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After Seward we stopped in Kodiak for the better part of the day but I did not do much, preferring to simply walk into town and wander around before walking back to the ship. My friends had chartered a seaplane to take them flying over the interior of the island in search of bears and other wildlife so they were off on that adventure for most of the day. They came back… Read More
After leaving Sitka we spent two days sailing on our way to our next stop, Valdez. The weather was a bit cloudy and rainy, which was unfortunate as one of the sailing days was into Glacier Bay to view the spectacular glacier at the north end. I had been to this area before, about ten years ago when I took my mother on an Alaskan cruise, and I was interested in seeing… Read More
The next stop on our trip was Sitka, a small town of about 9000 people. We found out later that the addition of our ship’s visitors and those of the two other (larger) cruise ships docked basically doubled the size of the town for the afternoon. Yikes! Unfortunately, but not unsurprisingly, the weather was cloudy and the rain was on-again, off-again. It was noticeably colder than Ketchikan, with the combination of cold… Read More
Our first stop of the cruise was the small city of Ketichikan, although by Alaskan standards, at a population of 14,000 it ranks in the top five most populous cities in the state. It is easy to forget how utterly huge Alaska is and how few people reside there until you are experiencing it firsthand! Like all cruise ports the downtown area, immediately adjacent to the dock has evolved into a mish-mash… Read More
Finally! On land again. Overnight the ship took position and in the morning looking out my porthole I saw a small bay and a flat sea. That meant a landing was in my future. Because of the calm sea state it was an easy zodiac trip to Westpoint Island, an island home to a whopping two people. The island was also home to a very large colony of wandering albatross. These amazing… Read More
It was December 24, the 11th day of the cruise, as we arrived early in the morning at Salisbury Plain. As soon as I woke up I went up to the lounge and the bridge to examine the beach with my binoculars. Earlier in the morning I had been startled awake by strong winds roaring past my porthole so I was doubtful of our ability to make a landing. Sure enough, when… Read More
Today’s plan was to land at Fortuna Bay home to another large king penguin colony, although not as large as the previous day’s hoard at St. Andrew’s Bay, and a sizeable fur seal population. In addition, for those interested, there was going to be an opportunity to hike across the island to Stromness Bay. The hike traced part of the route that Shackleton and his men took to reach help once they… Read More
I spent the morning on the movie set of “Happy Feet”. We landed at St. Andrews Bay, home to about 400,000 king penguins, numerous fur seals, and my favorite, a bunch of elephant seals. The density of animals was overwhelming visually, aurally and olfactorily. The staff deliberately chooses landing sites in areas that minimize the disturbance to the animals so our landing site was some distance away from the heart of the… Read More
After two days at sea we finally arrived in the early morning at South Georgia. The next four days were targeted at visiting the incredibly dense wildlife that calls the island home. According to some of my fellow passengers South Georgia is the “Serengetti of the Antarctic” and it is one of the main reasons that this particular cruise is so popular; many other Antarctic cruises go straight to the peninsula completely… Read More
We are out in the open water heading towards South Georgia from the Antarctic peninsula. Sitting in the lounge at the stern of the ship I look out the 270 degrees of windows and see nothing but water and sky. It will be another day and a half before we see land. I have always wanted to be out in the middle of the ocean on a small boat and so I… Read More
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