Seabourn

He estimates he has spent over a year in the Drake Passage, the body of water between Cape Horn at the tip of South America and the South Shetland Islands of Antarctica where three oceans meet, and is looking forward to travelling through it again this winter onboard when the new ultra- luxury expedition ships Seabourn Venture and Seabourn Pursuit. “These new ships are incredible,” he smiles. “The expedition industry is probably the fastest-growing segment in the cruise industry right now. From about 2018 to about 2025, we’ll probably see about 45 new expedition ships, many of them like ours in the luxury category. We have been fortunate enough to have a look at what others were building and improve on best in class, whether it be en-suite heated gear lockers or submarines on board, to which we have added amazing innovations of our own.”

Robin West, Seabourn’s vice-president Expeditions, gives you an insight into two incredible polar vessels – Seabourn Venture and Seabourn Pursuit - and the magic and wonder of Seabourn’s extraordinary voyages to the southernmost continent

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The Bow Lounge

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Bowspirit Additional fact

The Bow Lounge A virtual Bridge has 3 individual consoles, each housing screens replicating essential navigational data including charts, radar array and ship’s cameras. Two interactive touchscreens show ice and weather charts, local maps and landing site and wildlife guidelines.

Submarines Dive into the oceans on a 6-person submersible, where seating platforms swivel 280 degrees for easy viewing on all sides.

Expedition Lounge The social heart of Seabourn Venture is a comfortable and welcoming place where guests gather before and after their off-ship adventures, and where four large touch-screens display navigational charts, weather charts, maps and photos.

Double Sea Kayaks There are eight instructor-assisted double guest sea kayaks and two single guide kayaks available for immersive optional excursions. A total of 16 guests can go kayaking at any one time.

Suites 132 luxuriously appointed all-veranda ocean-front suites.

The Discovery Centre Features an 8ft x 33ft high definition video screen for lectures, entertainment and broadcast documentaries by the 26-person Expedition Team.

Zodiacs Complimentary Zodiac tours allow you to land on trackless beaches, desert islands and far-flung icy shores where no docking facilities exist.

If, after arriving at a destination on an expedition ship in Antarctica one morning, weather conditions necessitate a change of plan, the captain will consult with an expedition leader like West. That time spent on the bridge with the captain looking at conditions - ice, weather, wind charts, maps, is something he was keen to recreate for the guests. “The secret to an expedition ship is bringing the guests into the operation,” he explains. “And so we have developed a Bow Lounge to simulate the bridge. We have three identical stations, each with four replica screens next to each other.” On these screens there are: • A live time version of what the officers are using on the bridge for navigational charts • The radar • The bridge wind control screen which provides a lot of additional data such as wind speed and rudder and rate of turn…. • And then the fourth screen is connected to the outside cameras.

Seabourn Venture & Seabourn Pursuit

These are two ultra-luxury expedition ships purpose-built for cruising in both the Arctic and Antarctic, as well as non-polar expedition destinations such as the South Pacific and Australia’s remote Kimberley region. They have a PC6 ice-strengthened hull, which means they can operate comfortably in ice up to about 1.2 metres thick and in heavy ice conditions – eight or nine tenths ice coverage. “In the Arctic this means we would kind of push into the ice, look for leads and gaps and navigate through,” says West. “But in the Antarctic you are dealing with predominantly glacial ice which is obviously extremely hard and you have to move through it very, very slowly. “We have an ‘open bridge’ policy because it is incredible to be on a ship and just watch the captain and officers slowly navigate and move through the ice, it’s an art. Very few captains in the world have that kind of skill and it’s a huge part of the guest experience.” This is something explorers like Ernest Shackleton would have understood only too well and inside the vessel homage is paid to these brave pioneers. Consequently, Seabourn Venture and Seabourn Pursuit should not be compared to a six-star hotel in New York or London but what they do represent is an even superior standard of luxury channelling the early explorer aesthetic - wooden floors, heavy throws, rivets and leather. To that have been added features like the Bowsprit and the remarkable Bow Lounge to complement external activities on offer such as sea kayaking and two state-of-the-art submarines. “We believe this is the ultimate, most authentic Antarctic ultra-luxury expedition experience in the world,” says West.

Technical Specification

“The bow on an expedition ship is a key place, it’s the closest place to the water and when you are ice cruising or breaking through ice, you can see seals or, in the Arctic, bears walking towards the ship, if there are humpback whales, the bow is the place you want to be. “What we have done with Seabourn Venture and Seabourn Pursuit,” explains West, “Is extend the bow so that it allows you to have that feeling of walking out over the front of the vessel. It’s a really nice-sized extension where four to six people can comfortably stand and look down at dolphins, watch the vessel moving through the ice or look back and get that photograph of the entire ship if you want to.”

Bowsprit

To make the most of the high-definition screen in The Discovery Centre, a unique feature has been added to maximise the experience. “We have a digital 4k Cineflex camera as used by police helicopters on board,” says West. “It rotates smoothly along an axis and can zoom into a group of penguins from about four nautical miles away and bring an image back onto any piece of glass onboard the ship in full frame. “The zoom function is unbelievable. Guests will be able to see and appreciate wildlife in its natural habitat in a way that they’ve never, ever seen before.”

The Discovery Centre

The experience will obviously vary from dive-to-dive but in terms of what the guest might see there are soft sponges and a variety of fish species but there will also be dives when the submarines could be enveloped in a ball of krill and others when there will be jellyfish, invertebrates, brittle starfish etc. “You might get lucky and have penguins whooshing about, or a curious leopard seal nosing around,” adds West. This will all be in an ultra-luxurious environment with guests cocooned inside the submarine super comfortable seats.

Submarines

Indian novelist Arundhati Roy talked about being able to hear another world breathing on a quiet day and it is this sense of connection and oneness that a sea kayaking experience from Seabourn Venture or Seabourn Pursuit seeks to provide. For that reason it takes place away from the main operation. The kayaks are towed for one or two miles to somewhere with the best ice conditions and potential wildlife encounters and Zodiacs are used to bring the guests out to them. After a quick on-board briefing, they climb into the kayaks and paddle off to where a guide is waiting for them. “At that point,” says West, “They can feel like they’re the only people in that entire area, moving through a wilderness with no other noises other than maybe the crackle of the radio from the rescue boat, using the vantage point of being higher above the water than the kayaks, to alert the guides to nearby wildlife: ‘11 o’clock, leopard seal on the ice’, ‘two o’clock, penguins.’ “Eventually, wherever we stop, we stop. Guests get back in the Zodiac and we take them back to the ship after a completely incredible wildlife experience.”

Kayaks

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“We have 13-inch iPads built into the consoles and those have links to the IAATO website, the AECO website, ice and weather charts and navigational apps so a guest can actually sit there and get an idea of where we’re going. If the captain says, ‘We’re heading in this direction, we’re going to go here and it might take us two hours,’ the guest can see that on the screen, zoom in on the iPad and pull up all the relevant information. Expedition staff members will also be on hand to enhance the experience.” Seabourn Venture and Seabourn Pursuit have a huge bow that can accommodate all the guests and The Bow Lounge serves as a space that complements it. “You could spend time outside, have an incredible view, and the captain might say: ‘We’re leaving now, we’re going to head over to see humpback whales somewhere else, we’ll be there in about 20 minutes.’ says West. “Come back inside, take your parka off, grab a cup of hot chocolate, sit down, have a look at the navigational screens, chat with the expedition team. When we’re near the whales, parkas back on, and you’re instantly outside onto the bow again.”

“You could spend time outside, have an incredible view, and the captain might say: ‘We’re leaving now, we’re going to head over to see humpback whales somewhere else, we’ll be there in about 20 minutes.’ says West.

At this point in time more people have probably space-walked than dived to below 60m in a submarine in the Antarctic so when West was looking for something that would make a voyage on Seabourn Venture really different he knew where to concentrate his attention. “The idea of helicopters was mooted but there were obvious ecological concerns so they didn’t make it onto the ship,” he explains. “But submarines ticked all the boxes as far as we were concerned because they provide an incredible experience for the guests, bringing them a once in a lifetime opportunity to get as close to wildlife as it is possible to get in an environment that very few people have ever seen before.”

“When we were doing the final acceptance test on the submarines and training the pilots [in Curacao], we took one down to 300m, turned off the entire system and sat there for about 10 minutes in complete darkness and silence,” recalls West. “When we turned it back on the huge number of spotlights on the craft almost replicated daylight underwater. It was incredible. “As we were coming up from that dive, at about 150 metres, all of a sudden we saw two purple lights in the distance - it looked like an alien vessel coming towards us through the dark. It was our other submarine on a test dive and when it came into sight, you could see the people sitting inside. We will look at doing this in the Antarctic and have both subs dive down at the same time. The overall submarine experience will become the very essence of the expedition spirit.”

Robin West has seen it all. Well, not quite all, but his 20 years in the expedition industry have taken in visits to 130 countries across seven continents, more than 200 dives as a divemaster throughout the South Pacific, 70 Arctic sailings and 80 in Antarctica, usually as an expedition leader. He has seen the best of what the world has to offer the intrepid adventurer. And so when he says, “Antarctica is like nothing else,” it is fair to say that he knows what he is talking about. “The photographs are very pretty but they don’t do it justice,” he continues. “It’s about being there and feeling the immenseness of what Antarctica is. From the quietness to the sounds, from how far you can visually see to the wildlife and the icebergs. It’s an overload for the senses. Completely overwhelming.”

ANTARCTICA

Picture perfect West describes the wildlife and landscape as out of this world

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What to wear on an Antarctic expedition

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“Come back inside, take your parka off, grab a cup of hot chocolate, sit down, have a look at the navigational screens, chat with the expedition team. When we’re near the whales, parkas back on, and you’re instantly outside onto the bow again.”

Hull: PC6 Cruising Speed: 18 Knots Gross Tonnage: 23,000 Guest Capacity: 264 (132 Suites)

Length: 558 feet Beam: 79 feet Propulsion: 2 Azipods

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Double Sea Kayaks 8 Instructor assisted double guest sea kayaks for guests and two single guide kayaks are available for immersive optional excursions. We can take a total of 16 guests kayaking at one time.

Submarines Dive into the oceans on a 6-person submersible, where seating platforms swivel 280 degrees for easy viewing on all sides

Zodiacs omplimentary Zodiac tours allow you to land on trackless beaches, desert islands and far-flung icy shores where no docking facilities exist

Suites 132 luxuriously appointed all-veranda ocean-front suites

The Discovery Centre Features an 8ft x 33ft high definition video screen for lectures, entertainment and broadcast documentaries by the 26-person Expedition Team.

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