Ross Sea With Helicopters Expedition – West
32 Days - 31 Nights
- Based on Double Occupancy
Sail to the southern parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, Peter I Island, the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas into the Ross Sea for 32D/31N Starting at $32,750.00 per person.
Sail to the southern parts of the Antarctic Peninsula, Peter I Island, the Bellingshausen and Amundsen Seas into the Ross Sea. Visiting the Ross Ice-shelf, Dry Valleys, McMurdo Station, Campbell Island and the historic huts of Scott and Shackleton.
The ice-strengthened vessel Ortelius is an excellent vessel for Polar expedition cruises in the Antarctica. Ortelius was built in Gdynia, Poland in 1989, was named Marina Svetaeva, and served as a special purpose vessel for the Russian Academy of Science.
The vessel is re-flagged and renamed Ortelius. Ortelius is classed by Lloyd’s Register in London and flies the Cyprus flag. Abraham Ortelius (1527 – 1598 was a Dutch / Flemish cartographer who published the first modern world atlas, the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum or Theatre of the World in 1570.At that time, the atlas was the most expensive book ever printed.
The vessel has the highest ice-class notation (UL1 equivalent to 1A) and is therefore very suitable to navigate in solid one-year sea ice and loose multi-year pack ice. Ortelius is a great expedition vessel for 116 passengers with lots of open-deck spaces.
The vessel is manned by 22 highly experienced international nautical crew, 19 international hotel crew, including stewardesses, 8 expedition staff in Antarctica (1 expedition leader, 1 assistant leader and 6 guides/lecturers) and 1 doctor. Ortelius offers a comfortable hotel standard, with two restaurants, a spacious observation lounge/bar with large windows, lecture room, large open deck spaces and a very large bridge, giving excellent opportunities to enjoy the scenery and wildlife.
The voyages are primarily developed to offer passengers a quality exploratory wildlife program, trying to spend as much time ashore as possible. As the number of passengers is limited to approximately 116 on the Ortelius, flexibility assures maximum wildlife opportunities. Ortelius carries 11 zodiacs of which 9 are in use and 2 on reserve. The zodiac engines are 60hp Yamaha.
All meals and excursions during the cruise are included.
Lost World Adventures itineraries can be tailor-made according to your plans and preferences: budget, hotel selections, travel dates, optional excursions, length of trip, etc.
Day 1 : Ushuaia
In the afternoon, we embark in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world located at the Beagle Channel and sail through this scenic waterway for the rest of the evening.
Days 2, 3 : Antarctica
At sea.
Day 4 : Antarctica
We arrive in the Antarctic Peninsula and in the morning sail through the spectacular Lemaire Channel and land on Pléneau Island, where fur seals may haul-out on the beaches. Gentoo Penguins, Kelp Gulls and South Polar Skuas are confirmed breeders.
Pléneau Island was first charted by the French Antarctic Expedition of 1903-05 of Jean-Baptiste Charcot and was named after his expedition’s photographer Paul Pléneau.
We will also visit Petermann Island with colonies of Adélie and Gentoo Penguins and Blue-eyed Shags. Petermann Island was named after the German geographer August Petermann who was a member of a German Expedition in 1873-74.
Day 5 : Antarctica
Sailing south through the Penola Strait, we arrive at the Fish Islands.
The small islands lying east of Flouder Island are called the Minnows, first charted by the British Graham Land Expedition (1934-37) of John Rymill. We may observe Adélie Penguins and Blue-eyed Shags among myriads of large icebergs.
We may set foot on the Continent for the first time in the stunning setting of Prospect Point.
Days 6, 7 : Bellingshausen Sea
Bellingshausen Sea, where we may see our first pack-ice.
Day 8 : Peter I Island
Peter I Island or in Norwegian Peter I Øy is an uninhabited volcanic island (19 kilometres long) in the Bellingshausen Sea.
It was discovered by Fabian von Bellingshausen in 1821 and was named after the Russian Tsar Peter I. It is claimed by Norway and considered a territory on its own.
It is very rarely visited by passenger vessels due to the exposed nature of the place. If the weather conditions allow, we are likely to attempt a helicopter landing on the glaciated northern part of the island.
Days 9-14 : Amundsen Sea
These days we sail through the Amundsen Sea along and through the outer fringes of the pack-ice, while we take advantage of the west-going Antarctic coastal current.
The sailing along and through the ice is very lively, with sightings of single straggling Emperor Penguins, groups of seals on ice-floes, and also Orca’s and Minke Whales along the ice-edge, often accompanied by different species of fulmarine petrels.
Day 15 : Ross Sea
We approach the Ross Ice Shelf, a floating mass of land-ice, with a front 30 meters high.
In the Bay of Whales at the eastern side of the shelf, close to Roosevelt Island (named by the American aviator Richard E. Byrd in 1934 for President Franklin D. Roosevelt), Roald Amundsen gained access to the Shelf and ventured to the South Pole, where he finally arrived on 14 December 1911.
Also the Japanese explorer Nobu Shirase had his camp in this area at Kainan Bay in 1912. We intend to attempt a helicopter landing on the Ross Ice Shelf if conditions allow for it.
Day 16 : Ross Sea
Along the Ross Ice Shelf we sail to the west.
Days 17-21 : Ross Sea
In the Ross Sea we intend to visit Ross Island, guarded by Mount Erebus, Mount Terror and Mount Byrd with all the famous spots which played such an important role in the dramatic British expeditions of the last century such as Cape Royds with the cabin of Ernest Shackleton.
We also intend to visit Cape Evans with the cabin of Robert Falcon Scott. From Hut Point, Scott and his men set out for the South Pole. If ice blocks access and weather conditions are otherwise favourable, we have the option to use the helicopters to offer landings in one or more places in this area.
We will further make attempts to visit the US-station McMurdo and Scott Base – the New Zealand equivalent. From McMurdo Station we may offer a substantial 10 km hike to Castle Rock were we will have a great view across the Ross Ice Shelf toward the South Pole.
We will land in by Helicopter in Taylor Valley, one of the Dry Valleys. The conditions here are the closest you get to the conditions on Mars anywhere on Planet Earth.
Days 22, 23 : Ross Sea
Sailing northward along the west coast of the Ross Sea, we pass by the Drygalski Ice Tongue and the Italian Mario Zucchelli Station in Terra Nova Bay.
Should the ice prevent us from entering Terra Nova Bay we may progress further north were we find the specially protected area of Cape Hallet with a large Adélie Penguin rookery.
Day 24 : Cape Adare
We will attempt to make a landing at Cape Adare. This is the place where people for the very first time wintered on the Antarctic Continent. The hut where the Norwegian Borchgrevink stayed in 1899 is surrounded by the largest colony of Adélie Penguins in the World.
Days 25-29 : Antarctica
Working our way through the sea-ice at the entrance of the Ross Sea and start our journey north through the Southern Ocean. Depending on weather conditions we may opt to set a course sailing by Scott Island.
Day 30 : Campbell Island
We plan to visit the sub-Antarctic New Zealand Reserve and a UNESCO World Heritage Site of Campbell Island, with a luxuriant and blooming vegetation.
The fauna on Campbell Island is fantastic with a large and easily accessible colony of Southern Royal Albatrosses on the main island and breeding Wandering, Campbell, Grey-headed, Black-browed, and Light-mantled Albatrosses on the satellite islands.
Also three penguin species, Eastern Rockhopper, Erect-Crested and Yellow-Eyed Penguins breed here. In the 18th century seals were hunted to extinction, but Elephant Seals, Fur Seals and Sea Lions have recovered.
Day 31 : Antarctica
At sea en-route to Bluff, New Zealand
Day 32 : Bluff, New Zealand
Disembark
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