Antarctica
Exploring the Great White Continent
You’ll cruise across seas of glass, passing castles of ice, giant, glittering prisms riding an ink – blue sea. Here Nature’s palate creates a canvas of breathtaking color and light. A slow passage through the stunning icescapes of Lemaire Channel or Paradise Bay are experiences that cannot fail to stir your very soul. The nearly total absence of a human presence in Antarctica has fostered one of its greatest attractions: wildlife. You’ll share the landscape with dozens of unique animal species, unafraid and unperturbed by your presence: hundreds of thousands of penguins in huge, raucous rookeries; bellowing elephant seals; giant petrels, terns and skuas.
In terms of the sheer beauty and fascination of its landscapes, Antarctica is unrivaled. But equally thrilling is the sense of adventure. This remote, pristine and indomitable land demands that we visit on her own terms – as explorers. You’ll travel in the wake - and in spirit - of historic trailblazers like Sir Ernest Shackleton, Robert Falcon Scott and Roald Amundsen. Though great physical exertion is not required (and Minerva has a few more creature comforts than Shackleton’s Endurance!), this isn’t a passive destination. The very nature of the Antarctic experience means that you’ll enjoy hands – on exploration with a group of curious, energetic, like - minded fellow passengers, led by an eminent group of Antarctica naturalists, scientists, and polar historians to explain the wonders you will encounter.
But, life does, indeed, survive in Antarctica. In fact, it thrives. Rookeries of penguins that number in the tens of thousands. Birds and seals in glorious abundance. The world’s largest concentration of marine wildlife. During Antarctica’s austral spring, a miracle occurs as the continent experiences a rebirth under the ethereal glow of the Midnight Sun.
It is this astonishing phenomenon, that we invite you to witness next winter aboard Minerva. With her ice – strengthened hull designed for cruising through these waters, Minerva can carry up to 394 guests. But here in Antarctica we’ve chosen to limit her complement to a maximum of 198 guests. That’s important, since crowds reduce the number of Zodiac and shore excursions possible each day. Moreover, exploring this pristine land with Regent Seven Seas is your guarantee of the highest standards of expedition cruising in terms of comfort, safety and convenience.
Literally every moment can take your breath away. Two massive elephant bulls challenging each other over territorial rights. A wandering albatross taking flight as he lifts his enormous wings. A huge pod of humpback whales breaching the icy floes.
It is only in the past few decades that anyone but the most ardent explorer has set foot on the Great White Continent. This glacial wilderness still looms in all its purity, and except for a few scientific stations, there is little human presence here.
Crossing the Drake Passage on our way tot he rugged South Shetland Islands, our first landfall or Zodiac exploration could be Elephant Island, home to huge, raucous rookeries of chinstrap penguins. It was here in 1916 after their ship was crushed in packed ice that Sir Ernest Shackleton's crew was stranded. After 105 days huddled under two lifeboats, they were rescued by Shacleton who had sailed 800 miles in another lifeboat to get help on South Georgia Island.
Deception Island is still considered an active volcano and sailing through the narrow passage into its huge, flooded caldera is a thrilling experience. Places such as Livingston Island and Petermann Island skirting the Peninsula are more temperate than the mainland and support some grasses along with enormous numbers of chinstrap, gentoo and macaroni penguins, while the surrounding waters teem with humpback whales, elephant, fur and leopard seals.
In 1909, the dapper French explorer Dr. Jean - Baptiste Charcot brought his party to little Petermann Island. His s hip, the Pourquoi-pas?, was elaborately equipped with electric lights, a cellar of French wines, a well - stocked library and even a motor launch, hardly a surivalist's setting. And, in fact, the crew came through the winter quite handily, proof that one can enjoy the good things in life, even on an Antarctic expedition - a philosophy to which Regent Seven Seas heartily subscribes!
Sailing around the northern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, we hope to navigate the Antarctic Sound often referred to as "iceberg alley," where glaciers flow from the 10,000 - foot Foster Plateau into calm waters, and dramatic cliffs are dense with nesting cape and petrels, Antarctic blue - eyed skags, kelp gulls and Antarctic terns. Depending on weather conditions, we may land on the volcanic Paulet Island with its large rookery of over a million pairs of Adelie penguins, as well as blue - eyed cormorants and many other species. Captain Anton Larsen and his men of the Nordenskjold expedition sought refuge here in 1903, and remains of his primitive hut still stand.
The Weddell Sea on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula is famous for Shackleton's epic voyage and the great tabular icebergs, which break off and drift into the Antarctic Sound. We'll see some of these huge mountains of ice as we head for Paradise Bay on the west side of the Peninsula. We hope to land at Almirante Brown Station, and cruise through the Lemaire Channel, possibly the most famous and visually beautiful place along the Peninsula, and nicknamed "Kodak Gap."
Often described as "The Alps in mid-ocean," this spectacularly picturesque island is actually a continuation of the Andes. It was visited by Captain James Cook in 1775 and Grytviken is the final resting place for Sir Ernest Shackleton. South Georgia has more than 160 glaciers and is home to millions of seabirds including the beautiful King penguin and the enormous wandering albatross. There are abandoned whaling stations, a legacy of a less environmentally conscious era, but now elephant and fur seals can be seen on many beaches.
Arriving on the wildlife - rich shores of the Falklands, a remote and proudly British scattering of some 420 rocky islands hundreds of miles from any other land mass, visitors are struck by a sense of having reached the ends of the earth. And obviously, for the whalers and clipper ships of an earlier era that lie stranded in the shallows around Port Stanley Harbour, this was the end of their voyaging. Like the now - extinct warrah or Falklands fox, they are part of the fascinating history of the Falkand Islands, whose 1,700 or so hardy inhabitants live primarily in the friendly little capital of Port Stanley. Here brightly colored wriggley - tin roofs contrast strikingly with the grays and browns of the surrounding hills, and there are tea houses, shops, pubs and a fine museum. In the remote, rarely visited Southeast Falkland Islands, rolling hills and huge clumps of tussock grass provide a habitat for cormorants, elephant seals, sea lions and penguins.
M/S Seven Seas Voyager
M/S Seven Seas Mariner
M/S Seven Seas Navigator
M/S Paul Gauguin
Minerva
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