Antarktistour vom 03.03. – 28.03.2025

Wir starteten in Frankfurt und drei Flüge bzw. 30 Stunden später erreichten wir Ushuaia, wo wir einen Pausentag einlegten bevor unsere Schiffsreise mit der Ocean Victory began.

Ushuaia

Ocean Victory

Unsere Kabine

Shackleton lounge

Speisesaal

Brücke

Our adventure began in the port of Ushuaia City, Tierra del Fuego Is. in Argentina. Once the last group of guests arrived and everyone made it to the ship, we were called by our Expedition Leader Mario for the first safety measures and the mandatory Safety Drill. Once finished, our
voyage commenced and we sailed out of Ushuaia making our way south towards our first destination, the South Shetland Islands.

Our Antarctic adventure officially began today as we sailed into the legendary Drake Passage. Despite its reputation for rough waters, the ocean movement was mild, making for a smooth and enjoyable first day at sea. As the day wound down, the Captain’s Welcome Cocktail in the lounge provided a festive atmosphere. We toasted to the voyage ahead while Mario shared plans for tomorrow’s destination: Half Moon Island. Weather permitting, we could look forward to a zodiac exploration or even a landing.

Schwarzbrauenalbatros

Welcome to Antarctica and South Shetland Islands. After lunch we were offered a zodiac cruise around Half Moon Island. During the cruise we saw our first Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins. We were also very lucky to spot Fur and Weddell seals on the beach and saw several species of birds, native to region, such as the Antarctic Cormorant, Brown Skua, Glaucous Gull, Wilson storm petrel with a stunning 360degree view of the mountains and glaciers of Livingston and Robert Islands.

Half Moon Island

We started the day with a visit to Palaver Point, on the western side of Two Hummock Island. As its name suggests, there was plenty of “palaver” coming from the Chinstrap Penguin colony. Most of the birds were molting adults, scattered across the rocky terrain, preening and patiently waiting for their new feathers to fully emerge.

Palaver Point, Two Hummock Island, Zügelpinguin

Zügelpinguin

After lunch, we set off for Portal Point, our first continental landing. Standing on the Antarctic
continent, it’s tempting to imagine that, in theory, one could trek all the way to the South Pole from here! For the cruising, we once again had a marvelous experience with more humpback whales, as well as the Antarctic Minke whale. The smallest and most streamlined of the rorqual whales, they are built for speed, slicing through the icy waters with remarkable agility.

Minkwal

Antarktische Halbinsel, Portal Point

And for some of us, there was an extra stroke of luck—a sighting of a leopard seal, the Peninsula’s top predator, resting on the ice, watching us with its unmistakable reptilian gaze. What an unforgettable day! Now, we’re ready for whatever tomorrow has in store for us.

Seeleopard

Portal Point

The day began with a zodiac cruise around the stunning, icy environs of Charcot Bay. Mist hung low over the towering blue glaciers, and clung to the jagged pinnacles of towering icebergs. Ice, rather fittingly for Antarctica, was the main attractor of attention during this pleasant hour of cruising.

Charcot Bay

Besides the wonder of ice, guests were also party to several sightings of fur seals, who sat upon the icebergs as kings upon thrones, gazing over their boundless realm.

Pelzrobbe

Immediately succeeding the cruising, guests were treated to a ‘polar plunge’ which involved jumping into the icy water and experiencing the clasp of the deep. After a large number of guests had braved the watery cold, it was time for a hearty lunch on board, and then onwards, to a new adventure.

Polar PlungeIn the afternoon, we arrived at the rarely visited Tower Island. As the first zodiacs wended their way into the vicinity of the island’s coast, the reason for the island’s name became starkly apparent. Great towers of stone loomed in the distance, scattered across the horizon, they cut silhouettes like skyscrapers, redolent of a busy down town city skyline, and yet gloriously devoid of financial crime. The guests on board the zodiacs enjoyed the stunning views, and visited the masses of fur seals, Gentoo, and chinstrap penguins massed along the shorelines. So ended another day in paradise.

Tower Island

Eselspinguin

Scheidenschnabel

Buckelwal

Early in the morning we sail from the Western Antarctic Peninsula through the Antarctic Sound into the Weddell Sea. It is chilly, well below 0C and we get a glimpse of Antarctic autumn weather. Brown Bluff, our landing site for the morning, is situated on the southwestern coast of the Antarctic Sound. It is another landing on the Antarctic continent and offers a spectacular scenery with a 745m high redbrown cliff which is part of a flat-topped, steep-sided volcano, also known as tuya. It erupted about 1million years ago under a 3km thick glacier und produced fine ashes which were transformed into a beige type of rock, called palagonite. Some large palagonite boulders are found at the rocky beach next to the landing site. Some of them contain dark round structures, called pillow lava. They formed when flowing lava got into contact with melt water cooling it rapidely which resulted in the spherical shape of the pillows. The volcanic cliffs are surrounded by glaciers and ice caps.
The beach and adjacent areas are crowded with Fur Seals, Skuas, Gentoo and some Adelie penguins. The latter have finished their breeding season leaving just a few moulting adults for us to see while the gentoos are in the final stages with many adult penguins changing feathers and chicks in downy plumage or freshly moulted into juvenile plumage are curiously investigating us. As the tide recedes rock pools emerge which are used by young gentoo penguins for safe swimming exercises. Caution is strongly recommended as a leopard seal waits camouflaged next to an iceberg close to the beach for unsuspecting penguins. We also have the opportunity to walk through the black and white landscape to the edge of a glacier where some of us see a large chunk of ice breaking of the ice-cliff.

Brown Bluff, Adeliepinguin Möwe

Brauner Skua

Eselpinguin

Brown Bluff

For the afternoon we want to venture further into the Weddell Sea passing large tabular icebergs on our way but are soon stopped by dense pack-ice west of Andersson Island. It is the first sea-ice we see on our trip.

Weddell Sea

We turn around and Mario comes up with a new plan: We are landing on a sea-ice floe. The Zodiacs which almost drive onto the ice drop us off seemingly on another planet. We trudge
through deep snow and admire the three-dimensional, incredibly beautiful, almost unreal ice
landscape which stretches as far as the eye can see. The ice flow is occupied by some Gentoo
penguins resting on a small ice hummock and seem to have forgotten that sea-ice is not their favorite habitat. This is as Antarctic as it gets.

Weddell Sea, Eisschollenlandung

Das Expeditions Team

We are on our way from the Weddell Sea to Elephant Island, the northeastern most outpost of the South Shetland Islands. It is a windy but sunny morning.

After lunch Ocean Victory takes us to Point Wild on Elephant Island, one of the key sites of
Shackleton’s shipwrecked Endurance expedition. Elephant Island is an ice-covered, mountainous island with a coastline of mostly inaccessible steep tidewater glaciers and cliffs. Point Wild is a small, low lying, narrow and rocky point on the north coast of the island and home to climbingadept Chinstrap penguins. The red and green bust of Captain Luis Pardo, a Chilean Navy officer, who rescued the 22 men of Shackleton`s crew after they had been stranded for 4,5 months on that small rocky point, is well visible in the sunshine at Point Wild.

Elephant Island, Point Wild, Shackleton Denkmal