For Kavey
 

I know this isn't the SA or Cruise forum, but I figured you'd see this the quickest on this forum.

How was your Antarctica trip? Will you be posting a short trip report?

Hello!
It was good, though not as good as last time, we had a number of letdowns, some which were beyond anyone's control (weather, passenger medical emergency) and some which weren't.
But overall, we still had a good trip and I'll definitely try and post a brief report when I can!
:D

Kavey, welcome back and I am looking forward to hearing about your trip. Thanks again for your advice in helping me get ready for our trip -- we are leaving in three weeks.

Chris

Chris, have a wonderful time!

Thanks Kavey! You and Erin gave me so much valuable information, so I feel very well prepared. Now we just need the weather and the animals to cooperate ...

Chris

Yeah, we were unluckier with weather on this trip than our last. We couldn't land at the Falklands (we only had one day there anyway as some of the usual time there had been sacrificed in order to give more days in South Georgia). South Georgia was excellent but with some wet, snowy, haily periods. Great landings though. And then we had a passenger medical emergency requiring air evacuation. We hotfooted it up to a Chilean base from where she could be flown out, but the time lost meant we never got back down to be able to land on the mainland of the Antarctic Peninsula, though we did visit Paulet Island and Half Moon Island, and cruise around Deception. Sea days were numerous with some rough days, though none as rough as the worst we had last time.

Oh and I can recommend sealskinz gloves for a waterproof option that still gives some freedom of movement in your hands. But I also took rubber washing up gloves and switched to them once ashore. They don't keep you very warm, of course, but keep the worst of the wind chill and wet off, whilst allowing full control of camera!

Kavey, I am sorry to hear about your detours and weather problems. I was told that on average there are 3-5 medical evacuations from Antarctica every season, mostly issues like heart attacks (rather than injuries sustained as a result of the trip). Bad luck that one of them happened on your trip, but I hope the passenger was OK.

Chris

Unfortunately, the latest we heard was that she was still in a coma as we were flying out of Ushuaia. She was in a hospital in Chile, I think. Her family were on the way. :( I doubt we'll ever find out as she wasn't one of the passengers we got to know very well and I doubt our tour company would be permitted to give out any information at all, what with patient confidentiality. Poor woman.

Do you know what happened to trigger it? That sounds horrible.

Chris

From the little we heard, I believe it was a brain aneurism, or so they thought at one point.

That is terrible, to have something that serious happen that far away from medical care facilities.

I guess on the bright side your ship didn't run aground and have everyone taken off by a Chilean Navy vessel like what happened with the Ushuaia... or sink like the "Big Red Boat" last year ...

Glad you are home safe.

Chris

Kavey - so sorry to hear that things didn't go as well this trip - I guess the nature of expedition voyages caught up with you this time. I'm sure you made the best of the situation handed to you. Look forward to hearing more about your trip when you have time to post -- and of course, seeing some of your photos as well.

Sorry to hear about your shipmate and the medical emergency ... how horrible. We will keep her in our thoughts.

Yes, that's what we thought, how awful that such an emergency would befall her in such a remote location. And I'm not sure not one person on the ship resented our turnaround to have her evacuated. I'm sure each one of us must have been thinking, as I was, there but for the grace of...

It did hammer home QUITE how incredibly lucky we were with weather and landings the last time. We had about 2 hours of snowy blizzard weather during a zodiac cruise and the rest of our landing days were blue skies. We had rough sea days but no cancelled or cold/wet landings.

This time we had a number of cold/wet landings (still incredible) and a few hail/snow zodiac cruises (which I confess I didn't do).

But still a great trip in terms of South Georgia and some wonderful people met too.

And we had a LOVELY break in Buenos Aires at the end too.

oops, that should read:

And I'm SURE not one person on the ship resented our turnaround to have her evacuated.