Ushuaia, Falklands, South Georgia, Antarctica Pics
Jan 6th, 2009, 10:02 AM
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Ushuaia, Falklands, South Georgia, Antarctica Pics
Travel Log to follow one of these days.
Enjoy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtal0/s...7612221954506/
Enjoy.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/xtal0/s...7612221954506/
Jan 6th, 2009, 04:41 PM
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That is a great set of pictures, thanks very much for sharing them. We are leaving on Monday to do the same route you did, so if you have any quick pieces of advice, especially photo advice, based on your experience, I'd love to hear it! Thanks again for sharing these!
Chris
Chris
Jan 6th, 2009, 07:17 PM
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Take a neck gaiter or some other sort of face-warmer. Wind-proof gloves are more important than water-proof.
On the photos, make sure you have a hood to keep out moisture in the winds. Other than that, just take a ton of photos, and don't show people the 95% that aren't as good.
On the photos, make sure you have a hood to keep out moisture in the winds. Other than that, just take a ton of photos, and don't show people the 95% that aren't as good.
Jan 7th, 2009, 07:41 AM
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By the way, I found a really cool web site where you can track the movements of Antarctic cruise ships when they are within range of the Palmer station at the southern end of Anvers Island. Just go to www.marinetraffic.com/ais and move the map down to that part of the Antarctic Peninsula, zoom in and you will see the ships. In fact, the Multanovskiy is in the Lemaire Channel right now. The range of the system appear to cover the southern half of the Gerlache Straight, Paradise Bay, the Neumayer Channel (including the area around Port Lockroy) and down south to the Lemaire Channel. You can usually see 3-4 cruise ships at a time down there. The info is updated every 2-3 minutes.
Chris
Chris
Jan 7th, 2009, 09:47 AM
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I hope you enjoyed Multinovskiy as much as we enjoyed the sister ship, Professor Molchanov. We had cabin 505 with terrific access to the back deck.
Chris_GA_Atl - isn't the live map fun to look at ... I remember checking where Molchanov was before and after our voyage.
Chris_GA_Atl - isn't the live map fun to look at ... I remember checking where Molchanov was before and after our voyage.
Jan 7th, 2009, 08:01 PM
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I had camera envy on this trip. Well over half of the ship had serious camera equipment, with expensive bodies, crazy lenses (including super telephotos and the like), monopods, tripods, all kinds of stuff.
We opted for simple - could fit in our pockets. I used a Canon S3 (sometimes with a hood - in case of moisture/wind - and sometimes with a telephoto adapter). My spouse used a Canon A710. Both of these have almost assuredly been replaced with newer models that have more megapixels and better zooms.
We opted for simple - could fit in our pockets. I used a Canon S3 (sometimes with a hood - in case of moisture/wind - and sometimes with a telephoto adapter). My spouse used a Canon A710. Both of these have almost assuredly been replaced with newer models that have more megapixels and better zooms.
Jan 11th, 2009, 06:57 PM
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Here is our trip report, with photos. This is our "summary" of the trip, which we have on the last day of the diary:
So here's our wrap-up. We don't know if we can ever go back. First, 19 days is a really long time on a boat. Really long. Second, 19 days is a really long time on a boat. So if you're going to be on a boat for that long, what you see better be worth it. For us, it definitely was. And therein lies the rub. We hit every single landing on the trip, including South Georgia. From what we heard, this is incredibly unusual. We had rain at only one of our landings, at Salisbury Plain. It was above freezing everywhere we went, and on one of the days in Antarctica (the day we left) it was close to 50 degrees outside. We saw pretty much everything that was advertised (no crabeater seal, but everything else, including leopard seals, whales, and orcas). We had minimal seasickness (Crystal twice, Justin not at all). We had minimal sleep problems (Crystal one night, Justin not at all). The people on our boat were very nice, including the staff and guides. The food was good, especially given that everything had to keep for three weeks.
So basically, our trip went perfectly, so it was worth it. But, as far as we can tell, this is far from the norm. While boats sinking and running aground may be few and far between, there are other things that can go "wrong" that are far more common. On Anja's last cruise, the winds through the Drake Passage were 180 miles an hour, and people had to be locked in their rooms and told not to leave bed. On one we heard about when we got home, someone got sick (and eventually died), and the boat never made it to Antarctica. Then, of course, there are all those cruises where 2-4 landings at South Georgia never happen, where it rains, where it is even colder, and so on. If any of this had happened, odds are we would not have been overall satisfied.
We want to reiterate that the photos herein do not do justice to what we saw. Everyone we've showed seems to like them, but we are lukewarm. One of the reasons may be because to us, they don't capture what we saw, so we think they aren't that great. There are basically only 3 colors in Antarctica (white from the snow and ice, dark brown/black from the rock not covered in snow and ice, and blue for the water and sky). When the sun was behind a cloud, it was like looking at a black and white movie, and everything was in shades of black, white, and grey. But when the sun was out, there were blues and whites that we didn't know existed.
As far as recommendations, we have a couple. Three days in Ushuaia is probably one too many. If your cabin has a fridge, stock up on some stuff in Ushuaia (or Stanley if you're like us and don't know ahead of time). If we had to re-pack (knowing what we know now), we would have two of most things rather than three. Rubber boots with thicker, hiking type soles are a must. A face-warmer of some sort (like a ski-mask) would have been much appreciated. We never were able to keep our hands warm, so puffy ski gloves or some sort of artificial hand-warmer may be warranted. Our waterproof/windproof gear was otherwise good, and in fact is a must. For camera stuff, the wind noise on videos is almost unbearable, so be aware of that. Also, getting video from a moving ship looks as you might expect it to. Our pictures are 100x better than our video. A small (or full-size, if you have room) tripod for a video camera is highly recommended on landings because the wind keeps blowing the camera all over the place. For still shots, just take a ton and only show people your best 5%.
Oh, and Visa really is everywhere you want to be (Ushuaia, Stanley, Grytviken, Port Lockroy).
---
http://www.justinandcrystal.com/Antarctica/
So here's our wrap-up. We don't know if we can ever go back. First, 19 days is a really long time on a boat. Really long. Second, 19 days is a really long time on a boat. So if you're going to be on a boat for that long, what you see better be worth it. For us, it definitely was. And therein lies the rub. We hit every single landing on the trip, including South Georgia. From what we heard, this is incredibly unusual. We had rain at only one of our landings, at Salisbury Plain. It was above freezing everywhere we went, and on one of the days in Antarctica (the day we left) it was close to 50 degrees outside. We saw pretty much everything that was advertised (no crabeater seal, but everything else, including leopard seals, whales, and orcas). We had minimal seasickness (Crystal twice, Justin not at all). We had minimal sleep problems (Crystal one night, Justin not at all). The people on our boat were very nice, including the staff and guides. The food was good, especially given that everything had to keep for three weeks.
So basically, our trip went perfectly, so it was worth it. But, as far as we can tell, this is far from the norm. While boats sinking and running aground may be few and far between, there are other things that can go "wrong" that are far more common. On Anja's last cruise, the winds through the Drake Passage were 180 miles an hour, and people had to be locked in their rooms and told not to leave bed. On one we heard about when we got home, someone got sick (and eventually died), and the boat never made it to Antarctica. Then, of course, there are all those cruises where 2-4 landings at South Georgia never happen, where it rains, where it is even colder, and so on. If any of this had happened, odds are we would not have been overall satisfied.
We want to reiterate that the photos herein do not do justice to what we saw. Everyone we've showed seems to like them, but we are lukewarm. One of the reasons may be because to us, they don't capture what we saw, so we think they aren't that great. There are basically only 3 colors in Antarctica (white from the snow and ice, dark brown/black from the rock not covered in snow and ice, and blue for the water and sky). When the sun was behind a cloud, it was like looking at a black and white movie, and everything was in shades of black, white, and grey. But when the sun was out, there were blues and whites that we didn't know existed.
As far as recommendations, we have a couple. Three days in Ushuaia is probably one too many. If your cabin has a fridge, stock up on some stuff in Ushuaia (or Stanley if you're like us and don't know ahead of time). If we had to re-pack (knowing what we know now), we would have two of most things rather than three. Rubber boots with thicker, hiking type soles are a must. A face-warmer of some sort (like a ski-mask) would have been much appreciated. We never were able to keep our hands warm, so puffy ski gloves or some sort of artificial hand-warmer may be warranted. Our waterproof/windproof gear was otherwise good, and in fact is a must. For camera stuff, the wind noise on videos is almost unbearable, so be aware of that. Also, getting video from a moving ship looks as you might expect it to. Our pictures are 100x better than our video. A small (or full-size, if you have room) tripod for a video camera is highly recommended on landings because the wind keeps blowing the camera all over the place. For still shots, just take a ton and only show people your best 5%.
Oh, and Visa really is everywhere you want to be (Ushuaia, Stanley, Grytviken, Port Lockroy).
---
http://www.justinandcrystal.com/Antarctica/
Jan 12th, 2009, 05:12 AM
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I read your summary with interest as my husband would love a trip like this.
The photos are great but the points you made about the wind and the cold brought it home to me that I'd hate 19 days on a boat (I think 3 might be my limit LOL)
Thank you!
The photos are great but the points you made about the wind and the cold brought it home to me that I'd hate 19 days on a boat (I think 3 might be my limit LOL)
Thank you!
Jan 12th, 2009, 07:05 AM
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I would have to agree with you - 19 days on a boat is a long time. We were only aboard 11 days and were ready to go home when the time came, despite the fact that we loved our trip. We also had wind and ice situations that hindered some of the Zodiac expeditions. That being said, I wouldn't trade the experience for anything!
Jan 12th, 2009, 05:55 PM
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I just love your pictures and it makes me even happier that they were taken with a Canon S3 and not some super expensive DSLR with many even more expensive lenses. We are thinking of doing an Antarctica trip and I have a Panasonic FZ30, which I plan on using, if it is still working by then. I made your travel log into a favorite so that I can show it to my husband who needs a little encouragement for this trip. I also love all the info about packing and what you liked and didn't like, it will come in handy for our packing list.
Julie
Julie
Jan 13th, 2009, 07:39 AM
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Everyone is different. For us, 19 days on the ship exploring the southern latitudes was not nearly enough - would have turned right back and gotten on the ship had we not had to return to work 
Crystal, I'm reading your full trip report - great pictures. Just goes to show that it's not the camera but the person behind it that makes the pictures what they are.
I'm curious - who was operating the Professor? Some things are definitely different from our experience ... I didn't get the sense that you joined up as a group to board the ship. The fridge must be a new addition - we certainly did not have it on the Molchanov. I also note that you indicate you had essentially two choices for dinner, unlike the three options we had each day for lunch and dinner ... seafood, meat (beef/chicken), and vegetarian.
Back to continue reading your informative report.
Crystal, I'm reading your full trip report - great pictures. Just goes to show that it's not the camera but the person behind it that makes the pictures what they are.
I'm curious - who was operating the Professor? Some things are definitely different from our experience ... I didn't get the sense that you joined up as a group to board the ship. The fridge must be a new addition - we certainly did not have it on the Molchanov. I also note that you indicate you had essentially two choices for dinner, unlike the three options we had each day for lunch and dinner ... seafood, meat (beef/chicken), and vegetarian.
Back to continue reading your informative report.
Jan 24th, 2009, 03:11 PM
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Oceanwide Expeditions now operates the Professor Multinovskiy. We wish that we had three choices for dinner - I wouldn't have starved so much. On the flipside, I did lose a couple of kilos on the trip.
Your trip report was probably the most helpful thing for getting us ready, so we're happy that you enjoy our trip report as well.
Your trip report was probably the most helpful thing for getting us ready, so we're happy that you enjoy our trip report as well.
