To get where we are today, we drew upon decades of family exploration and travel experience. While some fathers pass on a family business with a sign out front, my father handed down a passion for insatiable curiosity when it came to the unknown, the faraway or the undiscovered. He was in the true definition of the word, an explorer. In the years that followed, the sea became increasingly more important, leading up to the present, where it is our entire focus. In the early '80s', we expanded our charter activities, which were very successful. There was one drawback, however. We had became very demanding and it became increasingly frustrating in not having total control of our ships. In 1987, we launched our first ship, the M.S. Polaris, and for a decade she roamed the world from the Arctic to the British Isles to the Amazon. Since 1997, she has served our guests exclusively in the Galapagos. It was with the Polaris that many of us really cut our teeth. We were proud and very happy with the ship and what we could do with her, but at the same time, every problem was now ours and in the early stages there were no shortages. Since then we have acquired five additional ships, Sea Lion (89), Sea Voyager (90), Endeavour (96), Sea Voyager (00) and our most recent ship the islander.