Antarctica Cruise : Unknown Antarctica, 13 days / 12 nights
Designed as an ice-strength vessel, the Molchanov was built in 1983 as an oceanographic research ship. Since then, the ship has been transformed into a passenger vessel great for polar exploration. You will be accompanied by an excellent staff of nature and hictorical lecturers which will fill you in both on the ship and during your many landings and wildlife sightings.
Triple with Shared Facilities
Located on Deck 3 with two lower and one upper berth, a desk, a small washbasin, storage and hanging space and portholes. Shared shower and toilet facilities are conveniently located on the same deck.
During this exploration voyage we will offer landing sites that have never been offered before. Flexibility is the key-word during this thrilling expedition. As information about most of the landing sites is limited or “unknown”, the target itinerary can only mention the scheduled landing sites and some general – but very basic - information. But this can’t be a surprise, as said, this is “unknown” Antarctica. Join us for an exciting exploration voyage aboard Professor Molchanov.
Day 1 :
In the afternoon, we embark in Ushuaia, Tierra del Fuego, Argentina, the southernmost city in the world located at the Beagle Channel and sail through this scenic waterway for the rest of the evening.
Days 2 & 3 :
During these two days we will sail across the Drake Passage. When we cross the Antarctic Convergence, we arrive in the circum-Antarctic up welling zone. In this area we may meet Wandering Albatrosses, Grey Headed Albatrosses, Black-browed Albatrosses, Light-mantled Sooty Albatrosses, Cape Pigeons, Southern Fulmars, Wilson’s Storm Petrels, Blue Petrels and Antarctic Petrels.
Day 4 :
We intend to explore Low Island, an island 9 miles long and 5 miles wide, situated ca. 14 miles south east of Smith Island, in the South Shetland Islands. As the name already suspects, the island has a low elevation and is inconspicuous. The island was known to sealers as early as the beginning of the 19th century.
Day 5 :
We will sail along the Wright Ice Piedmont at the Antarctic Continent at Graham Land, mapped in the fifties of the last century based on photographs taken in 1955-57. The piedmont was named after the brothers Wilbur and Orville Wright who made the first flight with an aero plane in December 1903. Exploration of Roe Island, an island lying in the entrance of the Curtiss Bay, just about 2 miles west of Graham Land (Antarctic continent), named after the British pioneer aircraft designer Alliott Verdon-Roe, who made aircrafts since 1908. Seaplane Point is situated a few miles of Roe Island at the Antarctic Continent. It was named in association with Curtiss Bay, after Glenn Curtiss, an American engineer who pioneered sea-planes from 1911.
Day 6 :
We stay on the west coast of Graham Land and reach Valdivia Point, named after the German ship “Valdivia”, by the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of Nordenskjöld. Further west we will call Challenger Island and Bluff Island.
Day 7 :
We reach the western side of Brabant Island and will explore Avicenna Bay, Buls Bay and Freud Passage.
Day 8 :
At the north east cost of Anvers Island we will visit Fournier Bay, probably first sighted by a German expedition under the command of Dallmann in 1873-74, chartered by the French Antarctic expedition under Charcot (1903-05) and named after the French navy admiral Ernest Fournier. In Inverleith harbour (also on the north east coast of Anvers), we will make a landing and can spot an Antarctic Tern colony and may observe Weddell Seals.
Day 9 :
We will explore the Flandres Bay along the west coast of Graham Land (Antarctic Continent), explored by the Belgian Antarctic Expedition in 1898 under Gerlache. The Lemaire Channel is not “unknown”, but we will sail through this channel in a different way; with zodiacs ahead of the mother vessel. We will also make a landing on Deloncle Bay in the Lemaire Channel.
Day 10 :
We make a final landing at the continent at Waddington Bay, offering a beautiful scenery and we may observe Crabeater Seals and Weddell Seals on the ice-floes and possibilities to spot Minke Whales and we sail through the French Passage, heading for Ushuaia, Argentina.
Days 11 & 12 :
We will spend two full days in the Drake Passage, where we will have a chance to see many seabirds.
Day 13 :
We arrive in the morning in Ushuaia and disembark the vessel.
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