Nov 24

Nov 24 Day 06 - Crossing The Antarctic Circle

As you can see in the photo above, Antarctica is filled with impressive ice bergs. A camera cannot accurately capture the scale or the colors of these massive floating chunks. The one in the photo above is more than twice the size of our ship, and only 10%-15% of the iceberg is visible, the rest is underwater.

You can see our balcony is snowed in, so no breakfast on the balcony this morning. Our stateroom attendant, Bonny, cleaned off all of the snow when he made up our suite.

Weather and sea conditions did not allow us to make a landing this morning. So, we find ourselves at Explorer Lounge for a very interesting lecture by Nikolas Crane, the former President of the Royal Geographical Society. The lecture focused on Frank Hurley, the photographer who was onboard The Endurance during Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition.

A cruise in Antarctica almost never goes as planned. The expedition team never knows if a landing is possible until they go to the island and scope out the ice, snow and sea conditions. High winds, large chunks of ice, heavy snow or rough seas can all foil a scheduled landing.

Even a planned transit of the Lemaire Channel had to be cancelled due to ice in the channel. Instead, Marieke and the Captain have planned something very special. Silver Endeavour will sail further south and become the first ship this season to cross the Antarctic Circle.

The scenery along the way continues to impress. For lunch today, we decide to visit Arts Cafe on Deck 5. They offer a great selection of sandwiches, desserts, and a “warming dish of the day”. Today, the warming dish was Chicken Curry with Basmati Rice. That was my choice. Rickee had a ham and cheese baguette sandwich.

We love the flavored waters they offer throughout the day at Arts Cafe. The cucumber water is Rickee’s fave. I like the Strawberry water.

Guests were invited to view the bridge from the Captain’s Lounge. A large window in the lounge allows you to observe the bridge operations.

This afternoon, the call came over the ship’s PA system that we were only minutes from crossing the Antarctic Circle. All guests were invited to gear up in their parkas and head to Deck 6 forward to celebrate the event. We were greeted by waiters with Champagne, and Gluhwein.

At the exact moment the ship crossed the circle, the Captain blew the ship’s horn, everyone cheered and toasted the event. We have now crossed the Arctic Circle, Equator and Antarctic Circle by cruise ship!

As we walk to dinner this evening, there are reminders along the way that the rough seas persist. And, while Silver Endeavour is equipped with stabilizers (large wings that extend from the hull underwater to compensate for rolling motion), they cannot be used when there are large pieces of ice in the water. A 700-pound chunk of ice would do serious damage to a stabilizer. Therefore, we are experiencing more rolling motion than on a typical cruise.

When we arrive at The Grill for dinner, as you can see, we are the only ones in the restaurant. This is yet another indication that rough seas have kept guests in their suites.