Seabourn Pursuit - Antarctica & South Georgia

Where this cruise calls, day by day

12 ports and 10 sea days over 21 Nights.

1. Day 1

   Ushuaia

   ArgentinaDepart

   Ushuaia sits on the Beagle Channel below the Martial range and bills itself as the world's southernmost city, which is mostly true and entirely commercial. It is the main embarkation port for Antarctic expedition ships, so the waterfront is a mix of outfitters, king crab restaurants and gangways. Passengers on round-South-America itineraries usually get a half day for the national park or a channel boat trip.

   • Tierra del Fuego National Park and Lapataia Bay
   • Beagle Channel catamaran trip to Les Eclaireurs lighthouse and the sea lion islets
   • End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo)
   • Museo del Presidio, the old prison that built the town

   Getting ashore

   Ships berth at the Muelle Comercial, a short walk from Avenida San Martin.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

2. Day 2 · At sea

3. Day 3

   Stanley

   Falkland IslandsPort

   Stanley is a few streets of brightly painted metal-roofed houses on a hillside above a natural harbour, home to most of the Falklands' population. It reads as very British — pubs, a cathedral, red phone boxes — with 1982 war memorials threaded through it. The real draw is out of town: penguin colonies on white-sand beaches an hour or more away over rough tracks.

   • Christ Church Cathedral and the whalebone arch
   • Volunteer Point king penguin colony (long 4x4 trip)
   • Bluff Cove Lagoon gentoos and its small museum
   • Gypsy Cove Magellanic penguins, walkable-ish from town

   Getting ashore

   Ships anchor in Port William or Stanley Harbour and tender in; strong winds cancel calls fairly regularly.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

4. Day 4

   Falkland Islands (West Falkland)

   Falkland IslandsPort

   West Falkland is the quieter of the two main islands — sheep farms, a handful of settlements such as Port Howard and Hill Cove, and long stretches of tussac and stone runs with nobody in them. Cruise calls here are usually to a specific settlement or to one of the offshore islands nearby rather than to a town, because there isn't one. What you get is wildlife and farm hospitality at close range.

   • Port Howard settlement and its sheep station
   • Offshore islands such as Carcass and Saunders, reached by small vessel or air
   • Black-browed albatross and rockhopper penguin colonies on the cliffs
   • Striated caracaras and Falkland steamer ducks along the shore

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac or tender landing at a settlement jetty or beach; only small expedition ships call here.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar

5. Day 5 · At sea

6. Day 6 · At sea

7. Day 7

   South Georgia

   South GeorgiaPort

   South Georgia is a 100-mile spine of glaciated mountains in the Southern Ocean, closer to Antarctica in feel than to the Falklands, and it holds the densest concentration of wildlife on any cruise itinerary. Beaches are covered in king penguins and elephant seals to the point where finding a landing spot is the problem. It is also Shackleton country — the whaling station at Grytviken is where his grave is, and where most ships raise a toast.

   • Grytviken whaling station, the museum and Shackleton's grave
   • King penguin colonies at Salisbury Plain and St Andrews Bay
   • Fur seals in the tussac, aggressive and everywhere in December
   • Wandering albatross on Prion Island (access restricted and seasonal)

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac landings only, preceded by a strict biosecurity inspection of boots and outerwear.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar (Oct-Nov for elephant seals, Dec-Jan for chicks)

8. Day 8

   South Georgia

   South GeorgiaPort

   South Georgia is a 100-mile spine of glaciated mountains in the Southern Ocean, closer to Antarctica in feel than to the Falklands, and it holds the densest concentration of wildlife on any cruise itinerary. Beaches are covered in king penguins and elephant seals to the point where finding a landing spot is the problem. It is also Shackleton country — the whaling station at Grytviken is where his grave is, and where most ships raise a toast.

   • Grytviken whaling station, the museum and Shackleton's grave
   • King penguin colonies at Salisbury Plain and St Andrews Bay
   • Fur seals in the tussac, aggressive and everywhere in December
   • Wandering albatross on Prion Island (access restricted and seasonal)

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac landings only, preceded by a strict biosecurity inspection of boots and outerwear.

   Best months

   Nov-Mar (Oct-Nov for elephant seals, Dec-Jan for chicks)

9. Day 9

   Gold Harbour, South Georgia

   South GeorgiaPort

   Gold Harbour is a short beach on South Georgia's southeast coast backed by the hanging ice of the Bertrab Glacier, and it is packed. Tens of thousands of king penguins hold the flat ground while southern elephant seals lie in heaps along the tideline, the young males sparring. Ships often schedule it for very early morning to get the low light on the glacier.

   • King penguin colony numbering in the tens of thousands
   • Southern elephant seals and Antarctic fur seals on the beach
   • The Bertrab Glacier hanging above the amphitheatre
   • Light-mantled sooty albatross on the cliffs behind

   Getting ashore

   Zodiac landing on an open beach; surf frequently makes it impossible.

   Best months

   Nov-Jan (elephant seal pups early, penguin chicks later)

10. Day 10 · At sea

11. Day 11 · At sea

12. Day 12 · At sea

13. Day 13

    Elephant Island

    AntarcticaPort

    This is where Shackleton's men landed after the Endurance sank and where 22 of them waited four and a half months under two upturned boats while he sailed for South Georgia. The island is steep, ice-covered and almost entirely inhospitable. Ships come for Point Wild, the narrow spit where the camp stood, marked by a bust of Luis Pardo, captain of the Chilean tug that finally took them off.

    • Point Wild and the Luis Pardo monument
    • Chinstrap penguins on the spit and surrounding rocks
    • Glacier fronts dropping straight into the sea
    • Fur seals along the shoreline

    Getting ashore

    Landings are effectively impossible here — ships view from the water or run a zodiac cruise if swell allows.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (Antarctic season)

14. Day 14

    Deception Island

    AntarcticaPort

    Deception is a flooded volcanic caldera in the South Shetlands, and ships sail into the crater through a gap in the wall called Neptune's Bellows that looks far too narrow from the bow. Inside is Port Foster, a black-sand harbour ringed by ash slopes. Whalers Bay holds the rusted boilers and tanks of an abandoned whaling station and the wrecked remains of a British base, all half-buried by a 1969 eruption.

    • Neptune's Bellows, the caldera entrance
    • Whalers Bay's rusting boilers, tanks and the ruins of Base B
    • Baily Head's very large chinstrap penguin colony (landing rarely possible)
    • Geothermally warmed shallows at Pendulum Cove

    Getting ashore

    The ship sails inside the caldera and passengers go ashore by zodiac; swell at the entrance sometimes cancels the call.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (Antarctic season)

15. Day 15

    Paradise Bay

    AntarcticaPort

    Whalers named this bay, and for once the name holds up — it is a sheltered basin of glacier fronts and floating brash on the peninsula's west coast. Two research stations sit on its shores, Argentina's Almirante Brown and Chile's Gonzalez Videla at Waterboat Point, and one of them is usually the excuse for a landing. Most of the time here is spent in zodiacs, drifting under ice cliffs and watching for calving.

    • Almirante Brown Station and the hill climb behind it
    • Gonzalez Videla Station at Waterboat Point, with gentoos nesting between the buildings
    • Skontorp Cove's ice cliffs and blue-eyed shag colony
    • Zodiac cruising among grounded bergs

    Getting ashore

    Zodiac landing or zodiac cruise depending on ice and swell; there is no pier.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar (Antarctic season)

16. Day 16

    Neko Harbour

    AntarcticaPort

    Neko Harbour is one of the few places where passengers set foot on the Antarctic mainland rather than an offshore island, which is why expedition leaders push hard to make it happen. There is a gentoo colony on the rocks, an Argentine refuge hut, and a hill behind the beach that gives a view over Andvord Bay. The glacier at the head of the harbour calves regularly, and staff keep everyone well up the beach because the wave that follows is not theoretical.

    • Continental landing on the Antarctic mainland
    • Gentoo penguin colony above the landing beach
    • The viewpoint climb over Andvord Bay
    • Calving face of the Neko glacier

    Getting ashore

    Zodiac landing, weather and ice permitting; landings are cancelled often.

    Best months

    Dec-Feb (chicks visible from late December)

17. Day 17

    Lemaire Channel (Scenic Cruising)

    AntarcticaPort

    A seven-mile slot between Booth Island and the Graham Land mainland, barely a mile wide at its narrowest, with cliffs going straight up on both sides. Photographers nicknamed it Kodak Gap for good reason: on a still day the water mirrors the walls and everyone is on deck. Ice frequently blocks the southern end, in which case the captain reverses out and nobody gets the picture.

    • The twin spires of Cape Renard at the northern entrance
    • Booth Island's ridgeline rising directly off the port rail
    • Crabeater seals hauled out on drifting floes
    • Reflections in the channel on a windless morning

    Getting ashore

    Scenic cruising only — no landing, and the transit is abandoned if pack ice fills the channel.

    Best months

    Dec-Feb (ice usually clears later in the season)

18. Day 18 · At sea

19. Day 19 · At sea

20. Day 20 · At sea

21. Day 21 · At sea

22. Day 22

    Ushuaia

    ArgentinaArrive

    Ushuaia sits on the Beagle Channel below the Martial range and bills itself as the world's southernmost city, which is mostly true and entirely commercial. It is the main embarkation port for Antarctic expedition ships, so the waterfront is a mix of outfitters, king crab restaurants and gangways. Passengers on round-South-America itineraries usually get a half day for the national park or a channel boat trip.

    • Tierra del Fuego National Park and Lapataia Bay
    • Beagle Channel catamaran trip to Les Eclaireurs lighthouse and the sea lion islets
    • End of the World Train (Tren del Fin del Mundo)
    • Museo del Presidio, the old prison that built the town

    Getting ashore

    Ships berth at the Muelle Comercial, a short walk from Avenida San Martin.

    Best months

    Nov-Mar