Trip Preparation
Our Antarctic trip of January 2011 had been planned and organized well in advance, and we’d planned a visit to Buenos Aires from the get go. Flight for this were booked about 10-11 months before. At that time the idea…
Stephen
Planning our trip to Africa’s Low Point
Stephen got his vacation approved in March 2011 and we booked our flights in April. The plan is to spend 5 days in Djibouti: days 1 (arrival June 13) and 5 (departure June 17) in Djibouti City; days 2-4 (June…
Fully vaccinated for the trip
Mandatory: Malaria: Malarone pills. Daily. We will start the course 2 days before arriving in Djibouti and finish 5 days after leaving the country. Recommended: Typhoid: we both got our shot on May 6th. Good for 2 years. Polio, Hepatitis…
Port Lockroy
Saturday, January 18, 2011 That morning we went ashore to Port Lockroy, a little bit of UK in Antarctica. In 1944 the British established ‘Base A’, first as a military base,; after WWII it was continued in a civilian capacity…
Booth Island and Chinstraps
Friday, January 17, 2011 The Penola Strait was our scenic backdrop early in the morning. We anchored in Port Charcot off Booth Island around 9am and at 10:30am it was White Group’s slot to go ashore. We landed straight on…
Pourquoi Pas Island and Polar Plunge
Thursday, January 16, 2011 This morning we were anchored in Marguerite Bay and went ashore to Bongrain Point, Porquoi Pas Island. Here we saw Adélie Penguins and their chicks. The small colony was about a 15 minute walk from the…
Antarctic Circle Crossing and Detaille Island
Wednesday, January 15th, 2011 Around 10am this morning we crossed the Antarctic Circle at 66° 33′ 44”. We had good and steady internet so I was able to catch up on the blogs and photos about South Georgia. At 13:30…
Neko Harbour and The Lemaire Channel
Tuesday, January 14th, 2011 Mid-morning while on the bridge we spotted a humpback whale and her calf. They played along side the ship for a while before diving down. TW sailed on through The Gerlach Channel and the views were…
Hello from the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands!
Finally some time and favorable seas for blogging! Currently sailing from Elephant Island towards the Antarctic Peninsula. Our Captain just adjusted course to try and avoid a heavy weather system to the south. The ‘at sea’ days that we were going…
Elephant Island and arrival in Antarctica
Thursday, January 13, 2011 This morning we arrived at and anchored off Point Wild, Elephant Island. We had now also arrived in the Antarctic. The weather at Point Wild was nice so out came the zodiacs and off cruising around…
Prion Island
Monday, January 10th We sailed overnight and anchored at Prion Island at 7:30am. Prion Island is a tiny island and prime real estate for the Wandering Albatross, the largest flying bird, because the winds there are very favorable for them…
Fortuna Bay and the ‘Shackleton Walk’
Sunday, 9th January TW left Grytviken at 4am and anchored in Fortuna Bay from 7am. WG’s zodiac departure was at 8:10am so off to the beach we went. What a morning it turned out to be again! Gorgeous weather again!…
Hercules Bay
Saturday, January 8th That morning we woke up to our captain parking TW in Hercules Bay. And what a job he did! We felt like we could almost touch the rocks; jokes were told about being parked just about on…
Gold Harbour
Friday, January 7th As mentioned the weather took a turn for the worse earlier that day in St Andrews Bay, so we left towards better weather in Gold Harbour. When we arrived there it was stunningly sunny so zodiac landings…
St Andrews Bay
Friday, January 7th Yesterday we sailed passed a rock formation called ‘Shag Rocks’, which signaled our official arrival in South Georgia. Quite a remarkable little rock formation if you think about it: they are not very big at all and…