For Silver Endeavour Captain Kai Ukkonen, Antarctica is His Best Assignment Ever

Passengers on board Silver Endeavour looked on in awe as it expertly weaved its way past a vast iceberg the size of a football stadium.  Dozens of smaller icebergs, reflecting countless shades of blue in the Antarctic sunshine, were also avoided with consummate ease.

Jamie Watts, a British marine scientist and the Expedition Leader on our six-night Antarctica Fly Cruise, calls it “the most extraordinary ice navigation I’ve seen in 20 years in Antarctica.”

It was a truly remarkable feat of polar ice navigation to behold but all in a day’s work for Captain Kai Ukkonen. That’s because few people on the planet are as qualified as the affable and modest Finn when it comes to guiding ships through ice-filled seas. 

The master mariner’s impressive resume includes seven years at Arctia, the Finnish state-owned icebreaker company that took him all over the world to assist commercial vessels where sea ice was present. 

As I write this story in March 2025, Captain Ukkonen has just finished his first Antarctic season aboard Silver Endeavour, and his eyes light up as he describes it: “The ship is amazing. It’s a remarkable feat of engineering, technically really advanced. No money was spared when they built it. Combining all the technical details, such as azipod propulsion – a unique marine propulsion unit, first conceived in Finland – and two powerful bow thrusters – mean that there’s nobody who can compete with us in the ultra-luxury expedition class.”

That combination of state-of-the-art power and stability is critical in the wild and dazzlingly beautiful White Continent with its huge variety of ice. Flat floes, for example, are soft, recently broken off first-year ice sheets, meaning that they can be easily navigated. Multiyear ice has survived at least one melt season, meaning that it is typically 2 to 4 meters (6.5 to 13 feet) thick and can therefore pose more of a challenge.

Ukkonen’s vast experience allows him and his crew to recognize those challenges and know how best to navigate them. Nowhere was that clearer than in the extraordinary maneuvering in the Aguirre Cerda Channel between the Antarctic mainland and Lemaire Island, as demonstrated in the time lapse video shot on deck by one of his officers, 3rd Officer Toby Laki. Over coffee in his office on another, easier day of navigating, Captain Kai explains this to me.

Join us onboard for this time-lapse video

“It was quite exciting for us as well on the bridge,” he said. “Sometimes we can go through fields like this where there’s some multi-year ice, so we have to be really gentle and really cautious with the ship speed. We have to keep constantly evaluating the ice conditions to understand the best way to navigate.”

Naturally, safety is always paramount, meaning that there’s always another option.

“If we had faced really heavy currents, for instance, it would have been a no-go,” the captain said. “But you always need to have a Plan B and throughout the whole navigation. It was absolutely clear behind the ship. At any moment, if we needed to, we could reverse out, swing around and take the other option.”

Antarctica is a favorite, but Greenland also makes the cut

Ukkonen has seen and sailed much of the world, but he responds without hesitation about where he loves to visit. “Honestly, Antarctica is my absolute favorite destination in the world. My next favorite, in polar regions, is Greenland. I think it’s the best place to do a cruise in the Arctic.”

Although he grew up in chilly Finland, he also loves warmer climates. One look at his Instagram account also shows his love of fine wine, golfing and scuba diving in the jaw-dropping waters of the Seychelles and Mexico. Like many Finns, he has long embraced the chance to be on, or in, the water.

“We always had boats in the family,” he said. “I’ve been on them since I was a kid. I think that’s where I got my spark.”

This profound love of the seas continued in the Finnish Navy where he decided to make sailing his profession. This journey has taken him to several interesting opportunities, including working as an ice pilot in the Canadian Arctic and on sea trials for ASRV Nuyina, the world’s most advanced polar research vessel that was built for the Australian Antarctic Division.

After many years in the cruise industry, he joined Silversea and explains what makes the company special. “First of all,” Ukkonen says, “Silversea was the first company in the ultra-luxury segment to start expedition cruises. Then we have expedition leaders who are absolutely brilliant, while the expedition team here are all really experts in their fields, holding university degrees up to Ph.Ds.”

The stunning navigation through the Antarctic ice was just one example on our six-night cruise demonstrating how and why he and his crew consistently deliver on that mission. Having that experience onboard Endeavour really resonates with me when he notes that the entire navigational and expedition team “are all so passionate about their work.”

“That helps me in my mission to ensure that our guests have mind-blowing experiences,” he says. “When they do, I’m really happy.”