Spectacular Ross Sea: West Antarctica Cruise

Seabirds trail the vessel across limitless horizons toward Campbell Island.

Visit the sub-Antarctic New Zealand Reserve and UNESCO World Heritage Site of Campbell Island, enjoying its luxuriantly blooming vegetation. The fauna on Campbell Island is also a highlight, with a large and easily accessible colony of southern royal albatrosses on the main island. Breeding on the satellite islands are wandering, Campbell, grey-headed, black-browed, and lightmantled albatrosses. There are also three breeding penguin species present: eastern rockhopper, erect-crested and yellow-eyed penguins. In the 18th century, seals in the area were hunted to extinction, but the elephant seals, fur seals, and sea lions have since recovered.

Heading southeast to Macquarie Island, the ship is once again followed by numerous seabirds.

Macca, also known as Macquarie Island, is a Tasmanian State Reserve that in 1997 became a World Heritage Site. The Australian Antarctic Division has its permanent base on this island, which Australian sealer Frederick Hasselborough discovered while searching for new sealing grounds. The fauna on Macquarie is fantastic, and there are colonies of king, gentoo and southern rockhopper penguins, as well as almost one million breeding pairs of the endemic royal penguin. Elephant seals and various fur seal species, such as the New Zealand fur seal, are also present.

Once again enter the vast expanse of the Southern Ocean. Seabirds are prolific on this leg of the journey, especially when there is good weather conditions.

The intended route is past Sturge Island in the afternoon, getting an impression of these windswept and remote islands before crossing the Antarctic Circle.

By now, you’ve become a veteran of the high seas, if you weren’t when you started the voyage. Spend today sailing toward the Antarctic Continent.

Attempt a landing at Cape Adare where, for the first time, humans wintered on the Antarctic Continent: The Norwegian Borchgrevink stayed in here 1899, taking shelter in a hut that to this day is surrounded by the largest colony of Adélie penguins in the world.

Sailing south along the west coast of the Ross Sea, attempt a landing at the protected area of Cape Hallett and its large Adélie penguin rookery.

If sea ice permits, land at Inexpressible Island, which has a fascinating history in connection to the less-known Northern Party of Captain Scott’s expedition. It is also home to a sizable Adélie penguin rookery. The ship may also head farther south toward the impressive Drygalski Ice Tongue if ice conditions prevent entry into Terra Nova Bay.

Keeping to the Ross Sea, the aim is now to visit Ross Island to see Mount Erebus, Mount Terror, and Mount Byrd, as well as many other famous spots that played an important role in the British expeditions of the last century: Cape Royds, where Ernest Shackleton’s cabin still stands; Cape Evans, where the cabin of Robert Falcon Scott can still be seen; and Hut Point, from which Scott and his men set out for the South Pole. If ice is blocking the way but weather conditions are favorable, helicopters may be used to land in one or more spots in this area. The American scientific base of McMurdo Station and New Zealand’s Scott Base are other possible locations to visit.

To truly feel like a polar explorer, take a 6-mile hike from McMurdo Station to Castle Rock, where there are great views across the Ross Ice Shelf toward the South Pole. Additionally, hope to make a helicopter landing in Taylor Valley, one of the Dry Valleys, where conditions are closer to Mars than anywhere else on Earth.

The next goal is to enter the Ross Sea from the east, venturing south toward the Bay of Whales and close to Roosevelt Island (named in 1934 by the American aviator Richard E. Byrd for President Franklin D. Roosevelt). The Bay of Whales is part of the Ross Ice Shelf, the largest ice shelf in the world, and is constantly changing with the receding ice masses. Large icebergs are present, along with great wildlife viewing opportunities. Roald Amundsen gained access to the shelf en route to the South Pole, which he reached on December 14, 1911. Also, the Japanese explore Nobu Shirase had his camp in this area in 1912, at Kainan Bay. It’s possible to make a helicopter landing on the ice shelf if conditions allow. During this part of the voyage, the ship also crosses the International Date Line.

Sail through the Amundsen Sea, moving along and through the outer fringes of the pack ice. Ice conditions are never the same from year to year, though captain and crew aim to take advantage of the opportunities that do arise if sea ice is present. Emperor penguins, groups of seals lounging on the ice floes, orca and minke whales along the ice edge, and different species of fulmarine petrels are possible sights in this area.

Known as Peter I Øy in Norwegian, this uninhabited volcanic island in the Bellingshausen Sea was discovered by Fabian von Bellingshausen in 1821 and named after Peter the Great of Russia. The island is claimed by Norway and considered its own territory, though it is rarely visited by passenger vessels due to its exposed nature. If weather and ice conditions allow, perhaps make a helicopter landing on the glaciated northern part of the island for a unique chance to land on one of the most remote islands in the world.

Sail across the Bellingshausen Sea, bound for the Antarctic Peninsula.

Arrive at the Antarctic Peninsula near the Antarctic Circle in the afternoon. If sea ice allows it, continue through Pendleton Strait and attempt a landing at the rarely visited southern tip of Renaud Island, to see Adélie penguins and spectacular views of the icebergs in this surreal, snow-swept environment.

Over the next two days on the Drake Passage, enjoy some of the same experiences encountered by the great polar explorers who first charted these regions: cool salt breezes, rolling seas, maybe even a fin whale spouting up sea spray. After passing the Antarctic Convergence–Antarctica’s natural boundary formed when north-flowing cold waters collide with warmer sub-Antarctic seas–the ship sails in the circum-Antarctic upwelling zone. Not only does the marine life change, the avian life changes too. Wandering albatrosses, grey-headed albatrosses, black-browed albatrosses, light-mantled sooty albatrosses, cape pigeons, southern fulmars, Wilson’s storm petrels, blue petrels and Antarctic petrels are a few of the birds possibly flying overhead.

Every adventure, no matter how grand, must eventually come to an end. It’s now time to disembark in Ushuaia, reputed to be the southernmost town in the world, and return home with memories that will accompany you wherever your next adventure lies.