OTL27-24, trip log, Antarctica - Discovery and learning voyage

Having explored the beautiful sights and sounds of Ushuaia, the most southern city in the world, we began to approach the port where we saw our first glimpse of Ortelius. This ship would be our home for the next eleven days, and we were excited to embark and get to know our ship mates. Throughout the afternoon, passengers from all over the world arrived onboard and settled in their cabins. Once everyone had arrived, we began a mandatory safety briefing in the lecture room. We then practiced an abandon ship safety drill. Once that was completed, we set sail from Ushuaia out into the Beagle Channel.

We celebrated this by gathering in the bar for welcome drinks. Here we met Captain Per, and he toasted to our voyage. Expedition Leader Marcel then introduced himself and the expedition team and gave us some more information about the ship and our journey. We were then invited to a buffet dinner in the restaurant where we met the restaurant stewards. We collected our muck boots, which would keep our feet warm and dry in the snow and ice. After a busy day of travel and anticipation, we retreated to our cabins and to the bar to relax and unwind and get ready for a very exciting adventure!

Today we woke up from our first night at sea. Conditions overnight were very gentle, and everybody had a good sleep, perhaps helped by the patches or tablets used to counter seasickness or the rocking of the ship.

We got introduced to our delicious buffet breakfast, and the day passed with several briefings and lectures. This was the first chance to hear from our expedition guides. The lecture program started with Fritz presenting a talk about the birds we were likely to see in the Drake Passage and Antarctic Peninsula. Charlotte talked about the most common whales in this area and in the afternoon, Paolo introduced Antarctic Climate and what makes Antarctica the coldest, driest, and windiest continent on earth. Esther gave a very passionate and insightful account of the ‘Race to the Pole’, the pinnacle of adventures in the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration, a race between Norwegian Roald Amundsen and Englishman Robert Falcon Scott.

Today we also had our first glimpse at the wildlife in the Southern Ocean, and some of its most charismatic inhabitants made an appearance: the Wondering Albatross, world’s largest bird; the Southern-royal Albatross, Black-browed Albatross, and Grey-headed Albatross.

Our second day on the notorious Drake Passage started with another rich breakfast buffet, which most of us were able to attend. The wind had died down a bit and the ship was rocking gently, so many were dealing with the motion of the sea quite well. After breakfast we were invited to the bar for our mandatory briefings that we all needed to attend to be allowed to land in Antarctica. The first briefing consisted of a video provided by IAATO, the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators, and showed us the best practices for our behaviour on land. This introduction to the rules and regulations were put into place to protect this unique natural environment. This was followed by a Zodiac safety briefing. Our Expedition Leader Marcel emphasised the importance of always being careful around the small boats that brought us to shore and back to the ship every single day. Antarctica can be a hostile and harsh environment and we were far from any medical facility, therefore Oceanwide has set up very clear guidelines of how to behave and operate around the Zodiacs. A major rule to remember: “Sit and slide” – we finally got to practice this the next day.

Once we had all completed our compulsory briefings, we had time to relax a bit and enjoy a coffee or a hot chocolate in the bar. Some of us went up to the bridge to see if they could spot any new species of birds around the ship. And indeed, later that day we got to see a Light-Mantled Sooty Albatross, the plumage of this incredibly beautiful bird looks smooth like velvet and around its’ eyes it has a remarkable white moon-shaped patch. Before lunch we had the possibility to attend a lecture about the evolution of whales given by Jess. We learned so many new things in just about an hour! Whales are the descendants of a small, hoofed animal called the “Indohyus”. Strangely you can still see the connection with the whales’ terrestrial history in their skeleton today. They have “finger bones” in their fins and the remains of back legs are still visible.

Jess had a wonderful way of presenting this rather dry topic and made us all want to learn more about evolution and how living creatures have adapted to their environment over thousands of years. After this interesting talk, we enjoyed our lunch before we were all invited to deck 3 where we were given our rubber boots, loyal companions for snow, ice and water. We couldn’t wait to test them out. Afterwards we were invited to the bar again for our compulsory bio-security check. This meant bringing up all our outer layers, clearing all pockets, all Velcro, all backpacks to make sure that we wouldn’t introduce any foreign seeds or bacteria when going on land.

The afternoon was rounded off with a lecture given by Esther about Sealing and Whaling in Antarctica, dark chapters of Antarctic exploration. We learned how these industries evolved over the years and how many of the hunted animals were driven to near extinction. Some of the products that used to contain parts of seals or whales were very surprising. A lot of the whale oil was used for illumination, as lubricants, to produce margarine, and cosmetics. The baleen could be found in corsets, umbrellas, hats, skirts, buggy whips, or fishing rods. The soft fur of the fur seals was mainly used for coats. In the second half of the 20th century protests started to get bigger and more and more conservation efforts came into place, together with the growing lack of whales and seals, as well as the invention of alternative materials, the sealing and whaling industries slowly faded out. Esther concluded her lecture with a summary of today’s developments and gave us some inspiration about what we can do to minimize our impacts on the planet. For example: reduce, reuse, repair, recycle.

The lecture was interrupted halfway by our first giant iceberg! We finally entered real Antarctic waters. Captain Per took the time to circumnavigate the massive tabular iceberg which simply looked like a majestic piece of art.

Before dinner we were invited for our daily recap, where Marcel presented the plans for the next day: Deception Island! We couldn’t wait to finally get off the ship and really start our adventure. In the evening, we got our first views of beautiful humpback whales feeding.

Today we were woken up by Marcel at 0645 to tell us we were about to go through Neptune’s Bellows at Deception Island, South Shetland Islands. The Bellows are a 500-metre-wide gap that needs to be carefully navigated because there is a shipwreck 2.5 metres below the surface. Captain Per did a fantastic job of getting us through safely. We were all out on deck at the bow in good spirits watching as we quietly sneaked our way through this passage and passed the beautiful rock pinnacle standing tall and mighty. Today was to be our first landing of the voyage. Deception Island is an active volcano and a place with a deep dark history; it is where a whaling station was set up to slaughter many hundreds of whales from 1912 to 1931.

After a delicious breakfast of fruit, hash browns, and fried eggs, we all prepared for a landing at Telefon Bay. At 0830 the Expedition Team were already on-route to set up the landing for us and shortly afterwards we boarded the Zodiacs for our first Zodiac shuttle. We were dressed up to the eyeballs in warm gear, and it’s a good thing we did, because it started snowing! We did a fantastic walk around a crater, which certainly worked up an appetite for lunch and burned off a few calories from the last two days!

The snow was coming in, but it felt very atmospheric as we climbed higher and higher up to the viewpoint. After meandering back down, we passed a beautiful turquoise lake before boarding the Zodiacs to return to our temporary floating hot chocolate palace. We loaded up on carbs and cheese and once again donned our life jackets for our second outing this afternoon. This time we headed to Whalers Bay, the whaling station. Marcel immediately told us there was a Leopard Seal at the other end of the beach, so we walked as quickly as we could to see him. Wow, what a magnificent animal lying so peacefully in front of us, just occasionally showing us his incredibly sharp and large teeth!

We got a fantastic view over the Caldera at Neptune’s Window, and after this we walked to the other end of the beach to really witness the remains of the whaling station. It felt very eery as these huge whale oil tanks towered above us, it was very hard to imagine what it was like here 100 years ago, but we could get a sense of the life the whalers might have experienced. A few other species honoured us with their presence: two Antarctic Skuas, two Kelp Gulls with a chick, and a few Chinstrap Penguins walking like they owned the beach.

Immediately after leaving Deception Island, several Humpback Whales popped up by the ship. It is a known hot spot for them feeding, and wow they were close, fluking and showing us just how big and impressive they really are. At recap Marcel and the team informed us of the plans for tomorrow. Esther presented us with a video on the history of Deception Island, and Charlotte told us a few interesting facts about the Antarctic Seals. Dinner was another delicious one, you could sense the mood in the dining room was on top form from the loud bustling sound. What a day.

We woke up to sunny and calm weather, with the temperature steadily increasing. The day promised to be wonderful, but we had no idea just how wonderful it would be! After breakfast, which was delicious as always, we landed at Portal Point. This is a special place, as it is one of the few landings on the Antarctic mainland. We had all morning to explore the short walks and marvel at the beautiful views and weather. For many of us, this was our seventh continent. Very few people returned to the ship; everyone wanted to enjoy the wonderful weather for longer. It was getting hotter, and many people found themselves taking off layers. There were both Weddell seals and elephant seals hauled out and resting on the snow that we could observe and photograph. The views of the mountains and glaciers around us were stunning and the light was magnificent.

After lunch the expedition team took us out for a Zodiac cruise in the same vicinity where the landing took place in the morning. We went to a place called Foyn Harbour. The weather remained amazingly calm, and we first headed off to look at a shipwreck from 1915, half submerged in a small bay with the ice cap overhanging it on three sides. This was a Norwegian whaling vessel called the Governoran that was run a ground after catching fire. Since the whaling ship has long been out of action, families of Antarctic terns have moved in to build their nests there, and excellent spot to raise their chicks. We cruised along the coast, where we could see nesting Antarctic Imperial shags and stunning mini blue icebergs.

But the most interesting part of the cruise began later. First, we spotted a lone humpback whale on the other side of the harbour. Almost all the Zodiacs gathered to see this ocean giant, and for some time we watched in silence as it fed, dived, surfaced, breathed, and dived again, showing its huge tail. It is always a privilege to be in the presence of a whale, and we would have been very happy with this one encounter. But then we discovered several more groups of humpback whales. We could hear the eerie sounds of their blows echoing from the mountains and we went to investigate. Over the afternoon, we discovered around five separate pods with four to six individuals in each, all coming together to feed.

We turned off our Zodiac engines and watched the whales, holding our breath as they swam closer and closer to us. Some of them were “bubblenet” feeding. This is where they blow bubbles in a circle to confuse and contain their prey before lunging up in the middle of the bubblenet with their huge mouths, filling up their expanding throats with food and sea water. The experience was exhilarating! The action from the whales was so amazing that Expedition Leader Marcel arranged for us to stay out longer with the whales. Four hours on the Zodiac flew by as the whales wowed us, swimming under our Zodiacs, lifting their tail flukes high in the air, feeding, and vocalizing. It was a truly magical afternoon, and for many of the guides this was their closest and most special encounter with humpback whales. We returned to the ship feeling completely elated, buzzing with excitement at dinner as we compared experiences from our different Zodiac groups. What an unbelievable day in Antarctica.

Today Marcel woke us up to a beautifully sunny day and calm seas. After breakfast, Ortelius anchored in front of Danco Island and we were shuttled to shore for our landing. There were gentoo penguins nesting right on the beach. As we climbed to the top, we went from one colony to the next, stopping at the penguin highways as penguins always have the right of way. Every single colony is a little penguin city of its own, with some penguins sitting on their nests, some others relentlessly trying to steel pebbles from each other, and the rest coming and going from their colony. And there are also skuas patiently waiting for a moment of inattention in order to steal an egg or a chick. Some chicks had already hatched, and we were able to have short glimpses of them when a parent would stand up from the nest. From the upper colony, the view to the high peaks surrounding us was unbeatable. At the end of the landing, we all made our way to the beach for our polar plunge, and almost everybody did it, including some staff members.

During lunch the ship repositioned itself for our next stop, which was Orne Harbour. It was our second continental landing. We ascended a hill where on the top we found many chinstrap penguin colonies! They were still busy with hatching their eggs and building their nests out of pebbles. The view from the top was quite limited because of the fog and snow. After taking many pictures, we descended back to the landing site and went back to our ship Ortelius for a little rest before we listened to our daily recap in the bar. Fritz gave us a short presentation about chinstrap penguins and Gentoo penguins, the two star species of the day. He showed us a very entertaining video of how both these species will sometimes steal the pebbles from each other’s nest, turning to a life of crime rather than looking for them themselves. Paolo also told us the story of Emile Danco and how much of this coastline came to be named after him.

Tonight was a special dinner, the barbecue – but because of the wind and snow, we had to have it in the dining room. It was nevertheless a very nice dinner, and we started playing music and dancing in the restaurant. We then moved the party to the bar, where we had some music playing.  

Our day started with a friendly wake-up call from our Expedition Leader, Marcel. After a strong breakfast, we were ready for action. From 9 a.m. on we started embarkation with our Zodiacs and made our way to Peterman Island, a 1km-long Island with an icecap which rises to 150 m (about 492.13 ft) above sea level. The main attraction, along with a Gentoo colony, was a rookery of Adelie penguins and Blue-eyed shags. They all had chicks at that time, of different ages and sizes. Furthermore, an almost purely white Giant Petrel showed up. We spent several hours there, and it became quite chilly in the end.

There was just a short break after lunch. From 14.00 we went into the Zodiaks to start a Zodiac cruise around Pléneau Island. We started our tour by visiting a leopard seal resting on an ice flow, which Captain Per had spotted from the bridge. After that, we drove with our Zodiacs around the Island through tiny little channels which were very shallow. Our Zodiac drivers navigated the Zodiacs very well through the shallow and narrow channels between Pléneau and the neighbouring Island. Suddenly we found ourselves in a little bay partly covered with fast ice, and on and around that ice there were Weddell seals scattered all over the place.

They were sleeping and resting on the ice, a perfect spot for them to rest, safe from predators like orcas as they would not be able to enter the shallow bay. After watching them intensively, we made our way further around the Island and ended up in a huge iceberg graveyard. What a fantastic spot! Icebergs in various shapes and sizes had been pushed in here by the wind and currents and now gathered here in what felt like an ice sculpture park. Some appeared blue, but most of them were white, and the passengers and guides enjoyed looking at the patterns and shapes that had been created.

After three hours outside in the cold wind, we returned to Ortelius. Marcel told us about our plans for the next day, Charlotte talked about penguin adaptations, Galina about skuas, and Fritz introduced the Adelie penguin and the Snowy Sheathbill. All these bird species we had seen in the morning.

We were having a nice and cozy time in the bar, when suddenly we got the message from the bridge that five Orcas had been spotted in the distance. Two of them were males, recognizable by the long dorsal fin. The group of orcas were close to a humpback whale. The humpback breached, that means it jumped out of the water, showing us almost the whole body and falling back with a big splash. The Humpback did this very often and made us think that the whale had probably the intention to keep the orcas away from it by making loud noises and showing its strength.

Many of the passengers watched the orcas from the bridge, while some brave souls watched from the bow in biting cold wind. The people outside were rewarded for their resilience as one of the orcas came right over to Ortelius and swam under the bow. After this fantastic encounter, we were in very high spirits and were ready for the Open MIC night to start in the helicopter hangar of Ortelius.

At the very beginning and end, the expedition team sang a sailor's sea shanty. In between, there were 14 presentations performed by the crew and passengers, ranging from artistic shows to dancing, guitar playing, and singing performances. There was a wonderful atmosphere and we had so much fun. Our guests were thrilled to bits. Thanks to Paolo for organizing this great show! At around midnight, the show was over, and we went to bed with a big smile on our faces.

We awoke to find beautifully calm weather again! The sea was like a mirror, and we could see the distinctive shape of Cuverville Island where we would be landing in Antarctica for the final time. Cuverville is in the spectacular Gerlache Strait, where there are many penguin breeding colonies and visiting humpback whales.

As our Zodiacs shuttled us to the shore, we could see gentoo penguins porpoising and swimming in the crystal-clear water surrounded by blue icebergs. On Cuverville we found the largest of the gentoo penguin colonies in the area, and we could smell them too! We watched skuas soar over them, intimidating them and occasionally managing to swipe an egg from underneath them. Many gentoos were using the highways and bringing pebbles back to create the perfect nest. There was an option to climb higher up the hill to a very beautiful viewpoint where behind the penguins there was a backdrop to snowy mountains and stunning icebergs. Many of us enjoyed the beach while we waited for the Zodiacs to return us for lunch.

On the way back to the ship, we stumbled upon an amazing sight. A fully grown adult leopard seal was hauled out and resting on an iceberg. It was enormous. It raised its huge head to inspect us as we approached and quickly returned to resting when it realised we were just mere humans. Leopard seals can reach almost four meters long. A large part of their diet is krill, but they are famous for hunting penguins.

Once we had eaten our lunch, we then took a scenic ships cruise past Brabant Island through brilliantly calm waters, perfect conditions for spotting wildlife. At 4pm we were invited out onto the helideck for a treat. The hotel and expedition staff gave us some hot chocolate with a warming hint of rum and some cream on top. We savoured our final views of the white continent that many of us had dreamed of coming to for years. In the evening, we gathered for a recap where Fritz entertained us with facts about the record-breaking birds of the world and Esther taught us more about sustainable tourism.

After our last day of activities and the previous late night of singing, dancing, and acrobatics at the Heli hanger talent show, we had an early night after dinner, resting and mentally preparing ourselves for what might be a ‘Drake Shake’ the following day.

Our journey back into civilization had begun. This was the first morning of the trip where we didn’t get woken up by Marcel’s “Good morning, good morning, good morning”. Many of us profited from the late start and enjoyed a good sleep in. Ortelius was rocking quite a bit throughout the night and some of us struggled with the different movement of the ship.

After breakfast we were invited to the bar: the students of the Iowa State University shared some insights with us about their studies and what their highlights of the trip were. It was beautiful to see how much every one of them seems to take home from this incredible journey – a feeling that we can all relate to. A bit later, Jess gave an interesting lecture about why whales are so important for the marine ecosystem and how they can help in the fight against climate change. There’s an official terminology for the process of a whale dying and eventually sinking down to the bottom of the ocean. It’s called a “Whale Fall”. Jess illuminated the different stages of this whale fall and how hundreds of other living organisms benefit from it.

Another amazing fact we learned was that throughout their lifespan, one whale can absorb up to 33 tons of CO2! The economic importance of whales is growing and nowadays, the Whale Watching industry is economically stronger than the whaling industry has ever been. Nevertheless, cetaceans are facing many new threats, such as overfishing, chemical, noise, and physical pollution, habitat destruction, disturbance, and climate change. Jess rounded off her lecture by summarizing the extreme importance of whales and giving us some inspiration for how to actively take part in the conservation and protection of these majestic animals.

After the morning programme, we enjoyed our lunch buffet and many of us went for a little nap to catch up on some sleep. Outside, we were accompanied by some Black Browed and Grey Headed Albatross. Later, Fritz shared some experiences with us that he made during his “Inspection at the end of the world” talk. Together with colleagues from Germany and South Africa, he participated in an inspection that was aiming to assure that specific research stations act in compliance with the Antarctic Treaty. He showed us some photos of the different research stations he got to see during this journey and shared some insights about their fields of research, the logistics behind, and the operations in the remoteness of Dronning Maud Land.

In the afternoon we could enjoy a cup of coffee and some chocolate in the bar, go through our photos, read a book, talk about our experiences throughout the trip, and just relax. Pierre finished off the lecture programme for today with a very interesting talk about Humpback Whales and shared a lot of his personal experiences with these fantastic animals. Especially his amazing videos he took while doing research in different areas of the world left a deep impression.

During the recap, Hotel Manager Volodomyr had the unpleasant task to inform us about how to settle our accounts with the bar, followed by Jess who talked about citizen science and different programmes that we could participate in in order to actively contribute to science – for example, by uploading our photos of whale flukes to happywhale.com, counting walrus in the Arctic on the website “Walrus from Space”, or checking out different scientific programmes on Zooniverse. The evening was rounded off by an amazing photo slide show prepared by Tijmen, who was on the ship as photographer and videographer for the NOMAD Cruise group who have been part of this journey. Afterwards we went down to the restaurant once again to enjoy a delicious dinner. The evening ended with live music in the bar and some drinks before the Drake was slowly shaking us to sleep.

We woke up to the final full day of our adventure feeling worn out but content. It was a rocky night as Ortelius cut through 4.5-meter waves and swell. After a quiet breakfast, with many guests taking advantage of the time to rest, we watched a wandering albatross soar past the ship along with black-browed albatross and blue petrels. The weather was quite wild outside with waves spraying over the bow and sheets of horizontal hail stones hitting the port side of the ship.

Galina started the lectures with a talk about the penguin species of the world. Then at midmorning Marcel gave us some information on the other kinds of trips and itineraries OceanWide has to offer. Just before lunch, we had a pleasant surprise as Marcel announced we were sailing past Cape Horn. Cape Horn, on the Southern tip of Chile, is famous among seafarers for its gale force winds and rough seas, which over the years have claimed the lives of around twenty thousand mariners. It was an exciting and unique moment, and Paolo and Esther read us a poem on the Albatross memorial at Cape Horn.

‘I am the albatross that waits for you at the end of the world. I am the forgotten souls of dead mariners who passed Cape Horn from all the oceans of the earth. But they did not die in the furious waves. Today they sail on my wings toward eternity, in the last crack of Antarctic winds.’

– Sara Vial

After another brilliant buffet lunch, it was time to return to our trusty muck boots that had protected our feet from the cold and water for the last ten days. Then Captain Per gave us a unique opportunity to ask him questions in ‘’An Audience with Captain Per’ session in the bar. We then gathered in the bar before dinner for our final recap. We all toasted to an unbelievable voyage together with the Captains Farewell Cocktails and then viewed the beautiful slideshow of our experience, made by Charlotte and Esther.

We dined together for one final time, saying farewell to our dining room stewards and hotel staff. We retreated to our cabins to pack our belongings and get ready for disembarkation. Many of us gathered in the bar for a final evening together, chatting about our incredible experiences and exchanging details with our new friends. We also started to see distance views of the Beagle Channel and we sailed closer to Ushuaia. It was hard to believe it had only been ten days since we had last been there and begun this journey together.

We woke up to hear Marcel’s voice for a final time. All packed and ready to disembark, we headed down to have our last breakfast and say farewell to our new friends before leaving the ship. The Expedition Team waved farewell to us at the pier, and we dispersed into Ushuaia, some on route to the airport, others staying to explore Argentina. We could not have asked for a better experience, beautiful weather, spectacular views of humpback whales and orcas, three encounters with leopard seals, and a surplus of the famous penguin species, Adelie penguins, Chinstrap penguins, and Gentoo penguins. We will all remember this journey for many years. Our phones and cameras have only caught a small fraction of the scenery and wildlife that has surrounded us, and we hope that you will treasure these memories and go on to help protect the precious and unique place that is Antarctica.

Thank you for your enthusiasm and support, but most of all for joining us on this adventurous Antarctic voyage. We hope to see you in the future, wherever that might be!

Distance sailed: 1693

Nautical Miles Farthest south: 65°11.7’S / 64°07.8’W

On behalf of Oceanwide Expeditions, Captain Per Anderson Expedition Leader Marcel Paul, Hotel Manager Volodymyr Cherednychenko, all the crew, staff and pilots and engineers of M/V Ortelius, it has been a pleasure travelling with you!