Expedition Cruise: Oceanwide (Ushuaia-Antarctica-Ushuaia, 2024)
I’ve long wanted to visit Antarctica but it’s expensive and difficult. In the beginning of 2024, I finally had my chance as we went on a cruise where we spent five days on the coast (and two days in each direction being seasick in the Southern Ocean).
The ship we were on was called the Hondius and it was purpose-built for this type of expedition cruise, instead of being an existing, refitted ship. The ship had 170 passengers and the goal was to get them to the shore or at least to the zodiaks as often as possible, typically two or three times a day. Considering the challenges of transporting inexperienced tourists, some of us teenagers or elderly, I was amazed at how smooth the process was.
It always started with a shipwide announcement: “Orange Team launches in fifteen minutes!” Then, if you were in the Orange Team, you ran to your cabin, pull on the spacesuit (aka your cold weather gear). In my case, this meant the rubber boots, four layers on my lower body and five layers on my upper body, hats and gloves and the lifejacket. Then we waddled stiffly through the corridors on the ship to the launching area on Deck 3 where two doors open directly from the hull into the sea.
We checked ourselves out by swiping our passenger ID cards so the crew knew we’re going to the shore. Then we waded through the decontamination pool sloshing with purple liquid and finally walked down the stairs and onto the zodiak bobbing on the waves. Once the zodiak was full, we zoomed off and in a few minutes were standing on a rock face to face with a penguin.
The locations we visited were mostly on the various islands at the Antarctic Peninsula, and we also had a chance to spend a night sleeping on the continent. Not in a tent, but in a pit dug into the snow. Apparently, it works better because the wind just blows right over it.