The Traveling Widower

Tag: Icebergs

  • Antarctic Wrap-up

    December 1st, 2025

    ”Hey it’s good to be back home again”
    “Sometimes, this old house, feels like a long lost friend”
    ”Yes and hey it’s good to be back home again”
    John Denver, Back Home Again

    I finally made it home after 19 hours of flight-time collectively on three separate flights starting in Ushuaia Argentina, to Santiago Chile, to Atlanta and then finally to Sacramento. Phew. I put in a couple of miles of walking though airport terminals, waited in security and customs lines multiple times, had some pretty good meals (1st class on international flights), and managed a few solid hours of sleep for a change. It’s now Monday, and I’m pretty much back to my boring life – it’s weird being alone again after sharing this incredible experience with 130 people, many of whom knew me by name (and not just because we wore name tags). But, it’s still nice to be home, and I’m looking forward to light meals, no alcohol, and working out daily. And I already go my chipped tooth repaired! My dentist said the Lindblad physician did a great job with the temporary fix.

    With all the idle time on airplanes and airport lounges, I’ve had a lot of time to reflect on this trip, resulting in the last post on this trip – how sad. Nothing to write about for a while. 

    Overall rating – Superb/Beyond Belief/Best Ever 

    We had the cruise finale meeting the last evening at sea, where the Lindblad captain said that this had been an extraordinary trip, even from his lengthy experience in the Antarctic. We went further south, beyond the Antarctic Circle, than cruise ships normally go, and went through thick ice fields to an uncharted bay, filled with moving masses of ice…and managed to send out Zodiacs for 2 hour exploration rides through the ice, and even let the kayaks out to play (but closer to the ship), all the while the captain and bridge crew had to keep moving the Resolution to dodge icebergs (phew..quite the run-on sentence). That one day was an extraordinary experience.

    Pretty much every stop we made was a step beyond anything I’ve seen or done before. We visited four separate penguin colonies, each filled with hundreds or thousands of these amazing little critters. Just watching them waddling around, swimming and porpoising in the ocean, or stealing rocks from their neighbors nests, was a sight to behold. The scenery around each site was beyond belief. I want to come back and see the penguin chicks some day, and definitely want to see the larger penguins (King) in the South Georgia Islands. Maybe 2027 (already looking into a cruise there).

    Every outing was different, and they were not all focused on penguins. We explored an old, abandoned British research station (Station W) on the Detaille Island – it’s been maintained as a self-service museum of sorts, in pristine condition, still filled with old cans of food, games, clothing, radio equipment. And a really disgusting looking bathroom (just a wood plank with a hole in it – and the researchers had to clean it out). I forgot how many men stayed there – about 16 I think. They must have been good friends. It was an interesting stop, and we all hiked up a hill for some great views of the surrounding coastline and glaciers. 

    I’ve already described our ‘stable shore ice’ outing – that was incredible. And like most of our time in the Antarctic, there were penguins and seals flopping around. It always paid to have your phone or a camera handy since wildlife just seemed to pop up on the ice out of nowhere. Catching those images was pure luck – which I never seem to have. I did get to try out ship hauling – who knew that this was a potential career for me.

    Another stop I have not written about was Crystal Bay(not sure about the name) – this was scheduled as a Zodiac/Kayak opportunity and once again, we lucked out with perfect weather. Blue skies, little if any wind, and a perfectly flat sea. There was not much wildlife to see, other than a couple of humpback whales (fluke shot below), but cruising through the icebergs was fun – lots of interesting shapes making for good photo opportunities.

    All NatGeo/Lindblad cruises allow 24/7 access to the bridge – I’ve checked with some of the other expedition type cruise companies, and from what I can tell, you have to get permission. The bridge on the Resolution was amazing – high tech, lots of room for guests to wander around, plus there was a large observation area in front, which looked down the very unique bow of the ship. The captain gave a 2 hour presentation on the design of the ship – it is an absolutely amazing ship. The bridge though was special – you could stand behind the pilot’s “Captain Kirk” chair, and get the same view they had of the navigation and camera view screens arrayed in front, and watch as they manipulated the thrusters and engine pods with what looked like game controls. It was a tech geeks dream to watch as they maneuvered through narrow gaps in the ice flows. 

    I am truly blessed to be immune to wave motion on ships – so many of the passengers had to deal with motion sickness during the Drake Passage (both directions). I slept like a baby. The ship’s physician was extremely busy those days. For me, I kind of enjoyed the passage – there was a lot to see – Humpback and Orca whales, and flocks of sea birds. I spent a lot of time out on the observation decks during out passage to Anatactica, attempting to photograph the different Albatross and Petrels swooping around the ship. The passage back to Ushuaia was rougher, but still not too bad. The forecast was bad for the next group going out – we lucked out.

    Overall, with our bonus day for getting there early, we spent almost 6 days wandering around Antarctica, covering a large area. The ship’s path in map below, when expanded (not able to do that in the blog) looks like someone just scrawled blind-folded on the map.

    I have so many photos to curate from this trip…and a lot of videos of ocean waves, floating ice, and stumbling penguins. I might eventually do a ‘best of’ and/or a slide show, and post them. Everyone loves penguins. Plus, I get to learn something new.

    I enjoyed sharing my trip on this blog. I hope you found this interesting. Comments are always welcome.

  • Ice Everywhere

    November 24th, 2025

    This is one of those rare trips where the bar just keeps getting set higher every day in terms of how you’ve set your expectations for the potential activities of the day. It just gets better and better. I thought the two penguin colony visits would be hard to beat, but I was way wrong.

    Yesterday (Monday) was the start of our trip back North, eventually heading back through the Drake Passage to Ushuaia. The NatGeo team was hoping to visit two locations this day, both with penguin colonies, each of which offered potential opportunities for getting onshore, hiking, and maybe kayaking as well. The itinerary each day was always filled with “potentials” and “hopefull” activities. And plenty of alternatives.

    I was up early, mostly dressed with the necessary layers of clothing, and headed up for breakfast on the 8th level lounge. The weather was brisk, but clear. As we were eating and conversing, I noticed that the sea was suddenly filled with patches of small chunks of ice (referred to as brash). As we continued on, the brash patches became a continuous sheet, and larger chunks of ice were mixed in (called bergerbits….really). And then the ship started rolling – once they hit patches of ice, they had to pull in the side stabilizers which control rolling. The chunks soon turned into much larger chunks, and soon we were cruising through sizable icebergs. Bigly ones, all shapes and sizes. 

    As we approached our destination, it became obvious that we would not be hiking, penguin watching, kayaking or even Zodiak cruising. Time for Plan B. We did pass by another cruise ship, the first we’ve seen, which had cleared a small patch around the ship, and had a few Zodiacs out in the water. But there was no possible way to approach the shore.

    The Resolution captain helped to design this ship, and is an absolute expert in Antarctic navigation. The Resolution is extremely high-tech – it has four separate engine pods which can turn 360 degrees, plus there are fore and aft thrusters. The ship can literally stop on a dime, turn in any direction and remain in a stationary position using the thrusters. It also has state of the art sounding equipment, and a drone for remote navigation. So, off we went, picking out way through the ice pack, and using the drone to find the best channel out to a rarely visited bay where hopefully, we could get out and enjoy the beautiful day.

    The trip through the ice fields was incredible – most of the passengers were glued to the observation decks or lounge windows, watching the strange shaped icebergs as we slowly worked through the maze of ice. There was a constant bump and grind as ship either ran over or pushed aside the ice. It was a beautiful day to be outside as well – bright and sunny, a bit over freezing and not too much wind. Eventually, we made it to this incredible bay, surrounded by glaciers and peaks, with enough clear water for the ship to stay in position and launch the kayaks and zodiacs. The water was perfectly still..but the icebergs were all moving around. More on that in a bit. 

    I decided, for the second time, to pass on kayaking and just head out on one of the Zodiac boat tours. You see more, go further, and do not have to worry about getting an expensive camera wet. I was lucky for once to get a front seat on the pontoon side, which makes it easier to get unobstructed views for photography – no arms, heads or orange jackets in the way. It was absolutely incredible winding our way though huge icebergs, with all kinds of weird shapes, and eventually making our way to the edge of the glacier. I must have said “Wow” a hundred times. Words just cannot describe some of what we saw. 

    Navigating through this maze was a challenge since most of the icebergs are floating and moving about with the wind, tides and currents. Channels that we moved through on the way in were blocked sometimes, but there was always an alternative path to follow (although one boat was stuck for a while until the ice moved). After an hour of cruising, our boat driver began picking our way back to the ship – and this is when we started finding wildlife. Penguins of course. Some feeding on krill in the water, and a few lazing around on the icebergs.

    We also encountered a crab eater seal (they don’t really eat crabs) lazing away on an ice flow, close to the ship – nice photo op.

    Once everyone was back on board, the real fun started for the captain and bridge crew – finding a way out to the main passage. It was slow going the entire way since there was thick brash, and many larger chunks and icebergs the entire way.

    It was fun being able to stay on the bridge, watching the pilot in the Captain Kirk seat, working the controls, making minute adjustments to point the ship through narrow spaces between the icebergs. Not a good time to make a mistake. They all gave a sigh of relief when we made it to the main channel. This was a big deal for the captain and the crew – we visited an area that was uncharted, and most likely never visited by a commercial cruise liner. 

    What a great day. I’m still having a hard time coming up with the right words to describe how incredibly beautiful this place is. Unfortunately, the trip is almost over, but I’ll have a lot of really special memories engrained in my brain. I needed some recent happy memories – definitely got some from this trip