EXPEDITIONS IN ANTARCTIC WATERS

This winter of 2010, the EUROPA will sail for the ninth time in the Southern waters. Five 22-day expeditions to the Antarctic Peninsula are scheduled. Voyages for the sailing and bird lovers, for photographers, artists or just nature admirers.

The expeditions will start from Ushuaia in Argentina. This most southern city in South America is located alongside the Beagle Channel. From here, the famous “Drake Passage” has to be crossed. On the way albatrosses and storm birds will accompany the ship to the Antarctic paradise.

After passing the Antarctic convergention zone, the ship sails between the icebergs to the South Shetland Islands. The animal life is overwhelming. Sea lions, seals, gulls, cormorants and petrels use the summer in Antarctica to raise their young.

In the Antarctic waters, the bark EUROPA will anchor in sheltered bays every day. The crew will bring groups ashore in the dinghies to see glaciers, mosses and lichens, seals, birds and penguin colonies. Visitors on shore will often be welcomed by thousands of different kinds of penguins. A professional guide will give information about the flora and fauna. He will explain for example where to find bird and sea elephant colonies and he will give advice about what to do to not disturb the unspoiled scenery.

The ship will sail further south. Whales, the most loyal visitor of the Southern Ocean will visit the EUROPA. On former voyages many humpback whales, minky whales and even orca’s, came curious swimming alongside the ship.

The daily program will be diverse. Every day gives new impressions.

The ice masses will get bigger more close to the mainland. Steep glaciers, walls of ice with magical shapes and surreal colours will surround the EUROPA with floating growlers where the leopard seals live on.

Next it is time to set sail to Cape Horn and leave this paradise. The last day of the voyage the ship will sail in between the chaos of islands in Tierra del Fuego. The green fjords are a significant change to the white and blue of Antarctica. These fjords are rough and populated with Magellan penguins, sea lions and rock cormorants.

But there is a time to leave the ship. Some of the sailors will be caught by the polar fever, which will never really disappear.