island it was 60 and for the Palmer Research Station is was something like 30. Except for the latter two stops, on our ship all were able to be on shore at once. We had about 15 landings.

 

My friend just got back from a trip on the Marco Polo. They each got 4 landings. She was very pleased with the trip as one with Lindblad, Zegrahm, or such was out of her price range. She loved her trip.

 

Having talked with many, many cruisers and shore friends, I feel very comfortable saying, the more you pay the more of an actual experience you will get. However, if a major cruise ship is the only thing that will fit your budget - go for it. It will be spectacular.

 

By the way, IF you are able to pay for one of the more intense trips (aka expedition trip), I would HIGHLY recommend selecting one that includes stops in South Georgia. That is an even more spectacular place (scenery and wildlife wise) to visit than Antarctica (which is certainly spectacular enough itself), although being able to spend time on Antarctica was a thrill itself.

 

We are big time cruisers, and going to Antarctica the way we did meant fewer other cruises and trips last year, but it was well worth it going the way we did, IMHO. I am ever so thankful we could afford it.

[Pete Jackson]

Did either of you get off the boat and on to Antarctica??? Were any tours available for you to do so?? I am looking at a Lindblad trip 1-06 with the landings a priority for me. :)

 

No, Hal explains quite clearly that there are no shore excursions in Antarctica - it's scenic cruising. Same for other large-ship cruise lines like Crystal and Princess. Typically, these lines schedule a long cruise, from Valparaiso to Rio or Buenos Aires with a few days cruisng Antarctica. Clearly it makes sense only if you also want to see all the other South American stops (which is alaos a very facinating part of the world) and enjoy the comforts and diversions of large ships while cruising Antarctica.

 

For shore excursions, typically with Zodiacs, onto Antarctica, the ships used are typically smaller and dedicated to Antarctica, so they leave Punta Arenas, Chile or Ushuaia, Argentina. While the smaller ships will bounce more in the turbulent Drake Passage, they can also navigate smaller ice-filled channels that the larger ships dare not enter.

 

And, as Wander pointed out, the Marco Polo offers a good combination of the two - shore excursions and cruising. And it always gets very good reviews.

[Aussie Gal]

Pat,

 

Have I missed your next installment or haven't you posted it yet. I am eagerly looking forward to hearing more of your cruise.

 

Jennie

[2552phxcrzr]

...a trip journal/report of your Antarctica expedition that you could share by any chance? We are looking at Quark/Lindblad - and are open to other expedition type sailings - for Dec 06-Jan 07 - that include the Peninsula as well as South Georgia.

[wander]

h2so4,

 

First, I would add Zegrahm to my list of considerations. We studied Quark, Lindblad and Zegrahm in some detail and for our purposes selected Zegrahm for what is included, cost and references from friends. I think that any of them could be an excellent choice, but each has a bit of a different emphasis, approach, etc. Also, suggest strongly that you select a cruise that included South Georgia. It was spectacular and the wildlife very abundent in January at least.

 

Now, better than sharing my journal I have a wonderdul website for you where one of our naturalists posted a somewhat detailed day by day journal of our cruise. It was a wonderful review and very representative of what we did/saw. Anyone can access it. It goes into far more detail than I did and he actually had the specific names of what we saw and did, better than I could. Here is the website reference:

 

1. Go to web site: http://www.zeco.com.

2. Near the top of the homepage is a banner with several options, one of which is "Reports from the Field". Put the cursor on this and there will be a drop down menu.

3. Click on "2004". (Our trip was in January 2004.)

4. On the next screen click on "Antarctica Cruise: Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. You click on it day by day to read the log for the day.

 

There are also some wonderful photographs from the places we visited. I just checked using the above instructions and it works just fine.

 

Have fun reading. It will take awhile.

[bobpatj]

Thank you for the link. Though I was much more comfortable being on a ship the size of the Amsterdam, it was interesting to see some of these expedition ships, while we were in Antarctica, and wonder how their experiences would differ from ours. This is a wonderful way to find out!

Part III of the cruise is about ready, and I'll try to post it later today.

[2552phxcrzr]

Wander - cannot thank you enough for the link and comments. Zegrahm is on my list - just had not gotten to their website yet in my long list of sites to check out -- I will move them up and check them out sooner rather than later.

 

From what I have uncovered so far, we're planning on going in January (late December at the earliest) and definitely want to include South Georgia.

 

Thanks again.

[MaryEllen1952]

I went to Antarctica 2 years ago on Peregrine Adventures. I chose them over Linblad, Quark, etc., as they were more reasonably priced and offered kayaking which many others did not. I was very happy with them.

I plan to do a Norway/Artic in 2006.

Check my pics at: http://www.virtualtourist.com/m/43ec4/9/

If you get seasick you will definitely need to take medicine during the 2 day sailing around the Cape. For me, I spent the majority of that time in bed laying down (even with the Scop patch). But as soon as we got through the Cape, it was fine. I only had to use the patch when coming/going around the Horn.

For me, the $500 extra for kayaking was the highlight of the trip. I don't think anywhere else in the world I go to kayak will compare with that!

[2552phxcrzr]

Bobpatj - While we're looking more towards an expedition rather than a luxury cruise, it was fun reading your trip report as we will at some point do a SA cruise as well - just not for our first venture into Antarctica.

 

MaryEllen - thanks. Peregrine is also a company we're looking at as we definitely want an expedition style trip with landings for Antarctica. I handle rough waters fairly well, but from all I have read, The Drake is like nothing else that we have experienced so far. I will be getting an Rx for the patch - an ounce of preparation :-)