Aurora Expeditions has recently launched a new ship to Antarctica named for the world’s most famous living deep-sea explorer and marine conservationist, Sylvia Earle. Expect plenty of awe to go along with your champagne (but also sobering confirmations of the effects of climate change).
OVER THE YEARS, Travel+Leisure Southeast Asia has had many writers endeavor to sail to Antarctica. If memory serves, the first three assigned didn’t actually make it, so they came back with long feature stories of beautiful scenery and senses of awe, but still heartbreaking accounts of not reaching that golden ring. We were beginning to worry that we were the jinx. You see, it’s not just as simple as booking a bank-breaking cruise full of the sharpest scientists, adventuresome zodiacs and the best navigation technology and ice-breaking machinery. The weather has to cooperate because lives are literally at stake. And in the most uninhabitable planet on Earth, the weather is notoriously uncooperative.
Luckily, this time, our writer had two great good-luck charms: her own mother, who had accompanied her on this adventure of a lifetime to celebrate her 70th birthday, and Dr. Sylvia Earle, the famous oceanographer who had joined the previous expedition aboard her new namesake Aurora Expeditions ship, the Sylvia Earle.
At 88, Earle is a living legend, having been the first woman appointed the Chief Scientist of the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and subsequently named Time magazine’s first Hero for the Planet, United Nations Champion of the Earth, winner of a TED Prize, National Geographic Society Explorer-in-Residence, among many more global accolades. Why? Earle, a world-renowned expert in marine biology (with a Ph.D. in botany focused on algae) and a champion conservationist, holds the record for deepest walk on the sea floor and has led more than 100 marine expeditions (with more than 7,000 hours under water).
So, spoiler alert, with two strong female icons, mum and Dr. Sylvia Earle, in her corner, our writer not only made it to Antarctica, but did some perspective-changing southern sea exploring herself, snorkeling daily in the frigid waters, spotting humpback and penguins and all sorts of rarely seen animals Earle and others who’ve been to the Arctic can tell you first-hand we’re in danger of losing.
Check out a few key shots of what life is like about the super-luxury yet carbon neutral Sylvia Earle here.
And read the full account of this oh-so-successful celebratory trip to Antarctica here.
Lede images photo by Bartosz Stróżyński and all images courtesy of Aurora Expeditions.
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