The next day, the waves got bigger. We were told that the swells were reaching 18 feet. The waves were big but I really couldn’t guess how big. The swells continued relentlessly all day. As the second evening approach, the ship started to get rocked by large waves in one-two punches, i. e., a couple of large back to back swells. At lunch, one or two people got rocked completely out of their chairs and landed on the floor. The chairs are all lashed down, but they can still tilt far enough to one side or backwards to pitch the occupant out of his seat.
At dinner the second evening, the seas were the worst. I got rolled out of my chair twice as my prow facing chair tilted to the port as far as the tether allowed. I was able to land on my feet both times, but only with great difficulty. A few other folks were thrown completely out of their seats. One man whose chair faced the starboard side went out of his seat backwards and landed on the floor. Another small woman went flying out of her chair, sliding across the floor and only stopped when her head crashed into a support beam. No one was seriously hurt, however. Finally, by midday the next day, the seas began to calm as we reached the vicinity of the South Shetland Islands.
That same afternoon as we returned from a lecture on Antarctic bird life and entered our cabin, I could see through our front window an ice berg on the horizon – the first of the trip. We went outside to get a better look. We could see three or four large bergs on the starboard and as many or more on the port. We continued to pass these towers of ice for the next two hours.
In the evening, we learned that we would be making our first landing at 9:00 the next morning. The crew had already placed pairs of boots, parkas and life vests in our room for the following days adventures with the Zodiac shuttles and on shore hikes.
The staff at Adventure Life made planning my family's trip to the Galapagos Islands as easy as possible. They listened to what we were hoping to experience and made thoughtful suggestions about how to accomplish our vacation goals while meeting the needs of travelers ages 17-76! They patiently answered questions and follow up questions in the months leading up to the trip. They helped us trouble shoot and customize the trip in every way possible. The logistics involved in traveling from Boston to the Galapagos are innumerable. The Adventure Life staff helped us arrange every detail and the team they assembled in the Galapagos was tremendous. I have never done a trip this big before and after working with Adventure Life this time--would not hesitate one second in working with them again.
Jennifer Howard Schroeder
1 day ago
Kevin got right on our request and had us booked within the week
Linda Cummings
2 days ago
The info on the website was laid out very well. I did some comparisons with other tours and found Adventure Life met a lot of what I wanted in an Antarctica trip at the cheapest price. Requested a quote on Claudia contacted me right away. She answered a lot of questions the I had via email even though she offered to discuss via phone call. I’m more of an email person so appreciated how she accommodated that and answered all my questions. And when I was ready to book, she quickly got the ball rolling with getting our spots reserved on the trip my friend and I wanted. Thanks again, Claudia!
Hazel Araza
2 days ago
(1) great information on the website and throughout all the "materials." (2) Jane Packer is great: knowledgeable, responsive, takes a personal interest and tone, seems to care about the customer as a person not a sale.
Larry Bethune
2 days ago
great people doing a wonderful job to make our voyages happen.