- Buenos Aires, Argentina — the stopover
- Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego National Park, Argentina
- The Falkland Islands
- South Georgia Island
- On the “road” to Antarctica, Christmas aboard the Fram, and Elephant Island
- Yankee Harbor and Deception Island, Antarctica
- Danco and Cuverville Islands, Antarctica
- Almirante Brown Station and Neko Harbor, Antarctica
- A surprise visit, Lemaire Channel, and Petermann Island
- The voyage home, New Year’s Eve, and some final thoughts
After our time in Neko Island, we steamed around a bit to hit the Lemaire Channel in the morning. During dinner, we had quite a surprise — a pod of Orcas and a few Humpbacks that buzzed the ship for nearly 3 hours! I’m not sure if we were churning up fish for them to eat or they were just curious, but they (and we) were having a great time! What’s interesting is that there are actually 4 different species of Orcas that live down here, whose diet ranges from baby Minke whales to seals to a variety of fish. Like most other Orcas (except our Southern Resident Killer Whales in the Northwest), these guys migrate as far away as Brazil.
In the early morning, we started our transit into Lemaire Channel. We were very lucky in that the weather was perfect, the wind mild, and the channel wasn’t blocked by ice (as I understand it, having all of those conditions simultaneously is pretty rare). The channel itself separates Booth Island and the Antarctic Peninsula. Both sides have have high mountains that come nearly straight down to the water. It is nicknamed “Kodak Channel” as it is the most photographed spot in Antarctica. I suspect you can see why! Anyway, the channel is only 7 miles long and nearly a mile across (you could have fooled me — it looked a lot narrower and we were told it was about 1000 feet across, which makes a lot more sense!).
The wind gods stayed with us which allowed us to land at Petermann Island, south of the Lemaire Channel. The island is relatively small (about a mile long and 0.75 miles across) and parts of it are walkable. In addition to the beautiful views, there are about 5000 nesting pairs of Gentoos and our first glimpse of Adélie penguins (about 500 nesting pairs). We took a short hike over to Circumcision Bay (don’t ask — explorers get to name things whatever they want), where we saw some amazing icebergs trapped by the wind.
And then it was over — time to head home…
This entry was posted in Antarctica, Cruising, Travel
I am a traveler and sometimes clay sculptor, following a long career working in consulting. My work allowed me to travel the world extensively and I was hooked. Today, I travel with my wife/best friend to explore new places, meet new people, and learn new things.
