Our Travel Stories

The day started with excitement as we were heading to the Bay of Whales for scenic cruising. Our ship captain cruised to the Bay of Whales through the night in foggy and very cold conditions and our captain did a great job of avoiding ice on our way to Bay of Whales. We reached early right at breakfast time at 7.30am.

We had reached the southernmost point of our journey, about 220 meters from the Ross Ice Shelf. With Latitude readings of 78 degrees, 44 minutes and 440 seconds, our ship reached the farthest south that any ship has reached so far. What an achievement for the ship captain and all the passengers onboard!!

We saw Adelie Penguins and Emperor Penguins on the Ice Shelf.

We were starting to get ready for our zodiac cruise,but with foggy conditions, the planned zodiac cruise was canceled. And we left the Bay of Whales in 15 minutes of reaching the mark.

Our next stop was Kainan Bay just few miles east from Bay of Whales. But to our surprise Expedition Lead summoned all the passengers for the mandatory meeting. In this meeting, Expedition Lead said that the set of boilers supporting the ship aft cabins were out because of moisture buildup on the boilers from previous night’s fog and cold temperatures. He also said the ship had to alter the chartered course to avoid packed ice.

With the planned new course, the Kainan Bay visit was canceled. The new course was additional 550 knotical miles. That means we will now reach our next destination Peter I island on 3rd March instead of 2nd March. And that will be straight seven days of sea cruise. This type of itinerary change can happen on these Expedition Cruises in these unpredictable and harsh conditions. We were ready for such changes, but were so pampered for past week with excellent conditions that this came as a disappointment for us.

However we are continuing with enthusiasm and still get excited with the natural beauty surrounding us – icebergs, ice formations, and wild life in this journey.

With a wonderful support from the ship team, we are keeping ourselves busy with activities on the ship like Gym (treadmill), mobility exercise and theater activities – lectures, trivia games and chatting with our shipmates. And of course, the wonderful food on the ship.

As we were ready to retire for the day, we watched three blue whales. One of these whales came straight towards the bow of the ship and dived down almost at the last second.