Sunday Dec 28 - the kick off - Buenos Aires to Ushuaia
We were up at ‘em before the 5am wake up call - a quick breakfast, then onto the busses at 6:30am for the short ride to the airport. Our 8am flight was delayed (after we had pushed back from the gate) for nearly 2 hours while they fixed a computer problem. As a result we landed in USH around 1:15pm - onto buses for the ride to the dock where we all boarded a catamaran for lunch and an abbreviated tour of the Beagle Channel. We boarded our ship, the Orion, at 3pm - earlier than expected.
After welcome drinks and unpacking we attend the 6:30pm expedition briefing where we were introduced to the expedition staff and briefed on various aspects of life on board. Most importantly we found out that, due the calm conditions, we would be heading directly to the Peninsula before the Falklands - essentially we would be doing the cruise in reverse.
Dinner was at 7:30pm and was very nice - plenty of a la carte choices. It was then out on deck to watch a group of Sei whales doing their thing very close to the boat.
It was still amazingly calm as the boat headed out into the Drake Passage - a “Drake Lake” as the experts say.
Monday Dec 29 - first day at sea - crossing the Drake Passage
I got up at 6:50am in time for the morning stretching exercises (yoga) in the salon. After an excellent breakfast we had a busy day at sea - we were so very fortunate to have relatively calm seas - even calmer than predicted according to the captain. The schedule for the day was:-
9:00 - Internet workshop - how to use the ship’s satellite connection at $100 for 250 minutes
9:30 - Lecture on sea birds of the Southern Ocean
11:00 - Lecture on plate tectonics & land formations of Antarctica
12:00 - Lunch - an excellent buffet of salads, pastas, fish … and amazing desserts
15:00 - Expedition photography with 3 onboard photographers - followed by a hands-on tutorial divided by different camera brands/types
17:00 - Introduction to identifying local wildlife
18:00 - Pre-dinner cocktails and briefing on the following day
19:00 - Dinner - another multi-course / multi-choice gala affair
It was off to bed early.
Tuesday Dec 30 - Aitcho Islands (South Shetland Islands) and our first landing
I was up very early for a quick coffee and yoga/stretching at 6:30 - unfortunately the instructor forgot but a quick phone call got her on duty 10 minutes late.
After brekkie (where we spotted whales from the dining room windows) - our ship circled our first major iceberg while we watched schools of penguins (chinstraps) driving and jumping - we even saw a small group standing on an ice flow.
There was an in-depth briefing on the biosecurity of Antarctica and zodiac usage followed by a clothes and equipment decontamination session - expedition staff inspected all gear vacuuming when required.
Then it was onto English Channel for our approach to our first landing at the Aitcho Islands. We spent about 2 hours on land walking slowly around surrounded by 100’s if not 1000’s of Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins - many nesting with new born chicks. Other were doing their penguin thing - walking aimlessly around, up and down slippery snowy hills, in and out of the water, stealing pebbles from other penguin nests for their own ….. It was totally calm and around 0 C.
Back on the ship we first had to decontaminate our boots and clothes - a bit of an ordeal then it was time for afternoon tea, showers, sixes and dinner at 7pm. Around 9pm I went to bed but Dieter went on deck for viewing Deception Island as we sailed into a caldera - an abandoned whaling station, ice covered with black sand from a volcanic eruption in the 60ies.
Wednesday Dec 31 - NYE - The Danco Coast, Errera Channel & Lemair Channel.
Biggest day so far - last of the year. After yoga and breakfast we had our first landing at Cuverville Island home to a colony of Gentoo penguins both in the water, on surrounding icebergs and on land. We were able to climb a small hill (a bit of a tricky climb) to see many nests up on rocky ridges. There was also an amazing view of the Orion at anchor with many small and large icebergs floating in the bay.
After another excellent lunch - we headed out for the first kayak of the trip - it was quite an undertaking. For whatever reason we did not launch from the ship but from a platform rigged up by the crew. We zodiaced over to the platform and hopped on board our kayak - large 2-man inflatables with a rudder (ours turned out to be twisted so we had a bit of trouble getting started but one of the crew came over in a zodiac and fixed it, then we were off). We glided by many small icebergs in very calm conditions - as we made our way over to one of the larger icebergs to watch a group of penguins jumping on and off we came within 5-10 meters of 4 humpback whales - score one for us. Everyone else was jealous. One of the zodiacs was co-opted as a hospitality craft - offering glue-wine to the kayakers - very civilised.
We returned to the ship just in time for a quick bite of afternoon tea and a warming coffee then it was time for showers etc in preparation for the captains cocktail party and gala NYE dinner.