Antarctic Cruise: Antarctic Peninsula (2.23.24 to 2.26.24)

We spent four days around the Antarctic Peninsula, from February 23, 2024 to February 26, 2024.  The night of February 22, we crossed the Drake Passage, which could be violently rough.  The captain warned us that there might be turbulence, starting at 2 a.m.  "Make sure you're in bed," he said, "because it's going to get rough."  The captain said that the wave swells might be as high as 30 feet. We were rocked with the waves, but we slept through the night without getting sick or even waking up.  However, when we walked down the hall the next morning, we had to hang onto the banisters to steady ourselves.  It was mild, compared to what it could be, and we also had bright, sunny skies during our entire time in Antarctica.  That was, apparently, very unusual. It was also quite warm, hovering around 30 degrees during the daytime.

Many passengers spent their entire days on deck, watching the icebergs go by and keeping an eye out for whales and penguins.  There were four lecturers on board--an Antarctic photographer, historian, geographer, and marine biologist.  There were one or two lectures each day we were at sea, and they were all excellent.  My favorite lectures were by the historian, who had been operations director for the New Zealand research center on Antarctica.  His great-uncle was a member of Shackleton's Antarctic exploration team and his grandfather was a member of Scott's exploration team.  

We sailed down the Antarctic peninsula, into Paradise Bay, and then northeast towards Elephant Island.  The views were consistently gorgeous.

We were virtually alone in the vast expanse of Antarctica, although we did pass a couple of smaller expedition ships.  No ship with more than 500 passengers can land on Antarctica.  Our son Mike took a small ship and made several kodiak trips per day onto the ice, bundled in a heavy orange parka and boots.  I was very happy experiencing the beauty of Antarctica from our ship.

Icebergs come in all shapes and sizes.  One iceberg, shaped like this one, was as big as Belgium.