Antarctica
Puerto Williams, Drake Passage, Danger Islands, Heroina Island, D’urville Monument, Active Sound, Orne Harbor, Damoy Point, Cuverville, Chiriguano Bay, Portal Point
From February 18th to 28th, 2023
Day 1
Departed Puerto Williams for Antarctica around 5pm
Day 2
High of 41, low of 39
Mandatory lifeboat drill around 9:30am
Shortly after we listened to a lesson about IAATO, the multinational group that essentially “governs” over Antarctica
Later that afternoon we attended the mandatory Zodiac briefing, where we learned the do’s and don’ts of riding on Zodiac boats
The last administrative task of the day was a kayak safety briefing, which was pretty strict and was meant for weeding non-serious kayakers out of the group. On a boat of 250, only 50 made the cut to join the kayak excursions.
Day 3
High of 39, low of 37
All day voyage to Antarctica, meant a trip to the gym, whale watching from the panorama lounge, eating, and napping.
Around midday we had a ‘Biosecurity Session’, where all of our items were inspected and cleaned by expedition personnel to ensure we weren’t accidentally bringing any rogue bugs or bacteria to the untouched lands of Antarctica (as to not disturb the natural habitat).
Day 4
High of 34, low of 30
Arrived at Danger Islands around 7am, geared up and left the boat around 8:30am on Zodiacs to explore. Saw penguins and leopard seals.
Left for next destination, Tay Head, but due to weather we were not able to get off the boat and explore. It was raining, windy, and snowing.
The Silver Sea's crew opened the bow of the boat for us to drink spiked hot chocolate and enjoy to views. Started snowing harder, so we retreated inside, had cocktails, played cards, and ate popcorn.
Day 5
High of 25, low of 23
At 5am we arrived at D’urville Monument. A very open bay, surrounded by mountains covered in snow, except for D’urville Monument that was very mountain rugged and was mostly 1 sharp cliff. We were surrounded by humpback whales this morning, some coming as close as 20 feet from the boat and blowing for air.
At 6:30am we collected gear for kayaking later that morning around 8am. We needed drysuits, pogs, dry socks, a kayak skirt, gloves, and more. We saw more leopard seals (but this time up close) penguins, birds, tons of glaciers and icebergs.
We came back in from kayaking in the snow & rain around 10:30am and jumped in the jacuzzi on the pool deck to warm up our bones.
The boat disembarked from the D’urville Monument area and we explored through Active Sound, where we were surrounded by glaciers in a thin channel. This might have been the most beautiful scenery we saw all trip long. The boat couldn’t move quickly as the channel really was packed with ice and the captain had to navegate carefully.
Day 6
High of 30 degrees, low of 28
Woke up around 7am hoping for good weather to explore for the day. We arrived at Orne Harbor and saw more humpback whales all around us.
We left the boat around 9am on a zodiac and got to the base of a mini hike to the top of a penguin colony. The hike was 130 meters up, zig zagging up a mountain and at the top we were rewarded with a group of 200 or so penguins, some adults and some ‘molting’ baby penguins. By the time we left that excursion drop point, the bay had filled up with pack ice and our zodiac boat could only travel out slowly without hitting large pieces of ice floating in the water. The scenery was beautiful, as the mountains surrounding were covered with snow, and the water where the mountains met the bay was also covered with ice, giving it a white glow. A whole new meaning to winter wonderland (except that we were there in the summer…).
We left Orne harbor around 11am and arrived at Damoy Point/Dorian Bay around 4pm. We got off the ship around 5pm to walk around. Right as we got off the zodiac we saw a mini shack house that was built hundreds of years ago that is used to lodge researches. Just outside of it were sporadic other packs of penguins all around. After an hour exploring the area, we hopped back on the zodiac (by walking through the ice cold water) back to the boat.
The ship left around 7pm and we traversed through the bay seeing a number of larger icebergs, but not as many packed in like before in the sound.
We ate dinner at The Rocks, the outdoor dining restaurant, bundled in our hats and coats. From there we could easily see how much the boat was rocking by watching the water in the pool slosh back and forth.
Day 7
High 30 degrees, low of 28
We arrived at Cuverville Island around 7am, disembarked from boat at 9am, had an hour to walk around the flat area. We saw whale bones, penguin bones, and even saw 2 skua birds hunting for baby penguins; one of which had luck and subsequently proceeded to feed on it right in front of us and the penguin colony it stole the baby from. It was wild to see the circle of life happening right before us.
The ship left the area around 11am and we arrived at Chiriguano Bay around 1:30pm, took a zodiac to tour around for an hour, saw more penguins, seals and whales.
The boat left in the evening around 6pm, bound for our next destination.
Day 8
High of 28, low of 21
We arrived at Portal Point around 7:30am and prepared ourselves to hop on our zodiac boat. We hiked around the area, saw a few penguins (not many), a few packs of bachelor seals and a few whales in the distance. After an hour on foot at Portal Point we headed back to the ship for lunch and took off again for Hunt Island.
The weather was good enough to kayak, so we geared up and were ready to go by 2:15pm. We saw mostly leopard seals sleeping on icebergs… even hearing one store.
After the kayak excursion, we came back to the boat to prepare for our polar plunge off the side of the boat. We waited until the line died down, went down in our robes, and then shortly after the plunge we ran up to the pool deck, hopped in the pool (which was heated a lot more than normal), then into the jacuzzi to relish in our polar plunge victory as well as warm up our bones.
We had a farewell toast on the patio with all other ship passengers and called it a night after dinner.
Day 9
High of 41, low of 39
An all day cruise north back to Chile, en route to Puerto Williams. We ate dinner with second captain, Sasha, and another couple from Brazil. After dinner we headed up to the panorama lounge and watched others sing karaoke (and Hailey also sang).
Day 10
High of 46, low of 39
Another all day cruise back north, en route to Puerto Williams, Chile.
Arrived in Puerto Williams in the late afternoon and enjoyed a night’s sleep without any rocking of the boat.
Day 11
Disembarked from Silver Wind and made our way to the airport in Chile for Cartagena, Colombia
Next time we visit, we plan to check out:
We plan to try out an expedition to Antarctica with White Desert. It’s a bit pricier, but it may have a more boutique experience and a more adventurous spirit.