PLA28-23, trip log, Antarctica

Finally, the day arrived for our adventure! Many of us have waited a long time for this day. We embarked on board our home for the next 11 days at about 7pm.

We entered the port and were welcomed by the Expedition Team and the Hotel Team at the Plancius’ gangway. After we had been shown to our rooms, we started to explore the ship and our new environment, soon followed the briefing for the mandatory safety drill and drill itself.

It was interesting to see the fellow passengers in the bulky orange lifevests. Before dinner Ali, our Expedition Leader (EL), invited us to the lounge where we went through some basic information about life on the Plancius, the general plan for the trip and the weather forecast for the upcoming days. She also introduced the expedition guides briefly. Volodymyr, our Hotel Manager, gave us useful advice about practicalities of life on board.

After the drill was complete and the shore staff were ready to free our lines, it was time to leave Ushuaia behind. We set off down the Beagle Channel to enjoy some wonderful views of the landscapes around us. The beautiful mountains together with the light in the evening gave us some stunning views. We even got lucky enough to see some Dusky Dolphins purposing! All this new information was processed with the help of a glass of champagne or a nice orange juice, and we toasted after the Captain introduced himself as well.

For many the travel days to reach the remote town of Ushuaia were long, so most of us went to bed shortly after the fantastic buffet. We enjoyed settling into our new temporary home and cannot wait for the adventures that will begin soon.

We spend our second day on board crossing an interesting area of the Southern Ocean, known by the geographers as the Drake Passage.  We left the port the evening before, and we sailed along the Beagle Channel, a spectacular narrow passage that from Ushuaia, leads to the open sea in the east. Overnight, as we came closer to the islands that mark the end of the channel, namely Lennox, Nueva and Picton. From here we started our two-day crossing of the passage that separates Antarctica from South America.

The weather is good, the swell is quite low. We can access the outside decks and enjoy the view of some albatrosses around the boat. After a good breakfast, we start the day with the distribution of our new best friends; muckboots to be able to disembark with dry feet.

Then a presentation on safety on board the zodiacs is given. The zodiacs will be used during each landing on the sites but also during small cruises to approach the icebergs and the fauna.

The morning continues with a presentation by Ali on IAATO procedures, who explains the importance of biosecurity. Everyone is then asked to clean all their belongings and vacuum up any seeds to avoid introducing new species when we disembark. We have to be careful and make sure to look at and vacuum all the pockets of our clothes and backpacks. After a good buffet at noon, the next step in the biosecurity process continues.

The divers are invited to a meeting to prepare their next outings, safety always first!

During the afternoon, Ali gives a lecture in English on penguins, Hélène also gives a lecture in French on the same theme.

At the end of the afternoon Ali gave a weather report and the programme for the coming days during the RECAP. At 7pm we have dinner, and as most of us are quite tired after a full day of activities on board we go to bed early. Tommorow the last sea day before we reach Antarctica!

As the day started breakfast was served on board, most of our guests started to develop what we call their “sea legs” either because they got used to walk inside our moving ship or because they used medicaments to prevent any motion sickness.  The weather was moderate for this first part of our crossing of the ocean, with swell rising to 3-4 meters. This consequently made our ship roll and pitch a bit and was noticed on board by our passengers and crew.

This swell was because we had winds blowing from the Northwest blowing at about 20--30 knots. For this occasion, our doctor provided our guests with the adequate medicine they needed, and hence they had no reason to not to attend our first activities on board.

For this day, our expedition staff prepared a program of lectures. The first of today's lecture was given by Elodie who offered an informative presentation about the continental ice found in Antarctica. In her presentation she described the dynamics of the massive ice shelves and ice sheets we find in Antarctica and how they produce the largest icebergs in the world.

Shortly after we had our second activity of the morning, the screening of a wildlife documentary. We offered to our guests the screening of the documentary "Blue Planet-II" narrated by David Attenborough. In this episode Mr. Attenborough describes how unique are the oceans of our world and why we must ensure we preserve them.

Lunch was served on board at 12:30 and by this time of the day and we were very happy to see many guests joining the restaurant feeling a bit better after the rocky morning we had.

Today, we saw a pod of long-finned pilot whales! Everyone was excited as this is quite a rare sighting.

During the first part of the afternoon, our expedition guide Josh offered a presentation under the title of "Scott and Amundsen - The Race to the South Pole". In this presentation, Josh described how the Golden Age of Exploration of Antarctica happened at the beginning of the 20th century and how this era brought two individuals to a race to reach the South Pole.

Later in the afternoon, Eduardo gave a provocative presentation about the water that scientist have found in bodies of our Solar System and in exoplanets.

Eduardo made a review of the "Alien Oceans" found in Ganymede, Europa and Callisto, moons of Jupiter, in Enceladus and Titan, moons of Saturn as well as in other places in our Solar System and in a couple of Exoplanets. These discoveries led scientist to speculate about the possible life forms that may exist in these distant worlds.

During the early evening we had our daily recap and Ali presented the plans for our first activity in Antarctica next day.  Shortly after this activity, dinner was served in the restaurant.  During the night, we crossed the Bransfield Strait, sailing quietly under the dusky light of the Antarctic night.

Our first day in Antarctica! This exciting day began with the beautiful site of Cuverville. Some of us got up extra early to see the first rays of light in Antarctica. As we were brought in the morning to land by our guides, we already got a close up of some icebergs and penguins porpoising in the water. Even before we stepped on shore, we could already smell what was awaiting us: a gentoo penguin colony! We got the opportunity to see many small gentoo chicks, even although it is quite late in the season. Some of the snow at the landing site was pink or red colored; not only because of the penguins, but also because of a phenomenon called snow algae. Quite special!

We went to a viewing point after a small hike upslope where we enjoyed some spectacular scenery, together with the penguins who decided this was a nice spot as well. For everybody who did not want to go upslope there were other options as well; both ends of the colony gave us amazing views over the breeding gentoo penguins. We even witnessed apart from the chicks, also some of the ‘stealing’ behavior some penguins do. When building nests, even if it makes no sense anymore quite late in the season, some penguins may turn to the dark side and steal stones from other nests.

After a wonderful lunch by our hotel department we went to Orne Harbour, a very different site from this morning. This was quite a challenging hike upslope for us, but the spectacular view was worth it. But we did not only hike up there for the views, but also for the chinstrap penguin colony that settled there. Many of us were surprised to find penguins this high up. However, the chinstrap penguins prefer the rocks that are clear of snow for breeding and the highest rocks are often the first to clear of snow. Enjoying the spectacular view and the penguins that were surprisingly comfortable this high up, we even got a proposal! An extremely special moment.

After the penguins and the scenery at Orne Harbour, many of us got to enjoy a zodiac cruise for the first time. Some of us got to see a leopard seal and while some did not see the leopard seal, we got to see a group of humpback whales feeding up close! At the end of the day most of us did not want to leave yet, but we had to return for dinner and our daily recap for tomorrow. However, as we thought that our day could not get any better it still did, a killer whale was spotted! Solitary, but very clear a killer whale, we got outside to have better looks as it was quite close.  

While our daily recap was postponed and eventually cancelled because of this spectacular sighting, for some of us the day still was not finished yet. We had camping planned at Kerr Point for tonight!

At around 9 most of were brought to the camping site where we were welcomed by Ali, Eduardo, Helene, Mick and Annelou. At the camping site, several weddell seals were also taking a good nap as they thought it was a nice spot to sleep as well. We counted at least 7 of them. As they were sleeping, we got to hear some of the so called ‘singing’. This singing sounds like something from a 90’s science fiction movie; we all know now that it is to describe, but it was very special to hear some of them sing. As we went to dig with our shovels making our beds, the light was fading, and we experienced the Antarctic silence together. During the night we heard some whales, and some penguins came spying on us as well. At 5:30 we were after a good rest ready to get picked up! As the day was ending, a new day with new adventures already began.

Kayak

First Morning down in antarctica and 14 Kayakers were dressed and ready to get out on the water. A beautiful morning with a lot of wildlife. First half an hour we paddled along the penguin coloni of Cuverville. When we turned around in to the chanel on the inside of the island we saw 2 Fur Seals and a little bit later we had a big group of Weddell Seals that watched us paddle by.

Our second day in the Antarctic Peninsula started with the traditional wake-up call from our Expedition Leader, Ali. The sky is overcast, there is no wind, but the grey light is magical and gives a mysterious atmosphere to the place. At 8am, Plancius already lies in front of Danco Island, an island situated in the Errera Channel and will be our landing for the morning.

When we arrived ashore, we could see a couple of gentoo penguins that built their nests directly on the beach; they had a few tiny chicks that were only a couple of days old. We also could observe some eggs that haven’t hatch yet. A well-marked path allows us to hike toward a second colony of gentoo penguins with an amazing view on the Errera Channel, then we had the opportunity to go to the highest point that offers us a 180° view around the island. What a view we had from the top of the hike! The sky was overcast but we could see high peaks and impressive glaciers that surrounded us. In the bay, a couple of towering icebergs where drifting with the current; we felt so small in this big natural and surreal world!

The morning ended up with the traditional Polar Plunge! What an amazing morning we had at Danco Island! Around 11.30 the first of us started to go back to the ship for a well-deserved lunch that concludes our morning adventures.

Around 14.00, Plancius was at anchor in front of Orne Islands in the Gerlache Strait. During lunch time, the last clouds left the sky, and the sun came out. We were so lucky with the weather! When ashore on Orne Island, we could choose between a long hike toward the summit of the island or a shorter one toward another viewpoint. The view on the bay and on the Gerlache Strait was amazing. As the eye could see, we had high white peaks and towering icebergs. A very interesting fact on Orne Island is that gentoo and chinstrap penguins are sharing the same colony. Some opportunistic skuas were flying over the colony in search of their next prey.

Around 18.00, we finally (and sadly) had to leave Orne Island; we could have stayed there forever as the sun was shining and we had such a great afternoon observing for hours gentoo and chinstrap penguins going around the colony.

It is time for the recap and the plans for the next day: we are heading towards Damoy Point & Port Lockroy. Exciting adventure ahead! As the evening went by, we stayed on the outside decks, looking at the sunset when Plancius was sailing inside the Neumayer Channel. The sky had magical light, from yellow to pink; the scenery was so stunning it was difficult to go to bed. It was another amazing day in the Antarctic peninsula!

Kayak

With a smaller group of Kayakers we were ready for our circumnavigation of Danco Island. With water like Glass we paddled among brash ice and the most fantastic icebergs.

In the afternoon we started our Kayak at the northern most point of Orne Islands. We followed the small Islands and met Fur Seals and Weddell Seals. South of Orne Island we entered the isberg graveyard and the wind drops. On the mirror of water we have a long silent moment were we enjoy the Antarctic silent and the views of the icebergs and glaciers surrounding us.

After the blue skies of the previous afternoon, we were greeted by a more overcast morning as we anchored in Dorian Bay for our landing at Damoy Point. Following on from our usual morning spread at breakfast, we got ready to join our expedition team ashore and our first experience of snowshoes.

With our snowshoes fastened, some of us joined Expedition Leader Ali for a hike up onto the ridge above the huts to the site of the old British runway. Two huts sit at the landing site, one an old Argentine refuge hut and the other a British Antarctic Survey (BAS) hut which was used as a ‘waiting room’ for incoming staff travelling further south via plane. Neither hut is used today, but a small team was ashore carrying out renovation work of the BAS hut, which is being restored to its previous colour of orangey yellow.

While many of us took the circular hike up to the previous landing site on the ridge, some of us enjoyed the wildlife at the lower section of the loop. There were plenty of Gentoo penguins nesting in separate rookeries and a couple of Weddell Seals hauled out on the snowy shore. It was definitely a different experience snowshoeing, with maybe some of us enjoying it more than others.

Once everybody was back onboard, we made the short steam around the corner to our next landing site at Goudier Island. The island is home to a small team from the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust (UKAHT) who operate a museum, post office and shop. Originally another BAS station (‘Base A’) set up in 1946 under Operation Tabarin, it is now managed as an historic site by the UKAHT and the main building, Bransfield House, is used as the museum and shop.

After another great buffet lunch, we were treated to a presentation by some of the UKAHT staff running the site about the history of Port Lockroy before we ourselves made our way ashore to explore. The wind had a picked up a little since the morning, so unfortunately our original plan had to be changed slightly and we instead made 3 ‘waves’ of visits to Port Lockroy. This gave us all plenty of time to discover the great museum and the

preserved Bransfield House before most of us got to spend some of our hard-earned pennies in the shop and post a few postcards to our loved ones back home.

Port Lockroy is only a small island and we got to enjoy some close encounters with the nesting Gentoos ashore, some of which had tiny little chicks. A few of us were also lucky to glimpse a Leopard Seal as we returned to Plancius, a key predator of the Gentoo penguins. There had also been several Leopard Seals hauled out on ice floes as we first entered the bay approaching Port Lockroy.

With all the shopping and posting done for the day, we hastily heaved anchored and looked for some shelter for the evening’s surprise Antarctic dinner. Following on from our usual evening recap, we were informed that dinner would be served out on deck as a BBQ. Despite the colder temperatures, many of us braved the outside to eat our food, especially with some good sightings of Humpback Whales nearby. Under the shadow of massive peaks at the entrance to the Lemaire Channel we all reflected on a great day with full bellies, and even a few of us enjoyed a good dance on the aft deck as the sun set.

Kayak

Again we had the luxury of a day with no wind. We paddled along the coast and after a while we saw an ice flow with a seal on a few hundred meters out in the bay. We paddle out there and on the ice laid a big Leopard Seal. Around this ice Flow we had a long show of nature. Rafts of penguins, Antarctic Minkie whale swimming around us and the leopard Seal almost interacted with us

After a good night sleep with no ship movement, we are woken up by Ali as we anchor in Port Charcot. The weather is windy and grey, and it is even snowing. After a nice breakfast we are shuttled ashore and there are a couple of minke whales peacefully swimming around Plancius. The landing is on a rocky beach, and we climb up a steep snowy ramp to get our snowshoes. These snowshoes really make a difference in this thick snow.

We then are invited to visit different colonies, and to hike up to the cross that is characteristic of Port Charcot. On one of the penguin colonies we can observe gentoo, chinstrap and adelie penguins together, some even managing to get these three species in one single picture. Our divers enjoy the underwater worlds and have a great time exploring the underwater side of an iceberg and have a great encounter with a leopard seal. This is what all divers have been waiting for all along! Our kayakers are taken along the beautiful icebergs and Zet manages to find lots of leopard, crabeater and Weddell seals. We enjoy a nice long landing and at the end we are shuttled back to Plancius where we enjoy a nice lunch prepared by our chef Kabir.

After lunch Plancius should have relocated to Peterman Island where we planned to do a landing, but because of some issue with the ship’s anchor, Ali has to change our plans and she decides to offer a zodiac cruise through the icebergs. This turns out to be a great idea as the sun comes out and the scenery changes into a mesmerising set of icebergs and snow-capped mountains. We first head through the gigantic icebergs to take pictures of the different sizes and forms shaped by nature. We then make our

way towards Peterman Island where we enter a series of lagoons. There we observe colonies of gentoo penguins and observe them as they come in and out of the water. They form rafts of several penguins that are busy washing their feathers. Then the zodiac cruise turns into a seal safari. We discover one leopard seal after the other, to about a total of 20 individuals. Some guests are lucky enough to witness a successful penguin hunt carried out by this top predator. We also find several crabeater and Weddell seals hauled out on the ice, and some even swimming in groups in the water. We are all delighted by this incredible zodiac cruise with the beautiful weather.

Back on the ship we start making our way back North through the Lemaire Channel and we can watch this défilé of mountains on both sides, with an incredible sunlight. Once out of the Lemaire we continue our way North towards the Bransfield Strait as we are heading towards Deception Island for our landing tomorrow.

At recap Ali gives us information about our plans for tomorrow and Eduardo shows us the names of the mountains we just passed in the Lemaire Channel. After dinner we all gather on the outer decks to throw our last looks on the Antarctic continent, finding humpback whales along our way.

Kayak

We got in our Kayaks south of Port Charcot and paddled toward the south and the plenau Iceberg Graveyard. Huge isbergs with the most amazing shapes. To avoid the wind and waves we hided behind the plenau Iland and that decision treated us with a lot of wildlife.we got close to the Gento Penguins on the  rocks and had 4 kinds of seals in less the half an hour (Weddell Seal, Fur Seal, Crabeater Seal and Elephant Seal).

In the gloriously calm and clear conditions of the previous evening, we now left the Antarctic Peninsula and headed towards the South Shetlands and Deception Island. After a leisurely breakfast, the shores of Deception came clearly into view. Deception Island is a caldera, and we were sailing right into the heart of it.

To enter the bay of Deception Island there is only one way in and out, and this is through Neptune’s Bellows. An impressively narrow entrance, with a pinnacle of rock rising in the center of the opening just five meters under the surface, it is a tricky passage to navigate. Yet, it gives dramatic views of the volcanic rocks and strata that make up the island. We also got a glimpse of the old whaling station at Whalers Bay, with the buildings and tanks still clearly visible.

Our destination for the morning landing was located further into the bay at a place called Telefon Bay. Once we had arrived and done a little negotiating with another boat that was in the vicinity, we began our final landing of the trip.

Deception Island is an unusual location due to being an active volcano, and many of us were struck by the unique landscape of the island. Resembling more of a lunar scape as opposed to any of our previous Antarctic landings, it was incredible to see the volcanic rocks ashore and the remnants of old craters. Many of us took the final chance to stretch our legs before hitting the Drake Passage again in the afternoon and took a nice hike up to the ice cliffs above a crater and to some nice viewpoints along the ridge.

The landing beach was full of reminders of the hostile nature of the site, with krill littering the beach as it is cooked alive in the waters of the bay. Numerous pairs of Skuas were walking the shore gorging on an easy meal and even a few Chinstrap penguins appeared briefly to have a preen and a clean. One lone Antarctic Fur Seal was also hauled out at the far end of the beach but spent most of the time snoozing rather than posing for photos.

After the enjoying the wonders of Deception, it was time to return to Plancius and begin the journey back north towards Ushuaia once again. Following on from another delicious lunch, Pierre gave an excellent lecture on Humpback Whales and his experiences working alongside these whales across the globe. His talk gave us a great insight into these magnificent creatures, and helped to answer many of the questions we had. Having seen so many on this trip, including some unforgettable encounters, it was great to have a better understanding.

After Pierre’s lecture, we enjoyed another brilliant BBC documentary about the deep ocean, which included footage of the ocean deeps in Antarctica. Just as we were enjoying some of the amazing footage on the documentary, the Drake Passage reminded us it was still there. With the wind blowing about 40 knots, the sea was beginning to roll and was gearing up for one of its infamous ‘Drake Shakes’. At our daily Recap Ali gave us a little despair and a little hope with the weather forecast, before Elodie taught us more about the history of Deception Island. Her informative talk was followed up by a short video about the bases and stations of the island, and how most of it came to an end with the volcanic eruptions of the late 1960s and early 1970s.

With a buffet dinner served, many of us enjoyed some comforting food before retiring to our cabins for the night in the hopes the wind and seas may ease a little overnight and into the next day.

After a rough night at sea we are woken up to better conditions in the Drake. It is still quite wavy but much better than during the night. We are all very glad that Ali’s weather prediction was correct. After breakfast we start our program of lectures. Many people are trying to fight seasickness in their rooms.

First, we watch another part of the BBC documentaries Blue Planet 2. Then at 11am Ali gives a lecture entitled Ice Maidens on past and present women who came to Antarctica. At the same time Elodie gives a lecture in French in the restaurant about sea ice.

Lunch takes places in slightly worse conditions, and we all fight our way through the moving ship to get to the buffet where we are rewarded by Kabir’s fajitas. But even sitting in the dining room becomes a challenge with the constant movement of the ship, and several times items fall from the tables.

Unfortunately during the afternoon the conditions worsen a little bit but our brave guests still make it to the lectures, some more awake than others. At 3pm Pierre gives a lecture about killer whales in French, and at the same time Catherine gives her lecture on diving seals in English. These lectures are followed by Eduardo’s talk on the exploration of the deep at 4:30pm, and simultaneously a documentary on Charcot is aired in French.

At recap Ali gives us the plans for the following day, as well as the weather forecast for the night and tomorrow. We then head for breakfast hoping we will be able to keep our dinner inside our stomachs. Few guests make it to the bar afterwards and we all have an early night in the Drake shake.

We spend our second day sailing across the Drake Passage. Overnight, our ship rolled among the waves; the swell was up to 8-9 m with long period and some of our guests had a hard time to sleep. In the morning our ship held its course, North-Northwest heading towards the mouth of the beagle channel and our position at 08:00 AM was about 150 nautical miles South East of Cape Horn. We had great sailing conditions and yesterday's heavy swell is almost gone. The sun shone above the horizon and the horizon in front of us was very crisp and sharp. Two lonely birds flied in front of our ship; a magnificent Wandering Albatross did many circles in front of us showing us why they are masters of flight. Later we had also a Black Browed Albatross making circles near the bow of our ship.

As the day started, Ali did the wake-up call and breakfast was served on board.  Most of our guests showed up at breakfast due to the more favourable conditions and more than three quarters of our guest are now used to the motion of the ship. 

Today, our expedition staff prepared a program of lectures. The first of today's lecture was given by Pierre our expert in marine mammals. While in Antarctica we had the chance to see a killer whale up and close, so Pierre gave a great presentation sharing his knowledge about these marine mammals.

Later in the morning, Elodie who offered an informative presentation about the continental ice found in Antarctica. In her presentation she described the dynamics of the massive ice shelves and ice sheets we find in Antarctica and how they produce the largest icebergs in the world. It was a very "freezing" presentation.

While this presentation took place, Helene made a presentation for our French-speaking guests under the title "Seals and Birds". She described the three main species of seals that we encountered in Antarctica, namely Weddell Seals, Crab-eater Seals and Leopard Seals. In her presentation, she also made some remarks about the birds we encountered during our visit to the white continent.

Lunch was served on board at 12:30 and by this time of the day and we were very happy to see many guests joining the restaurant feeling a bit better after the rocky days we had before.

In the early afternoon, we had a the first of two presentations, this time given by our Earth Scientist on board, Annelou.  In her presentation she described how by studying the contents of ice samples, scientist learn about the past climate of planet Earth. In her presentation under the title “Ice Core Drilling”, Annelou explained in detail how ice samples are collected from the ice sheets of Antarctica and Greenland and how these cores contain valuable information to quantify the past changes of our oceans, atmosphere, and climate over the last hundreds of thousands of years.

During the afternoon, our diving expedition team offered a presentation under the title "What the Divers Saw", describing how they braved the cold Antarctic waters to explore what lies beneath the waves. This graphic presentation showed the rich forms of life they encountered during the multiple dives they made on this trip.

During the early evening we had our daily recap and Ali presented the plans for our next day on board, the last day of our voyage; sadly, the day we disembark. After this we had our Captain's cocktail followed by the presentation of the slide show. This slide show is prepared by Staff with pictures taken by all Staff members. Shortly after this activity, a special "farewell” dinner was served in the restaurant.  Late in the evening, we sailed slowly along the Argentinian side of the Beagle Channel and approached the pier of Ushuaia. Our voyage on board M/V Plancius came to an end as we casted the mooring lines around 22:00 in the pier of Ushuaia.

While we enjoyed a last breakfast on board, our suitcases were taken off the ship. It is a sad moment to disembark from the Plancius, which has been a comfortable and cozy home during this unforgettable journey. We have shared many unique moments, seen a range of rarely sighted wildlife, and made new friends. Loaded with fond memories we now must head home.

We will continue our adventures, whether it be returning home or experiencing what South America has to offer. On the pier, beside our little blue ship moored alongside in Ushuaia, we say our goodbyes, many hugs, and a few tears… and until next time, we wish each other good health and fair winds.

Thank you all for travelling with us on this voyage, for your enthusiasm, support, and good company. We really hope to see you again in the future, wherever that might be!

The expedition team has enjoyed exploring together with all the guests. Of course, these operations only run smoothy due to the coordination between all the departments on board Plancius. So, to all the dedicated and determined individuals involved in this adventure, we all give our thanks and appreciation.

Of course, this would not be possible without you, the guests. Thank you for travelling with us on this voyage, for your enthusiasm, support, and good company. We very much hope to see you again in the future, wherever that might be!

Total distance sailed on our voyage: 1570,0 nautical miles
Southernmost position: 65°07.9’S / 064°00.4’W  

On behalf of Oceanwide Expeditions, Captain Remmert-Jan Koster, Expedition Leader Ali Liddle, Hotel Manager Volodymyr Cherednychenko and all the crew and staff of M/V Plancius, it has been a pleasure travelling with you.