ZODIAC Sea Mail

Our group is at the airport in Buenos Aires & we are ready to fly to Ushuaia!

Cute photo, Andrea!

Have a ton of fun, Gang!

Have a wonderful time - sure hope somebody signs up for an internet package!

yay for you

Had an easy flight to Ushuaia, then we were taken to a local restaurant for a Patagonian lamb luncheon. It was delish!!

Lamb grilling



Family style service



Empanadas



Local beer



Beautiful flowers

Lamb again...Ngaire is in heaven!

Oh Andrea, yech, yuck, or whatever for that first one, but thank you for taking us along!!!!!!!! You all need a bit of sustenance before heading out to sea. Bon Voyage and we will await the next chapter!

i so love flat crystal.......i actually love her more in her real form! but she always looks good.

Lucky travelers....ENJOY!

Finally relaxing on board on our way to the Faulklands. Rocking and rolling but getting my sea legs again. I am sure it will get worse than this. Washing my hair in the shower this am was thinking they needed grab bars in the shower, then realized I was leaning against them! So excited just to be here. Nice small little ship, wonderful company too. Interesting learning about life on this ship as so different than the Regent routine we are so used to. We are off to lunch in a while and as I slept in I missed breakfast so I am hungry!! More later...

Wishing you all a safe and wonderful journey! :hug:

I so wish the ship had a webcam, this is a cruise that would be fun to follow along step by step!

It is 6:10 AM and the first zodiac landing will begin at 6:30. We are in the 2nd group so it won't be long now! Saw a few penguins in the water last night during dinner as we were coming into Coffin's Harbor, can't wait to see more of them today. I am sure everyone will report when we get back. After this landing we are moving to another part of New Island (Faulklands) and will have another landing this PM. More later...

Posting for Andrea:

Looks and sounds like everyone is having a wonderful time. Love the pics!!!

What wonderful photos. Thanks,

It looks pretty warm there!

AfterThoughts of Buenos Aires

Buenos Aires was a total surprise to us. Being a spanish speaking country in Latin America, we didn't expect to find a city that was so not Spanish. It was just as Italian, English, Russian, Jewish, French as it was Spanish in culture, architecture and food. For example, it is one of only two cities in the world to have a kosher McDonald's. I was surprised that both of our guides were of Ukranian heritage. While cosmopolitan, I didn't see one person of African heritage and only a few of Asian heritage. I saw only one building with spanish architecture. This is so different from what I expected given it's proximity to Africa and Asia.

While Spanish street grid structure was the original layout of the city, the European diagonal layout broke the grid and wide boulevards common in Paris and Madrid are now the city structure. While the buildings at a quick glance seem to be similar to those found in France, under closer examination, they are really ecclectic in design. There is art deco mixed with a bit of Italianate, mixed with English Tudor and Georgian. Italian restaurants are much more prevalent than Spanish cuisine and Argentinian cuisine equates to a great steak house.

Weather wise, snow is rare. It does get down to about 32 and summers are hot. Houses are air conditioned. All have washer dryers, but, interestingly, do not have dishwashers. Microwaves are also rare. Household help is affordable and most homes do have someone who comes in to clean and many go out to eat often.

I could easily live here - with a dishwasher, mind you. It's a comfortable life...so comfortable that crime is a problem. Folks never wear gold jewelry or expensive watches.

BA Shopping: I saw a distinct lack of expensive jewelry stores. There were stores with artistic silver pieces, but that was it. Leather was abundant and fairly reasonable. There  were crap leather factories with Snookie like leather outfits on Calle Florida in the Downtown area. All the guidebooks and our guide recommended this area and I dragged Doug from shop to shop, but I wasn't impressed. However, the more expensive areas of the city held a shopper's paradise with exquisite, high quality clothes and leather goods. The shoes were gorgeous and the purses yummy. The leather was so soft and the styles were fantastic. I could have shopped for days, once I made my discoveries. I held back but only because my suitcase was filled to the brim. I found some buttery soft teal woven wedges and coral heels, and a funky woven knapsack, a black and sterling classic bag for me and a tan one for my daughter that sells for many many thousands in New York but was kind of a bargain (affordable somewhat-thousands less) here...

There is a tremendous amount of culture here...of living...of enjoying life. I will certainly return and maybe longer than a vacation. We saw a tango show and it was very expensive but highly enjoyable. The music, singing, and dancing were very professional and not schmaltzly. I don't know if I would rush to do it again because it was so expensive, but it was worth doing. I enjoyed it so much, though, the next time, I would do what the locals do. The tango shows are for tourists. I would go to a tango hall  to watch the experienced tango dancers at a milonga (tango salon). The best dancers come to these these shows to show off and we probably should have saved our money and gone to one of these.

One of our cab drivers recommended the Japanese Gardens, but it was so hof we never did this. We also never did a walking tour or visited the Ecological Reserve.

We did a wonderful city tour with Signatures Tour company. We visited the famous Plazo de Mayo, the political heart of the city, cordoned off for demonstrations in front of the presidential palace where Evita addressed her adoring fans. We also took in the Recoleta cemetery  where Evita was laid to rest finally with her family.

Restaurants: las Lilas, el Mirasol, Marcelo, and Jauna M were all very good. However, the most highly acclaimed El Mirasol, was our least favorite. Our favorite was recommended by our concierge and was a wonderful little steakhouse in the Recoleta area-Juana M- at which we had a tasty set of beef ribs, a terrific filet minion and a juicy mustard brisket accompanied by a bottle of wine, dulce de leche ice cream along with an unlimited salad bar all for $30 per person. This restaurant is a real find.

BA Museums : There are all sorts of gardens and museums and we only saw Four...the   Evita museum, the Malba Latin Arts museum, the Theatre Colon opera house tour, and the art museum in Tigre. I can't say that they compared with any museums such as those in Paris, St. Petersburg  or Amsterdam, but they weren't huge or overwheming either. The Evita museum was interesting and worthwhile, there were some rather famous Diego Rivera and Frieda Kahlo works in the Malba and the Opera House was impressive. 

BA Hotels: We can recommend both the Hilton and the Hyatt. Both are in very nice neighborhoods, the rooms rooms quiet, comfortable and modern and service levels excellent. We also heard great things about the Park Tower, Marriott and the Four Seasons. The Four Seasons and the Hyatt are within walking distance to one another. I really liked having the outdoor garden at the Hyatt and the shopping in the vicinity. Restaurants were abundant in both areas.

Travel Day to Usuaia

We  left Buenos Aires at 6 am on Friday after 5 fun filled days to go to the domestic airport. Other than some cab drivers having difficulties knowing where certain hotels are located, we found them all very nice and the fares were reasonable. The domestic airport was about 15 minutes from the hotel and we unloaded our bags, hugged hello and went downstairs to wait for the plane to Usuaia which left at 8:30. We had all dreaded the 11 pound carry on rule but it was a non event and we were allowed to bring on board whatever we wanted.

The flight is about 3 hours as we we going to the southernmost city in the world, so we all settled in, excited, to finally begin our adventure. Silverseas had chartered this flight and we all looked like happy campers. The flight was a bit delayed, so it was a welcome sight to finally see land and a beautiful view it was! The snow white peaks of the Andes jutted out from the blue sea that separated Chile from Argentina. LAN Airlines must have a plot against us as our bags were again the last 4 bags off the conveyor belt for the second time on this trip, giving us some angst, and we sighed with relief as we dumped our bags off with the Silverseas rep and got on a bus for a brief tour before going to lunch. Lunch consisted of beef empanadas, grilled lamb, salad, ice cream before we were finally shuttled wearily to the ship.

Most Antarctic visitors begin or end their journey in Ushuaia. The tour guide pointed out that Usuaia was no longer considered the southernmost point. Puerto Williams, 28 miles SE on the Chikean side of the Beagle Channel actually is more southern as it is no longer a naval base, having grown into an actual town usurping Usuaia's distinction. Argentinians point out they are still the most southern CITY.

Usuaia has prospered and grown from 7171 inhabitants in 1975 to 57,000 today due to company tax breaks offered by the Argentinian government. Tourism and skiing have continued the town's prosperity.

Our ship was smaller than I imagined, looking like a miniature cruise ship. It was nicely appointed inside, check in was fast, and our luggage was quickly delivered. Now the unpacking...

Dinner was at 6:30 and we had a great meal. Nightfall doesn't come until around 10 pm and we enjoyed the very calm seas. Folks went to bed fairly early even though our first day was a sea day. I love nothing more than the gentle rocking of a ship and the butler brought me the pillow menu of about 8 different types. I made my selection, settled in with my tea and had nodded off before I knew it.

Our ship: Silver Explorer

Our room is the top category. There is one slightly higher...not too much larger in size...but it is a deck higher and it has French balconies. We have large picture windows. When  you enter our room you have about a 10 foot by 3 foot hallway with a closet doorway to your left. In front of you there is a 12 foot by 9 foot living room with a couch and two chairs, coffee table, two end tables, built in fridge, flat tv above it, full size desk with mirror over that. There is a picture window in the room. Facing the couch there is a pocket door leading to a good size bedroom with a king size bed, a cupboard and another tv. Off of this room, another door leads to the walk in closet. This closet is huge. It is about 15 by 12 and has two benches for sitting down. It is really a dressing room. For those who know Regent ships, it is more than 2 times as big as a Regent closet. The marble bathroom has a separate tub and shower and is quite large. My only complaint is I wish the room had more outlets.

We have a great housekeeper and butler and we found AMEX had left a nice bottle of Dom Perignon in our suite and a box of candy. We were also delighted to find out we have free laundry. I am incredibly impressed with the service levels already. Our butler asked me if there was anything special I wanted. I told him Ginger beer. He had never heard of it. I wasn't adamant about having it. Nevertheless, while still in port, they went out and found it for me. At dinner, the waitress asked me what I wanted to drink. I said a virgin mojito. Today, when she saw me, one was waiting. You never have to stumble for you key in the hall. Someone will help you into your room with a general key.

Sea Day 1

Today we awoke to a beautiful sunny day. Dolphins chased our ship right under our window and albatrosses darted and weaved into the waves. The sea was like glass, the sky was robin's egg blue and the sunbeams were blinding.

Doug likes to get up early to go up to breakfast, so his alarm nastily jarred me awake from my dreamy sleep. I snarled and sent him away and rolled back to sleep for a bit longer before getting up to attend the first lecture on the Falkland history at 10 am.

Falklands 

The Falklands were first discovered in the mid 1500's but not colonized until 1764. I learned interesting facts that northern American never learn about such as the French first settled the Falklands; a woman, Jeanne Bare, was really the first person to go around the world; that the English settled West Falkland and the Spanish settled East Falkland; that both countries abandoned the Falklands in 1806 leaving it in a period of lawlessness until 1833. It had a pretty nice whaling industry until the Panama Canal killed it's business opportunities almost overnight. This was coupled with WWI in the Southern hemisphere causing the Falklands to miss out on the rise of technology and fall back on the sheep farming industry. Of course, we all remember the Falklands war caused by a slight oversight in historical documents which failed to mention who owned the islands. Today, things have styled down and children can be educated in England  with today many returning to the Falklands. There is sustainable fishing, ecotourism, wildlife management and, while they are not sure if there is anything there, they are looking at oil drilling.

Proper Antarctic Behavior

We had a mandatory meeting today to learn how to conduct ourselves. Believe it or not, there are 40,000 visitors each year from November to February to Antarctica, the largest wilderness area in the world. By comparison, the Arctic witnesses about 15,000 visitors per year. The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) has been formed to prevent the introduction of non native species and to protect the wildlife in this area as wildlife shows little fear of humans. Therefore, it is incumbant to teach us to negotiate the animals with respect, taking care to not disturb them no matter how tempting, and take with us only our memories and photographs.
 
Our lecturer shared that fue seals will charge at you. If this happens, we are to stand our ground, clap our hands and (hope lol) they will stop a meter from us as they consider this a game. If we run they will keep coming. In fact, the game can be funny...sure! On the other hand, elephant seals are more aggressive and run very fast. If you see them, clapping won't help ... No game here. Give them a wide area. Now, molting birds look miserable and feel miserable too. They are stressed and cranky. Leave them alone. Some birds will charge you. If one does, put a hand over your hand and back away. If you move forward, you could get a hole in your head. It sounds like we are in for an adventure. We were given meter distances for staying away from the birds so as not to encroach on their territory as well as all sorts of other rules.

Scientific research has priority over everything. If we want to enter an area we must give 72 hours notice. We can be cancelled out of our tour at any time. We cannot enter a hut on shore unless there is an emergency. We carry 150000 pounds of emergency supplies when we go onshore. We must carry all sorts of clothing as weather is very changeable and we could get stuck there for hours unexpectedly.

Because we will be doing...

Our first stops are the Falkland islands, which comprise over 700 islands and are located about 300 miles east of southern Argentina. However, in actuality, the Falklands is an archipelago consisting of two main islands: east and west. The area of these islands is about the size of Connecticut.

The proximity to the mainland give rise to the fact that most of the animals and plants are also found in both places. These include petrel, albatross, penguin, gull, conmorant. These birds all feed at sea but all need solid land to nest.

We will have two walks in the Falklands tomorrow. We arrive at New Islands, Falklands, tonight at about 10 to 10:30. They will separate us into 4 groups and we will disembark by 6:30am. We expect to see 4 to 5 types of penguins and an albatross rookery. By 10:30 am, we will again set sail, this time for Saunders Island, about 50 miles away,  where will will see 4 species of penguins: Magelanic, gentoo, rockhopper, king, and a different type of albatross colony. We should arrive about 2 pm.

At 6:30 pm tomorrow we will have a meeting to debrief on what we have seen as we set sail for Stanley, the capital, 138 miles away. We expect temperatures in the 50s. The Falklands has a population of about 2600 with about 85% of the population residing in Stanley.

And so day 1 at sea ended...

This afternoon, there was a photography lecture then the Captain's reception. We all broke up into little groups and enjoyed our lobster dinner. An interruption  came about when a school of dolphin joined our ship and started swimming alongside us during dinner. This was the second time today this happened. Doug and I watched about 30 of them around noon today from our cabin.

The seas have been sooo calm. The captain says this is so rare. He said that usually few show up at the Captain's dinner because of the rough seas and seasickness. I barely feel any movement on the ship at all.

Our table tonight consisted if Ed and Mary and Pam and Jim and Ed entertained us with jokes and ordered creme brule for all special order. We all marveled about the man who lives on the Regent ships year round and tried to figure out how to take out time shares on him. Lots of laughs all around. Early bedtimes since we all had 5:30 am wake ups and long days of hiking this morning ... So cool...


�

Thanks, Andi for a great report. BA was never before on my radar but now I am thinking that a visit is in order. Our trip to Antarctica remains one of the best, most memorable trips we have ever done and I hope the same for you all.
------------------
Helen

Hi from the Falklands
Everyone else out on 2nd trek of the day. Out of all passengers, I am the only one that had boot that leaked so 1st trip over the side of zodiac, boot filled with water. Since I am/have been sick had to return to ship without seeing a single seal or albatross, but now have new boot and hopefully pants, socks etc are drying as I type. I am NOT in a bad mood. This is still a wonderful trip with many days to go for wildlife sightings. Love our LCT group. Meeting lots of other nice people also. Not going to spend computer time reading other posts but hope they are also glowing reports. Tomorrow - Stanley, our only town.

what wonderful reports. andi, so thorough. thank you.

ah, the penguins. the penguins.

Wow Andi, what a fabulous report but loved yours too Betty. I wish I'd given you a 'flat Lee' to keep 'flat Crystal' company as its obvious I'm really missing a great time. Love 'food' photos Andrea and the others were great, so you keep up the good work too. Haven't forgotten you Beth - keep smiling! Lee

Here are a couple of pics from dinner last night. The lobster tail was absolutely delicious!





And a couple of pics from dinner tonight with a special guest!

Nice to see Turdkey is settled in. Great photos, Andrea!

Hey y'all, I am just loving this cruise. Internet is expensive so I haven't posted until now. We are having a ball and seeing marvelous wildlife...... more later. We hit Stanley in the AM.

So nice to hear from you Beth!

I suppose you have excursion choices in Stanley like any other normal port? I remember visiting a sheep farm and some other place with a garden and horses, and watching a sheep being shorn, peat being chopped, and enjoying not only the hospitality of the owners, but the drive to and from, with commentary about the Falkland war several years go, as there were some things still in the field connected with this "battle". Now that was one long sentence. ;)

Enjoying your reports, esp since we are going to be on Explorer in the Arctic this summer. Exactly how expensive is internet? I am spoiled with Regent. But I really do need to be in touch with home due to a 94 yr old mom.

$250 for 1000 minutes. If you have AMEX, you get $300 credit

Greetings from Stanley. Perfect weather day. Quaint looking village and I liked it a lot. Already finished with MAJOR retail therapy, quick buzz through the museum and walk to Cathedral. Even sat in the sun for a while. Hey, when you live in Houston that can be a rare pleasurable event. Obviously yesterday I meant to post penguins not seals. Still have not seen any (penguins)in the flesh but they are emblazoned on every possible item in the world in Stanley. You only have to check my suitcase - now. AND it only took me 2 days to figure out how to put on, wear and take off the zodiac life vest. Lectures this afternoon. Food at dinner last night was the best to date. I'll get used to the Silversea way yet. Until tomorrow.

PS
Flat Stanley and Crystal are in town right now. Lee, we are "working" on one for you. But only if you have taken a flat Betty and Beth to the Australian Open. :)

I don't know what the ship looks like, I am guessing this is it as seen from this cam?

Yup. Did you catch flat Crystal waving from the zodiac? It was so warm today, we didn't need jackets. I brought back a king, magrllenic and a rockhopper penguin.

Loving all seamail and pixs are great! Andi your detailed reports are so interesting! We loved BA (had short visit) but thought it was amazing.

Great pictures. Looks like you'all are having a great time.

Looks like Turdley is having a good time too! Are you going to South Georgia? Hope you see lots of penguins--but no worries, they're everywhere down there. Actually, I loved watching the whales when they were around--keep and eye out for them too.

So fun catching up on your postings and seeing the pictures.

If anyone happened to have bought an extra set of colored pictured coasters in Stanley, I'll buy them from you, one of my favorite souvenirs but were chewed up by a bored doggie back home.

Andi, I'm with the Argentinians who say Usuaia is still the most southern city. It was a big deal when we were there to make sure to get our passport stamped for that reason.

Betty, I so hope you're feeling better and keeping dry. This is too special of a trip to have anymore problems.

I finally caved in and bought the Internet service. This cruise is so absolutely amazing!

Betty - am not going to the Aussie Open this year (wasn't sure how the knee would be) but I'll definitely take you and anyone else who wants to go with me next year if I can join you on this fantastic experience.

We spent two glorious days in the Falklands where the weather hovered between 50 and 60 degrees, the skies were blue and the seas were calm. That's three great days on the roughest seas in the world and we are poised for two more calm ones before hitting South Georgia.

We were all ready for our first excursion on the morning on the 15th like children on Christmas morning who can't wait to open our presents. We had to be ready at 6:30am and we were all ready bright eyed and early, many of us overdressed ready for our zodiac ride.

The first thing we saw upon coming ashore was a giant jellyfish - the largest in the world, the lions mane jellyfish, this was a small one measuring only three feet across, but many are the size of blue whales, with 8 clusters of tentacles that can add up to 1200.

We hiked up to a ledge where we caught our first glimpse of penguins. These were the little punk looking rockhopper penguins with their red eyes and yellow Albert Einstein styled hair. They were small...about a foot tall but feisty, picking fights with another species of bird, the cormorant. It bears un uncanny resemblance to the penguins but it has the ability to fly. While it was interesting to see these two different species getting along, there was quite a bit of bickering about homesteads. The cormorant is known for it's ability to build terrific nests and there is a fair amount of interspecies thievery being committed.

This was also our first close up of an albatross. It is a beautiful bird who only comes ashore for breeding purposes so there was a fair amount of preening and flirting going on. They had come on land in October to lay eggs (only one) and they rear their chicks for 17 weeks. Chicks don't breed until they are 10 years old so it's a good thing that their average age is 40 to 60, with some even living to 72.

We left at 10:30 knowing more than we ever thought we'd know about birds since we were told that there would be a second excursion at 2pm at another location 28 miles away.

About 1:30, the ship stopped, the zodiacs dropped and the scouts went out. A few minutes later an announcement came over the speaker to tell us that the water was too choppy for a safe landing here but we would go to another location and would depart at 4.

We were surprised at how warm it still was outside. This location was beautiful. The beach appeared miles long and was very, very wide with green craggy hills in the back. The beach was riddled with penguins running in and out of the waves and the hills were literally covered with penguins and a few sheep.

As we walked, we realized that there were little ghettos. While interspecies live together, penguin colonies live in their own housing developments. They are allowed to use the same beaches, playgrounds , eat the same foods, but not always at the same time or at the same location.

First we passed the Magellanic penguins, who must have had the afternoon shift at the beach. These little guys are pretty cute, mostly black, with a white chest, a white bulls eye around their face and a long tail. They waddle pretty fast side to side running right up to you on the beach without a care in the world. They are about 18 inches tall and live way up in the hills in burrows which we'll talk about later.

As we all walked further, there were some king penguins hanging about who are really pretty. They didn't really move about much as did the other penguins, but just kind of stood quietly as though they were in a wedding receiving line. They were dressed to kill in an white shirt with a blush of orange and yellow around the neck and a coat of elegant silvery grey instead of pedestrian waiter black.

Farther up the hill, there was a very crowded rookery of gentoo penguins. These fellows look a lot like Magellanic penguins only their beaks have a slash of red lipstick, their feet are orange and they have a white eyebrow. They were characters chasing one another, falling flat on their faces, walking right up to us and staring us down and screaming bloody murder.

Next to them, there was the king penguin colony. So separate and distinct, yet a stone's throw away.

All of the Silverseas red coats plopped themselves down in various areas, taking pictures, watching the behaviors only to be watched right back! The penguins would walk right up to a lens and stare right in.

At 6pm, there was a walk to a magellanic and rockhopper rookery and an albatross rookery. I was by the king penguins when I saw Doug start walking up a hill with a group. The hill was a rocky, steep incline, riddled with Magellanic penguin burrows every couple of feet which you had to navigate so you wouldn't fall in. I huffed and puffed my way up, being careful with my footing, and each time a penguin would pop up like "whack a mole" scaring the crap out of me. In addition, I had to negotiate around the sheep. I finally got to the fence with sweat pouring down me and 30 pairs of eyes staring at me because they had to wait. My poor, short little legs were so tired and my rubber boots were so heavy. I had to somehow get them over the wire fence. I lifted them with my best Rockettes kick and they kind of did a third Reich lift not very high off the ground. I felt that poor Doug wanted to disown me. Finally, the leader manually lifted my legs for me and I fell over the fence. I looked over the hill at the happy, content people waaaay down and realized I would have to do this again in reverse. What an idiot.


We had a nice time up top until it came time to go down. It took forever, Doug said "hurry up" and I said "@#%!?"

The wind picked up and it became harder to walk. I didn't want be the last ones back and felt hopeful as there were many others behind us. Soon though, they started to pass and I thought we'd never reach those zodiacs. I would end up living on the beach with the penguins. Poor Doug being stuck with the likes of me.

We did make it back. I had a bath, washed off all the sand and made it to dinner and marveled at how much new information now fills my brain.

Today, we awoke to a very warm day in the capital, Stanley. Here we learned that if you can make something, it can have a penguin on it. It was a great day for a walk and we found a wonderful and unusual gnome garden. There were gnomes of every size and shape...bride gnomes, golf gnomes, gardening gnomes....about 50-100 of them. We also took in a museum along the way. We topped off the afternoon with lectures and will now have two restful days at sea before reaching South Georgia.

Life is tough. But someone's gotta do it.

Great descriptions! Gotta do this trip again!

We had the roughest seas on our trip when we were on the way from the Falklands to South Georgia, so you're lucky if the forecast is for calm seas. South Georgia was the highlight of the trip for us - can't wait til you get there!

You saw a lot more penguins in the Falklands than we did - I think we just saw the rockhoppers and a few gentoo.

Andi - use one or two of their walking sticks next time - especially when you get further south and the penguin poop is everywhere,

love the tales. thank you.

Ditto to Leslie.

Andi:

Your style of writing when it comes to jotting down what's in your head without editing and making it all socially correct just cracks me up and I must say I am having some good belly laughs at the kitchen table reading of your treks across the landscape. Keep up with the writing even though you may not be able to keep up with the pace of your fellow cruisers.

QUOTE: At 6pm, there was a walk to a magellanic and rockhopper rookery and an albatross rookery. I was by the king penguins when I saw Doug start walking up a hill with a group. The hill was a rocky, steep incline, riddled with Magellanic penguin burrows every couple of feet which you had to navigate so you wouldn't fall in. I huffed and puffed my way up, being careful with my footing, and each time a penguin would pop up like "whack a mole" scaring the crap out of me. In addition, I had to negotiate around the sheep. I finally got to the fence with sweat pouring down me and 30 pairs of eyes staring at me because they had to wait. My poor, short little legs were so tired and my rubber boots were so heavy. I had to somehow get them over the wire fence. I lifted them with my best Rockettes kick and they kind of did a third Reich lift not very high off the ground. I felt that poor Doug wanted to disown me. Finally, the leader manually lifted my legs for me and I fell over the fence. I looked over the hill at the happy, content people waaaay down and realized I would have to do this again in reverse. What an idiot. END QUOTE


Trudge on, girl, trudge on................

Cheers! Ray

Wow, your magical journey just gets better and better! Love your reporting style Andi; I feel like I'd be the one bringing up the rear with all that gear and heavy boots on!

Wonderful commentary! Maybe later today, we'll get some pix from Andrea, Doug, or Ken!

Andi, I am loving reading your wonderful reports on your adventures. I understand that you are pushing yourself to the absolute limits of your endurance, in order to get the full story for us. :) And we love you for it. More More. Please!

Loving these, Doug! Obviously Andrea has some coming too, from the looks of her picture you sent!

andi mentioned you had already seen Kings, I don't recall seeing them until later in the cruise, and they blew me away compared to those little guys coming before!

Quick post must get to bed - they say whales in the morning early but I just had to post THEY HAVE AMARULA on board. We had a night cap tonight of Amarula.

Having a great time and just cannot wait to get to South Georgia where they say our good weather will continue. We have had good seas and lots of sunshine since leaving Ushuaia. We are in the Southern sea and could not expect it be much calmer. Just a little gentle rocking making me very relaxed and sleepy.

Ditto to Ray

Love those running penguins

LOL, Ngaire, I don't think I've ever seen that stuff outside of Africa ;) I ask all the time!

Thanks for checking in with us. It is wonderful you all are enjoying calm seas and sunshine. Like Leslie (and Diane coffeecup I'm sure), hope everyone appreciates it! Only one more day to sail, and then bet we will get some great KEN photos.

Great reports!!! YUM Amarula!!!! Andi more more please :app: :app: :hug: :hug: :blahblah: :blahblah:

I found Amarula in a 7-11 in Ranson, WV last year. You never know when or where it will turn up. Seems right to be on Zodiac, since it goes with critter-spotting.

Great Reports, Carla found Amarula at the liquor store downtown in our city. Its sprouting up everywhere. Was great to drink around Christmas.

We are all anticipating our first whales of the cruise this morning as we near Shag Rocks. Since I had a few minutes, I though I'd pop on here and say we are all having a great time. Today we will be enjoying our second seaday in a row. Between Pooch, Hearts, lectures and eating we are staying pretty busy. Tomorrow we begin our three days on South Georgia. More later.......

Now I know why they sell a DVD on trip - didn't see a single whale this AM. But nice being outside all bundle up in my "snow suit". Rumor is we need to have them on by 5 AM tomorrow. Betty might have a problem with this time table. Tonight the ship will go dark as all lights and windows covered due to confusion it would cause a particular bird if they saw our lights. Tonight is also B & K party. Stays light very late though.
Off to consume some bouillon, then lunch, then Shackleton lecture. Continues to be great trip.

Sometime between your landings and lectures ya'll need to have a five year pooch anniversary party during your trip.

It was probably on 1/23/07, on the Hanseatic during our first sea day on the way to South Georgia, that Brad and I taught Ngaire how to play pooch. As they say, the rest is history.

Good whale sightings this morning. The first "alarm" was a little disappointing however what was interesting is that there was a Humpback and Southern Right Whale were together.

About one pooch game later whales were spotted again. This time two Right Whales REALLY close to the ship just stayed in the same spot and gave everyone fantastic views.

Today at lunch we had the traditional Rack of Lamb, roast potatoes and green peas with Frank, Wendy, Alan and Wendy. It was fantastic.

Okay off to the Shackelton lecture

More whale sightings this afternoon. And one was a Blue. Say they only see about one Blue each season. How lucky can we get?
Shackleton lecture was fantastic. Lots of new information even if you had only seen the PBS series. Part 2 to follow in a few days. Was happy to see one of 3 women that applied for his crew was named Betty. These ladies called themselves "The Sporty Girls".
Weather is still cool and foggy but with Ngaire on board I am positive tomorrow will be a beautiful day.

Yes a five year anniversary of POOCH is a thing to celebrate. Meanwhile Pam has POOCH figured out and wins almost everytime. We need the pooch master and mistress here to challenge her!

Wow, it doesn't seem like it's been five years since we all learned to play POOCH on the Hanseatic. Too bad you all don't have the Germans to keep you in line on Zodiac :D

I guess I am in the lucky minority on Amarula; I was able to find it in the Memphis area from the beginning. Haven't looked lately, I have to confess; I still have a bottle.

Great post Andi...with more of same post (s) I'll have 3 cups of tea!! XXOO

I am not seeing Andi's post and I am afraid to delete any of the blank posts above?

uh-oh, she must have been trying to delete the extraneous. Bring it back, Andi, that was a good one!

I was so excited to learn we'd have two and a half days at sea. I figured i'd do some card playing, some reading and some relaxing. Not here. The expedition team on this team has been great and the lectures wonderful. I might have had better grades in science had topics been brought to life they way these folks are doing it for us. We have running lectures on mammals, fish, botany, geology, and recaps on what we see and why and the future of the ecological concerns, glaciers, sea levels worldwide and it's effects on the continents. This trip is so much more than penguins and scenery, good food and service.

We have had lectures on very varied topics such as "krill, small but mighty"; "Life in the southern ocean," "Shackelton's journey's", cooking demoes, wine tastings and our end of day briefings.

We discussed the seismology of the area and the fact that there is volcanic activity in Antarctica. While not a tectonically active zone there have been three major earthquakes greater than 7 and one this weak at Elephant Island that measured 6.6.

One lecture taught us all about tussac grass which can actually live to 300 years in age however the Falkland farmers eliminated much of it to gain more farmland. Currently, they have reintroduced a replanting program as they have found it not only feeds sheep but is useful for the ecosystem for feeding birds as it providenesting areas for petrels, penguins, thrush, and seals.

We also didn't stay just in the sciences, but got into a bit of History/Poetry and discussed the origins of Coleridge's Rime of the Ancient Mariner, the epic poem about Antarctica.

We also discussed how the fishing industry has opened up to other countries in 1986 and 1990 opened with main catches being illix squid de la plata and Patagonian squid. However, the catches has been declining of late and may not be sustainable.

One lecture taught us all about tussac grass which can actually live to 300 years in age however the Falkland farmers eliminated much of it to gain more farmland. Currently, they have reintroduced a replanting program as they have found it not only feeds sheep but is useful for the ecosystem for feeding birds as it provides nesting areas for petrels, penguins, thrush, and seals.

We also discussed how the fishing industry has opened up to other countries in 1986 and 1990 opened with main catches being illix squid de la plata and Patagonian squid. However, the catches has been declining of late and may not be sustainable.

Sea activities also kept us busy. On day two, while the seas were still calm, with a slight rocking motion I love, the skies were white and no longer blue and the seas had turned from turquoise to grey.

There has been a dramatic temperature drop within the distance we have traveled. The expedition team has been teaching us that this weather also affects the southern sea here. The different sea life is affected by the cold water which holds more oxygen than hot water and the more nutrients from the krill which provides a solid foundation for sea life.

So, as you get further from the equator the number of species drop but there are greater populations of those that exist. Additionally, the lifespan of creatures down here increases as you get towards the poles as they have to have more time to maximize their reproductive success.

We were expecting to see whales anytime starting around 8am, but we got a call around 9 because there was a sighting of a minky whale. It was gone so quickly, you saw the spray and it was out of sight. Off we went to our krill lecture and figured our whale sightings were done for the day. Then I went off to a gravlox cooking class and someone yelled out "whale!" We all jumped up and the poor chef said " well I have a fish here too."

An announcement came over the loudspeaker that a both a a humpback whale and a southern right whale were right next to the ship and we were cutting off the motors. The humpback is common around the world but the right whale, only seen in the southern hemisphere, is fairly rare. What was also rare was the fact that both interspecies whales were together, most likely caused by an abundance of krill. Gee, we all understood that now. We must have watched the whacks for nearly an hour before the team announced we'd be moving on.

We were playing cards this afternoon and an announcement came over the loudspeaker about 4pm that a fairly rare sighting of 2 blue whales and a fin whale. The blue whales are the biggest whales and these were about 90 feet long or about the size of a space shuttle to put it into perspective and the fin whale is the second largest whale and this one was about 75 feet long. We have been so lucky with weather and animal sightings! This ship also has an open bridge policy and we are allowed to watch all of these sightings with the captain and the expedition staff with them. It's been terrific.

Starting tonight we have to blacken out the ship so as to emit as little light as possible. Smaller seabirds see lights and fly towards them and become disoriented. Normally not good on land and confused, they have trouble getting airborne, hide head first in corners, and lose heat end up terminal. Every morning, the crew will now check for injured or lost birds and attempt to reorient them and get them back to safety.

Our day tomorrow begins at 5:30am and ends at 8pm with three separate landings of several hours each. These will now introduce fur and elephant seals into the mix and we have been told that we will be attacked by fur seals so to remember to clap our . I how many of us will forget to clap and will freak?

An announcement came over the loudspeaker that it was a beautiful morning in South Georgia.. Blue skies and 48 degrees with the calmest seas and most beautiful sunrise. I asked Doug what time it was Nd he said 4:30.. I guess we're up. It sure is pretty out there and I can hear the king penguins calling. Right now, we are the last group to go ashore and it is torture waiting so w'll have to amuse ourselves watching the seals and dolphins playing outside our window!

It is an absolutely perfect day for our landing on Salisbury Plain, South Georgia. I'm back King Penguins!!

One word - WOW!

South Georgia today! Three landings today first two were absolutely spectacular. About 45 - 50 degrees no wind blue skyes magnificent. Marc and I walked around with no jackets just shirtsleeves Not enough words to descibe the day. Turdlely had been inspected for contraband seeds and organizims so he got to come ashore too, though none of the Kings were interested in him. Just Unbeleivable!!!!!!!!!!

Glad that you had great weather on South Georgia, that is sure a beautiful spot. We have a very large copy of a photo Russ took in our home and people think that it is a painting, they can't imagine all of the Kings.

Have fun the rest of your trip.

I love reports like this, and can imagine that Andrea will soon have a photo feast for our eyes!

WOW is all I can say - so delighted you are loving your trip. I check your seamail first thing every morning - my tea is piping hot just waiting for a report or pictures!!! XXOO to all of you...those penquins are darn cute!!

We had 3 amazing landings today – Salisbury Plain, Prion Island and Fortuna Bay. So exhausted but wanted to put up a few of my favorites.

Andrea, great pictures! That sure is a LOT of happy feet!

Yes!!!!!!!! A++++++

Andrea's pictures really captured the day, it was amazing, Doug took me back to the ship kicking and screamig. The seals all have these adorably different faces...Btpeth found one that looked like a ferret,; some have snake faces,spaniel faces, cat faces, cow faces. These guys are constantly playing. They run up to you and sniff you. The adults run up and bark at you but you clap and say ' no bad seal" and they back off. They are a hoot. They hide in the tussah grass and bound out at you. Now the king penguins, when swimming look just like ducks. While really oretty, the poor tenses, when losing their baby fur, look really sorry...like a bad case of puberty.

The first stop was a surprise as the beach was rather Spassky populace. The, over the crest and 250,000 king penguins line the cost shoulder to shoulder. It is almost too much to take in. We'll it's almost midnight and I've been up since 4:30. More later.

So cute!! How I would love to go again. Thanks for taking the time to share.
----------------------
Helen

You all are so gracious to stay up and post wonderful pix and commentary, know you are exhausted, but I am loving it!

I've never figured out what is the difference between a sea lion and a seal. Andi, I'm glad you found them to be so sweet! Will never forget on ICE some poor woman was wandering off the path we'd been warned against (at Shackleton's gravesite), and one of those young males (I'd call him a cocky teenager) started chasing up behind her back, unbeknownst to her. Of course, one of the naturalists intervened. I watched it in disbelief.

Those little ones Andrea photographed are like puppies!

Andi, were the little penquins with the fur still taking food from their mothers? I saw so many in Andreas picture. That was fascinating to me watching what moms have to do for them.

Yesterday was one my best days on this Earth. Amazing animals..... gorgeous weather...... and fabulous people to share it with. I have dubbed this cruise, "Water Park Safari."

Yes, Olivia, I have pictures of them nursing. We have loads of photos of people animal playtime.it is hard to believe thart these are wild animals. They are so comfortable around us. What is truly amazing is the vast quantity here of each species. It is mind blowing. It all goes back to the krill story and the cold and ice. Something I never understood. The whole balance is so tenuous.

What has been terrific too is the wonder expedition team and this ship. It is superb. We are sighing up for the Arctic trip. We left glasses out and the butler left a microfibre eyeglass cleaning cloth for them for us. There are touches like
that. For those who know me, they found out I like ginger. Ginger is waiting in my cabin.the dining room staff is great. Food is great. The weather is great. Ok, Siilverseas didn't do that!

Ken and I were lazy today and did not do the long walk that Ken has done before or the short walk that I have done before. It was nice to sleep in, do a little laundry and catch up on a little work.

Yesterday at Salisbury Plains was spectacular the best weather possible it was sunny, not a cloud in the clear blue sky and the water was SO calm. Even on my fourth visit to this amazing spot it is still an awe inspiring experience.

The next two stops were places I had not been before and seeing the huge wandering albatross was fantastic. These birds have up to a 12ft wingspan and flew right over our heads at a low altitude. One nest was only about 10 feet away from us. There was a nice walkway built to take you to the top of the small hill where the birds were nesting. It made it a very easy walk up and the seals were adorable as they also think the pathway is a good way to get around. Just like the lions use the roadways in Africa. They normally just kept walking ahead of us but sometimes they would do their charging and barking to defend their pathway and of course even a tiny reaction from us and they back off.

The final stop Fortuna s a new stop for us too. It was a lovely scene with the ship in the background, a pool where the young seals are learning to swim and king penguins all round. One lone gentoo penguin came out of the water wandered around and looked a little confused. He finally went back into the water I guess to “find his own kind”. Often kings and gentoos share the same area but in this case I did not see any other gentoo penguins. At the end of the day the wind suddenly picked up and it was a rough wet ride back the ship.

This morning we have another wonderful day. Calm seas, blue sky and light winds. We have been SO blessed with this trip unbelievable weather. Later today we go to Shackelton’s grave and the old whaling station at Grytviken.

Tomorrow Gold Harbor is bound to be on the schedule I just pray for one more day like this as I really feel that is a fantastically beautiful landing site.

I do love this little ship. To me it has the same ambiance that the Song of Flower achieved. When you have less that 200 people the staff are able to develop a different level of personal service that pleases both the guests and the staff at a level just not possible on a larger ship. Plus these cabins although not big they are well designed, lots of storage space and are cozy. The expedition team are so superior to other teams we have experienced with the only exception being David Fletcher who was on the Hanseatic that and he is a totally unique individual. However the rest of the Hanseatic team did not compare to the team on the Silver Explorer. The team is pretty consistent from all three of my voyages with just a few changes for vacation and each and every one of them is great. The reception team of Tina and Nina are exceptionally nice and I wish I could clone them for every ship I travel on plus they are very efficient as well. Life is good on the Silver Explorer

Having so much fun with everyone, what a great group. Spirits are high with all and the smiles are bountiful. Pooch and heart games are taking place and the competition if fierce. Of course Marc is the top dog in hearts and Pam is the leading contender in pooch but feel twice yesterday, once to Beth and once to Andi.

Okay time to eat again, Ken is going to send a few photos to Karen to post it is so hard to do it from here.

Oooh - Gold Harbor! Hope all goes well with the weather. That was the landing when all hell broke loose in the boot room with the Germans on the Hanseatic who were afraid the wind was going to be too strong for the second group to land. They all suddenly jammed the boot room and pretended that they were in our group that was scheduled first off. It all worked out in the end, but whew, what a day.

Today the historian in me takes over as we honor Shackleton with a champagne toast at his grave. Hope I don't cry. I think I have either read or seen everything there is about him.
If I do cry, a tiny amount of retail therapy at the museum gift shop should bring everything back in perspective.
Nothing to add to the news of others from yesterday. Everyone should see this island at least once.

What beautiful pics of the penguins and seals! I am glad you are having such wonderful weather and the trip of a lifetime!

Andrea - pictures - 10!!!!

Love them.

Glad everyone is having such a great time and the weather has been so good to you. Thanks for all the updates.

A FEW PHOTOS FROM ZODIAC:


Brown Brow Albatross with Chick.


Gentoo Penguin.


Fur Seals.


Lauri and Friends.


King Penguins doing what they do best, swimming.


Ngaire with Friends.


Have you seen any Reindeer.


Some of our group going back to the Silver Explorer.

Andi and Doug, Andrea, and everyone else posting. You have just increased my interest in this trip. Between the commentaries and the fabulous pictures, it is definitely at the top of my bucket list now. Thanks for all the fascinating insight.
Lynn

Andi, Are you "sighing" up for the one that starts in Churchill in Aug 2013? RachelG and I are onboard. Looks like an amazing trip.

Ken and Andrea: Pictures are fantastic, so many babies!
---------------------
Helen

Here are some photos from our morning landing in Stromness, our FOURTH landing on South Georgia. The weather continues to be simply fantastic!

Seals Galore





So curious



Hey George. Check it out – more humans



Glorious Day



Sun Worshiper



Svelte King Penguin



Mighty Fine Whiskers

Great pictures! I loved seeing everyone smiling in the zodiac!

Unbelievable pictures, Ken and Andrea! I love reading the reports from this trip. What an experience, on shore and onboard.

All of these photos and reports are absolutely awesome. Thanks you guys for taking us along!

Your reports and photos make me long to return. Thanks for the memories.

Posting for Andi:

Andi:

Ok, what's the story with the backpack? Did you really get snuck up on or is that some kind of add on you got from the ship?

Cheers! Ray
;)

Andi:

Ok, what's the story with the backpack? Did you really get snuck up on or is that some kind of add on you got from the ship?

Cheers! Ray
;)

excellent. just excellent

Love all of the photos.

Looks like the penguin is walking by Andi - she's got the Silverseas backpack on.

Another from Andi:

Oh, these pictures are amazing! Thanks for sharing.

Very funny, Ray... I wonder how the dogs would feel if I brought a seal or a penguin home? The seals are really like dogs ...so much fun. I could and did watch them for hours. You just want to pet them. I had no idea they were so tame.

More from Andi:

The top pic is Ken applauding the seal for a good trick. The second is Beth starting to take on the habits of the lovable penguins, And in the third pic we have found the long lost Ichabod Penguin.

More from Andi:

the pup--beautiful.

great pics of Beth

those penguins. ah.

I don't know how the baby penguins ever find their mothers in that crowd if they get separated, even if they do have special calls to each other!

HaHa, love Ichabod penguin! You are so funny, Andi.
------------
Helen

Great reports Andi! Fantastic pictures everyone.
Thanks for taking us along.

Susan

PERFECT morning. Sea was calm, no wind, the beach was packed with kings, gentoos, seals, elephant seals, and birds. Just wonderful. The elephant seals gave us a show as they rose up and fought smacking and biting each other. I have never seen that behavior before. Pictures will explain far better than I can. It was colder than our other landings but still no wind. Just to top it all off we heard the loud cracking and thunder of a glacier calving and a hanging glacier dropped a massive amount of snow and ice down the rock face. Spectacular.

I am sure more detailed reports and pictures will be following.

This has been the most fantastic South Georgia experience. We have made six landings and expect a zodiac ride to see the macaroni and chinstrap penguins this afternoon. Not only have we been able to land at every stop but the conditions have been excellent. Could not have been better.

I heard we will have some rough water now for the next two days on our way to Antarctica but that is okay, it cant be perfect and prefer that to not making the landings. Hopefully all that weather will pass and then when we reach Antarctica we will have some more sunshine and great landings.

to calm seas.

what a wonderful, wonderful trip

Posting for Andi:

love, love that baby seal with adults pic.
great perspective on how small is small.

A little explanation on the photos...

The large seals which seem to be fighting are young male elephant seals playing who were born in November. The little one is an adult fur seal. Now, that should give you perspective!

The last photo is a mother king penguin feeding her chick regurgitated food.

The group pic was from our zodiac ride today. Ngaire, Ken, Andrea, Pam, Jim, Beth, Crystal, Doug, me on Cooper Bay.

The zodiac picture on the beach was Gold Harbor littered with so many seals.

The blondie and and dark seal are fur seals on Cooper Harbor.

The brown penguins are baby king penguins. Some are being pushed along by their mothers and some even talk back. The one who appears to be wearing pony fur is not a designer penguin but pre pubescent.

Notice the face off between the gentoo and king penguin.

Thanks for posting, Karen!

Wow! It just gets better and better!

Seriously. How much larger do the elephant seals get as adults? They look positively huge compared to the fur seal.

Like humans, they do get kind of scraggly before emerging to their adult selves, no?

Thanks for the explanations!

Oh, they have been so lucky so far, a few little bumps won't bother them. I don't know a one aboard who is a wimp like me. When I saw barf bags placed between the rails and the walls on Explorer II, I figured we were in for some action, and it turned me green.

Wow is all i can say......thanks all for such a wonderful story with pictures of an amazing trip.....yes, big on my bucket list...

At 6 they get these really ugly big noses that look really grotesque. They move like slugs and look like snakes. They double in size. Don't think they get adolescent looking like the penguins. The males grow to 16 ft and 8000 pounds versus a fur seal which is about 350 pounds and 6 feet. They weigh more than two rhinos.

Those adult elephant seals are surely gross. When I went, a bunch of them went up and down like in a pinball game. Too gross to be funny

Your pictures are beyond words they are so fantastic! How wonderful that you are having such magnificent weather!

Fantastic pictures everyone. LOVE them.

Posting for Ralph:

Wow - that flying penquin picture is way cool.

Loving all these pics!

Glad to see you made it back safe and sound Rachel. This thread will certainly keep you from cruise withdrawal for a bit longer...

This has been a wonderful trip to follow - just wish I could have joined you. The photos and commentary have been fabulous - well done to all who contributed. Keep up the good work. Lee

South Georgia

Today has been the first of two sea days. The seas have been rough for 24 hours now. We are on our way to Elephant Island and tonight a few of the waves in the dining room were like those in "A Perfect Storm." We knew that there would be payoff for the magnificent weather and bathtub like water we had since leaving Ushuaia. We have had beautiful sea days, 2 great days in the Falklands and three lovely days in South Georgia and our team said rarely have they experienced weather as good as ours. We had tons of layers packed of long underwear - heavy weight, mid weight and light weight and enough toe and foot warmers to last us an entire winter. I just used one pack yesterday for our zodiac ride, but probably didn't need them.

I really didn't know much about this part of the world and that was part of the attraction. However, having read the trip reports on LCT and reading others' remarks that it was the trip of a lifetime, it whetted our desire to add it to our bucket list. Ngaire had said that we mustn't take this trip without ensuring that South Georgia was part of our itinerary. I really never understood why but went along with her recommendation. Most trips to Antarctica do not include South Georgia and this is truly a special and historic place.

For those of you who may not remember here is a brief recap of the Antarctic story. The explorer, Shackleton, set sail from England to Antarctica, but his ship, the Endurance, was grounded on an ice flow in the southern seas where we now are. He and his men set up a camp on an ice flow drifting 600 miles towards Antarctica and eventually set sail in small life boats in wet clothes that had turned to icy armor. They were confined to the boats day and night in -22 degree weather. Sadly, they found the current had carried them back 50 miles. Their only hope was to go to Elephant Island. It is such a harsh environment, our crew has told us that no zodiac has been able to to go ashore for the past 10 years (!). So, it was remarkable that they made it alive. They did and set up camp there.

But, there was no chance of rescue. Shackleton, set out again for rescue for his men. He set off for South Georgia. He was doing our trip in reverse and would visit the whaling stations we had just visited in order to get help. The rest is history. He climbed the Alps of the south without any proper equipment ...over 30 miles...without maps and just equipped with a compass...he climbed the totally unchartered interior 2000 foot mountains and was able to secure the help and rescue all of his 27 men.

Our trip retraces somewhat the 1916 journey of these amazing explorers. Of course we do this in the summer, in a lovely, modern cruise ship, with modern navigational equipment. When we hit some swells last night, folks excused themselves from dinner early and went to their rooms. Some activities today were cancelled because of rough seas. Our skies today, despite the swells, are blue. How did Shackleton manage to navigate a small wooden lifeboat in hurricane force winds? This trip is helping us relive the epic story of the human spirit. Shackleton was a consummate leader who ensured that not a single life was lost.

We haven't yet been to Elephant Island, but folks who have, kept saying, enjoy the green in South Georgia because you won't see it once you leave. All I see now is blue seas and white caps. South Georgia was discovered in the late 1600s and by the early 1900s had become the whaling capital of the world. It remained a whaling harbor until 1965. Once having a population of 15000 to 20000 in it's heyday. It was comprised of men and only 3 wives; our questions about needing women were artfully dodged by the crew. In 1982, the Falkland war came to the island with the Argentinean invasion and the British military garrison remained until 2001. It now has a permanent population of 12.

Our first day we had three landings, with fur seals, king penguins, and reindeer. Of course we overdressed. I expected it to be really cold, but the weather was in the high 40s. Our first stop was incredible as we walked among 250,000 king penguins of all sizes and shapes. No wide angle camera lens really captures how vast the rockery is. We found the big brown balls of fluff adorable. They followed their moms around pecking submissively underneath mom's bill for food. Sometimes mom would ignore them, sometimes put up with the pecking. What was interesting was they all seemed to feed at the same time, together. Then, there were the sad sacks. The teenagers. They were molting and rather odd looking. Some had lot all their fluff and were only left with a Mohawk hairdo; others a Beatle hairdo. Some were left with a pony fur look, or others a shawl. They were also the mischievous ones, the fellows who would pull at your coat or backpack or talk back to mom or walk all hunched over like all the weight of the world was on their shoulders. As their fluff dropped and they came into full adulthood, the yellow on their beaks, head and chest became a rich orange gold. They would strut through the crowd chest out, neck stretched high above the rest to show off. They slept three ways: lying down on their bellies, standing tall but balanced on their heels, or standing with their necks totally twisted and tucked backwards under their wings so they looked headless. In the water, they dove in and then popped up, floating, and looked, to our surprise, like ducks. Then there were the groups who would walk along hitting one another with their flippers.

Our next stop introduced us to the wild world of fur seals. Remember the whack a mole penguins? Well we had whack a mole seals. First, we had a welcoming committee of seals. They saw our zodiac and came en mass to say hello. These are not shy animals. They are curious about everything. Some have little ferret faces, some puppy faces, some kitty faces, some to rodent faces...some lemur faces..the little ones are dark brown or black. The adult ones are blonde, a mix or brown. The pups make lamb noises. The older ones bark. They love to run up to you and you clap and say no. They run back and try again. It's a game. They must be very bored. After a which, it gets old. You just say: "bad seal." They are very active- constantly playing. In the water, with one another. They are so much fun to watch. We climbed up this boardwalk on our second excursion and they would see us coming and hide in the grass and jump out at us, barking, we would clapbat them and the game would begin! And they were everywhere. The team had to shoo them off for us. At our last stop on the second day, they were very aggressive. It was a large field, and they would intermingle with the reindeer and the king penguins and put on quite a show. At one stop, however, on our second day, they were sweet and docile, and there was no wild charging. They had very different personalities.

As sweet as the fur seal is, the elephant seal is disgusting. Doug thinks they are rather nice and keeps showing me cute pictures of them. However, this is the man who also posts pictures of me that he thinks are good and I think are awful. The elephant seal is really a strange animal. To me, it looks like a giant slug. The 2-3 month old babies were only 2 tons and full grown elephant seals grow to 4 tons. While young, they have sweet cat like faces, which, unfortunately, as they mature, develop grotesque large noses. They slither along the ground like snails and we had roadblocks due to elephant seal crossing. They are nasty creatures, fast in land and in the sea, traveling many miles quickly. You can't clap you hands and say " no" to them. I don't know if anyone will post a picture but their very large nostrils always have white mucous coming out of them...another endearing feature. This is caused by a teeny spider that lives deep in the seals' respiratory system and causes it irritation. The seal sneezes, forcing the spider out. Since the seal is often in close contact with other seals, it is easily passed. Do I see a clinical opportunity here?

Back to people.... Some folks decided to take part of the Shackleton trek over the mountains, while others opted for a flatter walk. The Shackleton walk wasn't the full walk, but about a tenth of the actual walk...the last bit to the whaling station in Grytviken. Doug and i opted for the flat walk, Doug walking farther than I, and we still felt this later. The landscape was reminiscent of the west of the US with the addition of a glacier or two.

We had the opportunity for some retail therapy in the town of Grytviken. There is a post office, a gallery, an outdoor museum and an indoor museum. The outdoor museum housed Shackleton's cemetery plot (his wife said to keep his body in the place he loved the most instead of returning it to England. no one said whether she came to the funeral, but he did have a mistress and was a lousy husband who was never home, so I'm guessing she probably didn't want him back), a self guided tour of the whaling factory, the church; the indoor museums contained a mixture of artifacts from the whaling period as well as replicas of the lifeboats Shackleton traveled in. The museum had the usual stuff.

That night, we had a presentation from the Heritage trust in Dundee which is a Habitat restoration project which is a project to rid South Georgia of the Norwegian brown rat which arrived with sealers and whalers and has thrived and eats birds' eggs and baby birds. It focuses on birds on the ground and underground, primarily the pipit, but where eradicated, even albatross populations have improved. Pellets are used which the rats love, but sadly secondary mortality does occur. Phase one is complete but they still need to complete phase two which holds some urgency. They are trying to prevent the rats ( which to date do not appear to have DNA relationships) from crossing the glaciers. These glaciers are receding 1 meter per day and the rats could then either swim or find dry land. With success, there could be 10 million more birds in 5 years; in three years there should be breeding pipits.

Our final day included the lovely Gold Harbor and a wonderful zodiac ride in and out of coves where we had a different vantage point of South Georgia, the animals and the scenery. We saw a glacier carve twice and our first iceberg in a distance in South Georgia.

As we left South Georgia, we had traveled 740 nautical miles from Ushuaia and had 736 nautical miles to go to Elephant Island.

This is a picture of two of our favorite people on the ship, Terrific Tina and Nice Nina the receptionists extraordinaire. They are always happy with big smiles and nothing is too much trouble. I wish we could take them to all our future cruises with us. If we could combine Carmen from Regent and these two ladies it would be total perfection.

Our whole group feels the same way about these two ladies it is often the talk at the card tables.



Had a rough day at sea yesterday but this should give us fine weather in Antarctica. For the first time I can remember I missed dinner, I am not sure if it was sea sickness or my onion allergy but either way it was not good. Of course it would be Rack of Lamb night and we ordered in our room and I did eat some lamb but sure wish it had been a different night. Fortunately I had a rack of lamb lunch earlier in the trip.

Today is it much calmer and the sun is peaking through. Hopefully by tomorrow morning it will be calm for our visit to the Elephant Island and the “Ice Garden” zodiac ride that is in the same spot.

Off to play hearts before we have to do our Bio Security Check to be sure we are not carrying any critters or seeds from South Georgia to Antarctica.

The pictures get more phenominal as you go. thanks everyone. Love the history lesson, Andi, and all the commentary.
Can't wait for the next installment!
Lynn

Ah, Elephant Island!! We enjoyed it on our first trip down there, but not so much the second time on the Mariner. On our Circle South America trip, we were supposed to spend three days around the Antarctica peninsula, but because of bad weather, we spent the whole time circleing Elephant Island. Fortunatly there were a few icebergs floating around to look at --Elephant Island got old after a while. I love the story about Shakleton--we took pretty much the same route you are when we were on the Hanseatic.

We are on day two of our trip to Elephant Island and have awoken to calmer seas than we went to bed to lady night. More folks have ventured out of their cabins and the dining Rooney, public areas and lecture room were full once again. Folks are looking less green and are laughing and playing cards.

Last night we had a lovely dinner with the folks across the hall. One of the blessings and curses with traveling with friends is that you tend to remain fairly insular and take your tours and eat with your existing friends. If we had been this insular 10 years ago, none of our travel friends

I failed to mention in my last post that we added two new types of penguins to collection. As we neared our last stop, Cooper Bay, there was a great deal of activity outside. Seals were playing around and something wad busy porpoising in the water all over the place, like flying fish. We soon found out that these were the chinstrap penguins. They get this name from the thin line of black feathers that runs like a strap
under their white chins. They look like they are wearing a little helmut on a white face with a black beak. They are about the same size as gentoos and I had a hard time at first distinguishing them quickly from one another. Both have orange feet (the only color on the chinstrap) but the gentoo has the slash of orange lipstick nod a totally black head, save for white eyebrows. The warming of the Antarctic Peninsula has seemed to favor chinstraps and they have become the locally dominant penguin species. We also finally saw the
macaroni penguin, who look a lot like the rockhopper penguin. Their tufts of hair are a bright gold and begin at the bridge of their beaks and are slicked back like a headdress. These penguins are the most numerous penguins in the world but only a small amount breed in Antarctica. Most of their
nests are scattered among chinstrap penguins. The name macaroni comes from the English slang term for a man who dressed in gaudy attire popular in Italy. Breeding is interesting with this penguin. Macaronis lay 2 eggs. Incubation doesn't begin until the second egg has bern laid, by which time the first egg is dead or at least very cold. The
first egg then never hatches and this has puzzled biologists.

There is the Bergmann's Rule of adaptation that scientists have found applies to life in Antarctica. It appears that the closer one gets to the poles, the larger the animal becomes. Emperor penguins are found the furthest south and the smallest penguins are closest to the equator. This has to do with the amount of body mass an animal needs to keep itself
alive. Even insects found in the Baltic region are massive in size compared with those found in the Antarctic.

Fish also adapt. They are invisible as they don't develop blood vessels. Seals and whales must also exist in a realm of intense cold, no light and crushing pressure when they fish.special physiology is required to function without
breathing and they must store oxygen and use it more conservatively than we do. seals do not hold their Bragg when they dive but their oxygen is so red in their blood and muscles. The volume of blood is greater in a seal to body size than that of a human. In addition, their blood can hold up to 3 times motes more oxygen.

Our expedition team has members who have become so immersed in life in Antarctica, that they even ice dive. They wear fur underwear and wet suits and examine life under the ice. They said even with these precautions, one's mouths
become frozen and it is impossible to protect one's extremities from the chill.

The entire team on Silverseas works very hard for us-- each and every staff member. The expedition tean not only present wonderful lectures, accompany every expedition, drive our zodiacs, but zip our coats, run down the halls to find you if you have lost a hat or glove. The front desk staff only wants to make things easier. I forgot my I.D. Card. I mentioned it to Doug while standing in line waiting to get in the zodiac. Nina said "please don't bother. You will get overheated running to your room. I will print you a new one right now." Everything on this ship runs smoothly and with a smile. I already have an open booking to return. I am happy with the ship, the staff, my room, the food, the itinerary. This is a class act.

love all this seamail...speaking of green...I am so green with envy every day when I read all these postings and see the fabulous photos! Thank you all for making the effort to share with us. I LOVE reading these each days.

Big thank you to Karen too for taking her time to upload so many of the photos for Andi.

Reading these posts has been such a treat! Thank you all so much...loving every minute of reading about your trip and the photos have been wonderful!

Loved the comment about the teenager penguins. They seem very similar to human teenagers.

Today was another amazing day on the Silver Explorer. We were able to take the zodiacs over and land on Elephant Island!!! What an unbelievable experience this trip has been. Just a few of my favorite shots.

Iceberg



Chinstrap Away



Porpoising (a little blurry - so hard to capture)



Fighting



Mom and chick



Post feeding



Ngaire, Arlene, Andrea enjoying Elephant Island

This was the first landing on Elephant island for our ship in ten years! Ii understand the statistics are something in the neighborhood of 30000 touists and 175 actually set foot on this island per annum. Maybe we should all buy lottery tickets? Perhaps this is our win! The skies were a crisp blue and the temps were 32 degrees. We were warned that the team would try and they were hopeful, but they had bend hopeful before. If we heard we were to wear boots for a wet landing it would mean that they would try. Well, we were the second zodiac group, so things could get worse for us after 90 minutes. doug and I looked out our window at where Shackleton landed and saw no one landing, so we had our hopes dampened. What we didn't know was that the landing was on the other side.

Folks came in from the first zodiac all smiles and said this wasn't one to be missed. We not only landed, but we saw a glacier calving, an iceberg splitting, chinstraps jumping up icebergs, and two humpback whales. What a day! Now we are off for Antarctica.

Posting for Andi:

Wow, wow, wow!!! Beth - am so pleased Crystal is having so much fun with you all. Lee

More wonderful photos. Thanks you all!

Crystal stayed on board yesterday and had a wonderful time with some resident penguins. She invited Beth to join later.

This is a chinstrap on Elephant island where Shackleton landed. We were so lucky to have beenable to land here. This is the width of the area the 27 men stayed. The pink coloration is the poop.

The penguins were jumping out of the sea onto the ice. Sometimes the made it and sometimes they didn't.

These two icebergs were one when we started out. It broke in half while watched it and turned. Only 1/3 of the iceberg is visible. The rest is below water.

Crystal stayed on board yesterday and had a wonderful time with some resident penguins. She invited Beth to join later.

This is a chinstrap on Elephant island where Shackleton landed. We were so lucky to have beenable to land here. This is the width of the area the 27 men stayed. The pink coloration is the poop.

The penguins were jumping out of the sea onto the ice. Sometimes the made it and sometimes they didn't.

These two icebergs were one when we started out. It broke in half while watched it and turned. Only 1/3 of the iceberg is visible. The rest is below water.

Good morning, all, from Brown Bluff, Antarctica. Today we walk on the continent. Many of us were up at 3:30am to watch the glorious sunrise with its magnificent colors. This continues to be the most amazing trip I've ever taken!!!

Mission accopmlished. Continent 7 is now mine. And it was warm. Talk about peeling off the layers. Gloves, hats, long underwear etc not needed. (No, I didn't peel long underwear until I returned to the ship). Another dream come true.

WOW !!! So exciting for all of you!

Posting for Ralph:

Posting for Andi:

Those photos above are from Antarctica! The friendly little penguins are gentoo chicks. The mom feeding the chick is a new one for us, an adelie. I had this gentoo chick in my lap for about a half an hour. They are warm and soft. I think he thought I was mom. The Adelies are like lemmings and aren't terribly bright. They do everything en mass. But, we all have our favorites. Yes, that's pink poop on the chick.

Photos From Elephant Island & Brown Bluff:

Everyone looks so happy in all the pics. I'm loving reading the reports and seeing the fabulous photos. What a journey!

to have a chick in your lap. and then champagne in a hot tub!

is the person in the group shot with the clava in witness protection or just colder than the rest of the group?

the hot tub in Antarctica shot is priceless.

we usually take a "big" trip every 5 yrs for my and spouse's 1/2 decade birthdays; you've shot this destination to the TOP of my list.

thanks for bringing us along - whether we're "flat" or not...

LOL, I thought the same thing! For sure, I am seeing new faces who need to join us on lct and that one puzzled me!

ededmd, what a destination, but honestly, they have had the best weather and seas that I've seen from Ngaire's 3 escorted cruises here (one of which I was on) Have to say, it deserves top billing (well, maybe Africa if I'd not been there)

This trip just gets better and better! So thankful the seas are calm and the weather is nice!

What Great Photos..... Glad everyone is having so much fun.. Gotta love the hot tub shot....

Thanks for the photos and tales. Some fabulous photographers here. Ken, you ought to enter that first shot in one of those travel magazine contests--it's amazing.

Can't decide whether I like the "peoples attire or the penquins attire" the best! Great pictures, really enjoying the updates. Thanks for sharing!

to have a chick in your lap. and then champagne in a hot tub!

Diane: Tony's fantasy :app: :app:

I'm sure you fulfill it every evening, you coquette

Ok, a question. It seems you all have had exceptional Internet access. Is this the usual thing and how much does itvcos?

Rachel, Andi said at beginning of cruise $250 for 1000 minutes

Betty has landed.

Sounds like everyoe is having a great time. The weather looks wonderful and the pictures are great.

Loved the hot tub shot.

"is the person in the group shot with the clava in witness protection or just colder than the rest of the group?"

Well who is that MASKED person on Elephant Island? Could it be the ghost of Sir Ernest Shackleton returning to haunt all those that land in the private home of his loyal men on Elephant Island? Karen you need to find a virtual teapot for the winner of the contest to guess who that person might be.

What a trip. This one will be hard to beat. Such a glorious day at Brown Bluff the pictures and blue sky tell the story, a wonderful stop on the continent. This is where we tried to land on the Explorer 11 but the weather was too bad so we were so happy to be ashore this time. The pool deck was full for lunches today. Later in the afternoon it started to snow as we sailed south and everyone enjoyed that as well.

So many new landing spots this time for Ken and me even after the three previous trips we have made on expedition ships before. We believe this expedition team and captain have just made a bigger effort than any ship we have been on before. They are a fantastic group of people just all very impressive.

Today we entered the Lemaire Channel, the third time for Ken and me . The last two times was in bright sunshine and today was misty with patches of sun and blue. It was spectacular. I thought it would not be as good in this weather but it added a real mystical atmosphere I loved it. As we prepared to do our zodiac ride – the SUN came out and the wind dropped. There is an angel looking out for us it just seems to work out every time.

We are now sailing towards Paradise Bay and then onto Neko Harbor where we will do a zodiac ride and a landing as well. Sun is still out and we hope it stays here for that afternoon excursion. We are planning a group shot of our happy Zodiac group this afternoon while we are in Paradise Bay

Posting the first picture for Ralph and the other two for Andi:

Guess who is the masked person and you can add this to your teapot collection!

How 'bout Lauri??

You all are killing us....mercy! Such terrific photos & WEATHER!!$%!!

Braden?

Well, the people don't have pink poop on them but otherwise a toss up.

Yes, I do have to believe the weather has been atypically nice, no?
Africa is in the top three, as is the Galapagos. Diane's adventures with the polar bears is up there too. I think I'm most inclined to see where the LCT group is heading when the time comes.

Crystal?

At Ushuaia airport on way home. More later.

The magic weather lasted up until the very last. This trip defies description. I've posted some of my photos on my Facebook page, not bright enough to figure out how to put them up here too.

We are all checking in on the free internet at the Ushuaia airport. What a magnificent trip! It will be difficult to return after our wonderful weather and stops.

Diane, we called that Hot Chicks in Cool Places!!!

From all indications, you guys had the near perfect trip.

Safe journeys and thanks again for all your wonderful reports and awesome photos!

Hi hi hi

For those of you who haven't seen this yet, Click the picture below for a video of Brayden doing a polar plunge.

Glad the site is back up. I was having withdrawel from my daily cruise reports. Pics are great.

Betty and I are "coolin it" at the Holiday Inn Express in Buenos Aires. Feels good to be in air conditioning in this hot place. Hard to believe we left Ushuaia at 46* this AM. We're going to rest tonight then take a city tour tomorrow on our way to EZE. Meeting up with Linda & Chris in the Delta Lounge tomorrow night before we fly to ATL. Hope the rest of the ZODIs have safe flights tonight!

We so missed your reports for the past couple of days. Hope Andi and others will fill us in when you all get home. Lucky you for getting the Drake Lake for you last 2 days of sailing!

Braden deserves a big prize, what a feat, not one that I'd attempt. Sooo.....who was behind that mask?

It's over? How can it be over?

Has to be Betty.

With the joy of traveling all day yesterday I had no idea LCT was back up!! I so missed giving updates on our spectacular trip. I'm on my flight home to Boston right now & will hopefully post some more pictures soon.

This was an amazing trip - we all pretty much agree we can never go back because it would never be as good as this trip was!

Forgot I took this pic yesterday when we were leaving the ship. Thought you'd like to see how tiny the Silver Explorer looks next to the Star Princess.

Home now. Boo hoo. Wonderful trip with wonderful people. Agree with Andrea. This can never be repeated. However, land arrangements could be improved. We arrived at our gate as they were loading up. Any further delays and we wouldn't have made it. I will post the continuing epic journey of what happened post Elephant Island later today. All smiles.

We are home too. Marc hopped in the shower and was off to work just 20 minutes after we got home. Not sure which is worse, going right to work or being home having to deal with the unpacking, laundry and all the mail. On second thought, yes I do know... it is definitely having to go to work. I hope to get some pics downloaded and sorted through so I can post some before I leave for Florida on Saturday. What a trip this was! I so wish more of you could have been with us to share in the fun.

Brayden kept a journal during our trip. I have posted it to my shutterfly site. I think it is a bit long to post on LCT but some might like to hear about our grand adventure through the eyes of a 14 year old. Following is the link to the site.

http://zodiac12012.shutterfly.com/

editing to add, if you have a hard time reading the journal on Shutterfly, I added a copy of the journal to our review section and you can find the post here.

Betty and I are in the AMEX Lounge at EZE with Linda and Chris. Just waiting for our flight in 1.5 hours. I took a city tour with a guide and driver Andrea hooked me up with. What a beautiful city! We are tired and ready to be home..... kinda warm and humid in BA today. Miss all our ZODI friends.

Ralph, I havn't used shutterfly before so maybe it is just me, but I only get a general "home" type screen when I cliked on the link. What do I have to do to see Brayden's journal?

Arlene,
Not sure. When I click the link I get the full site page. There was a problem with the background being black and the type being dark so it was hard to read. Did not realize that. Karen alerted me so I just went in and changed the background to white. It looks a little weird but it is readable.

Arlene, I am getting ready to post the entire journal over on the reviews forum. When I am finished, I will add a link here so you can find it easily.

Here is the link to Brayden's journal in the review section.

Fantastic Thank you both!

WOW...he is one bright (and VERY LUCKY) 14 year old. Way to go Brayden!! What a great job you did.

Brayden did a great job ! Enjoyed reading every word and feeling his enthusiasm ! Yes, he is a very lucky young man.

Back home after 36 hours of nonstop travel including a 4.5 hour drive from Dallas to Houston. My kitties must have missed me, Gato left me a lovely present of a peed up bed. Now my hot water tank is on the blink. No nap, no shower....I'd really like to be back on the Silver Explorer right about now.

Sadly, our trip had to come to an end.  This has been an absolutely incredible trip, up there with our three safaris to South Africa. We were told it was a definite bucket list trip, but to be prepared for evil weather experiences. Not that the weather would be much colder than Northeastern winter cold, (though we didn't believe folks), but the seas could be brutal. 

The weather was so magnificent, that the team tried to describe how unusual the weather was for us. First, we were told our one "bad" day was typical for most days with our 20 foot swells being the norm. Swells are wind waves and i was told that a 40 foot wind wave situation is normally to be expected for 2 to 3  days.  We packed pressure bands and medication patches a s preparation. The crew keeps telling us that our blue skies, lack of any wind and glass like water are just abnormal. We actually made two landings just not done for a normal cruise.

When we arrived in Ushuaia on the 13th, it was sunny. On the 29th (earlier than our  anticipated 30th arrival date due to calm seas), the sun was also out, it was warm, and we hit the town for a nice walk pre dinner. On the 30th, it was a bit chillier, but not uncomfortable, but rain clouds loomed. As our flight took off, the rain started to come down.

There were a number of many special or unusual treats happened on this cruise. 

A penguin landed in a zodiac
$11000 was offered, the highest ever, for a map of our voyage, at our auction
No landing was missed
2 special landings were achieved
Perfect weather for all landings 
We saw a blue whale alongside a fin whale...a rare sighting
We saw an orca pod of whales hunting humpback whales

Elephant Island: Special landing

For the past 10 years, the Silver Explorer has never been able to land a zodiac on Deception Island. In fact, For every 40,000 people who visit Antarctica, only 175 visitors on average visit this Island per annum. The crew had bern kidding us at every debriefing that the weather had been so extraordinarily good for us, that maybe we would be the cruise that would break the curse. We were told, while unlikely, that if we heard the term, "wear boots for a wet landing," we might try to go ashore at Port Wild.  Doug an I were in the later zodiac group and couldn't see whether or not the first group got ashore. We got into the zodiac and were quickly whisked away to the island to the exact spot where Shackleton had landed. We were running against time, as the tide had waned and bare, slippery rocks remained. There were towels draped over the rocks to help us with our footing and we were met with chinstrap penguins with a gentoo every here or there. Exhilarated by the sheer joy of standing on the spot where Shackleton 's men actually lived, we then topped this off with a fantastic zodiac ride around the area. Our most rewarding part of the day, however, was seeing the great joy in our Captain and the expedition team in their accomplishment. We gave them a rousing cheer at the afternoon briefing.

Antarctica

Traveling from Elephant Island to Antarctica, we really didn't know what to expect. We saw one very small iceberg near Elephant Island and passed one huge Home Depot sized boxy looking one during dinner. Doug set the alarm for 3:30am to watch the sunrise since it was important to him to see a sunrise over Antarctica. I never feel the urge to see them anywhere in the world and consider myself a sunset girl. I figure I can always enjoy one of Doug's 500+ pictures during waking hours. He did say the  sunrise was an incredible orange and well worth his efforts and i am looking forward to seeing the results on our wall somewhere. That day was going to be bad enough for me, a preferred late riser, with a 5:30am wake up call. Disembarkation was at 7am, It would be a long day with the sunset not until 10:07pm and lasting close to an hour. Darkness never seems to come. Twilight lingers till sunrise.

Brown Bluff is where we first set foot on Antarctica.   We really overdressed. The temperature was about 34 degrees, but there wasn't a bit of wind and the skies were blue. The overdressing bit had been would continue to be a constant theme throughout the trip. First the hat would come off, then the scarf, then the gloves, then the jacket would be unzipped. 

This is where we met the little adelie penguins.  These are the penguins you think of as wearing little tuxedos and are the stereotypical image of a penguin. Sadly, the Adelie population has declined about 65% over the past 25 years due to ice melt and scarcity of food. This little penguin, along with the Emperor Penguin, is the most southerly distributed species.  The  Adelie penguins march up and down the beach en masse, hundreds at a time. They all move in the same regimented direction. Sometimes they turn to go into the water. They don't all go in at once, because if one stops, they all stop. It's kind of like a marching band. 

We were asked to step away from the water and give them clearance so as not to interrupt their ritual. So, we all watched from behind. They weren't bothered by us and really ignored us. We then walked on to the rookery and noticed the interaction with the chicks. The chicks stayed close by with their adults and didn't display the curiosity of the gentoo or king chicks. In fact, we were asked to stand back here as well as we were told they were timid and easily spooked. They seemed to get on well with the gentoos on the beach and followed them about and integrated well.

Some chose to take a glacier hike, but i was enraptured with the gentoo babies. The highlight of my day was being adopted by a gentoo chick. As I sat on the beach, a cute little woolybear came out of the water and inspected me then lay down at my feet. He inched closer up my leg until he was sitting in my lap. He nestled contentedly there, a flipper on each thigh, and his head on my arm for at least a half an hour. He then looked up at me and then got up and sat down next to me for awhile, before deciding i wasn't his mom. These chicks are the most loving little creatures and wandered around like little puppies to many of us looking for comfort. This delightful respite was interrupted by a holler from someone from the team of "leopard seal."  Speeding through the water was a huge snake like figure with a large gaping mouth with nasty looking teeth coasting close to the shore. This seal was cruising for penguins, a staple of his diet. This seal is even known to attack people and one has killed a scuba diver. 


Antarctic Journeying

Robin, our expedition team leader explained that the Weddell Sea was packed with ice this year and normal landing stops were not as passable this year. However, the Lemaire channel was beautiful and would offer us more interesting sights but would require no stops for our first  Antarctic  afternoon as we would have a far distaff to travel. There would be great scenic viewing, nevertheless.

The next morning was an early 5 am wake up call and it was spectacular. I was up on deck by 6.  We all gathered on deck and wove in and out of large rock walls covered in mist and glacial ice. Our ship was not an ice breaker, but the next class up and we broke our way through growlers ( less than 1 meter...they get the name by the sound they make by hitting a wooden ship) and bergy bits (about 3 to 8 feet above the waves) in search of life in the channel. 

Every now and then, a pod of penguins porpoised in and out of the ice and the ship would slow down so we could have a closer look at the mellow crab eater seals lounging on the ice floe. We luckily got the slow boat as we didn't want the zodiac ride to end. I felt I had landed in a magic crystal glass land, where blues were so turquoise and waters so clear you could see to the bottom. We expected cold, windy zodiac rides. We could have sunbathed alongside the seals.

That afternoon we had our first opportunity to get up close and personal with the wonderful world of icebergs as the expedition team had decided to change course and take us to an iceberg graveyard and Neko Harbor.

Day 2 in Antarctica was filled with traveling the most famous Antarctic fjord, the Lemaire Channel. This channel is known for spectacular scenery, which alternatively looks like the Alps and ice sculptures rising out of the sea. The fact that the sky was robin's egg blue, the sun glistening and the sea shimmering like glass added to the effect. We entered through Cape Renard and two pointy peaks that I thought looked like the Grand Tetons but Antarcticans call Una's Tits. Una sure has big tits. We were treated again to zodiac tours and landing at Neko Harbor, a very magnificent site.

If the penguins, icebergs, scenery and weather were not enough, the expedition team wanted to ensure we had the full experience. Some teams had seen a leopard seal and others an up close humpback whale experience. As we came to the beach to get on the zodiac, we were asked if we, too, would like to also go out to see what we had missed and zodiacs were filled up with folks to take them to see animals found by other groups before we returned to the ship. The expedition team went above and beyond. 

That night at dinner, we got a call on the loudspeaker...6 or 8 orcas were chasing 2 humpbacks and  a baby humpback. The bridge and front deck were opened and the expedition team explained we were seeing a pursuit to kill the baby. The humpback breached, raised its tail during a dive, spy hopped ( putting the head out of the water to check us out), right next to the ship for protection and the Orcas circled.  After about an hour of this, the captain thought it was best to move on and let nature take it's course, but the entire expedition team said it was like something out of National Geographic. What a day! We left the Antarctic Peninsula on such a high.  

The next day we had moved to the Shetland Islands, home to Deception Island. There is an active volcano here that was home to one of the earliest science bases. It gets it's name from the fact that the prescribe of a harbor is deceptive.  Here we took a cruise through a gap in the volcanic island known as Neptune's Bellows and then a morning walk along the walls of the caldera. The volcano most recently erupted in 1970 and destroyed  the scientific bases. We sailed by the L'Austral whose cruisers were visiting Whaler's Bay, a historic site. I had heard that the shorelines sometimes geothermally heated and is comfortable for swimming, so I had a bathing suit on for a polar plunge, but by the looks on folks' faces there was no way the water was heated in any way, shape or matter. Also, everyone was taking photos. No way my clothes were coming off to be frozen and preserved for posterity. Those who peeled off, were very proud, and like those sunrise photos, I lived vicariously.

Our unexpected  afternoon treat was Baily Head, the home to 130,000 chinstraps abd normally " boisterous surf." Zodiacs rarely land there as the swell is so severe in this cove, guests have been injured in the past. However, the seas were ever so calm, the team decided we would again have another special treat. We had to be careful not to disrupt their frenzied flow of commuting penguins to the sea.  On the way to the sea, they were thin and filthy; on the way from the sea, they were glistening white with their bellies so full, they could barely waddle or walk straight. Some fell over and fell asleep in their tracks.

More Penguin Stuff 

I am now feeling quite expert on penguins having now seen 7 different varieties of them.  I never realized that they all came in so many sizes and shapes and had so many different personalities and habits.   There are really about 18 different species of penguins and we only scratched the surface. They are broken into crested (macaroni and rockhopper), brush tail (chinstraps, and great penguins (king and emperor) and those like the Magellanic that do not fall in any category.  It's hard to believe that they began with a penguin that was reddish in color and 6 feet tall, considering what they seem to now all have in common is their smallish stature and black and white coloring. If you ever wondered why penguins are black and white it is to stave off predators. From the sky, their black backs blend in with the dark sea; from below the sea, their white bellies blend in with the light sky. Their normal swimming style is porpoising and diving, but sometimes, they will leisurely float like ducks.

They all look pretty identical, so the only way they really can identify one another is vocally. In order to do this, they are equipped with a very unique sound box with 2 vocal chords. This sound box can make sounds exponentially so they are unique and identifiable to each penguin.

They are really so distinct, we each have our own favorites. They really have little brains and are probably the most stupid animals but they are very, very cute. There is nothing funnier than watching a penguin who keeps waking a falling flat on it's face or keeps jumping up on a ledge and falling off.... Because they never seem to learn. They are true klutzes.

Doug likes the crested variety of penguin, specifically, the rock hopper. He loved the way they  dived off cliffs and once they hit the water, would come back on shore, climb up the big hill, stand in line and do it again, like kids at a pool diving board. I liked the gentoos, especially the chicks. I thought they were so cute; the way they would make their little snow tracks and slide down. They were incredibly gentle with their chicks and their chicks were very loving. They would come cuddle up with us and loved human interaction. The chinstraps were the Harley Davidson group. They were the ones with the helmets. They were quite attractive when cleaned up, but were often filthy. Their rookeries were the most noisy, messy and haphazard. They constantly fought with one another. The chicks weren't docile and clean like the gentoo chicks, but tough little guys covered in poo, screeching up a storm. There was a fight amongst them every few minutes. These were the South Bronx penguins, The adults marched around pushing their way along their penguin superhighways. Quite a sight to be seen. Then, there were the regal and beautiful kings. They were quiet and mellow. They preened and strutted their stuff through their rookeries. They all had their assigned roles and followed them accordingly. Chicks seemed to even be fed in unison. Only the older chicks appeared mischievous and would check us out and come up to us. The adults would walk among us but were above much interaction. The Adelies were the silly group. They look like what we think of a traditional penguin, all black with a white belly. They are the lemmings. The do everything in unison. They all march in one direction, and if one turns (often a gentoo), the entire lot ( perhaps 100 of them) turn too.  If they start to go into the water and one stops, all the rest do too. It is amazing. These are the good little soldiers. They are timid, don't interact with humans, so we had to give them room so as not to frighten them. As far as the magellanic penguins, they were curious, didn't seem too fearful of humans and were casual in nature as they popped out of their burrows to go down to the sea. I never got a feel for the macaroni penguins. We never got to see the Emperor penguin as they reside too far south.

You really can't leave the topic of penguins without delving into the area of  the penguin poopology. Have you ever wondered why penguins walk so funny? They eat a lot and none of it is fibre. Penguins eat the equivalent of a person eating 600 quarter pounders in one hour. So, a lot comes out. You can even tell what they eat by what cold their poop is: red is krill; white is fish; green is fasting. They also build up incredible pressure in their bowels: 1200 pounds per sq. foot per 280 pounds per square foot for a person.  Now, they also eat pellets. Can, you imagine how far and fast they can squirt? It's like

Seals

As our time in Antarctica continued, we were introduced to other varieties of seals, but ever so different ones.  The darling fur seals and the unusual elephant seals were ever so unlike one another. Now, we had met this carnivorous snake like creature. Our next introduction would be to the crab eater seal, who really doesn't eat crabs since crabs don't exist in Antarctica. The Norwegian word for krill is krebb and so it was misnamed. This is a gentle seal, with a springer spaniel face. Our next introduction was to the weddell seal with a Persian cat face. This large seal is so docile that during Antarctic blizzards, which can occur suddenly, scientists would run to the weddell seal for shelter and it would wrap its flippers around them to protect them and check on them by sniffing their faces, the downside being fish breath.  Before I went here, i thought there were just seals.  Now, i realize there are seals with dog like personalities, cat like personalities, huge elephant like seals and serpentine carnivorous seals. And, I have only scratched the surface.


Ushuaia 

Our final two days at sea were somewhat sad. We didn't want this trip to end. We, thankfully, could all stay together, as the Drake Passage was smooth and permitted our continued socialization. Lectures continued to be excellent, but the grand finale was the movie prepared by the ship photographer, Richard Sidley. We all gathered to relive our 17 days in an  hour an 10 minute movie and he captured it so well. We were all moved.

We arrived into Ushusia and two ships were already getting set to depart. Two others joined us later that evening. It was nice to set foot on land after two days at sea. When the Princess pulled up next to us, we were so tiny, we looked like a lifeboat. We were half the physical size of the Boreal. The Silver Explorer never felt claustrophobic to us.

Ushuaia is a pretty little port town, small in size, with a 10 block main street. Most of the stores are geared to separate tourists from their money. There were shops filled with Ushuaia and Antarctic mementos, a few leather shops, lots of sports goods / outdoor gear  stores, chocolate and wine stores and camera shops. If you had lost your luggage, you would have been able to replenish. Sprinkled throughout the town, were a few museums and restaurants. Most of the town is focused on Patagonia and tourism with visits to rookeries, boat trips and hiking tours.

We learned that, if you are adventuresome, you can go standby and purchase Antarctic trips up to 50% off of retail. In some cases, folks said you can do this up to 2 months in advance. Silverseas tickets were available.

However, as excellent as the Silverseas cruise and service levels were, the charter arrangements were weak. Going to Ushuaia, we got to the domestic terminal in BA by personally arranged taxis. Seat assignments on their charter flight were assigned randomly. Once in Ushuaia, we had no available luggage carts and the luggage took forever. It was a virtual madhouse. The only thing preventing havoc was the courtesy of  all the passengers to one another. Ground personnel was useless. The food on the flight was awful. We really could have arranged our own flights to Ushuaia for less money. Since Silversea charters this LAN flight, they should improve the service. The return was worse. We were pick up in busses from the ship at 9 and left to our own devices until 11 and had to wait for the chartered 1:30 flight.  On board food was awful. Many were smart enough to purchase overpriced sandwiches and snacks at the airport. Luggage took forever. We took Silverseas' transfer, which didn't arrive until 6:20 and had to load our own luggage and  wait until everyone else's was loaded. We didn't get to the airport until 7:30 ish and almost missed our 9:39 flight. I suggest that Silversea rethink these arrangements. It left a perfectly lovely trip on a sour note. We wish we had decided on a post BA trip to reduce the stress levels and wished we chose to go to the airport independently.

Itinerary and other things

Moving on to the positive note, our itinerary was perfect and I highly recommend looking for an itinerary that matches the following. 

Buenos Aires  5 day pre trip: You could break this up in a pre and post trip. Buenos Aires is an elegant, European style city with a number of optional excursions.
Travel day to Ushuaia: This really could have been part of a pre trip too as it is the beginning of Patagonia. For us, it was a travel day and the beginning of our cruise. I wish we could have flown independently.
1 sea day which was the first day of our cruise
2 days in the Falkland Islands...rock hopper penguins, albatrosses, Magellanic penguins, king penguins, gentoo penguins, sheep.  I already have described our trip there in previous trip reports.
2 sea days..en route to South Georgia
3 days in South Georgia...King Penguins en mass, Shackleton history, loads of fur seals, elephant seals, gentoo penguins, Shackleton gravesite, museums, whaling village. This was as much of a history stop as nature stop. Visited Grytviken (history), Gold Harbor, Cooper Bay, chinstrap penguin colony and macaroni penguins. Wealth of wildlife.   I already have described our trip there in previous trip reports.
2 Sea days
1 day Elephant island.  No, it wasn't famous for the wild elephants of Antarctica, but named either for elephant seals or its elephant shape. "Wild by name and by nature," this small area of rocks is where 21 of Shackleton's men spent 105 days stranded. It was here that they lived in overturned lifeboats waiting for Shackleton to return from South Georgia with a rescue team.
2 days in Antarctica: Brown Bluff, Lemaire Channel, Neko Harbor, one of the most beautiful places in Antarctica.
1 day Deception Island, Shetland Islands,  which is home to an active caldera. This is also the place to take the polar plunge. This is where we also, due to the rare good weather, were able to visit Bailey Head, a chinstrap penguin rookery of 130,000 penguins located outside of the cauldera. 
2 sea days in the Drake Passage: points of interest are "huge swells & rough seas, Antarctic Convergence, Seasick bags, Cape Horn, the ceiling above your bed."
 1 travel day home from Ushuaia (switch at Buenos Aires domestic to international airports.

You must realize that even if you were to take this same trip, you might experience quite different excursions. I understand that it is rare that one even gets to make all the landings. Weather, wind and ice conditions dictate each excursion. 

I thought our first day in the Falklands that this would happen to us, but this expedition team made every landing happen. When our expedition leader checked  the shores for a successful landing for our 2 pm excursion on Saunders Island in the Falklands, he determined the zodiacs couldn't safely bring us ashore. He and the captain studied the coves and rerouted us and we had a 4 pm excursion instead. Everything was just pushed off timing wise. No excursion was cut short either. In fact, the team would add things in  they found for us and call us to the decks, even during dinner.

Each evening, Robin West, our excursion leader and our captain, Alexander Golubev, looked at all these factors and mapped out our daily activities. However, due to our fine weather, we often had surprises each morning. We had something to the effect of "we have never had weather like this. Therefore, we are not going to land at X but believe we can land at y where we can rarely consider landing due to high swells."  Our skies were blue for 16 of the 17 days. The team kept saying to us: "I bet you think we are lying about the terrible conditions down here. " So, they showed us film clips.  We donated our hand and toe warmers to the ship.

Robin shared with us that months in advance he had to secure time slot allocations by routes once they became available in a computer system defined by the IOTTA. The expedition leader must sit down with a map and schedules and determine the optimal mix per cruise.  Spreadsheets are created and re- entered until allocations are set for each cruise. Cruise lines continuously adjust their schedules and availability changes, swapping with other ships, so spreadsheets must be continuously reviewed and updated. There were 8 route mappings for our cruise alone.

In addition, not all Antarctic trips are the same. This is a long trip which includes more than just Antarctica. There are shorter versions of 10 to 14 days, in which you have subsets of our trip. The advantage of our trip is that you get the dreaded Drake Passage only once. With the other trips, you get it coming and going--4 days of it. The Drake, named for Sir Francis Drake, is a rite of passage for Antarctic tourists. It the narrower portion of the Antarctic Circumpolar Current, and is squeezed through land masses around the southern tip of South America. It is infamous for having some of the roughest seas in the world. Our luck seems persisted and we experienced calm conditions known as "Drake Lake" caused by low pressure weather systems in the area.

We were lucky to be able to have made this trip, as the number of ships to travel to Antarctica will decrease over the next few years. This is due to the fact that for environmental issues, ships must only burn marine gas oil and fewer ships will be equipped for this, thus causing current vessels to drop out of the equation.

Post-mortem

Not to be pushy, but one really should add this trip to the top of your list. Silverseas does an exceptional job, but if it doesn't meet your personal pocket book or style, just make sure you do it.

Andrea 
Sent from my iPad

Andi, Thank you for all the fascinating SeaMail. Wonderful reporting as always. I'm re-reading you NILE "sand mail" in anticipation of NILE 2! Alice and I are going to Idaho Friday for a week of skiing. Then when we return we have 24 days until we're off to Cairo!

I'm so glad it was a great trip for everyone. What a great group of adventurers... diverse in many ways. I think many ZODIACers dreamed of this trip for about as long as Brayden has been alive. What a lucky kid indeed.

So many times I found myself sticking my laptop in front of people's faces in conferences rooms at work to show them the amazing photos! Thanks to everyone who posted them!

Welcome home All!

Well, I walked in my front door about 45 minutes ago. Glad to be home, but so wanting to be back on the Silver Explorer in Antarctic waters....... What a great group of people to cruise with.

thank you all so much. such good and excited writers one and all. it is the definition of a trip of a lifetime, that's for sure.
again, what a great bunch you all are.

Diane I bought power ball tix for Fl - 170 mill -so sure I will win - plan any trip that interests you & LCTers ... maybe a Regent charter??? :) :) :app: :app:

Diane's right, some trips, land or sea are sometimes just magic, trip of a lifetime, with the right combo of itinerary, weather AND people. You all didn't have the evil weather (Andi's words) to deal with as well. Just a wonderful trip, and thanks for taking the rest of us along!

Joanna--be still my heart.

Welcome home, all! Loved all the reports and pix! Can we look forward to post-cruise impressions, etc.? (Greedy, aren't I?)

I've put a few photos up at https://plus.google.com/photos/116813870456976461677/albums/5704699381763142625
Unfortunately they didn't load in any order and I haven't captioned or edited most of them but I'll keep working on them.

I'm getting ready to watch both disks. Poor Clay will probably be sick of these soon, but just have given him the Dom Pérignon. That should make him happy. Tomorrow - t-shirts. :app:

I have brought home the Betty-Andrea crud and feel awful. I am sick. sick. sick. At least it waited til I was home and I am only spoiling work.

Oh Andi I'm so sorry you got sick! Hope you feel better soon - and that your boss is understanding!

Not sick! tea and drugs

Great photos, Lauri! The google+ interface is nice too.

This was a "Brochure" trip as Robin the expedition leader said. Unbelievable weather and seas. Only one night of rough weather and part of a day which was a sea day. The Drake passage was a Drake pond. The expedition leaders and lecturers where the best. Many had been together a long time and the group dynamics showed. Fun loving but very well educated and trained. The stops, as you can see from the photos, more than lived up to what we had hoped for. Fellow passengers were a well traveled non complaining group who were there to learn and have an adventure. Ages between 14 and 80's with many in 40-60 range. The ship is good for an expedition ship though the soft goods need a little update. The food was ok to good with a few very good dishes. The staff ranged from"I want to take them home" to "Is it really such and effort to wait on us and get a second cup of coffee"
If you are considering this trip GO. Silver Seas does a great job. This is an expedition ship so don't expect everything to be at a 5 star level. You are at the bottom of the world.

Just so happy your trip was such a big success. We sure loved all your great reports and pictures.

Get well soon Andi & Betty :hug:

I've worked on the photos a bit more. Some have labels now but the order is still messed up. I'll keep at it.

How did I manage to avoid the crud when I was rooming with one of the sickos? Just kidding Andrea, you were THE BEST ROOMMATE EVER!!!!!!

I am overwhelmed listening to your words....and seeing the pics :nw: Thank you guys for documenting this journey so well. This is the one trip that I feel a "need" to experience. Sooo, since most of you have been on Safari's, the big question....if you could only do one...which would it be? Antarctica or Africa???? I know they are completely different trips, but which was your trip of a lifetime?

I have done both, Kimmi and until I went to Africa always said Antarctica was the best trip ever, now: tie score. If you put a gun to my head, I couldn't chose. Hope others are more helpful!
----------------
Helen

Africa is addictive. Antarctica is more a one time thing.

IMHO

Agree totally with Ralph. However, there are other considerations. Africa is a lot cheaper. You can't really do Antarctica if you are handicapped. You also need more time for Antarctica. Time, money, health. If you have them, I'd do Antarctica first. You can keep going back to South Africa till you are really old.

Antarctica is not a trip for wimps. I agree with Andi, if you think you're going to do both, do Antarctica first.

Ralph is totally right. Antarctica was -really- a trip of a life-time. AND, given the outstanding weather we were blessed to experience, a return trip could never measure up.
Africa, on the other hand, is always different AND, as Ralph says: addictive.
But one must wonder what it would be like to drive up to 250,000 lions. Maybe not such a good idea. Penguins might be safer.

I would also agree that if you are thinking of Antarctica, sooner rather than later would be better.
Normal health considerations, of course, are part of the calculation. But, also, travel restrictions are growing as to the number of people allowed per year. That means fewer beds and higher prices. I doubt that that trend will abate.

Until then, look at Lauri's pictures (link above) they are very good. A nice taste of our trip!

Doug

Kimmi, I'm in agreement with everyone above, except for me, Africa has a definite edge for the "entire" experience that I love repeating. I've thoroughly enjoyed my times in Cape Town and related tours out of the city (yes, even including the townships and worse), staying at Birkenhead House, the luxury of the camps that are a destination all their own with the pampering and game drives. I am a night person, but getting up at 5 a.m. before morning drives didn't bother me a lick. You won't find any night life into the wee hours on either trip!

You and John are so young and will have energy for many years. Just pick the place where your gut tells you to go, and you won't be sorry, especially if you get that miraculous weather our ZODIAC friends had. One thing, I know you are prone to sea sickness, as I am too. That is one thing you almost have to expect, it is more likely than not that you will have a few days of movement. If I had a deep pocket, though, I'd still go again to Antarctica if it did not cut into my other travel priorities.

"You won't find any night life into the wee hours on either trip!"

Just at Birkenhead...2 am with late nighters - Valentinos for sure! Yes, sure the camps go to bed early as you are up early...

"You won't find any night life into the wee hours on either trip!"

Just at Birkenhead...2 am with late nighters - Valentinos for sure! Yes, sure the camps go to bed early as you are up early...

Thanks Doug! I know there are many better photos out there taken by our lens lads and lasses but I had fun taking them. Photos simply can't capture the awesomeness of the place.

Lauri, I loved your pix. I can't imagine that I would see better from the lens lads, they were just great! And I went through your whole slide show!

Birkenhead was truly amazing... loved that place and it was great to stay up late and drink and everyone being loud and arguing about politics, so many laughs..

You have such a short amount of time to chill at the Game parks I remember Tom Matassa and I used to get down to the bar before dinner to just chill and enjoy the fine wines and surroundings.. The ladies would join us shortly after but after a nice long dinner it was BEDTIME!!!

We are back home after a fun few days in Buenos Aries.
What a fantastic trip with great friends. How could it be any better.
Lauri, loved your photos. I am sorting through mine and have a couple which will be enlarged and put up on a wall !
Lauri if you PM me your email I have a great pic of you talking to a Chinstrap Penguin at Bailey Head colony. Do not know how to post it here.

Just saw this interesting article regarding the Star Princess's time (same day as ours) in Ushuaia.

Thanks, this is a great article, Marc. It has so much more meaning since being there.

Thanks Marc You always seem to find interesting but obscure articles.

If you were on ZODIAC and bought the DVD set, was one of disks blank? My video one is perfect, the other is blank. Hopefully I didn't misunderstand what I was buying.

Betty, My second disk was a CD with jpegs. If you got the DVD, you have many of the photos on the CD.

No jpegs on mine. It's blank. At least I can enjoy the video.

Hi Betty, Ours is fine. If that is the case, I am sure Silversea will send you a new copy.

Didn't have much chance to send seamail while on Zodiac; I really missed free internet. Also, it will be a couple of weeks before our pix are ready for posting. Still, here is a short recap of my impressions; not of penguins, seals, whales, and icebergs (there have been plenty of posts on these) but rather on the experience.

Our group was FANTASTIC. We made up around 20% of the 126 pax onboard. It was great to meet, for the first time, Chris and Linda and Tim and Barbara and Brayden. The group was small enough and cruise long enough that we had plenty of time to enjoy our fellow cruisemates. We started by running into Ed and Mary first morning at Hilton in BA followed by a great dinner for 16 (thanks to Andrea and Andi for organizing). Then, each day, three meals a day, we were able to share the experience with great friends.

Besides the sightseeing, we had plenty of time to play hearts and pooch; but, the highlight of each day was cocktail hour. Ok, briefing and recap were probably more educational but cocktail hour came to be a great time to just meet and relax. The chef probably did not like us sending back his fancy h'ors deouvres each afternoon and asking for bowl after bowl of ruffles potato chips. :)

As for the ship; nothing really special. I don't know how they can call a 155 sq ft cabin a "suite." The room was comfortable and the staff (with just one or two exceptions) fantastic. Food was pretty good although they don't know how to cook leg of lamb. Laszlo was a great Maitre D even though he looked like one of the characters out of an old movie we have all seen. Reception was fantastic as were all the bar waiters. Still, the highlight of the staff, and the cruise, was the Expedition Staff. We could have been sailing on the SS Minnow and I am sure that Expedition Staff would have shown us a wonderful time.

Overall, best cruise ever. Not best ship or best cruiseline or best food or best anything else; just best cruise. Oh, I should say best trip; well maybe not, ROAR was kind of special.

Marc is spot on.

Thanks to everyone for posting there reports and Pictures... What an amazing journey you all took. It was exciting to follow along with all of you.
Thanks
FV

Yes, Marc has given a very good synopsis of the feel of the ship, ZODIs, staff and crew, expedition team, food et al. Of my 20 years of cruising this was MY Trip of a Lifetime. Totally amazing, fantastic, fabulous, breathtakingly beautiful..... and the positive adjectives go on and on and on. Where is my thesaurus when I need it?

I completely agree with Marc, Ralph and Beth. There was something almost magical about the way the whole trip gelled. I think that this was my "trip of a lifetime" too. I can't imagine topping it, but that won't stop me from trying ;)

Oops, I forgot that this was first time I had met Betty (met Beth in 2006 in DC but had never travelled with her either). Betty and Beth joined us in the Crown Room in Atlanta so they were the first of our cruise mates we met up with.

oh how I remember 2 Am at Birkenhead Joanna! Yes, the Valentinos were guilty and we were right on the sofa with them. Olivia, reading your email about Birkenhead and the game parks make me want to go RIGHT NOW. Totally agree with Ralph as well, it may be the only place on earth I could go to every single year (if time and moola permitted). I still say Birkenhead is the most magical place on earth.

This Antarctica trip is sounding like it is heading to my bucket list!

Posting for Andi:

The above pics are the famous BSD technique that became reknowned on our cruise. In fact, Richard, our cruise photographer, preserved this on the official Silverseas cruise CD. It stands for Beth Seal Discipline technique where you throw your hands up high to look large to teach the fur seals appropriate interaction with folks wearing red jackets.

If that fails, you and the seals enjoy exercising together.

Andi, It did seem to work, didn't it!!!

I laugh every time I hear Andi saying "bad seal, bad seal"!! They were the absolute cutest seals I've ever seen!!

Yes, that's why you became so famous. I'll post tonight the guys' less effective technique. Love the picture Andrea...you got some wonderful ones!!

BSD....I love it! Although I thought it stood for Bad Seal Discipline.

How lovely a pic

Posting for Andi

As you can see with the demonstration of the RSC (Repetitive Seal Clapping) technique above, it is clearly inferior to the Beth Seal Discipline technique. It starts with a gentle "No, No, we don't want to play chase or take your photo." Then, Doug tried to clap to tell him enough. However, the seal moved on to the next person. Marc, decided to placate the seal with a photo with his point and shoot, but the seal wanted his photo taken with the big lens so moved on to Ken. Instead, Ken, clapped to chase him away and Arlene took a photo, but this didn't work, so the seal went back to Doug (who has a big lens), who told him that: "this routine was getting very old and discussed ISO and apertures with him." Marc again tried to take a picture of him with just a point and shoot but the seal just stood there refusing to leave their sides. If these seals were not so cute and funny, they would really be obnoxious. We will next post pictures of Marc trying to play pooch with the seals.

Posting for Andi

Some people pics finally downloaded...Wendy from Australia...conquered the hill (Shackleton Walk); Marc enticing some seals to play pooch; Marc and Arlene celebrating at Shackleton's grave. Thanks so much, Karen.

Fortuna Bay was a great place for those seals. They were relentless on protecting their territory.

Posting for Frank:

We were just having a little chat. As I recall this particular penguin was CRAZY!

I've uploaded a few of the videos I took. I'm not a very good videographer - just look away if my panning makes you dizzy - but some of the seals and penguins are just so cute I thought you'd enjoy seeing them in action.

South Georgia and Antarctica Videos

I LOVE the thug chinstraps! Their all squawking and snapping, all covered in poop. Even the babies are fighting. They truly are the punks of the penguin world.

The thugs were my favorite, too, Andrea! It is so hard to take videos. I think if you just slooooow down on the panning, it will be a lot better! I watched everyone, and still loved them!

I loved the pubescent king penguin who was soaking wet and so funny looking. He looked like a drowned rat.

He reminded me of Dobby from the Harry Potter movies. So pitiful.

Rather off topic, but thanks to ZODIAC I'm now hooked on Downton Abbey. Thanks best roommate ever!

Such a sad truth! Once the posts trickle down to a precious few, we know that the trip is truly over....

And, like the junkies that we are, we move on to the next fix.

As I tell people, travel is my drug. They think I'm making a joke, but we all know better. What a wonderful & blessed addiction!

Time to roll another one!

Doug

I agree, Doug, it is sad, but moving on to the next adventure is always something to look forward to. Let the planning begin.

Oh, yes, many of us have your same addiction. Don't want to know the cure!!

OH Doug and Beth sooo agree - if there is 12 step for travel addiction do NOT sign me up - I'll deal with it trip by trip :app: :app: :D :D

I was feeling rather strange without a next trip to plan. Thank goodness for the 2014 BEARS trip!! I might have gone into severe withdrawal.

Dare I tell you all that I've decided to go to Hong Kong and Bangkok...on Feb 29?!

I want to come back as Andrea in my next life :) :)

Since I am going through withdrawals, I really need some seamail!!!

Ditto, Joanna! It sure has to be in a younger body than I would leave with, though, to have that energy!

Me too. Choose me. Choose me. The retired Doug announced he was leaving for a were to Arizona without the working stiff wife of his and I threw a tantrum that I bet they heard in Antarctica.

I thought you would all appreciate this news! I will keep the land mail coming before everyone leaves for NILE 2.

Seriously, after only 2 weeks at home I was itching to go somewhere and just didn't want to wait until my tulip river cruise in April.

My friend Andi and her husband (I know I talked about her a bit during ZODIAC :D ) decided they were going while we were in Antarctica. Her brother is going to school in HK and his birthday is in March. I thought - why not go to HK with someone who has been there before? Plus, I was able to get award seats in biz on Cathay Pacific (definitely a win). We are also going over to Bangkok for a few days. They have the opportunity to manage a resort on the island of Koh Mak so we'll be there for 2 days too.

So yes...I probably do need some therapy to get over my travel addiction!

Andrea, what ship will you be on?

No cruise Beth, all land. Well, except for the boat ride to Koh Mak, and hopefully we will go to Macau too.

lovely

Andrea, Land mail will be just as good. Look forward to it.

Our voyage journal is up on the Silver Explorer website :app:

Lauri - did you see the picture on day 5 at the bio-check? Scarf is on the table!!

It looks like only the first 7 days are up, hopefully more will follow soon.

What? The scarf wasn't permanently attached to her neck?

I'm crying from laughing so hard! Nope, I guess she did take it off sometimes :3smile:

I thought her head might fall off if she ever removed that thing.

Thx, Lauri, I've looked almost daily for our journal until Sunday. Got into reading a good book and read all day yesterday. It was so good, I didn't even turn on my computer. :eek: For those interested, here's the link to the ZODIAC journal .

I didn't even realize there was a journal. Thanks, gals, for keeping us in the know.

The Discovery channel has a new series starting Sunday called Frozen Planet. It explores the polar regions and since it's made by the Planet Earth people, the series looks visually stunning and full of penguins, too!

Frozen Planet on the Discovery channel

I can't wait!

Anyone see any of these guys?

BBC video on penguins

A rather "timely" and clever video!!

Happy April Fool's Day to you too :app:

CUTE!


Perhaps Penquins pretend not to be able to fly to avoid FAA rules and restrictions!

Thanks Suzanne. Brought a big smile to my face. :D

Exactly ten years ago we were on South Georgia Island in the middle of our favorite cruise of all time. This thread has wonderful reports and wonderful photos for those that want to just reminisce or read for the first time.

That was a great cruise! Thinking about returning in 2025.