Scenic Eclipse
26 Scenic°
Discover
The Weddell Sea A
Enter the Weddell Sea, a frozen world of magic and wonder, where vast tabular icebergs take your breath away, krill-rich waters support emperor penguins and Adélie penguin colonies a hundred thousand strong. Where world-renowned fossil fields mark Antarctica’s last connection with other continents and the greatest stories of Polar survival have been born. With good reason. Nearly half the Weddell Sea is covered by the massive, floating, Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, the second largest in Antarctica, and smaller ice shelves along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula. These ice shelves calve huge, flat-topped icebergs some 98 feet above sea level, 394 feet below and many kilometers long. Powered by deep currents, they slice through fields of frozen sea ice, like icebreakers of the gods. It takes a unique ship to explore these waters and Scenic Eclipse, The World’s First Discovery Yachts™, is in a class of its own. The first to be designed and built to Polar Class 6 standards, its strengthened hull, forward bow thrusters, 50 per cent larger stabilisers and electronic Azipod propulsion system enable safe navigation. Our Polar Discovery Team specialists share their insights into the environment and history of
the region. Their expertise allows us to land in places few others have been before. Most have heard the Shackleton story, of how his ship Endurance was trapped and crushed in Weddell Sea pack ice and how he and his men escaped to Elephant Island in lifeboats. Learn how Shackleton and five others sailed from there, to South Georgia, on an epic rescue mission. Who knows the story of Otto Nordenskjold’s, Swedish Antarctic Expedition, who was here more than a decade earlier? Your Discovery Team historian will share the gripping tale of how Nordenskjold lost his support ship Antarctica to pack ice and how this started a series of events combining the hardship, coincidence, sheer good luck and leadership that brought all but one of his men back alive.
D
