rloke

We were out for a Zodiac cruise around the Yalour Islands on Feb 3rd at around 9:30am. The sea was a bit choppy and wind was around 15 knots but it was perfectly safe for zodiac operations. Temperature was around 2°C (35-36°F). A short moment upon starting the cruise, Jean Roch noticed the characteristic water pattern to indicate that a whale was nearby. He carefully guided the zodiac towards the target area and sure enough, there was a juvenile humpback...

The morning landing at Detaille Island on Feb 2nd was canceled due to 50+ knots wind. So it was a leisurely sail back up north to a hopeful zodiac cruise around the Yalour Islands on Feb 3rd.

The polar plunge took place at Andresen Island. A record for the season, thus far, of 70+ plungers took part. Once you were safely teethered, you would be carefully escorted down the stairs...and then all you needed to do was to take a leap... GX010059.mp4 GX010059_2.mp4 Geronimo...

On the exposed rocky side of the island, found the following... Lots of molting Adelie chicks here...at various stages of molt... The rightmost chick had almost finished...just a small turf left on its head... The adults on dates...or perhaps just a stalker... I think they know each other... Social distancing or date gone bad... The singles....

The "sphinx"-berg... Arch-berg...

We reached Andresen Island at around 2pm on February 1st for a zodiac cruise. It has some impressive snow formations on one side of the island. The other side had less snow and ice and more exposed rocky slopes. Also a number of interesting icebergs near the island.

And the unfavorable conditions followed us to Fish Island. As a result, the landing was canceled. We would continue to sail straight to the afternoon location, Andresen Island which is south of the Antarctica circle. We crossed the circle sometime after lunch. Celebrations were held at the Observation Lounge and champagne was flowing freely. Note that this was the only occasion where alcohol was allowed to be consumed prior to a Zodiac operation. Everyone rejoice!

Unfortunately the weather took a turn for the worse, and the conditions were not favourable for a Lemaire Channel transit. So the Captain took us on a path that is more open ocean, a bit further north of the channel, so that we could sail at a reasonable pace.

If I am not mistaken, we had our first (and only) daily evening pre-dinner briefing/recap after the landing at Neko Harbour. And it was rather brief indeed...Max mentioned that we would be going through the Lemaire Channel later in the evening, around 9-10pm. And then headed to Fish Island for a Feb 1st morning landing. Weather looked favourable...

Yes, it was weird that even follow-ups were going through the TA. The main reason is that it seems like Atlas did not have our e-mail info on file. The following is an excerpt of the e-mail sent by Atlas to our TA, who in turn, sent it to us...ironically on April 1st actually...😄 Atlas "finally" sent the link to our TA on March 31st. " The guests listed below recently joined us aboard a cruise aboard World Traveller. We hope they enjoyed their lasting memories. You are receiving this email because we did not have a direct email to send this information to your clients. Please provide the link below to your clients so they can access all the pictures that were taken by our Expedition Leaders during their cruise. They can follow the link to access the pictures and download them for their use. The link will expire after 30 days so please ensure you send them the link so they can download their preferred pictures before the expiration. " Most of the content through the link were the same as what we got in the USB stick presented to us while on-board though.

Offroading is more difficult than taking the highways... C0043.mp4 C0043_2.mp4 Follow the leader... C0048.mp4 C0048_2.mp4 Bumpy ride down the rocky slope... C0011.mp4

There were also a number of Weddell seals relaxing by the beach...ironically named after the guy that almost caused their extinction. And baby and mother Weddell seal enjoying some quiet time out on an ice floe... Zodiac approaching piqued the baby's interest, the mom couldn't be bothered... What is this commotion? Oh just big green penguins, nothing special...back to sleep...

We arrived at Neko Harbour at around 2pm on January 31st. It was around -1°C (30°F) and snowing on and off... The hike was an easy loop around a small hill that seemingly intersected with a number of penguin highways; and a number of penguins would actually venture on the path that we were taking. So needed to be a bit careful here and be aware to attempt to maintain the distance as required by the IAATO. Some landscapes of the Penguin rookeries... The glacier here was calving quite mightily and thunderous roars could be heard every so often...a big piece of ice/snow just detached in the middle of the photo below...

Errata on temperature...rechecked my logs... Yankee Harbour was actually 4°-5°C (39°-41°F). Portal Point was 2°-3°C (36°-37°F).

There were no zodiac operations in the morning of January 31st as we were still positioned off Ronge Island. The captain took us on a leisurely sail towards our afternoon landing site, Neko Harbor which was not that far away. Enroute, some Gentoo penguins provided great company... C0039.mp4 C0040.mp4

Thanks for the heads-up. Will give them a shout…

We repositioned a couple miles north of Danco Island so that the adventurous folks can go camping at Kerr Point (located on the east side of Ronge Island). We overnighted here as well as we can't just leave the campers behind....maybe we could but I don't get to make these decisions... The campers and their chaperones setting up the tents...

Our afternoon landing was at Danco Island. Snow had finally stopped falling. This was a substantial hike. The zodiac landing point was to the right of the above photo. Should had taken a panoramic photo to include the landing point as my lens was not wide enough to capture the whole scene ...The hike to the first rookery was about a 10 minute stroll. The expedition team member there, I believe it was Shelby, mentioned that we were a quarter of the way. Yikes, we better hustle...but took a few moments to take in the scenery and savour the moment; and some photo ops... Took another 5 minutes to get to the second rookery on the far left. Expedition team member who was stationed there, I believe it was Vivel, said that we were almost at the halfway point. So we had already burned 15-20 minutes. We decided that we would not be able to hike to the very top of the hill (upper far right in the first photo above), savour the moments and take photos and be back on time. So we just lingered around and breathed in the fantastic Penguin perfume and enjoy their waddling company... C0034.mp4 C0035.mp4 C0038.mp4

We do absolutely count ourselves lucky to have had this opportunity to explore this part of the world.

A few more photos and videos can be found at https://extremelyshortandsimple.blogspot.com/2023/02/atlas-world-traveller-antarctica-cruise_8.html

We were at George's Point on January 30th in the morning. Temperature was again around 1°-2°C (34°-36°F) and it was snowing a bit again. The hike was relatively easy and short. We passed by several rookeries along the path. At the end of the path, there was an additional steeper climb up a slope where there were an additional rookery. This additional path was capacity controlled and only a few at a time were allowed to climb up. Sure hoped our shipmates respected the restricted nature of this and acted accordingly by not lingering too long at the top. Some portraits... Mostly Gentoos here, but there were some Chinstraps at the top of the hill... Penguin always has the right of way... Cameras attached to the pole and tripod at the edge to get a rough estimation of the size of the colony at this location... Penguin highway commute... C0006_2.mp4 C0014.mp4 Nest maintenence perhaps... C0030.mp4 C0030_2.mp4

The landing site for the afternoon was Portal Point. Temperature was again around 1°-2°C (34°-36°F) and it was snowing a bit. This was our first continental landing. As can be seen above, from the zodiac landing point (middle left), there were two hiking paths. One to the left of the landing site, one to the right. Both were short but quite intense due to the steepness of the slope. Upon getting off the zodiac, we were told that there were some seals on the right hiking path. On our way there, we saw Mats from the expedition team walking back to the landing site with his long-lensed camera in hand. We asked him if he was able to capture some great shots but he disappointedly told us that the seals had left the area. Nevertheless, we saw some gulls and skuas. The path on the left would lead us to the top of the hill, where on a non snowy day, would be the perfect spot to take a picture or a selfie with the ship anchored in the background. Alas, the weather didn't cooperate as the ship was barely visible. If we were allowed to hike further forward and go downhill towards the sea, there was also a colony of Chinstrap penguins there. Too bad we weren't allowed to do so. But luckily, while waiting for our zodiac ride back, three Chinstraps decided to come visit us instead. C0003.mp4 C0003_2.mp4

It could have been smoother..the UP train was late due to maintenance. And then the train broke down. Had to change train on the opposite side of the platform. Took almost 1.5 hours to get to Union which is usually a quick 10-15 ride. But other than that, trip home was good…😉

Hope you had a smooth limo ride back home from YYZ…

We were at Cierva Cove on January 29th in the morning. Temperature was again around 1°-2°C (34°-36°F). We were the third group as the group ordering was rotated each day (i.e. the first group out the day before would be the last group out, we were the fourth group out the day before, so we were now the third). So no leisurely lounging around, we were out in the zodiac by around 9:10am. This is a zodiac cruise as there were no sites suitable for a landing. There were a number of icebergs in the cove and lots of smaller platforms where the Gentoo penguins gathered. Some Gentoos were brave enough to take a dive too... Around the cove where there was less snow covering, there were small colonies of Chinstrap penguins as well. Alas, we did not have enough time to explore those areas. We did see some swimming by on our way back to the ship though...