Albatross over the open ocean.

Days at Sea and Life on Board Endeavour

Days at sea were spent in myriad ways: napping, eating, listening to lectures, exercising, reading, drinking, bird watching, holding on for dear life, sunbathing, whale watching, hangin' out on the bridge etc. This section of the website is an amalgam of our several days at sea, so you can get a taste of what life was like on board the MV Endeavour.

First off, eating: we definitely led the good life food-wise onboard the Endeavour. Our chef was brilliant, as was the bakery chef and all the staff. Breakfast was a buffet where you could choose from fresh fruits, cereals, meats, pancakes etc, along with a hot cereal or you could order an omelet. The wait staff were amazing at getting you and your food to the table when the ship was rolling. They must be half acrobat. Lunch was also buffet - lots of salads to choose from, usually a fish, a meat and a pasta, more fruit as well as cheese and crackers and a dessert of some kind. Dinner was full table service with a menu. Every night's selections were different, but we could always count on three choices of appetizer: soup, salad and usually a fish/seafood selection; main course: fish, meat and veggie selection every night, and dessert which was also at least three choices: something fresh baked, ice cream, or cheese and fruit plate. Everything was delicious and amazingly fresh.  We also invariably had a tea at 4:00pm which included cakes and cookies as well as sandwiches without the crusts. We were never reduced to eating penguins and seals as many explorers were.

The Endeavour also has email facilities, a small gym, a library, and a great bar. Many fine hours were spent curled up in a chair in the lounge reading a book and sipping on a bloody mary or gin and tonic. I also spent many hours on the bridge looking at charts, watching the seas roll by (really roll by) and chatting with the officers. There is an open bridge policy on this ship which makes it very nice to spend some quality time with the captain and crew getting know them and what their jobs are. We also spent plenty of time watching the birds and looking out for whales.

When we weren't busy entertaining ourselves, the natural history staff provided lectures and videos for us.  Click here for the list of lectures. This is one of the ways that Lindblad separates itself from other travel companies: the depth and breadth of the knowledge of its staff. In addition to the talks and videos, we also saw underwater video shot by our onboard divers (yes, diving in Antarctica!), our remotely operated tethered camera (ROV), and on this trip by the deep-sea rope camera operated and deployed by Emory Kristoff and Mike Cole from National Geographic. We dropped this camera several times in water up to one mile deep, and then managed to get it back. This is groundbreaking work and we were excited to be a part of it.

The Drake Passage can be one of the roughest stretches of sea in the world. In this regard we were a little lucky - the seas were only 20-40 feet, and the wind usually stayed below 50 knots. We did record a high wind of 100 knots at one point. The ship is just under 300 feet long, and the bridge deck sits at about 30 feet above water. Small boat for big seas. The crew rated our crossing about a 6 on a scale of 10 that they had endured. The return trip (Falklands to Ushuaia) was actually calm and sunny, and this stretch can be VERY treacherous. See the article about rogue waves: click here. The Caledonian Star mentioned is the Endeavour. Her name was changed in June of 2001. 1 meter = 3.3 feet.

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