The South American and Antarctic experience on the Zaandam

[scubacruiserx2]

5 hours ago, caneable said:

 

Once again great photos. Making us realise that if your observation skills are strong and you have the patience, Sea days are never boring!

 

We worked together as my wife likes the binoculars and worked as a spotter .She also takes some nice photos . At this point in the cruise we had left Punta Arenas on the 24th of December and arrive at Stanley  on January 2 , 9 days and nights at sea .

[scubacruiserx2]

We finished the evening photographing a couple of old friends .

 

 

 

In the morning it looked like it was going to be a gray day

 

 

 

 

A snoozing seal

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

 

 

 

 

 

We decided to head up top to introduce some more color into the photos

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We were moving toward a Chilean base to try to see a penguin colony there

 

 

The Silver Cloud was already there with boats in the water

 

 

 

 

An Adelie penguin

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

The Orcas were back

 

 

 

And this time they were chasing a penguin

 

 

 

Video clip :

 

 

 

[caneable]

OMG, great video.  Only problem was I then followed a link from YouTube at the end of the video to a 10 minute video about cruise ships in bad weather. It’s only three weeks tour South America cruise and I was just having breakfast to start the day! Talk about a bad choice!

[scubacruiserx2]

4 hours ago, caneable said:

OMG, great video.  Only problem was I then followed a link from YouTube at the end of the video to a 10 minute video about cruise ships in bad weather. It’s only three weeks tour South America cruise and I was just having breakfast to start the day! Talk about a bad choice!

 

Breakfast and a video sounds like a great start as long as it's not The Titanic ! We did see your ship in Montevideo , The Sun was the first NCL that we sailed on .

 

[TayanaLorna]

On 1/31/2019 at 4:02 PM, scubacruiserx2 said:

We had made dinner reservations for Rudi's Sel De Mer  at The Pinnacle Grill for that evening in advance thinking that it would be a night at sea . But with the good weather we decided to have dinner delivered and keep taking photos . The Pinnacle Grill in the Zaandam has no windows unlike the Eurodam's where we enjoyed window seating .

 

Dinner for 2 back lit 

 

 

Our favorite Cab

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The sunrise for the next morning was at 02:30 and the sunset was 23:51 !  

 

 

Almost a Midnight Sun!  Truly enjoying your photos.  Antarctica spectacular!  Glad you saw Glacier Alley in 2013 with sun.  What a difference.  Our cruise is a year from now 2020 and sun is what we are wishing for of course.

 

I have Zaandam in my fleet on Marine Traffic and tracked her as you were sailing in Antarctica.  The past track showed her zig zagging throughout all these islands, backtracking, circling around.  It was interesting.  I also watched her weave around the Chilean fjord islands.  It's given me a good idea of where we will be sailing when we travel.

 

Your photos are stunning no matter what the weather.  The sunny days add color but the cloudy gray ones are equally striking.  The wildlife photos are amazing.

 

Whenever you post a photo showing a deck with people outside there are so few.  I wonder what the remaining 1500 people are doing.

 

Again thanks.  I like your writing style and the photos are out of this world.

[scubacruiserx2]

1 hour ago, TayanaLorna said:

Almost a Midnight Sun!  Truly enjoying your photos.  Antarctica spectacular!  Glad you saw Glacier Alley in 2013 with sun.  What a difference.  Our cruise is a year from now 2020 and sun is what we are wishing for of course.

 

I have Zaandam in my fleet on Marine Traffic and tracked her as you were sailing in Antarctica.  The past track showed her zig zagging throughout all these islands, backtracking, circling around.  It was interesting.  I also watched her weave around the Chilean fjord islands.  It's given me a good idea of where we will be sailing when we travel.

 

Your photos are stunning no matter what the weather.  The sunny days add color but the cloudy gray ones are equally striking.  The wildlife photos are amazing.

 

Whenever you post a photo showing a deck with people outside there are so few.  I wonder what the remaining 1500 people are doing.

 

Again thanks.  I like your writing style and the photos are out of this world.

 

Thank you for your many kind words , we do appreciate them ! We know what you mean about the zig zagging and circling . Weather and other ships played a part in the "Antarctian Tango" .

 

 

On a slightly different note , I had my lucky whale shirt on and we hoped that it would work .

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We were just taking in the view from the balcony

 

 

 

when a loud wooosh erupted in front of us .

 

 

It looked like it was going to ram us .

 

 

It hesitated for a second , and arched it's back

 

 

and raised it's tail a little 

 

 

and left a little calling card  .

 

 

 

Pat's video of the whale :

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

 

Dinner options

 

 

Dinner is served

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We were up at 6 AM on December 31 , 2018 to see Deception Island

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deception_Island

 

And from what we could see , it lived up to it's name

 

 

 

Fog rolling in

 

 

A ghost ship ?

 

 

 

Penguins on a volcanic beach

 

 

 

 

This ship past us

 

 

and it and the island disappeared into the fog while we moved onward ...

[scubacruiserx2]

Breakfast is served

 

 

 

 

We found out a couple of things on this day

 

1. Mimosas are free to the room but not in the Pinnacle 

 

2. The Pinnacle no longer will deliver their dinners to a Neptune Suites

 

3. A special New Years Eve dinner menu for the Pinnacle was obtained 24 hours in advance . It costs $50 without wine , $84 with .

 

 

This is the MDR dinner that can be delivered to our room

 

 

We could by several bottles of Jordan for the difference . We did.

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

As we were having breakfast some chinstrap penguins were feeding also 

 

 

 

 

They are fast as you can see in this video clip :

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

We heard this announcement 0n TV about a giant iceberg 

 

 

 

They later said that was 11 miles long and 5 miles wide so we went out back to see it 

 

 

We couldn't see it all so we went up top

 

 

There was iceberg as far as we could see 

 

 

There was also snow on the deck and we were told that there was a blizzard over night 

 

 

There was enough to make a small snow man

 

 

Another video clip of this massive iceberg :

 

 

 

[caneable]

Loved the Chinstrap video!  It also brought home what a great job you did getting those stills!

[scubacruiserx2]

2 hours ago, caneable said:

Loved the Chinstrap video!  It also brought home what a great job you did getting those stills!

 

Thank you , Pat did a good job with a lot of the videos while I was shooting the telephoto . 

[scubacruiserx2]

We were now en route to King George Island the largest of the South Shetland Islands 

 

 

 

There we would be entering Admiralty Bay

 

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Admiralty_Bay_(South_Shetland_Islands)

 

 

The sun had  come out a bit helping to brighten things up

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Sailing out of Antarctica and 2018

 

 

 

 

 

The Polish Antarctic base

 

 

Penguins on the rocks

 

 

 

Picking up speed

 

 

Our last whale sighting

 

[scubacruiserx2]

[scubacruiserx2]

With the South Shetlands in our rear view mirror we were now headed North toward Falkland Islands

 

 

The old year would end for us at sea

 

 

Lump Crab and shrimp

 

 

Crawfish Chowder

 

 

Filet and " Maine" Lobster 

 

 

 

 

Sunset was another cloudy affair

 

 

But it got better

 

 

 

Video clip :

 

 

 

[scubacruiserx2]

Unlike where we live there  24 hour long fireworks  parties . But we had just a calm sea while crossing the Drake .

 

 

 

 

But of course it could change , and it did .

 

 

For the 1st time on this cruise the forward flag was down as we road it out .

 

 

 

Because the Pinnacle no longer allows room delivery we went down for New years day dinner

 

 

 

 

We had wanted to eat crab legs in Ushuaia , the port that we missed . These weren't very good

 

 

But the Souffle was good - even if it was out of focus 

 

Edited February 15, 2019 by scubacruiserx2

[nursemommy7578]

I am thoroughly enjoying this!!!  Thank you for your time, photos and sharing your journey!!

[scubacruiserx2]

26 minutes ago, nursemommy7578 said:

I am thoroughly enjoying this!!!  Thank you for your time, photos and sharing your journey!!

 

You're welcome and welcome aboard .