Oceanwide Expeditions

Expedition news

23-02-2010 | 3rd journey to Antarctica

Vessel: Plancius (pictures)
Date: 23-02-2010. Time: 04:00 CET
Position: 54'81S ; 68'30W.
ETA in Ushuaia: 23 February 2010!
For updates on positions click on vessel tracker here










Plancius in Antarctica, January 2010

05-02-2010 Plancius at sea to the Falkland Islands
Plancius set sail for another trip to the Antarctic after her second completed and successful voyage South. The ship is heading to the Falkland Island , then South Georgia and Antarctica.

09-02-2010 Oceanwide Expeditions staff manager, Femke, reports from Plancius

At this time we are sailing between the Falkland Islands and South Georgia.
February 5, at 06.45, we saw Plancius arriving in Ushuaia. After breakfast and checkout in the hotel, we immediately went on board so I could still meet the staff. After embarkation our journey began. February 7th we arrived at the Falkland Islands. Our first landing was Carcass Island. Unfortunately, our 2nd landing was cancelled for that day.  Plan "A " was Saunders Island where we hoped for visit to the Rockhopper colony could but due to strong winds we had to move to plan "B" and diverted course to Westpoint Island. Unfortunately, this failed too because of the weather. Because we had not seen Rockhoppers (and also our last chance) the Expedition Leader, Troels, has offered to everyone an alternative excursion for the next day. In Port Stanley we went by jeeps on an excursion to a place where Rockhoppers were nesting. So , this was great! There are still 1.5 days ahead until we arrive at South Georgia. Hopefully we will experience good weather there, so that we can implement all intended landings.

13-02-2010 Expedition Leader, Troels, reports from Plancius (12.00 CET)

"The crossing to South Georgia was good, Shag Rocks with 4-5 Right Whales at a distance. Elsehul and Right Whale Bay was out of the question with the winds we had and we opted for a new one in Rosita Harbour. Nobody ever goes there for some reason, but it turned out to be a quite nice landing with a million fur seals, few elephants, and some nice walking opportunities. At Salisbury we pulled off pre-breakfast, Prion we barely managed with the last group as the wind picked up conciderably. Grytviken in the evening and BBQ. Now we are heading for Godthul and another landing. Weather is pretty good today and swell has died down some. We have St Andrews Bay in the afternoon and that may prove difficult.....lets see how it works out."

14-02-2010 Expedition Leader, Troels, reports from Plancius (13.15 CET)
"We have had a successful trip to South Georgia this time out. Yesterday we managed Godthul and St Andrews in great weather. This morning early we did Gold Harbour in good conditions and we are now heading for Cooper Bay. A big storm is heading towards South Georgia and I am still in doubt whether we can make it in Cooper or not. It should not arrive until past midnight tonight, but the pressure has dropped the last hour or so."

Vessel: Professor Molchanov
Date: 23-02-2010. Time: 12:00 CET
Position: 54'39S ; 35'47W
ETA in Ushuaia: 02 March 2010!

Professor Molchanov is currently under charter.

Vessel: Professor Multanovskiy
Date: 23-02-2010. Time: 10:00 CET
Position: 56'41S ; 66’39W.
ETA in Ushuaia: 24 February 2010!

Professor Multanovskiy is currently under charter.

10-02-2010 Expedition Leader, Delphine, reports from Multanovskiy (02.00 CET)

"On February 7th, we were blessed with an amazing first day in sunny Antarctica! After enjoying a  lake-like Drake the previous day together with coming across a pod of fin whales, we approached Antarctica by Dallman Bay in amazing weather: no wind and sunshine over all the mountains of Anvers and Brabant islands. Even the still far away proper continent was clearly visible in the sun. After a zodiac cruise in the Melchiors islands, we met up with a group of humpack whales which offered us a fantastic and close encounter all around the ship. We then managed to keep filling the day with a landing at Cuverville island with overheated gentoo penguins, and then another landing at Danco Island getting all the way up to the top. The day was still not over and after dinner we went for a ship cruise of the scenic Neumayer channel! Next day (February 8) was just as happily packed with a landing at Port Lockroy and at Jougla Point, a ship cruise of the Lemaire channel, a zodiac cruise in Pleneau Bay with countless leopard seals and a barbecue at anchor in a fabulous bay. All of this in plain sunshine and windless again!"

11-02-2010 Expedition Leader, Delphine, reports from Multanovskiy (19.00 CET)

"the trip is still going perfectly well and the sunshine has been present all along. Due to heavy winds in Neko Harbour we moved to plan B and headed to Paradise Bay where we found gorgeous conditions and  did both a continental landing and a zodiac cruise. Then we tried to reach another bay in the afternoon but too many playful humpback whales were on our way and slowed us down! We all watched with high excitement these peaceful monsters feed and move around the ship! Still in between some whale watching we made another landing before dinner at George Point on Ronge island."

13-02-2010 Expedition Leader, Delphine, reports from Multanovskiy (16.30 CET)
"we are just rounding up this trip. It has been an amazingly successful trip, with an almost unbelievable weather! We had such a good passage across the Drake again that I took the chance to pass by Diego Ramirez islands before heading to Cape Horn. The Diegos are a kind of a "mini" Falkland and South Georgia  together in terms of abundance of fauna. We got the permission by the Chilean Authorities to do a full circumnavigation of the island, which was already awesome..."

15-02-2010 Professor Multanovskiy voyage MLT28, 14. - 24. February 2010

FEB17 Danco Island / Neko Harbor / Almirante Brown / Skontorp Cove /Paradise Bay FEB18 Paradise Bay/ Useful/Damoy Point/Dorian Bay / Goudier Island / Jougla Point
FEB19 Lemaire Channel / Pleneau Island and Hoogvard / Port Charcot / Hogvaard
FEB 20 Port Charcot / Vernadsky Station / Argentine islands/ Petermann Island
FEB 21 Whalers Bay / Aitcho Barrientos

22-02-2010 Expedition Leader, Delphine, reports from Multanovskiy (16.30 CET)

"we are currently heading back towards Ushuaia, enjoying a rather calm Drake Passage... for the moment! The last 5 days have  been incredibly packed with activities, amazement and joy! It seems so long ago now and almost so perfect that it could almost be a tale... Once upon a time a group of 46 travellers arrived in Antarctica and were soon greeted by a mother and calf humpback whale breaching out of the water several times in front of them. Just the ultimate reason to take everyone's eyes away from the majestic scenery of glaciers and mountains for a little while...  They then reached Danco island where some went for a hike to the top, others stayed with the gentoo penguins and the fur seals on the beach, another group went for their first paddle in their adventurous kayaks and a last group went ice climbing one side of the island. And the journey kept going, on a more or less Southward bound direction; In total, 10 landings, 5 zodiac cruises, 7 kayak outings,  7 ice climbing and 2 Captain Pruss' famous ship cruises, had been accomplished: Some awesome statistics that made our Antarctic tale became a true once-in-a-lifetime journey!"

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