First Landings in Antarctica

Monday dawned clearer than anyone expected, and when we woke at 5:30 so we could be ready for our 6:45 tour call, we were already sailing along the edge of the pack ice that normally fills much of the Weddell Sea. Larry Hobbs and the expedition team couldn't believe the weather. In fact, Larry had said that if he had one day like this one in every three TRIPS he thought they were doing very well weather-wise. And to top it off, they had picked up some very interesting animal life in their binoculars!

This morning we would not be landing as such, but would be taking Zodiac tours along the edge of the ice to see what we could find.

So, of course, we now had the first test of the cold-weather gear we all had to buy for this trip: long underwear, hiking socks, waterproof pants, gloves and glove liners, warm hats, etc. It sure took longer than usual to get dressed! And then, of course we had our rubber boots (that we rented through A&K), our parkas and our life vests. Heaven forbid anybody needed to go to the bathroom in a hurry after they got all kitted up!!

And of course we also had to have protective gear for our camera equipment, which for the most part consisted of shower caps – light enough to protect from water, but thin enough to be able to manipulate the camera controls.

As our international-distress orange groups assembled in the salon, we were taken down the stairs to the 'marina' or what we would call the 'swim platform' to load into the Zodiacs for our ride. Since the weather was so nice, the water was quite calm, which meant we didn't have to worry about carrying the cameras in backpacks until we got to where we were going.

Among the various birds and animals we saw were Snow Petrels – fairly small seabirds, pure white, that you will only find around a lot of ice; Crabeater Seals – pretty big actually, and they don't eat crabs but krill and fish; Adelie Penguins – pure black and white, and to top it off: Emperor Penguins – the kind from 'Happy Feet' with the yellow/orange patch on the neck. The Emperors were the biggest surprise for the naturalists. They usually colonize well south of where we were, around the perimeter of the continent, but they had recently found a breeding colony on Snow Hill Island, very close to where we were. In total there were about six Emperors hanging around with the Adelies.

Here are some photos from the morning's excursion:

The 'march of the Adelies'

Emperor Penguins

Then, in the afternoon, we moved on to Paulet Island, where there is a colony of 100,000 breeding pairs of Adelie Penguins.

The passengers have been divided into two groups (with either a red or a green sticker on their key cards) which identifies when they go out for excursions. In order to be fair, one day the red group goes first in the morning and second in the afternoon, and the next day it is reversed – so that everybody gets the chance to get up early to prepare for a tour! It can make for a pretty long day, as we discovered.

The morning's weather held fairly well for the green group (the OTHER guys) to get out for their landing; by the time we got out to land it was just after 5:00 and we had an hour and a half to wander around. We climbed over fist-sized stones and some snow to get around the area, stopping to take a look at the remains of a stone hut built by a group of sailors/explorers when they were stranded for a winter in 1902. Now penguins nest all around and on top of it.

A penguin checking the 2 eggs it is incubating

One of the naturalists had also spotted some chicks that hatched a few days early. We found her and she pointed out the two mothers and the pair of chicks each one was brooding. Apparently, once the first ones hatch, all of the others – and there were plenty of nests – hatch within a few days of each other. Boy, will it be noisy then!

Penguins on the beach

Mom and her 2 chicks

We had been out for about 45 minutes and were heading toward the beach to watch the penguins there when we came across one of the naturalists in a little predicament. There was an older passenger who was having trouble negotiating the stones on the way down the hill. So we gave them a hand down to the beach, where we discovered that the seas had changed dramatically and they couldn't take us back to the ship from the place they had landed us! They have an alternate landing site in a more sheltered spot, but that was a good mile or so around the island, and that's where they told us to go. So we helped Juan escort this lady all the way around the beach, well within the 15 foot clearance we're supposed to give the animals, but they didn't seem to mind.

It was in some cases quite fortunate, since we probably saw some animals that the first group, who didn't walk that far, didn't get to see. We passed Blue-Eyed Shags – long-necked black and white seabirds that look like geese when they fly; more Penguins going in and out of the water, and a few Weddell Seals. Because we were busy helping this lady, Larry didn't get any video, but Monica managed to take a few photos along the way.

A Weddell Seal

A penguin in the suf

Chasing Icebergs!!

If anything, Sunday dawned with even calmer seas than we had on Saturday. The good news, of course, is that we finished our crossing of the Drake almost a half day sooner than planned, which left more time for……………whale watching!!


One of the great things about an expedition cruise is that, other than the day it has to be back at the dock, there is no set schedule, meaning the ship can take advantage of "what comes up". About 10:00 AM the Captain announced that the bridge had spotted "a pair of humpback whales" and that we would manoeuvre to get closer to them. So for the next hour and a half we "chased" the humpbacks around the southern end of the Drake. We did manage to get a couple of pictures, although our timing wasn't the greatest and the whales weren't too cooperative.

Saturday evening Larry Hobbs, the Expedition Leader, had told us that ice conditions looked promising enough that we might be able to get down into the Weddell Sea on the south-east side of the Peninsula. This is an area that is normally completely ice-blocked at this time of the year and can only be reached by sailing all the way around the tip of the Peninsula, a time-consuming process. Shortly after lunch, Larry announced that in fact the area was clear and we would proceed down the Antarctic Sound and then southward for our first "landing" on Monday morning. But first we would transit Iceberg Alley!!!

There are no words to describe just how big these bergs are, and unfortunately we didn't have anything to put in front to give them a measure of scale. Suffice it to say that Le Boreal was by far the smallest piece of floating real estate in the area. And also remember that, even though these icebergs have broken off of a flat-bottomed ice shelf that is the end of a glacier that has flowed out onto the sea, they still have about 80 percent of their total volume BELOW the surface of the water. It just may not stick out too far around the sides – so we didn't have to worry about any "Titanic moments".

Once we started into the area, the captain and our ice pilot found a nice route in between the bergs that gave us all a chance to see them "up close and personal". Here are a few photos – the video gives an even better idea of the size and number of bergs we saw.

Once we passed the majority of the icebergs, we slowed down as we progressed toward our Weddell Sea stop that the expedition staff hoped would be near Snow Hill Island.

We seem to have had one day after another of unexpected and fantastic sights so far. Let's see if it continues tomorrow.

The Mighty Drake….

Lake!


We lucked out for the second time in our southbound trip across the Drake Passage. Although there was a swell of something in the order of 4 metres, and we could feel some movement overnight, on Saturday morning everyone, including the crew, was happy to see more ripples than whitecaps on the ocean. From what we heard, the reason Le Boreal had been held up on its trip back was because the weather was particularly bad and it took an extra 12 hours to get to Ushuaia. We're all crossing our fingers that the same thing doesn't happen to us.

It turned out to be a full day. Four lectures, from Photography in the Antarctic 101 to the Heroes of Antarctic Exploration in the early 1900s, Sea Bird Identification and finally our introduction to Climate Change and how it is affecting the Antarctic Eco-System. All very interesting and given by an extremely knowledgeable staff of university professors and researchers who, on average, have been working the Antarctic for over 20 years.

In the middle of the day, just in time to interrupt the rush to lunch, we saw our first large marine wildlife – Orcas! We ended up in the middle of a number of small pods of orcas that were systematically combing the area for food. Once we made the first sightings, the Captain turned the ship around so we could get in for a closer look – which was an event in itself. We had been travelling at full speed, about 16 knots, and we're not sure that he even slowed down. We were just heading toward the aft outside deck area when we looked through the door, and found that the horizon was at a 30 degree angle! Talk about turning a ship on a dime! It is hard to conceive a 500 foot long ship being that manoeuvrable, but this one is, and Captain Marchessau has demonstrated he is not afraid to use that capability.

Fortunately most people headed for the upper decks while we found a smaller deck on the port side which, since the Orcas were on that side, turned out to be the ideal location. We spent some time watching the Orcas and managed to get a few good photos:

This being the first full day of the cruise, it was also the evening for the Captain's Welcome Aboard Party and Gala Dinner! On any other ship this would be the "first formal night" and in the pre-cruise package they actually call it that, suggesting a jacket for the gentlemen "if packing space permits". While a number of the ladies, including Monica, wore their cocktail finery, virtually all of the gentlemen, including Larry, obviously packed light"! A very few jackets, and the only tuxes were on the staff!!

After the party we proceeded to dinner in the Main Dining Room where we shared a table and great conversation with a couple we met who are from Kleinberg. The Dining Room is on Deck 2 and when sitting by a window you almost feel like you are sitting ON the water. With the swells still running at about 12 feet, there were many occasions where the horizon completely disappeared behind a "wall" of water! A most interesting experience and one that a photo can't properly show. That's why you'll have to wait for the video!

At the party the Captain announced that with the (relatively) calm seas, we were making excellent time and he expected us to clear the Drake by 10:00 AM Sunday morning, a full 12 hours ahead of schedule. That is where the real fun will begin!

The End of the World – or at least the continent

So, there we were, a group of distinctly bleary-eyed travellers, called out of bed at 4:00 in the morning and wondering why on earth we had to put our bags out at 10:00 if they were still in the lobby at 5:00 in the morning waiting for the truck to take them to the airport. We could have brought them down ourselves just as easily…


Soon we were all on our way – all 178 of us, between the two hotels – to our charter flight to Ushuaia. The domestic airport was a lot easier to get through than the other one, especially since we already had our boarding passes and didn't have to worry about check-in. Do you know that the distance between Buenos Aires and Ushuaia is a little more than from Toronto to Miami? Our flight time was 3 hours and 20 minutes, and quite comfortable, although all that we were served food-wise was a little snack box with some cookies and a beverage of our choice (non-alcoholic – it was only 7:00 in the morning when we took off). We were starting to get hungry by the time we landed, not having had any breakfast to speak of, and were looking forward to the promised barbecue lunch outside of town.

Since Le Boreal had just come back from an Antarctic tour (almost a half-day late, as we later found out) and was being readied for our group, A&K had arranged a tour of the town and outlying countryside to keep us busy until the ship was ready. And since we had not been fed since the night before, that tour started with lunch! What better way to keep cruiseship passengers busy than with food?? Lunch was at a ski resort about 10 kms out of town, so we started with a scenic drive with a couple of photo stops along the way. We didn't actually get to see much of Ushuaia in 2007 beyond the pier and the airport so we were both surprised to discover that it is actually a good sized "city" of about 70,000 people. And even more surprised that, here at "The Town at The End of the World" (their motto) there is actually a fairly well developed industrial sector, primarily in plastics manufacture and electronics assembly, and a very busy container shipping port that services much of southern Argentina. We thought it was all fishing and tourists! Or fishing FOR tourists! It is also a very active winter sports area with downhill and cross-country ski races, snowshoeing and dog sledding. Of course they do get something in the area of 9 metres (!!) of snow in an average winter!. Larry says he will never complain about a Toronto winter again! (as if!)

Arriving in Ushuaia

The countryside

After a very pleasant lunch of lamb BBQ'ed "churrasco style", a bit charred on the outside from being cooked over a very hot flame, we headed back to town and a visit to the naval base, and local prison! Okay, not a "working" prison, but like Australia, Ushuaia got its start as a penal colony for "repeat offenders" and, apparently at different times, political prisoners. After a short visit, we strolled to main street, where Monica finally found a hair brush (peace in our time!!) and back to the bus for the final leg of the journey to the ship, arriving onboard just after 4:00, a mere 74 hours after we left home!!

See the ship in the background?

Once on board the ship, as our suitcases had arrived before us, we took a look around our spacious double cabin (two of everything, including bathrooms!) and unpacked. The ship is small but easy to get around, and very well laid-out. You can tell that they put a lot of thought into design for expedition-style cruising from the way the lounges and observation areas are set out, with lots of open space and windows. We'll post some photos later on.

We were an hour and a half late leaving port, but made good time down the Beagle Channel while we had dinner. One thing we noticed was how smoothly the ship moves, and how little we were aware of the vibration of the engines. But we hadn't reached the dreaded Drake Passage yet! We'd have to see how she fared out in the open waters…

Sunset over the Beagle Channel

Here we are again, Argentina!

After some low-level fretting for the better part of a week about the weather (remember, last time we flew to South America for the Antarctic, we missed the ship in Valparaiso), we managed to get out of Toronto on time. Our flight to JFK, on a Bombardier Regional Jet, was so bumpy that the pilot wouldn't even let the flight attendants get out of their seats, never mind serve any refreshments, but that didn't delay us.

The flight to Buenos Aires was also uneventful and quite comfortable. We both managed to get at least four hours of sleep, and with a two-hour time difference to Buenos Aires, we weren't too badly jet-lagged once we arrived. Which was a good thing! We arrived just before 11:00, got in one line to pay the reciprocity fee for visitors, then got into the next line to clear immigration. Is this starting to sound familiar?? The good thing about that was that by the time we reached the luggage carrousel, the bags were already out. And, shades of the first time we were in Buenos Aires with Mom and Dad in 2000, one of the bags had already been taken off the carrousel by somebody and left on the floor! Good thing they're bright red and hard to miss. Of course, then there's the last lineup to put your bags through the x-ray machine to make sure you're not bringing restricted goods into the country…

Once we were clear of the airport bureaucracy, we found the A&K representatives and got our transfer to the hotel – a mini-bus that would hold 16 for just the two of us! Because we booked a suite in the ship, we were staying in the Four Seasons Hotel Buenos Aires. It is a beautiful hotel, built onto an old mansion that now houses the really fancy suites, and is only a couple of blocks from the Recoletta District, where the high class homes are. The hotel itself is just off of the main street of downtown Buenos Aires, the Avenida 9 Julio, or 9th of July Avenue, so named for Argentina's day of independence.

We were staying in a rather nice mini-suite, but only really had enough time to look around and take a few photos, since we had to change to be ready for a 2:00 city tour.

Our guide picked us all (about 18 of us) up in the bus and off we went. We had visited most of the sites when we were here in 2007, but this time we had a few ulterior motives: we wanted to see what the Casa Rosada looks like WITHOUT scaffolding all over it, Monica wanted a small watercolour from one of the artists in the La Boca area, AND she was in search of a hair-brush! There's always some little thing that misses the suitcase…

The only problem was that this was the first long weekend of the summer, and most of the shops were already closed, so Buenos Aires was not the place to try to find a farmacia with a hair brush. We'd have to take our chances in Ushuaia. Here are a few photos from the tour:

The Evita balcony at the Casa Rosada

One of the Family Tombs at Recoletta Cemetery

The tour ended at about 6:00, and we had a cocktail party for all the Le Boreal guests at the Caesar Park Hotel, where the guests were staying who weren't booked in the suites on the ship, starting at 7:00. So it was the quick shower, change, and down to the lobby to meet the gang. We walked the block and a half to the hotel, and had a very nice party outside in a garden area at the back of the hotel. We met some of the other Torontonians – a couple who used to live in Unionville, but now live a block away from Bruce in the Beach!

Since we were on our own for dinner, we had already decided to go to one of the steak houses just across the street from our hotel. The people we had been talking to recommended one called El Mirasol, so we decided to try it. The food was excellent, even though all we had was a Caesar Salad and our Steaks – no potatoes, no veggies, no desserts. But take a look at the size of the steak…

We had to put our bags outside the hotel room by 10:00, so we arrived back in time to reorganize our clothes for the next day and get them outside. We fell into bed at 10:15 with a 4:00 wake-up call as we had to gather in the lobby at 5:00 for our transfer to the airport to fly to Ushuaia.

Nobody ever said expedition cruising was a leisurely affair, even before you get on the ship…

Northern Preparations for a Southern Journey

Well, here we are again, packing the suitcases for another adventure, only this time it's turtleneck sweaters and long pants instead of shorts and bathing suits.

So far, Thomas has ignored the process - probably because the suitcases didn't come up from the basement until yesterday, and he slept through that. We'll see how he does when we put the last bits in tomorrow morning.

This time our adventure takes us to the bottom of the world, six months after our closest approach to the top! This expedition cruise with Abercrombie and Kent tours is on Le Boreal, a French ship that was designed specifically to cruise in Antarctic waters. We've already watched an episode of Discovery Channel's 'Mighty Ships' program that was dedicated to Le Boreal's first voyage to Antarctica in 2010, so we have a general idea of what to expect on board, but Mother Nature has a habit of being unpredictable, so we'll have to take each day as it comes weatherwise.

We hope you'll follow along on the blog, but in case we have problems with internet access to update it each day or so, you can take a look at the daily log our tour leaders and photographers from A&K are posting with photos on their site. We've posted a link on the sidebar for easy access.

Now off to get those last-minute things done before we leave. The next update will be from Buenos Aires, Argentina on Thursday.

The Last Day…

But before we get to that, we have to tell you about the Chef's Table Dinner on Friday night. What a great experience that was! The upper floor of the Concierge Lounge is devoted to this dinner, with a table set for only 14 people every night. They can't do more than that as the dinner starts at 8:30 and ends at 11:00! It is a set menu with wine pairings and the chef explaining each dish and how it is cooked before he presents it to the diners. This dinner requires a reservation and has a cover charge, but not only is the food excellent and the chef and sommelier very friendly and willing to share their knowledge, but each diner gets a beautiful cookbook signed by the chef at the end of the dinner. Here are a couple of photos (yes, we took pictures of every course!):

It used to be that we'd be like everyone else on the last day and try to get in all the activities we missed earlier in the week. With so many people on board, we left it to them this time. So that meant that the Zip Lining and the Flow Rider had fair line-ups all day long, and extra yelling and music for the surfing competition in the afternoon.

Instead, we wandered around the ship one more time and took the photos we had missed before for the blog and our cruise memories DVD. Here are a couple of them:




Pool lounge area for Suite guests



The Rising Tide Bar on its way up

The view from one of the glass elevators

The Viking Crown Lounge

We finally remembered to take a picture of one thing that we first saw when we sailed on Splendour of the Seas 15 years ago -

Yes, they put the plate in the floor in every elevator to remind guests of what day it is. They also have super-sized wall-mounted interactive directories all over the ship. If you know how to use a smart phone the concept is much the same: you can find anything, anywhere on board. It even lets you enter your stateroom number and will tell you how to get there from where you are! Does that tell you anything about the size of the ship??

After taking an hour or so around noon to do our packing, we headed back to Rita's Cantina for a last Mexican lunch. Our final dinner was not until 8:00 so we had enough time to laze about on the terrace (couldn't call that a verandah or a balcony!) for a bit and then watch the last sunset for this cruise.

The last dinner was at 150 Central Park. This is the most exclusive restaurant on the ship, and is called 150 because, as the waiter pointed out, it is exactly in the middle of the ship, 150 metres from the bow and 150 metres from the stern. He added, as an aside, that it is also 150 metres from the Crew Bar, but not in a straight line!! The meal here is also a 6 course set menu but it changes half way through the week so guests could go there twice and have something different both times. A wine pairing is also available at an additional charge.

The décor is plush and the wait staff are all in suits. We actually felt underdressed for this dinner, but the manager told us that they relax the dress code on the last day, realizing that most people would already have packed before coming for dinner. Still, jeans and shorts were a definite no-no in this spot.

This was the first restaurant we've ever been in that had a salt-tasting! Along with the bread basket, they provide a selection of different kinds of salt of various colours, textures and tastes.

So that, of course, sets you up for the rest of the meal. Those of us who watch Iron Chef America on a regular basis felt as though we were at the judging table. The waiter explained each dish in detail; all the elements and how they were prepared, and what kinds of flavours we should expect when we ate it. The only thing they didn't give us was scorecard!

After dinner it was back to the suite. Although there were any number of bars on the ship we could go to, none really appealed, so we finished up our last packing and put the bags out.

Guests in the loft suites could use the Concierge Lounge to wait for their disembarkation group call, so we had a bit of continental breakfast and were off the ship at about 9:30 this morning. Considering there were about 6,200 passengers on board, and we were near the end of the list, the process went very well and we were standing outside the terminal waiting for the Avis shuttle only 45 minutes after we left the lounge. That included clearing US Immigration. Too bad the Avis shuttle didn't get the message that we were waiting! We ended up taking a cab to the hotel instead.

So here we are, installed in our hotel room, with a lovely view of the port, the channel and the ocean, and all the way up the Intracoastal Waterway.

We finally got in touch with Werner Fuchs and went out for a quick drink with him to the New River area near Las Olas Blvd.

Now it's coming up on 5:00 and we're waiting to see Allure go back out to sea from our balcony (this one definitely isn't the size of our terrace). As we write, we're watching her leave the pier...and here are a couple of photos.

So you can get an idea of where our suite was, follow along...The loft suites are all the two-level rooms on the top deck. Ours was directly under the left hand radar dome behind the logo. Our table and the two easy chairs are in front of the blank wall, and to the left of that are the windows and the two lounge chairs. It looks even bigger from this angle than it was when we were out on it!

And here Allure of the Seas is leaving again on her next trip. Bon voyage! Oh, and for some perspective, that apartment building that she looks like she is about to hit?? It is 16 stories tall!! THAT'S how big Allure is!!!

We have a reservation at the 15th Street Fisheries for dinner tonight, since Larry's only been there once before. Our flight home goes at 2:45 tomorrow afternoon.

Hope everyone enjoyed following along with us. See you when we get home!