For our final morning at the Canopy Tower, we returned to Pipeline Road. This time, though, the plan involved climbing an observation tower to view the rainforest canopy. The climb itself turned out to be easier than I expected. The tower swayed a little in the wind, which felt mildly unsettling, but not enough to […]
We woke to the sound of heavy rain. Not the brief tropical kind that blows through in twenty minutes, but the sort of steady downpour that settles over the rainforest and refuses to leave. Water hammered the roof hard enough that spending the morning in the open-backed birdmobile sounded considerably less adventurous than it had […]
Our transition from Antarctica to the Canopy Tower started with almost no sleep in Buenos Aires, followed by an email from Avianca informing us that our connecting flight had been cancelled. The replacement itinerary helpfully rebooked us for December 3. But it was November 29. Were we about to embark on an unplanned trip to […]
From our position in Charlotte Bay, the journey back to Ushuaia would take a little more than two days. The first day delivered the version of the Drake Passage people love talking about: the Drake Lake. Calm seas, gentle movement, and enough stability to spend time wandering the ship without bracing yourself against walls. The […]
We woke up to the ship anchored off Palaver Point, home to a large chinstrap penguin colony along the Antarctic Peninsula. After landing, we followed the marked path to the left of the beach, climbing a broad snowy slope that overlooked the colony below. From there we watched the daily routine unfold as penguins carried […]
The plan for the day involved arriving at the Lemaire Channel around sunrise. Remember how we shifted the ship’s time zones earlier in the voyage? This was a perfect example of why. I understood the strategy now. Sunrise was closer to 5 a.m. instead of 3 a.m. For reasons neither of us can explain, we […]
Andy headed up to the Panorama Lounge early that morning. The day started with Beaked Whale sightings, followed by several humpback whales surfacing among the swells. Winds pushed close to 40 knots, and the seas bounced around enough that Zodiac cruises were cancelled for the morning. For a while we simply watched whales and waves […]
With a successful mission to Snow Hill behind us, the ship turned north toward the Antarctic Peninsula. Honestly, I had focused so intensely on Snow Hill that I barely looked at the rest of the itinerary. But the plan for the following day was stand up paddleboarding in Antarctica. Assuming the weather cooperated, of course. […]
After days of uncertainty, shifting plans, and watching the weather, the opportunity to reach the Snow Hill emperor penguin colony suddenly felt very real. Neither of of could sleep, so we went up on deck to watch the sunrise. At 4:32am. Helicopter Flights to the Emperor Penguins Helicopter operations began around 7am so the expedition […]
We woke to sustained winds around 60 knots, with gusts pushing close to 70. Fun fact: A knot is a unit of speed used in aviation and maritime navigation that equals one nautical mile per hour (about 1.85 km/h or 1.15 mph). The term comes from early sailors who measured a ship’s speed by counting […]