Antarctic Adventure Expeditions on a Tall Ship

Antarctic Expeditions on a Tall Ship

Classic Sailing offer the unique opportunity to visit the Antarctic Peninsula on a tall ship where you are the guest crew setting the sails and steering the ship. The 21 day sailing and wildlife expeditions run from November to April and cost from 5300 euros. The price is fixed in euros but the £ exchange rate is currently good so ask us for a quote in £ sterling on 01872 580022. July quote is from £4400 for the most romantic and authentic way to follow the polar explorers of a bye gone era.

No experience is needed and people from all walks of life sign up for the adventure. Three masted barque Europa has made Antarctica, South Georgia and the Southern Ocean her regular sailing ground every Southern Hemisphere Summer for many years and all her professional crew are well used to introducing novice sailors to this amazing wildlife sanctuary. The summer climate is cold but dry.

Bark Europa Antarctic Voyage Dates 2010-2011

Europa's Antarctic Sailing and Wldlife Expeditions attract a lot of interest amongst seasonal travellers, experienced sailors and eagle eyed sailing novices looking for real adventure. As soon as the dates are announced for the next season, places fill up very quickly. The 2010-2011 dates were published in December 2009 but already some voyages are filling up. There are five Antarctic voyages next winter, with approximately 40 places, and a few places remaining on the last two Antarctic expeditions this winter.

Bark Europa Antarctic Voyage Dates 2010-2011

Christmas & New Year 2011 in Antarctica on a tall ship - dream trip ?

"The Antarctic Peninsula is truly a vast unspoilt wilderness, teaming in curious wildlife, dazzling glaciers and snowfields, vertical cliffs and ice capped mountains where humans still have yet to tread."

There are many islands with towering rocky pinnacles too steep to catch snow, wide straits where Bark Europa can set square sails for a blast in the frequent strong winds and flat seas, and narrow channels between glaciers tumbling into the sea and mountain ranges dusted with the most tempting and unreachable powder snow in the world. Working outdoors as active crew on a 1912 three masted sailing ship – your body soon acclimatises to the summer temperatures, and you feel much closer to nature and gain a better understanding of the harsh but beautiful landscape.

The action packed 22 day voyage starts with albatrosses and petrels amongst the giant rollers of the Southern Ocean, crosses the Drakes Passage south of Cape Horn, passes giant icebergs and discovers whales almost on a daily basis. Once amongst the islands, fjords and wide straits along the edge of the Antarctic mainland the seas are free from ocean swell – sheltered by high mountains. the climate is one of the driest on earth and often crystal clear and sunny. Prepare to be ‘blown away’ by the wildlife. You will be escorted into every anchorage by fleets of penguins and acrobatic fur seals.

Southern Ocean in a Square Rigger

The voyage starts in Ushuaia, Argentina and Bark Europa’s professional crew will introduce you to the ship and do as much training as possible before you sail down the sheltered Beagle Channel with impressive views of the snow capped Andes mountains snow. Once you are out of the lee of Tierra del Fuego coastline the ship enters the Drakes Passage – that notorious 480 mile stretch of sea between Cape Horn and the mountain ranges of the Antarctica Peninsula - where the uninterrupted Westerlies can create some of the most impressive waves in the world but between weather systems can often be eerily calm. One moment you may have all square sails set, and then your watch is called to help shorten sail in rapidly increasing squalls. The brave join the ships crew aloft to stow sails. The wiser may leave the climb until a sunnier day amongst the islands.

Plentiful Wildlife

What is guaranteed is that you will be accompanied by many types of albatross, cape petrels, white chinned petrels and tiny Wilson’s storm petrels – soaring low over the waves and circling the ship. Europa’s wildlife guide will help you identify these impressive birds of the Southern Ocean. The sea temperature dips as you cross the Antarctic Convergence Zone and the likelihood of seeing icebergs increases and lookout duty becomes both a joy and a worry. Fortunately between 59 and 61 degrees latitude south the summer nights are short and the adrenalin of looking for looming white bergs keeps most lookouts warmer ! As the seas around Antarctica are rich in krill sightings of Humpback Whales, Fin Whales, Sperm Whales, Orcas and Commaren’s Dolphins are all likely possibilities.

Step on the Antarctic Mainland - in the wake of the polar explorers

BUY "Cold: Sailing to Antarctica" - a photographic book of Bark Europa's adventures