Sunday, November 12, 2017

Falklands and South Georgia 2017


Image from Poseidon Expeditions
We just returned from a four week visit to South America. During this trip, we transited through Santiago, Chile, and Buenos Aires, Trelew, Puerto Madryn and Ushuaia, in Argentina. Between Puerto Madryn and Ushuaia, we spent 13 days on the Poseidon Expeditions’ MV Sea Spirit. On this 300 foot ship, with 71 guests, we explored 11 areas in South Georgia and four island locations in the Falklands - also referred to as the Malvinas - depending on your cultural perspective. 

I’ll be adding several relatively short chronological blog entries as I review my collection of several thousand photos from the trip and review my daily journal. Along the way, I’ll share some polar travel suggestions from the trip.

Packing Review
Polar travel always presents me with some carry-on luggage packing challenges - even after two polar trips. Despite my best efforts, my carry-on luggage continues to be bulky and heavy. 

Why? There are at least two reasons. First, I tend to bring heavy digital SLR camera equipment and multiple lenses for my polar travel. Given unpredictable polar weather, it is not uncommon to have camera operational problems. Generally, camera equipment must be hand-carried as placing camera equipment in check-in luggage could subject them to breakage through rough handling or theft. 

 Second, I’ve also learned from fellow polar travelers to always carry essential winter clothing in my carry-on luggage. This primarily includes clothing that would be difficult to replace if my check-in luggage gets delayed or lost on its way to the ship embarkation point. This becomes an important consideration as once a polar expedition is in a remote sea area, it is unlikely that the ship will visit a shopping area until the expedition terminates. Thus, it is also a good idea to arrive at least one-day prior to your expedition start date to give mis-directed airline luggage a chance to reach you or for you to shop for replacement clothing.  On this trip, we arrived two full days before boarding the Sea Spirit and all luggage successfully made it to Trelew, our final Argentina flight destination.

Polar clothing I consider essential include an insulated jacket, one set of waterproof gloves and thin glove liners, water-proof pants for zodiac landings, one base layer top and pants, one mid-layer quarter-zip top, one underwear change (presuming handwash...), and one pair each of thin socks, mid-thickness hiking socks and very thick socks. Having multiple thickness of socks permits me to better customize the fit of the loaned muck-boots.  Additional polar travel clothing, toiletries and non-essential items are packed in my check-in luggage. The polar expedition companies we’ve used provide guests with a water-proof jacket to keep and calf-high muck boots to borrow.

If nothing else, my carry-on luggage is much lighter on the return flight. Post-expedition polar clothing is moved to my check-in luggage. The trip is over and missing clothing becomes much less of a problem. We bring along a small folding duffel bag to separately pack our expedition parka and water-proof pants for the trip back to the US. Penguin and seal guano smells are best kept restricted to one bag. 

My 2017 Polar Packing List and What was Used?


Carry-on Luggage Items (all used during trip)

Check-in Luggage Items (unused items at bottom)





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