Flexibility is the name of the game. With expedition cruising, they don’t even publish the itinerary in advance – all we really knew when booking this trip is that it involved five days on and around the Antarctic Peninsula. Depending on weather, sea and ice conditions, they have a rough plan of what to do and where to go, which usually involves a landing in the morning and a zodiac boat ride in the afternoon. You attend a briefing in the Discovery Center the evening before to find out where and when. They also warn you that Plan A is far from in the bag – if that’s a no go they’ll move on to Plan B and so on. Hence the need for a flexible attitude.
Day 1 of 5 and Plan A for us was Brown Bluff, a table like mountain with towering red-brown cliffs (red, brown and white at this time of year). Unfortunately, 30mph winds with gusts of 50mph put paid to that. We continued on into Hope Bay, with the hope it might be more sheltered and offer a landing opportunity. Nope. No hope and no Hope.
Determined to give the Venture passengers some sense of Antarctica initiation, the captain spotted some large tabular icebergs in the distance. There we found calmer waters and amazing up close views of the icebergs, giving a sense of appreciation for the power and majesty of this Great White Continent.
Back in Hope Bay for the afternoon, we learned the afternoon zodiac rides were a GO! Oh, the excitement. But then comes the practicalities. Over an hour in an open boat, exposed to the Antarctic elements… this would need more than the orange jacket treatment. This would mean serious layers. 8 to be exact (9 if you count my bra!). And that’s just on top, not including extremities. An additional 3 downstairs (4 with pants, British pants). Well, you can’t be too careful.
I waddled like Michelin man down to the wet room to add the final touch – the boots. My long johns and fleece-lined trousers were tucked into the insides of the welly-like boots, my waterproof trousers on the outside. What with this being our first trip out, things were a little slow to get moving. As we waited in line inside to board the zodiac, I was getting more than a little warm in all my layers. Like so warm, I was only stopped from peeling off clothes with rapid abandon by my oversized mittens, which prevented me from doing anything really.
Rosy-cheeked and sweating, I was relieved to finally feel the bite of the Antarctic wind that I was dressed to face as we stepped out onto the zodiac.
There were eight of us in the boat plus the driver, with Darren at the front. Whilst the wind had dropped sufficiently to be able to operate the boats, the ocean swell was still a tad spicy. Not for the faint-hearted, these boats have you perched on the inflatable sides, with nothing but a little rope to grip onto for dear life and your feet splayed for maximum balance. Meanwhile the waves rivaled class 5 rapids as they flung the frigid spray of nature’s course into our faces. Especially if you’re sat at the front (sorry Darren).
Here we were surrounded by (allegedly) 60,000 breeding pairs of Adélie penguins, and there I was torn between the elements and the experience, struggling to master the iPhone with mittens (definitely not covered in iPhone school). As a result, I have woefully few pictures from the first zodiac trip.
Lack of pictures aside, we were exhilarated by our first Antarctic expedition experience. Having quickly delayered, we were greeted with hot goulash, the perfect welcome back to the ship.
And once thawed out and revived, what better way to celebrate our first day on the Antarctic peninsula than with the classic Seabourn caviar and champagne.
