by, Ben Lyons, Chief Officer, National Geographic Explorer

Gold Harbour, South Georgia Island

When I am aboard National Geographic Explorer as Chief Officer, I’m often asked what my favorite destination is. While I find it hard to nail down only one destination, I can, however, describe what stands out as my most memorable landing.

In October 2008 I was on the National Geographic Endeavour for an early season expedition to South Georgia and the Falklands. We had anchored for the night in Gold Harbour, South Georgia, in anticipation of a sunrise landing. When my watch on the bridge began at 4am, conditions were clear and perfect, and what was already a beautiful setting slowly became brilliant as the sun approached the horizon. Large sections of ice, broken off from a hanging glacier in the bay, gradually took on a remarkable pink hue. When the sunlight finally shone directly onto the shore, the landing exploded in color with the glistening feathers of the King Penguins and the green grass set against the towering mountains behind…

By Ben Lyons, Chief Officer, National Geographic Explorer

While Christmas usually conjures up images of gatherings with family, gift giving or warm fireplace, my Christmas this year on National Geographic Explorer was somewhat different.
 
My day involved spending almost six hours in a Zodiac, in Antarctica, shuttling three penguins scientists between Adelie penguin colonies.
 
On every Antarctica departure we carry scientists from Oceanites, an organization conducting research in how climate change, tourism, or other factors may be affecting penguin populations in this part of the world. Both National Geographic Explorer, and National Geographic Endeavour who traveled these waters before her, are great vehicles for their research, potentially allowing access to a myriad number of penguin colonies instead of more typical penguin population studies that focus only on a single resident population. As a result, members of Oceanites staff have been able to conduct the widest ranging study of penguin populations in Antarctica and, in 16 seasons of work, the project has made more than 1,000 visits to more than 125 sites…

Left: Lars-Eric Lindblad in red jacket

Right: Lindblad Cove

By Ben Lyons

A few times during each season in  Antarctica the timing works out in our schedule to make a call at Lindblad Cove. On this expedition, following a few hours before dinner spent observing humpback whales feeding just off the ship, we had such an opportunity to slowly bring the ship into Lindblad Cove during dinner. From the bridge we watched guests wander out on deck as their meals ended and take in the remarkable scene that awaited.

Three glaciers feed into Lindblad Cove, filling the sea thick with brash ice and delicately sculpted icebergs. Numerous crabeater and leopard seals were resting on ice flows, and Captain Kruess gently maneuvered the National Geographic Explorer to within a few feet of them on multiple occasions. Other than the trickling of ice passing down the ship’s hull, the only sound was the short bursts of exhalations from a minke whale breaking the surface. The soft clouds that covered most of the sky retreated over the course of an hour, revealing towering, reddish peaks that offered a vivid contrast to the otherwise icy blue world that surrounded us…

From the Bridge: Lemaire Channel
by Ben Lyons

Without a doubt, standing on the bridge as Chief Officer of the National Geographic Explorer gives me a great window onto the remarkable places we travel. In an effort to bring a bit of that “view from the bridge” to the blog, I’m going to send in occasional photos I’ve taken while on watch over the last year. Coupled with a brief description of where we are and what we’re doing, hopefully it will provide another perspective on a typical day — such as there ever is — on board National Geographic Explorer.

A living hero, an American patriot and space pioneer, when Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong landed the Eagle on the moon thirty years ago, the event marked not only the fulfillment of President Kennedy’s mission to send someone to the moon before the end of the 1960s, but also began a new era of space exploration for all humanity. Buzz Aldrin is a reminder of the adventurous spirit of our country and stands as one of the bravest explorers of all time. He will share his memories of his momentous walk on the moon, the travels he’s taken since and his vision for the future of exploration with guests aboard National Geographic Explorer in Antarctica on the Jan. 7, 2010 voyage.

Join our 15-day Antarctica expedition on the January 7, 2010 departure, and you’ll share one of the most exhilarating adventures left on Earth with a space hero — veteran of the historic Apollo 11 moonwalk mission — in the 40th anniversary year of that epic achievement! Travel to the ultimate explorer’s destination aboard National Geographic Explorer, the world’s ultimate expedition ship, under the command of the top Ice Masters in expedition travel — guided by experts from Lindblad and National Geographic.

To say the least, my job as Chief Officer on the 148 guest National Geographic Explorer is significantly different, in many ways, from my previous job as Chief Officer on a large megaship. In fact, driving the large ships- where the itinerary is often the same week after week, with no ability to deviate from the set schedule- my colleagues would often jokingly refer to themselves as “bus drivers” with very limited roles.

But on the National Geographic Explorer, I find a tremendous amount of job satisfaction from ‘driving’ the ship. Certainly, it never gets rote or boring. Even when sailing for an entire season in the same region- such as our four months in Antarctica- our itinerary is never the same. We adapt every expedition to take the maximum advantage of natural conditions like changing weather or ice conditions.

By Ben Lyons, Chief Mate, National Geographic Explorer

One of the delights of living in New York City (at least for the six months a year I’m not on board National Geographic Explorer) is that there are enough people around to support any interest that one might have. For me, that means there is not just one organization with people fanatically interested in ships, but several. One of these groups is the World Ship Society, and I found myself last week speaking to them about working for Lindblad Expeditions.

This was the third time I had spoken to the group in the last nine years; previous topics included a year at sea on cargo ships as a cadet and time spent working as a deck officer on board Cunard’s Queen Mary 2. Admittedly, many in the Society tend to be more interested on the larger passenger ships or the more obscure, older ships still in existence. Our new National Geographic Explorer didn’t fit into either category, and I wasn’t entirely sure just how much interest they would have in hearing about the comparatively small (albeit nimble) ships in Lindblad Expeditions' fleet. I wondered if there would be no, or very little, audience. 

Happily, that wasn’t the case...

By Ben Lyons

For most of the time I’m working as Chief Officer of the National Geographic Explorer, I stand watch on the bridge only with my lookout and helmsman. But when we’re sailing down the indented Norwegian coast, skirting close by skerries and lighthouses and finding our way deep into narrow fjords, we are also assisted by two Norwegian pilots. They work in shifts supplementing our bridge team, offering invaluable local knowledge on this very demanding itinerary.

In addition to being friendly colleagues to work with, they can offer us some invaluable bits of knowledge. For instance, on our northbound trip from Bergen to Svalbard this year, one evening we visited a small island community well offshore, and well off the beaten track. I asked our Expedition Leader Bud Lehnhausen how, many years ago, had we ever found such a destination in the first place?

Bud said he asked a pilot once, “You’ve been sailing this coast for 20 years—where is the one place you’ve always wanted to go to but never been able to reach?” And when the pilot mentioned this particular island, they simply took the ship there when they had a few extra hours in the schedule. Finding the community to be well worth visiting and completely unique, we started calling there every year…

By Ben Lyons

It's hard to get jaded on the National Geographic Explorer. For most people, a trip to Antarctica or the Arctic is an experience of a lifetime. Those of us who work on board have the privilege of returning there, year after year to our globetrotting expedition ship.

But one of the inherent benefits of expedition travel ― our core philosophy of keeping a flexible schedule ― is one of the many reasons it is difficult to get jaded working here. The ability to be spontaneous and take advantage of unplanned encounters often creates the most memorable moments of an expedition, and it certainly keeps each week fresh and exciting for me. Last week was just such an example. We were spending the morning cruising in beautiful Tysfjorden ― perhaps the most spectacular of all the Norwegian fjords we sail in ― and the plan was for an afternoon of kayaking, Zodiac cruising and hiking to a large waterfall.

Having heard from many people how wonderful the hike was, I planned to take advantage of some free time in my schedule and go ashore upon arrival. I figured I’d be able to start hiking just around lunch time and easily be back for my 4pm watch on the bridge.

My timing was thrown off, however, when I noticed the ship quickly doing a 180 degree turn around 10am…