All images (c) Hamish Laird

Today's weather in the Southern Ocean from the Chilean weather service

Breathtaking, Exhilarating, Awesome... Adventures You Will Never Forget.   See things you never see in everyday life. Visit places un-touched and unseen by most of mankind. Walk on the same ground the likes of Darwin and Shackleton trod.  Majestic mountains dipped in snow, crystalline  waterways, whales, seals, soaring condors and Ice-blue glaciers that shimmer like jewels. You can experience that with Victory Cruise Adventure Experiences. Let us Organize for you the Ultimate Adventure that will stay with you for the rest of your lives. What do you want to do? To walk on a fresh slab of ice just fallen from a millenniums old glacier?To sail around the famous Cape Horn and battle with nature or soak in the tranquility and solitude of the rock. Sail through fjords so flat they look like polished glass in the famous Tierra Del Fuego, surrounded by the greenest most beautiful forests Go Whale spotting in a distant, untouched part of the Earth. Share dinner with penguins or simply have an adventure that will totally blow your mind and stay with you for the rest of your life. You can do it ... today, NOW. Sound like the adventure of dreams? It is. We make your dreams real. We make it happen for you. You say when you want to go... we create the ultimate adventure for you,  designed, for you. Contact Details   What do other Adventurers think? Dear Captain Ben, What an adventure! Not only did we 'round the Horn, we doubled it, didn't we! Although we were bucking through some hefty waves with the wind moaning and the rain blowing sideways, wild horses could not have dragged any of us off the deck. The Victory did you proud, sailing through flying sea foam like the splendid Cape Horner she is. Cape Horn is one of the most dramatic places in the world. I heartily recommend this voyage to anyone who is compelled to go on a pilgrimage to the ends of the earth. Beverly Beth Morse , Austin, Texas More Testimonials here

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JOIN US FOR
THE TRIP OF A LIFETIME -

Due to a cancellation, we are now offering a rare opportunity to spend six weeks visiting South Georgia. For us, that is an ideal length of time and the best season to visit this extraordinary island - and it's twice as long as some of the other boats spend over a visit.

Join SEAL on an expedition one of our favorite spots in the world. Ice, mountains, and the most impressive wildlife anywhere. Excellent voyage for bird watchers, hill climbers, mountaineers, and sailors looking for wild cruising.

Itinerary 2007

27 October, Falkland Islands - We will meet the Lan Chile flight at Mount Pleasant Airport and bring you back to SEAL. (If you chose to come via the RAF TriStar from the UK, you will need to spend the intervening nights in a B&B in Port Stanley.)

28-29 October - Our preferred departure date is October 29, in order to give you a chance to recover from your flights and become used to living aboard the boat. However, weather dictates everything in these latitudes, so we could leave at anytime between the 28th and the 30th.

29 Oct-2 Nov - At Sea. We'll organize watches and set sail for South Georgia, a 750 mile / 1400 km voyage across the Southern Ocean, or approximately 4 days at sea. Guests are expected to stand watches and help sail the boat to the extent of their abilities. Birdwatchers in particular will enjoy their watches, as albatrosses and petrels soar around the boat.

3-15 November - During this time we will concentrate on the NW corner of South Georgia, where overwhelming concentrations of fur seals will make landing very difficult later in the month. Here, we expect to see large numbers of elephant seals - mothers, pups and battling males.

Many albatross species are beginning to nest at this time, and there may be opportunities of seeing Wandering Albatross courtship. Last year's Wandering Albatross chicks are now as large as the adults, but still a month shy of leaving the nest and learning to fly.

We will visit Grytviken, the administrative capital of South Georgia, and now the site of the South Georgia museum located in a former whaling station. Ernest Shackleton's grave is here in Grytviken, and the hills behind the whaling station make for fairly easy hill walking without any specialist climbing gear apart from stout walking boots.

16-30 November - For the second half of our visit we will explore the SE part of the island. Enormous concentrations of King Penguins are found at St. Andrew's Bay, with elephant seal harems scattered around the bay. Glaciers tumble into the sea in many places, and the mountains rise straight out of the sea to a height of nearly 10,000 feet (3000 meters). The scenery is particularly spectacular in this area, and the variety and quantity of wildlife is staggering. See Below for a list of what wildlife we may see on this voyage.

There are dozens of anchorages along this coast of South Georgia. We don't specify anchorages or dates in our itinerary; we will chose the best one at hand based on the weather at the time. Our aim is to spend one or two days at anchor for every day on the move, in order to maximize our time with the wildlife. The South Georgia government takes an active role in protecting the wildlife, and while we will endeavor to visit as many species as possible, certain areas may be closed off in the interests of protecting threatened species or colonies.

1-6 December (approx) - At Sea. In the last days of November we will begin to look for a weather window to make the sail back to Stanley. The prevailing winds in this region are from the westerly sector, so we expect to take a few extra days on the return passage. We will see numerous albatrosses and petrels on this voyage - sightings made even more remarkable, because we have now seen them in their breeding colonies in their "home port."

8 December - The Lan Chile flight returns to Chile; those taking the TriStar back to the UK will need to book accommodation in Stanley from the night of the 8th.

What's covered in the price

- These prices are for one person; you may have to share a cabin
- Food (including table wine) and lodging, aboard Seal from the 11 am on on the scheduled start day until 4 pm on the scheduled end day of the charter.
- Port fees
- Use of safety equipment, including harnesses
- Sheets, towel, pillows

What's not included

- Transportation to and from the Falklands
- Shoreside accommodation
- You must have a valid passport, visas if required, and a flexible air or sea ticket from the Falklands to your home country
- Personal medical and evacuation insurance
- Personal clothing, including foul weather gear, seaboots, sleeping bags
- Permits for any projects ashore (climbing, research, etc.)

Book a private expedition for 2008-2009:

Level: Expedition
Best Dates: November
Minimum Charter: 35 days
Best Length: 40+ days
Start/Finish: Stanley, Falkland Islands

A Wildlife Sampler

(see South Georgia Island website for more information)

Breeding Seals:

Fur Seals 4,000,000
Elephant Seals 200,000
Weddell Seal 100 (in a single colony)

Non Breeding Seals:

Leopard Seals
Crabeater seals very occasional
sub-Antarctic fur seals very occasional

Breeding Birds:

King penguin 400,000
AdÈlie penguin rare
Chinstrap penguin 6000
Gentoo penguin 105,000
Macaroni penguin 2,7000
Rockhopper penguin rare
Wandering albatross 4000
Black-browed albatross 100,000
Grey-headed albatross 80,000
Light-mantled sooty albatross 5000-7500
Southern Giant petrel 5000
Northern giant petrel 3000
Cape petrel 10,000
Snow petrel 3000
Antarctic prion 22 million
Fairy prion 1000
Blue petrel 70,000
White-chinned petrel 2 million
Wilson's storm-petrel 600,000
Black-bellied storm-petrel 10,000
Grey-backed storm-petrel rare
So Georgia diving-petrel 50,000
Diving-petrel 3.8 million
Blue-eyed, (imperial)shag 7,500
So. Georgia pintail 1,000
Yellow-billed (speckled) teal 1-10
Brown skua 2000
Kelp gull 2000
Antarctic tern 10,000
South Georgia pipit 3-4000

Non Breeding Birds:

Antarctic fulmar regular
Antarctic petrel regular
Atlantic petrel regular
Broad-billed prion regular
Grey petrel regular
Great shearwater occasional
Sooty shearwater regular
Little shearwater occasional
Black-necked swan regular
Pectoral sandpiper regular
Long-tailed skua rare

Introduced species:

reindeer
rats (a serious problem for burrowing birds)
mice

Whales:

southern right whale
blue whale
fin whale
sei whale
minke whale
humpback whale
sperm whale
south bottlenose whale
killer whale
long finned pilot whale
hourglass dolphin
spectacled porpoise

These waters held more giant whales than any other in the world until 1900 but commercial whaling nearly wiped them out. Right whales and humpbacks may be increasing in the area, but sightings are still quite rare.

Source: South Georgia Island Website