Our Travel Stories

After our record of reaching the southern most point of voyage at Bay of Whales, we are now heading to Peter I island. This will be a long 7 day long cruising without any zodiac activity. The shorter route of 6 day cruising has been blocked by packed ice so our captain chose this safer although a longer route.

Here are some of the sightings we had on these sea days.

Wildlife:

Minke whales

Fin whale

Humpback

There were so many of them all around the ship. They were feeding at the same time as dinner time was announced. The krill that they feed on rises in the ocean as sun starts going down. Do humpback do tend to feed at this time.

And some tails

Icebergs: we saw many icebergs and Mayuresh is planning a write up just for them. However, here are a few of them anyway.

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.

Today started with a zodiac cruise at Cape Crozier which is at the eastern end of the massive Ross Sea Ice. With air temperature of -7C and wind of 25 miles, windchill was very severe but it was sunny and clear. So it was a beautiful summer day in Antarctica! This place is just amazing and we are loving it!!

The highlights today were being able to touch the Ice Shelf, tasting ice from an icicle off the shelf and seeing a group of Adelies and Emperor Penguins on the ice together.

This was another magical outing. Rest of the day we cruised past the Ice Shelf. Ross ice shelf is as big as the size of France. It is very impressive, amazing and unbelievable sight.

So far we have reached almost the southern most point on the trip at almost 78 degrees south. We will attempt to reach Bay of whales and try to reach further south, weather and sea conditions permitting of course.

Today’s highlight at Cape Evans was the Terra Nova expedition hut. We also hiked about a mile to see the glacier and Scott’s South Pole exploration starting point.

The Tera Nova hut is also respected and is very well restored and taken care by NZ Heritage Group.

After Cape Evans we visited Hut Point (which has Scott’s hut from Discovery mission) but we could not land because of packed ice at the shoreline.

We instead did a ship cruise along McMurdo station and Scott’s base in the McMurdo sound which is start point of Ross Ice Shelf area.

We saw a plane land and take off from the ice air strip intended for the McMurdo station. We saw some Minke whales and there was a raft of emperor penguins that crossed the ship’s bow

We ended with a group photo on deck 8 under sunny skies and biting wind, everyone braving it with a smile for the photo.

We also saw Emperor Penguins, Weddell seals orcas and minky whales while cruising on the ship.

We started the day with visit to Cape Bird. We went ashore on zodiacs and this was first time we were allowed to freely roam (almost as we did have restrictions to avoid skua chicks).

We walked towards a Glacier. It was very interesting contrast with volcanic rock and gravel and the glacier.

And of course, there were Adélie penguins and seals to greet us as well.

So after Cape Bird, we reached Cape Royds. The area is protected by New Zealand Heritage group. At landing site, we were greeted by many weddell seals and Adele Penguins. It was a short walk to the hut. As many people do, we respected the hut and were thrilled to see the hut from inside.

Amazingly, in spite of two landings we were not done. We headed to Cape Chocolate with the hopes to seeing more wildlife and specifically Emperor Penguins, and we did find them. We saw two Penguins on an ice floe.

When we were repositioning to see if we could get the zodiac closer, we came across another Penguin and we soon realized that the Penguins were calling each other. This Penguin came very close to us. Our Zodiac driver Ben realized that we were blocking the Penguin and so we backed off. The Penguin immediately dived in the water and we only saw it again once he joined the other two penguins.

But we were still not done. The expedition team felt that the conditions were ideal to get all of us on an ice floe. That was amazing all on its own.

Before I write about our visit to these famous huts on Ross Islands, near McMurdo sound, let me just summarize in few lines my recollection of the history of these expedition heroes.

After Ross explored the Antarctic waters and mapped out the land area in 1890s, people realized that the south pole is close from the many locations in the current Ross sea.

Robert Scott, a decorated Royal Navy leader first assembled a team (with Shackleton on the team) with the goal of research in this area and finding South Pole. Scott and team came here in 1901-1904 in ship named Discovery. They set up a base at Scott’s hut at McMurdo Sound. This mission became a more of a learning experience and the team was able to reach only until 82 degrees south – 483km further south from his hut and still 773km away from south pole. But they did not reach the south pole. And then all returned to England as heroes because of their attempt to reach South Pole.

In 1907, Earnest Shackleton, again attempted to reach South Pole. His mission was called Nimrod Expedition. He set up his new expedition base (now without Scott because of their differences of opinion) at Cape Royds on Ross Island. He attempted to reach South Pole and almost (90 km away from the Pole) reached South Pole. But he returned because of poor weather conditions and low supplies for the return trip. He returned to England in 1909.

Now, Since Shackleton had found this path to South Pole, the race to reach South Pole again picked up the pace. Scott and Amundsen (Norwegian Expedition leader) both started the expedition, Scott from Ross Island and Amundsen from Ross Ice shelf in Bay of Whales.

Scott again set up a new base Terra Nova Hut at Cape Evans on Ross Island. This time though he built a better hut. He tried to reach South Pole with the team of 5, and did reach the South Pole, just to realize that Amundsen had already reached South Pole before him.

On the way back though, because of the harsh weather conditions and low supplies, all the members perished. However, they are all held as heroes in the Pole expedition folklore.

There are too many details to the story but that maybe for another day. Just to wrap up, the South Pole was reached in January 1913.

Our ship started the journey with itinerary that covered Ross Sea area/ Ross Ice Shelf and visiting these famous huts.

Shraddha:

Our expedition team has been trying very hard to give us the best experiences and opportunities. Sometimes they work and sometimes they don’t.

We arrived to Possession Island early in the morning and the team sent out a scout boat to figure out best landing sites. The plan was to find a post mail box (treasure box) as we had a special team member with us that had been on an expedition that had used it.

However, there was too much pack ice, large swells and no good landing spots.

So, this was scrapped and we headed off to Cape Hallett instead.

We couldn’t have imagined more perfect weather as we got sunny skies, glassy sea and had grandeur of nature before us with mountains, glaciers, huge tabular icebergs and of course wildlife.

As my group missed out on our photography zodiac, I was offered it again and I did go. I do feel that it felt easier this time to stand in the boat and take photos. It could have been combination of the glassy sea conditions and at least a little bit of experience.

I took too many pictures on this ride. I have chosen a few that tell something.

These three are of the same iceberg

We got to this Penguin just as he escaped the leopard seal hunting it.

You never know what you will find in the wild

There were many tabular icebergs in the water. I took two pictures to give some perspective on the scale.

Mayuresh will tell his story of his zen ride.

After such a beautiful day, we lingered here in the ship through dinner and finally the ship started moving south.

We all gathered on the observation deck hoping to find another Emperor Penguin. The day did not disappoint and we ended with another sighting.

My zen zodiac ride (from Mayuresh). Day 2 of zen zodiac ride was more zen ride. Although the photography is not allowed on the zen ride, our team lead allowed it because the surrounding were very compelling for photography. And guess what immediately many of the members pulled out their cameras. Finally we did park our zodiac in secluded area as glacier water flowed in the sea. As I closed my eyes, I did snooze and snored. So it was rather funny for most of the members. I felt good though because I was able to chant Gayathri Mantra and Ganesh Stuti.

Author: Shraddha

The day started with absolutely stunning sunrise. A beautiful day to welcome us to the great white continent of Antartica.

We reached Cape Adare (it is a pointy tip on the Antartica continent) that has lot of history of past expeditions. It was appropriate that we placed our feet on this continent where so many explorers started their epic journeys across this continent.

We visited the Borchgrevink’s hut that has still stood intact after so many years of facing this harsh environment.

We also saw remains of another that was not so well built and falling down.

We also saw Adélie penguins from close up. We are not supposed to get any closer than 5m to any penguins, but good luck with these. They are curious and feisty and come right up to you.

We also saw seals lazing about both on land and on ice.

After the hut visit, we went around for a zodiac cruise and had our expedition team lead Howard as our zodiac driver. This was lot of fun as Howard embodies spirit of exploration and was willing to go longer and further.

But the day was not over. While we lunched, the ship moved on to Coldbeck Bay for another scenic zodiac cruising. I signed up for photography cruise with the ship photographer Adrian while Mayuresh signed up for a zen ride with Jane

I explored taking pictures in a wobbly zodiac.

Our ride was interrupted soon for an impromptu landing for a surprise. While we were zodiac cruising, Howard and a small team went exploring in search of Emperor Penguin and they found one. So we landed on a very difficult spot and climbed a ridge with tricky footing, snow and no trekking poles to see this lone Emperor Penguin waiting to complete his/her catastrophic molting.

That was pretty much the end to my photography ride however as by the time we got back, Adrian was called on to take another person back to the ship as this person had a fall in the water while getting on the zodiac. Reminded all of us of the tricky landing we had done.

Mayuresh: Zen Zodiac ride

Expedition team also arranges a Zen zodiac primarily designed for keeping silence and meditation on the zodiac in the middle of Ross Sea. We were 7 on the zodiac ride but 4-5 members were more interested in the photography than meditation. I did get my quiet time for meditation and chanted (in my mind) Gayathri mantra and Ganesh Stuti. I was very happy with this ride.

Author:Mayuresh

Antartica is truly the 7th continent where this land mass is vast and packed with ice. Just happens to be far away at the south pole and so aptly named opposite of Arctic i.e. Antarctic.

We reached 60 degree south latitude yesterday to enter in the Antarctic waters. However with crossing the 66 degree and 33 minutes south latitude, we have now crossed the Antarctic Circle.

There was a countdown followed by ship blowing its horn as we crossed the circle. We followed it with a champagne toast and ceremonial pictures. We also got our Antartica names King Penguin (Shraddha) and Frostbite (for me).

We saw lots of icebergs and ice sheets. We also saw Adele penguins, seals and humpback whales.

There are always birds around the ship and here are couple of interesting ones

We took a small detour to visit rarely accessible Balleny islands. These islands are always surrounded by ice packs and ships cannot access them.

Luckily the wind cleared the ice packs enough that the islands were accessible and our captain and expedition leader made a call to make a detour to visit these islands late in the evening.

We got into zodiacs and had a ride along the islands. We saw penguins and humpback whales feeding. So we call ourselves lucky few (about 100s) who visited these islands. Some achievement 👏.

These are rough seas and Antartica. The weather changes very quickly and while on the Zodiac, the wind picked up and it started snowing. It was almost sleet and it hurt our faces (the only exposed part). Needless to say, not everyone enjoyed this experience. But, the whole zodiac ride felt true to the spirit of expedition and exploration.

Tonight we will head towards Cape Adare, the first point in the Ross sea area.

We left Mcquarie islands yesterday in the capable hands of the Australian park rangers to protect the Royal and King penguins. The rookery (penguin poop) smells are so strong that it just refuses to get out of your system.

Day 7 and Day 8 were sea days and refreshingly nice. It gave us chance to relax, get laundry done and also hit the gym.

At the same time we crossed 60 degrees south and entered the Antarctic waters after crossing the convergence with South Pacific waters. We could feel the outside temperatures drop. The water temperature is now -1 degrees Celsius. This is the protected area in the world and no country can dictate any terms and conditions of their own.

We have also attended many lectures and learned about whales, squids, albatrosses, penguins, geology of different islands, expedition history, sealing history, conservation efforts and so on. It has been very interesting as most of the speakers are very good and definitely passionate.

We will have busy few days as we spend time in Ross Sea area.