Losing yourself and finding everything else in Antarctica

This title came from the headline of a recent article by Bruce Northam, a writer who sailed on an Antarctica adventure with us earlier this year.

Here's a short excerpt from his article in the Long Island Pulse Magazine:

"From the moment I left the Antarctic Peninsula in 2005 and returned to the southern tip of South America ready to launch, I vowed to revisit that crystalline quartz otherworld known as the White Continent. Extremes of climate, terrain and awe found on no other continent confront all who venture here. The 1,800-mile-long Transantarctic Mountains rival the Rockies in height, but only the peaks break through the towering ice sheet. Cubic and gently sloping, sculpted icebergs larger than a tilted Empire State Building glimmer green and blue while endless undulations of glacial crest crackle and boom over mountain valleys as they fall hundreds of feet into sea water. Getting there isn’t easy via the Earth’s most torrential wave action. But this time, I arrived in style."


THE BOAT
The key distinction between the Russian-built and staffed research craft I sailed in 2005 and a 2011 expedition on the Antarctic Dream was The Dream’s dinner cruise-style dining/living room. Whereas the Russian boat’s dining hall resembled a factory mess hall with dingy portholes, The Dream’s nearly basketball court-sized dining area has an interior living room complete with couches and surrounded by 21 picture windows that provide 270-degree views of our globe’s most epic scenery. This wooden floor room reminded me—table and couches removed—of a classic dance hall. The combination of scenery, light and rocking waves inspires daydreaming.
The 270-foot Antarctic Dream, refitted for finer cruising in 2006, was initially Dutch-built as a Drake Passage/polar-specialty ship. Smaller capacity vessels like The Dream, which hosts no more than 80 passengers, can navigate shallow bays and narrow channels, allowing quick, easy Zodiac raft landings for intimate hiking connections with the terrain


Ships rolling in waves make people nap, a lot. When not napping, passengers are mellower on the boat than they’d be at home—the only problem with snoozing is possibly missing something gorgeous. Once within sight of iced land, the waves calm down. In total, we were 18 nationalities—a Chinaman painted the Chinese symbol for water, a seaworthy Dutchman told tall seagoing tales, a British chairman reflected on the horrors of doing business in Nigeria, an Italian woman cried from the beauty overload. The sort of folks undertaking such adventures are usually interesting, at least, but nothing outdid the penguins—adorable, flightless birds doing their funky walk-dance. They also run, trumpet, play tag and waddle closer to look at you. Voyagers also feel up-close encounters with fur seals, humpback whales, leopard seals and orcas.

The ship’s bridge is always open to visitors and barring ice-bashing emergencies, the captain is usually available for a chat. Someone on watch is always willing to discuss life at sea, whale watching or storm fighting, even at 3am. There’s a passenger’s bridge below that makes for a nice happy hour setting. The manageable number of passengers allows full ship access to everyone and express Zodiac landings that last two to three hours each day. Choose your adventure craft carefully: Humongous cruise ships, which are being phased out, are forced to loom far from land, making their Zodiac landings tedious and rare."

Intrigued? Visit our website to find out how you can book your very own Antarctic adventures.