In January 2018 Mary and I enjoyed a most magical holiday in Antarctica "the seventh continent" with Antarctica XXI. My good friend Jamie Watts is an Expedition Leader aboard Antarctica XXI’s MV Ocean Nova and had recommended the trip to us - what a good recommendation it turned out to be.
The Antarctic continent has an almost circular shape that is centered at the South Pole with one exception in the shape of the Antarctic Peninsula that projects into the north closer to South America. So naturally the southernmost tip of South America is a good place to begin an Antarctica trip. Mary and I met our fellow Ocean Nova guests in Punta Arenas, Chile and were then flown aboard a Bae-146 to Frei Station, a Chilean Antarctic base on the west of King George island in Antarctica's South Shetland Islands. The Bae-146 is a high-wing aircraft with very short runaway requirements enabling it to safely land short on airstrips such as Frei Station's 1300 metre airstrip. After a short walk and zodiac ride, we boarded MV Ocean Nova and sailed southbound along the Antarctic Peninsula and into the majestic 11 kilometre Lemaire Channel. At its narrowest, this channel is less than 800 metres wide with towering peaks in excess of 600 metres. It can be full of icebergs and sea ice making maneuvering tricky and is a good location for spotting Crabeater, Weddell and Leopard seals resting on ice floes. Indeed on our return northwards, my only sighting of a Leopard seal was on an ice floe in this mesmerising channel.
The next day we landed on Petermann Island, home to around 500 pairs of Adélie penguins and 2000 pairs of Gentoo penguins and moving ever south, the following day we cruised in Crystal Sound, a sound between the Biscoe Islands and the Antarctic Peninsula before crossing the Antarctic Circle late that evening. This lies 66Ëš33’ south of the Equator and is the northernmost latitude in the Southern Hemisphere at which the sun can remain continuously above or below the horizon for 24 hours. The following morning we visited Detaille Island, a small island off the Northern end of the Arrowsmith Peninsula - this island was home to Station “W" of the British Antarctic Survey, a still relatively unaltered British scientific base built in the late 1950s.
Now turning north, we visited the Yalour Islands, a group of islands in the Wilhelm Archipelago and then the Ukraine’s Vernadsky Station on Galindez Island. Formerly Britain’s Faraday Station it was sold to Ukraine for one pound in 1996. In the evening we passed back through the Lemaire Channel and the next day visited Cuverville Island, home to 4800 pairs of Gentoo penguins and later on, Orne Harbour, where we saw a Chinstrap penguin colony. The following morning we landed at Robert Point in the South Shetland Islands and then prepared for our departure home the following day. It was not to be. For four days inclement weather prevented our Bae-146 from landing at Frei Station so we stayed aboard MV Ocean Nova steadily working our way through Ocean Nova’s remaining food and drink stocks while being entertained by bonus shore trips and talks.