DAILY LIFE ONBOARD A CRUISE IN ANTARCTICA (what it's really like)

We are going to be doing the polar plunge.

Please don't make me do.

Look at the water we're jumping into.

All right, here we go. Polar plunge in Antarctica.

I can't move my body.

We're Kara and Nate. We've been traveling the world full time for the last four years. And last week we embarked on our biggest adventure yet. A two week cruise to our seventh continent of Antarctica. This trip has been filled with stunningly beautiful views. Thousands of adorable penguins, majestic humpback whales. This is incredible. A leopard seal on the hunt. And we even spent the night camping outside in the snow.

Over the last week we have shown you the highlights of our Antarctic cruise. But what we really want to do in this video is give you a feeling of what it's like to spend a day on board a cruise ship here in Antarctica. The ships that make their way down here range anywhere from tiny sailboats to giant cruise ships. And this ship that we're on can hold about a hundred people. Basically what I'm trying to say is that all of the cruises that come down here are obviously going to be a little bit different. But this should give you an idea of what it's like on what would be considered a small ship cruise.

Good morning everyone. It's 7:30 on Sunday 23rd February and we're here just entering the Herrera Channel with the beautiful landscape of Antarctica surrounding us. Just to let you know that we do have quite windy conditions outside. It's 25 to 30 knots of wind. We're coming into the Aero Channel and heading towards Danko island that we can see ahead of us and when we get there we'll see what the conditions are. It's 1 degree centigrade outside. It's a chilly, windy, breezy morning here in Antarctica, but incredibly beautiful as well. Breakfast is starting up in half an hour at 8 o'. Clock. We'll see you there.

Morning.

After a quick breakfast, it's time to get ready for our first excursion.

It is about 1 degree Celsius outside with 25 knot winds. So we are going to show you how we get dressed when we go out in Antarctica. Starting with our thermal layer, we'll build.

From the bottom to the top. We both wear two pairs of socks, a thin one that goes directly on our foot and then a thicker and on the outside for more warmth.

Then I wear a pair of lined leggings on top of my wool thermals because I'm really bad at being cold.

While Kara doubles up on the base layers, I go directly for the waterproof pants, which are required because.

There could be a lot of spray when you're going out in the Zodiac.

Bit of a workout.

Both usually sweating by the time this is finished. After the pants, I move on to my second base layer, which is just slightly thicker than my thermals.

And then once again, I put on quite a bit more than Nate does. I have two wool sweaters and then a third really fuzzy sweater, just in case.

I don't think I appreciate it. How many more clothes you wear than I do.

Is that all you wear for real?

Yeah.

It's supposed to be one of the colder days today. So this is like the maximum amount of layers that we're wearing.

I don't have anything else. This is everything. Next, we each have one of these fleece buffs.

So they work as, like, a scarf to hold all of our heat in. But when we're on the boats, being able to cover our face and our ears with it makes a huge difference.

This is how I see Kara most of the time. I can't. You just have to tell if she's happy based on her eyes. This is all of the base layers. Then we move on to the more serious stuff. We both have a heavy down jacket. This is when things really start to get hot.

Then we both have these waterproof and windproof parkas that they gave us to wear as our outer layer. These are super legit. At this point. We're almost finished. Just a hat and.

Gloves.

Oh, where do mine go?

Oh.

Once again, Kara wears the big, warm things, and I just wear these thin little gloves because otherwise I can't operate the camera if I have these big fluffy fingers. So my fingers are always cold by the time I get back, but it's worth it. Oh, yeah. One more thing. Two more things. These are self inflating life vests. We fall in the water. Apparently these explode and keep us afloat.

These are required to get the Zodiac.

The very last thing, these super hefty waterproof boots.

And that's about it.

Now we have to go outside immediately before we overheat.

One thing about traveling in Antarctica is that you have to be flexible. The conditions here are dynamic. They're always changing. So every morning we get a vague schedule of what we hope to do. But things could always change. Kind of like this morning, we were supposed to land on Danko island, but when we got there, the wind was up to 35 knots. There was no way they could safely deploy the Zodiac. So now we're sailing somewhere beautiful in search of a Sheltered harbor where hopefully we'll be able to get ashore.

Good morning again, everyone.

Stand by for plan C. I'm not sure if you could hear that, but now we're on to plan C. We just got to the bay that we were planning on entering for shelter, but it's completely filled with ice, so we can't get in. So now we're going in search of another island that they know about where hopefully the conditions are better. But whatever, it doesn't matter. No matter what you're doing, every day in Antarctica is incredible.

This is just a great excuse to.

Enjoy another cup of coffee.

Okay, okay, okay. Massive change of plans. The weather has gotten a lot better, but no excursion this morning. As you can tell, I'm. I've dressed slightly differently. We are going to be doing the polar plunge.

Don't make me do it.

Please don't make me do it. I'm so scared. I'm shaking.

My heart is literally beating out of my chest. I don't know if I can do it. I'm so scared.

I just want to get all my body temperature up before we go.

I can't believe I'm doing this. I'm already cold.

Just. Just look at what's surrounding us right now. Look at the water we're jumping into.

We are pretty much surrounded by glaciers on all sides.

What are you doing? I don't know. I've heard this is supposed to help.

I think it's happening.

I need to do some more steps.

Oh, my God. It's freezing. Oh, my God. It's again. Oh, my God.

So many people.

This feels so wrong. Normally, we're bundled up with all of our layers as we walk down these stairs, and now I'm in a bathrobe. Oh, my God.

Wow. Can I. Can I have one before and after? Cheers.

On down.

This is the best. Bo's been on the boat all week.

It's tapping. It's tapping.

Oh, that's much colder now.

Okay, here we go. Here we go.

Here we go. It's my turn.

It's your turn.

Hey, here we go. Polar flies in Antarctica.

I can't feel my body. Am I wearing pants? I feel like everything just came off.

I can't breathe. Go, Nate.

The worst part There, Nate.

Oh, this job is cold.

What are you gonna do, Nate? I'm just gonna jump.

Go, Nate.

Okay, ready?

It's so hot.

I feel hot.

Is your body on fire?

I have the world's biggest brain freeze.

I'm very proud of you. Thank you.

Thanks for making me crazy.

How long have you been driving this?

Literally, since the moment we stepped foot on this ship. Cheese.

We did it.

We did it. I'm not even cold. I know. I'm not even cold. Let's do it again.

Now it almost feels warm to stand outside.

So the outside is warm.

It's funny how that happens.

As soon as my body went in, I couldn't feel anything. I had to look to see if my bathing suit was still on because I didn't know. I couldn't feel anything. I was completely numbed where I was like, am I still wearing pants? That was nuts.

All right, we just took a super hot shower and got warmed up. It is about 12:30, and we're gonna head downstairs for lunch.

So lunch is always served buffet style. We've got a very nice salad bar, sandwiches, garlic bread, pastas, risotto, dessert, cheese plate, fresh fruit soup, and what is this? Wow, that looks good.

Yeah.

We are attempting not to pack on the what we've named polar pounds because we have three giant meals a day, and there's not a lot of physical activity. So we try to have a salad.

For lunch every day.

After lunch, we typically cruise for a couple hours to our next destination. So I always get a hot coffee and just enjoy the views along. But we have learned to never get too far from our camera or warm jacket, because you never know what you're gonna see outside. Just like yesterday.

They just came over the announcements and said that there are killer whales outside of our ship.

I can't get my clothes on fast enough. Oh, sorry. It's okay. It's okay.

Or because of the one thing we haven't seen yet.

No standing on here.

Can you see them?

There they are.

No, that's not. That's not what we came here for.

Just a humpback.

There they are.

Wow.

Wow.

It's amazing.

Oh.

There.

Oh, Four there.

Four out there now.

That was fun.

They came and said hello, and then they left.

So put it in a panic mode.

Literally everyone flooded the deck.

Everyone's, like, half dressed.

If you ever want to get me.

Out of bed super quick, Nate, just.

Tell me there are orcas outside.

I've never seen you get dressed that fast.

All right, and now it's time to put all of our warm clothes back.

On.

Time to head out for our afternoon excursion.

So this afternoon, we were supposed to be going ashore at a place called Nikko island, but kind of like this morning's excursion, this afternoon's is up in the air as well. The weather's a lot Better. So we're definitely getting in the zodiacs, but there is a ton of ice, so we're not sure if we're actually going to be able to make the landing, but we are getting off the ship and not in our bathing suits. The pink stuff is sanitation, so we don't take any bacteria onto land, assuming that we have the opportunity to step on land.

Penguins.

Look, they're just hanging out on top of the water.

Found a seal.

Landing is happening.

We've made a spontaneous landing on this rock.

So due to the ice, we were unable to make it to our planned landing spot. But we have managed to step foot on the continent today. This might not have been the best day to film the day in the Life video since everything's gotten a little messed up. We've had 12 excursions so far and nine of the 12 have gone as planned. So normally we're either climbing a mountain, hanging out with a ton of penguins, watching whales, touring a research base, stuff like that. But today We've got about 50 meters of rock to play with and a couple penguins.

But we have learned that this is the last time that we'll be stepping on the continent of Antarctica. The rest of the time we'll just be bouncing around to the island. So we're soaking in this little piece of rock.

Heading back to the ship.

I hope you enjoyed the kind of spontaneous landing at the place that I.

Don'T know what to discuss, what we hope to be doing tomorrow. But as you saw, today our plans change.

Antarctica. Exactly. So that was back on the.

Dinner starts every night at 7:30. It's a little fancier. It's four courses, you order off a menu. And tonight I'm going to start with the deep fried crispy calamari. For my soup, I'll go with the maple roasted pumpkin and ginger. And then for the main course, the grilled salmon. And I'll finish it all off with the baked New York style cheesecake. Hence the reason we're gaining the polar pounds. As you can see, there wasn't a lot of activity today, but a lot of eating.

After dinner, most people filter up to the bar where Randy plays this live music.

And that complete a day in our life on board a cruise ship in Antarctica.

Except for the polar plunge, that is a once in a lifetime thing. Also, if you've never made it to the bloopers portion of our vlogs before, today would be a great day to start because I think my favorite blooper that has ever occurred happened today in this room.

Hilarious.

Don't fall.

This is situation.

Oh, gosh. Are you okay?

Are you okay?

Are you okay? You jump so high. Are you okay?

Are you kidding me? Do you have a concussion?

It's on a scale of 1 to 10.

I hit a soft spot in the stable.

Are you sure?

How many things am I holding up for?

One of the dumber things I've ever done.

Now that you're okay. How funny I was. I was really nervous, and now I'm now getting out and crying. It was so loud.

It was supposed to be like, jump out, spin a circle. We were gonna have all of our clothes back on. It was gonna be a cool transition, but.

All right, let's try that again.

Oh, man. That was so.

All right. And.

I don't know how we're gonna be able to do this. Seriously. Oh, we got this. You laughed. It made me laugh.

All right. And now it's time to put all of our warm clothes back on.

I was holding in my last SO wash.

I think I was smiling the whole time.

That was funny.

Also.

Yes, we did the polar plunge twice each. One for video and one for photo. So hope you appreciate the photos as much as the video. I'm kidding. Nate didn't even have to make me go the second time. I was so worked up that I wanted to go a second time. Isn't that crazy dark to go make you do crazy things?

Okay.

Good night. Hey. Hey.

You're so mean.

Hey, quick Antarctica packing tip. It's very important that you invest in really high quality, quality waterproof protection for your expensive camera gear. Or you can just save your duty. Three day.

Hey.

Is it recording? I don't know.

Welcome to the vlog.

We're here. Hola.

We're so excited. Brian, get in the vlog. I'm in the vlog. Those. Ben. Hola. This is our present video to you. And here. Here you are over here, kayaking in Antarctica. Okay, now, how do you stop the recording?

How do you stop record?