We woke up feeling that today would be just like yesterday (except for the amazing pilot whales): long shifts in the wind on the bridge deck, staring out at the sea and wishing very hard that those waves would turn…
A full day heading north in the Drake Passage. The conditions were less extreme than we experienced on the way south and our sea legs are now in better shape. So there were considerably fewer green faces being thrust…
So today, sadly, was our final landing of the trip. The Plancius anchored off Trinity Island at the northern end of the Gerlache Strait, surrounded by spectacular glacier amphi-theatre. Some of us had been on marine…
Today was another day of surprisingly good weather! We started off on watch early this morning, before most of the ship was awake. We didn’t see much in the way of wildlife, but the brilliant sunrise over the…
Today at sunrise Plancius slipped past the Polar Circle as an honor guard of minke whales dove elegantly alongside. We are now surrounded on all sides by the gently sunlit slopes of the “true” Antarctic, all impressive…
Today we had an early start as we travelled through the Lemaire Channel at first light. It was amazing to watch crabeater seals lounging on the ice floes and minke whales swimming in the channel as the sun rose over…
What a fantastic view to wake up to: the spectacular mountains of the Antarctic Peninsula! The day started very early for us with the mammal and bird surveys before the main activities of the day. The ship anchored at…
With our evermore tried and true sea-legs at the ready, we sailed out of the Drake’s Passage in the late morning and made our first sightings of land! Our first glimpse was of a dramatic, craggy island that rose from…
After a relatively harrowing first day in the Drake’s Passage, we spent yet another day at sea—luckily for us it was significantly calmer than the ten meter tall waves from yesterday. While still down a few members,…
Well, the “thrills of tomorrow” (see Anna’s post) hit most of the team pretty hard….. the weather out in the Drake’s Passage was atrocious with over 10m high waves. So Plancius moved back and forth in the reasonably…