30
Scenic°
Scenic Eclipse
Discover
Beyond the Antarctic Peninsula A
Venture east beyond the Antarctic Peninsula into the Weddell Sea, a wonderland of fossil fields on ice-free islands, incomprehensively vast tabular icebergs. Search for enormous colonies of Adélie penguins, delight in curious fur seals and be mesmerized by your Discovery Guide’s tales of survival by Heroic Age explorers Shackleton and Nordenskjold. Nearly half the Weddell Sea is covered by the massive, floating, Filchner-Ronne Ice Shelf, the second largest in Antarctica. Plus smaller ice shelves along the east coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, that calve huge, flat-topped icebergs some 98 feet above sea level, 393 feet below and many miles long. Powered by deep currents, they slice through fields of frozen sea ice. As you sail down the west coast of the Peninsula, thread through pack ice and narrow channels where whales feed and penguins poise, to reach beyond the Antarctic Circle at latitude 66o 33’ south. It takes a unique ship to explore these waters, and Scenic Eclipse 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 stabilizers and electronic Azipod
propulsion system enable safe navigation. The Discovery Team experts share 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, how his ship Endurance was trapped and crushed in Weddell Sea pack ice. Learn how Shackleton and five others escaped from Elephant Island and 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 luck and leadership that brought all but one of his men back alive.
D
