This morning, enjoy breakfast and check-out. Please ensure your cabin luggage is fitted with cabin tags clearly labelled with your name and cabin number. Take your cabin luggage to hotel reception, prior to, or at check-out. Your luggage will be stored and transferred directly to the port for clearance, to be placed in your cabin ahead of your arrival on board. Please keep any valuables or personal items with you throughout the day.  

Your morning is at leisure to explore Ushuaia. 

Those wishing to join our afternoon catamaran cruise, meet back at the hotel lobby at 12.45 pm ready to transfer to the port at 1.00 pm. Here we board our catamaran and sail the Beagle Channel, towards the city’s iconic Les Eclaireurs Lighthouse. Crossing the Bridges Archipelago we’ll slow down to watch colonies of sea lions and imperial cormorants sun themselves on the rocky outcrops, while gulls, rock cormorants, skuas, petrels, albatrosses and cauquenes are often sighted. Our cruise offers panoramic views of the city and the surrounding mountain range, in addition to hearing tales of the people and communities of the region. 

Alternatively, enjoy your day at leisure and meet at your hotel lobby at 3.00 pm to be transferred to the pier for embarkation. 

Once onboard, you’ll have time to settle into your cabin before our important mandatory briefings. As the ship pulls away from port, we’ll gather on the deck to commence our adventure with spectacular views over Ushuaia and Tierra del Fuego.  

This evening get to know your fellow expeditioners and friendly expedition team and crew at a welcome dinner to celebrate the start of a thrilling adventure to Antarctica. 

As we commence the Drake Passage crossing, we make the most of our time getting comfortable with the motions of the sea. Our expedition team will help you prepare for our first landing, introducing you to important wildlife guidelines and biosecurity procedures and starting our lecture program to help you learn more about Antarctica’s history, wildlife and environment. 

Our Antarctic wildlife experiences begin as we enjoy watching and photographing the many seabirds often seen soaring around the ship, including majestic albatrosses and giant petrels following our vessel. On sea days, you can enjoy the facilities on board the vessel including the gym, sauna and jacuzzis or relax in one of the observation lounges.  

On day four the excitement is palpable as you near the South Shetland Islands and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, with everyone converging on the observation decks to spot their first iceberg. Now that you’re south of the Antarctic Convergence the ocean takes on a whole new character, as you’re surrounded by porpoising penguins and dramatic icebergs. The memory of your first iceberg sighting is likely to remain with you for a lifetime.  

Time and weather permitting, we may attempt our first Antarctic landing in the late afternoon. 

It’s almost impossible to describe the feeling of arriving in Antarctica. Stepping outside and taking a deep breath of some of the most fresh, crisp air on earth is an experience to cherish forever.  

Once you arrive, the western side of the Antarctic Peninsula and the South Shetland Islands are ours to explore.  

It was here that Nordenskjold and his team caught their first glimpses of Antarctica and made their first landings, just over one hundred years ago. After making landfall at Harmony Cove and exploring the South Shetland Islands, they continued into the Gerlache and Orleans Straits, creating the first detailed charts of these coastlines from their wooden sailboat, the Antarctic.  

Your experienced expedition team, who have made countless journeys to this area, will design your voyage from day to day, choosing the best options based on the prevailing weather, ice conditions and wildlife opportunities.  

While on the Peninsula we generally make landings or Zodiac excursions twice a day. Make sure you rug up before joining a Zodiac cruise to view spectacular ice cliffs or explore grounded icebergs, keeping an eye out for whales, seals and penguins, which frequently travel and feed in these waters. Zodiacs will also transport you from the ship to land, where you can visit penguin rookeries, discover historic sites and explore some of our favourite spots along the Peninsula.

While ashore we aim to stretch our legs, wandering along pebbly beaches or perhaps up snow-covered ridgelines to vantage points with mountains towering overhead and ice-speckled oceans below. If you have chosen an optional activity, you will have the option to do that whenever conditions allow, and of course keen polar plungers will have the chance to fully immerse themselves in polar waters - conditions permitting!  

In addition to Zodiac cruises and shore excursions, we may ship-cruise some of the narrow, dramatic straits separating offshore islands from the mainland, or linger in scenic bays to marvel at sculptural icebergs and photograph spectacular scenery. This is a great time to enjoy the observation lounge or make your way to the bridge (open at the Captain’s discretion) for uninterrupted views of Antarctica in all its splendour. Keep an ear out for the creak and deep rumble of glaciers as they break off, calving into the sea. Take a quiet moment to experience the wonder of this incredible white continent. 

Towards the Weddell Sea 

Remote and inaccessible, entry into the Weddell Sea is highly prized among polar adventurers. Your passage begins at the northernmost extreme of the Antarctic Peninsula, in the beautifully barren Antarctic Sound. In this seldom-visited part of the Peninsula volcanic peaks tower above penguin colonies, and wave-sculpted icebergs parade through the deep channels leading to the Weddell Sea.  

When Captain Carl Anton Larsen skilfully steered the Antarctic through these waters in 1902, the Swedish Antarctic Expedition became the first to transit this now-famed waterway, which is named for their vessel. Unbeknownst to him, their uneventful passage through the Antarctic Sound was a stroke of good fortune: the region has since gained the nickname ‘Iceberg Alley’ and a reputation for being frequently filled with ice driven into the sound by the powerful Weddell Gyre.  

Continuing further east, embrace the expedition spirit as you forge your way as far as possible into the Weddell Sea. The Weddell Sea is renowned for its breathtaking tabular icebergs and expansive sea ice, which attracts an abundance of wildlife, including crabeater seals, Weddell seals and an array of seabirds. Take some time out on deck to observe the flight of storm petrels, prions and Antarctic cormorants drawn here by the rich blooms of Antarctic krill that flourish in the shelter of this ice-covered sea. This part of the Weddell Sea is also a stronghold for Adelie penguins, which flourish in the presence of abundant ice and krill.  

This is the natural amphitheater where the grand drama of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition (SAE) unfolded, and sites of historical significance are scattered across the eastern shores of the Antarctic Peninsula. As you sail through these historic seas, join your expedition team in the lecture room to hear presentations on the local wildlife and geology, and the stunning story of struggle and survival behind Nordenskjold’s adventure.  

One of the great legacies of the Swedish Antarctic Expedition was the discovery of an extensive array of fossils including gastropods, large clams, and ammonites. Nordenskjold, a trained geologist, was inspired to visit the region after Captain Carl Anton Larsen discovered petrified wood on Seymour Island during an earlier Antarctic expedition in 1892. Returning to the same region, Nordenskjold collected the first samples of fossilised penguins, and discovered plant fossils from the Jurassic era. These discoveries led him to theorise that Antarctica may once have been much warmer, and covered by temperate forest with ferns and tropical plants, a view widely accepted today.  

We aim to cruise these dramatic coastlines explored by Nordenskjold and his men, and attempt to land at some of the historic locations that provided a backdrop for this incredible story of Antarctic survival. 

We leave the ice behind and re-enter the Drake Passage for our return journey to South America. 

There is still plenty of time to enjoy the magic of the Southern Ocean and the life that calls it home. Join your expedition team in the lecture room for presentations and polar film showings, or meet your fellow travellers in the bar, library or observation deck to share your experiences. Or perhaps find a quiet space to review your photos and reflect on your experience as you return to the northern world.  

As we approach the tip of South America, our Captain may sail close to legendary Cape Horn, weather and time permitting. 

We hope you become ambassadors for Antarctica and tell your family, friends and colleagues about your journey to this magical place, advocating for its conservation and preservation so that they might one day visit the region to experience what you have been lucky to see and do here. 

During the early morning, we cruise up the Beagle Channel, before quietly slipping into dock in Ushuaia, where we will be free to disembark around 8.00 am. Farewell your expedition team and fellow passengers as we all continue our onward journeys, hopefully with a newfound sense of the immense power of nature.   

On disembarkation, passengers on flights departing prior to 2.00 pm will be transferred directly to Ushuaia Airport, while those fortunate enough to be continuing their travels in this spectacular region of the world, will be transferred to their Aurora post-voyage Ushuaia accommodation. Passengers flying after 2.00 pm will have time to explore Ushuaia, prior to an afternoon airport transfer, the details of which will be provided onboard prior to disembarkation. 

Note: At the conclusion of the voyage, we do not recommend booking flights departing Ushuaia prior to 12.00 pm on the day of disembarkation in case there are delays.