Travel

he started the most incredible small boat journey ever undertaken—to South Georgia Island—to find help for his stranded crew. As we used our Instagram accounts to update everyone, let’s just say I wished Sir Ernest was watching.

Provisions: Scott and others ate pemmican (dehydrated ground meat mixed with fat). They often mixed in biscuits to prepare a dish called “hoosh.” When they ran out of that, they starved or went locavore by roasting penguins or when pushed…their dogs. Explorers’ diets were geared toward survival, not pleasure.

The legendary French chef Alain Ducasse is the culinary director for Ponant, and his imprimatur is on NUNA, one of LCC’s two restaurants. So, while viewing the ice, mountains, and wildlife from the picturesque windows in the dining rooms, one can sip vintage wine selected by the two sommeliers, eat foie gras and sweetbreads, or graze from the perpetual buffet on another deck. I did a few silent toasts to the pemmican eaters of yesteryear, imagining what they would think when our concern was about putting on weight, rather than rationing calories to last through the winter or consuming the vitamins necessary to prevent scurvy. As executive chef Florent Delfortrie explained, “Since everyone’s onboard for 12 days, our desire is to provide as varied and rich a culinary experience as possible, from a healthy vegetable-focused meal to a French fine dining one. Our chefs create traditional Indian meals too.”

The observation deck’s espresso/wine/snack bar was my go-to place. I luxuriated for hours in this beautifully decorated space, taking in my stunning surroundings.

Danger: Back then, it was understood adventurers might return with frostbite, snow blindness, or not at all. Now, save for a few very rare headlines, Antarctic travel is as safe as driving to your Auntie’s an hour away. All ships have rigid guidelines supervised by IAATO, the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators. As an LCC engineer put it, “Theirs is the baseline for ship safety and environmental care. We go way beyond their requirements. For example, we custom-engineered our own lifeboats and ice shelf survival systems. Fortunately, we’ve never had to use them because this ship is Ice Class II, built to withstand anything that could be thrown her way.”

Captain Cook’s vision was limited to his primitive telescope’s capabilities. Often, our expedition leader, the soft-spoken and intensely focused outdoor guru Steve Moir, scouted our intended landing sites by helicopter, confirming they were feasible. Since LCC goes where other ships cannot, our destinations were bespoke. Other ships often must wait their turn to get onto the ice or the continent. As we were alone and further south, the itinerary demanded a higher level of planning. Steve said Ponant’s primary goal is, “Exploration beyond expedition,” which explains the captain’s desire to see bays and inlets for the first time.

Who’s Aboard: “Rugged men of adventure with nautical skills,” mechanics, riggers, and carpenters, plus dog handlers and cooks, were the crew on explorer ships of old. They had to be tough as nails to survive the harrowing environment. Dog handling is not required of today’s LCC passengers, who can be divided into three groups.

Cruise Aficionados. They have been everywhere else (like Alaska…. three times) and want to check off a new box on their bucket list. This group is very loyal to Ponant and so were excited to be aboard a new state-of-the-art luxury ice class ship. One couple I met who love to travel explained, “Of all the trips we have ever taken, this is by far the most adventuresome. We never take ‘beaten-path’ vacations.”

Photography Buffs. Every other neck had a few thousand dollars of digital SLRs dangling from it. Cameras mounted on tripods for penguin close-ups appeared on the ice like mushrooms after a rain. Sue Flood, an award-winning BBC photographer, and her business partner Ian Dawson were the ship’s

“photo ambassadors.” They offered tips, gave critiques, and held a photo contest for all the shutterbugs. Wildlife Lovers. I had no idea penguins could elicit the responses they did, maybe because I never saw the film “March of The Penguins.” We encountered four different types, often up close, including the majestic Emperor. These meetups really made people’s day. Excitement at the varied birdlife rippled through the wildlifeloving passengers as well. The Elephant Seals and their unconventional sexual mores were another story, evoking more curiosity than affection.

For the entire naturalist crew, the captain, his officers, and myself, the once-in-a-lifetime highlight was watching a line of 100 feeding humpback whales. The captain stopped the ship and for over an hour we watched them dive and surface, their blowholes creating geysers of spray. We were close enough to hear them communicate with each other.

The 19 explorer-naturalist guides won my head and heart. To meet and get to know youngish 27–40-year-olds devoting themselves to climatology, glaciology, geology, ornithology, and marine biology was, frankly, inspiring. When not working for Ponant, they live in remote places, cobble together gigs like kayak adventures in arctic Sweden, or work on nature documentaries. Each one was an expert. Their daily lectures were eagerly anticipated, as was the late afternoon debrief of what we experienced on the ice with accompanying professionally taken photos. Ponant strongly encouraged all passengers to “take an explorer/naturalist to dinner.” I did so several times and had stimulating conversations about the warming oceans, the geopolitics of Antarctica, and the habits of the wildlife. These guides were smart and inspirational, and not headed to investment banking. Instead, they helped us contort our bodies into survival suits for the kayak trips and led us safely into the Zodiacs for closeup interactions with the wondrous, sculpted wind-carved ice floes.

The LCC also always has visiting scientific researchers aboard who work in fully equipped wet and dry labs. In collaboration with international scientific bodies, they sample ocean waters, looking for microplastics, and study the health of the marine ecosystem starting with krill, the base of the ocean’s food chain.

Accommodations and Amenities: Smoky, stinky, dark, and fetid would be a fair description of Antarctic exploration before our modern era. Older expeditions often utilized dogs and, unwisely, horses, to take them onto the ice. In winter, the dogs shared the crew’s living quarters.

Entertainment was a necessary amenity on ships of old because one of the paramount shipboard concerns was madness. It was the captain’s responsibility to provide distractions.

There was no possibility of boredom-induced madness on our ship. We had so many scheduled activities that conflicting events necessitated making ranked choices. Should I go to yoga or the ice lecture? Go to the whiskey tasting or get a massage? The Daily Program updated us on our geographic goals, weather forecasts, and off-ship excursion possibilities. A chime alerting us to an announcement from the captain or cruise manager, Simone, sounded a few times a day. Like a medieval church bell 2.0, it told us to pay attention to some scheduled event or a wildlife sighting deemed worthy.

As in all great explorations, the captain played the central role. Etienne Garcia was informative, humorous, gracious, and reassuring. Clearly, Ponant’s double-digit billionaire owner Francois Pinault has given him a free hand to, as Garcia said, “go where nobody else can. I’m in touch with my vessel, and she loves being in the ice.” If you doubt this, track LCC on Ponant’s site and see where she has been. The geographic North Pole was her pre-commissioning shakedown cruise!

A word about Antarctic travel: There are more Antarctic adventure seekers every year. However, they represent 0.4 percent of all cruise passengers (100,000 vs. 25,000,000). Antarctic ships are highly regulated by the IAATO and must comply with The Antarctic Treaty, signed by 52 countries. Also, as mentioned before, the volume of the landmass visited is insignificant, so the continent remains untouched. Plus, no waste can be discharged, and all shore excursions follow strictly enforced protocols to protect wildlife.

The world’s oceans are warming at a record rate, and the seas surrounding the Antarctic Convergence are no exception, but this is from the world’s energy use, not from these few cruise ships. Many of the naturalists aboard saw Antarctic travel in a positive light. They hoped visitors would become “Antarctic ambassadors” and join the worldwide effort to keep it as pristine as it is. Ponant ships are all Clean Ship Super-Certified and earned a North American Green Alliance certificate. They have practiced responsible tourism for 30 years, partly by offsetting carbon emissions.

There is humility to an Antarctic voyage like this one. A sense of wonder about past adventurers like Shackleton and Charcot, who explored and reported on this vast icy continent and its surrounding frigid seas. The landscape is overwhelming; the ice glistening off craggy mountains and floating on the waters is unlike anywhere else. How humans built ships that now take us to this polar wonder in safety and luxury instills in me a sense of awe at the technological progress we have made in a tiny timespan.

And I was fortunate to be guided by authentic people following in the footsteps of those who sailed before. No adventure could ask for more.