Antarctica, South Georgia & the Falkland Islands
November 28, 2023
A Voyage Of Discovery On The 7th Continent And Beyond
This shows our voyage of discovery, done in a counterclockwise direction.
This chronicles our 19 day, 3508 nautical mile voyage in the southern oceans from Puerto Williams, Chile to Antarctica, South Georgia Island and the Falkland Islands aboard the M/V Silver Wind. It’s a 157 metre long ice rated ship in the Silversea fleet.
Our planned route was to be in a clockwise rotation from the southern tip of Chile ending on the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands. But because of extreme weather and sea conditions between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island, the ship’s captain and expedition leader just couldn’t justify subjecting the passengers to the 6 metre seas we would have encountered. So they made the calculated decision to run the itinerary in reverse, and cross the Drake Passage at the start. Weaving and dodging between weather fronts, it was decided to bypass the South Shetland Islands completely and go directly to the Antarctic Peninsula where we were able to spend more time than originally planned visiting its amazing sites.
Our ship nestled in nicely amongst the icebergs.
Landing at Portal Point, Antarctica. Notice the unique translucent veil of cloud resting on the mountains.
Their brilliant decision to do the expedition in this manner provided us with unparalleled days of bright sunshine and calm seas. Indeed the crossing of the Drake Passage presented us with the “Drake Lake” instead of the dreaded “Drake Shake”. The seas were under 2 metres all the way across with the ship’s stabilizers easily handling the broadside swells, and providing us with a relatively smooth crossing. Definitely better than the 6 metre seas up in the Scotia Sea between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia Island. Had we gone with the original itinerary it is unlikely that we would have had the extraordinary experience we did. Kudos to those in charge of the voyage.
Our own photos and videos will follow in the days and weeks to come, but for now please enjoy the video below. It was produced by Silver Wind’s onboard videographer, and all the footage is from our trip. It’s exactly what we saw and felt.
Truly, it was the experience of a lifetime. In the video you will see images of wildlife that look close enough for us to reach out and touch. This was in fact very much the case. Even in the albatross rookeries, we were literally inches away from the birds. It was absolutely amazing.
Antarctica 2023 Silversea Video
The full video of our expedition cruise by the Silversea videographer that documented the trip. The video was assembled in the order we were originally supposed to visit the locations, but is actually the reverse of what we did. If possible, stream the video to a large screen TV. (Video thumbnail photo by Warren Foster)
Video also available on YouTube: https://youtu.be/Iitu-hcvrOE