Portal Point

On January 10 we stopped at Portal Point. This is where we stepped ONTO THE CONTINENT!!! Exclamations because it is supposed to be a big deal, we had only visited Antarctic islands previous to this. 

The interesting thing about this place is that it is one of the very few places you can get onto the continent. Antarctica is covered by a very thick ice sheet and for thousands upon thousands of miles around its shores, there are ice cliffs hundreds of feet tall, forming an impenetrable barrier. This is one of the places where the ice forms a walkable ramp to the sea, thus many people access the continent here.

After hanging out on the glacier, we went back to the ship for what I am calling the Antarctic baptism. I have done this in every remote place I've been. In the past it involved a bath in a glacial stream which I did in the Andes and Himalayas. This one was diving into the Antarctic Ocean from the ship. The water was 33 degrees, just above freezing. About half of the passengers did it. Everyone said I looked very casual and relaxed but the only thing that went through my mind after I hit the water was GET OUT! The ship has a sauna and that's where everyone ended up who jumped in. I have a pic but it will have to wait...

After the Polar Plunge, we visited many places, sometimes two or three per day, and observed wildlife. Two interesting sites, the Lemaire Channel, a narrow channel with very steep sides and filled with icebergs, and a sailboat at Port Lockroy.

We passed through the Lemaire starting at midnight, which is just dusk that far south in January. This was our farthest southern point, about 1 degree north of the Antarctic Circle. They woke everyone up to get pics of this passage. The next day we visited Port Lockroy, which has an occupied British science station, but the interesting site was a small sailboat. They had sailed from Ushuaia, same as us, and the boat had no special hull. It was fiberglass, not steel. Plus it was pretty small, less than 50 feet. Not sure I would sail the Drake like this, but there they were.

Leopard seal hanging out on an iceberg. They eat penguins.

Me on the Continent!

 Midnight in the Lemaire Channel

A sailboat at Port Lockroy

Robert Island

The next stop was Robert Island, full of seals (and penguins). The seals crawl onto the beaches to molt. Every year they must replace their fur and get out of the water to do it. Apparently it is really hot for them as they lay on the beach, so mainly they just lay there. By the way, there are 5 types of seals in the area we were in, Elephant, Weddell, Crabeater (they don't eat crabs), Leopard, and Fur. I learned the differences, waiting for my Antarctic biology degree to arrive in the mail.

The Elephant seals were really cool. The adults are huge, up to 4 tons, but they just lay there and look at you. They lay in groups and kind of bug each other when they move, so there is some grunting and general displeasure expressed by fake biting. They crawl like giant brown slugs. They don't breath like we do by regular inhaling and exhaling, they open their mouths like yawning, take a few deep breaths, then shut their mouths and noses for several minutes. This is normal since they live most of their lives underwater.

A Weddell seal. These are the seals that make the space invader sounds underwater (look it up).

Not to make the reader work too hard... I googled. I think he means the mystery ship sound - shelly.

Space Invader Sounds

Elephant seals. Their eyes are constantly tearing to remove salt from their bodies.

Penguin Island

First landfall in Antarctica was Penguin Island, where we saw... Penguins. And seals and skuas, which are like seagulls, predatory on penguin chicks and eggs, and scavengers. The researchers on this ship are all Antarctic wildlife researchers, some have been doing it for 30 years. The main guy is a professor at one of the universities in New Mexico, originally from Oregon. All the others are out of Austrailia. SO, I now know more about Antarctic wildlife than I would have ever guessed. I could probably apply for a degree now, it was like an intense university course.

Anyway, hiking up the dormant volcano was an excellent escape from the confinement of the ship and the rough passage. Most of the passengers hiked up there and around the rim. It was chilly but no wind and blazing sun. The UV is intense down there, ozone hole and all. I used SPF 50 and still got a bit tanned.

Me on the top of the volcano, Penguin Island. Note the icebergs, there is a reason our ship has a steel-reinforced hull.

After running up the volcano, I checked out the penguin colonies. These are Chinstrap penguins, zoom in on one and you can see where the name comes from. There are only 6 kinds of penguins in the Antarctic and only 4 types in the areas we were. All of them lay eggs and raise chicks in colonies with the parents switching off caring duties. Of course, now, summer down here, is when they come together and raise their chicks like this. Ha, see, I'm an "expert" now.

Penguin colony and observers. Look close (expand the photo) and you see chicks with parent, some have 2.

10,000 Mile Journey

I just completed the middle part of my Southern Hemisphere Expedition 2016 (as I am calling it), and it was nonstop travel from the eastern-most to western-most islands of the trip: South Georgia to New Zealand. It involved ship, auto, airplane and foot travel, and took six days. Here is how I traveled from one of the most remote spots on the planet to the big city of Auckland.

The only way to/from South Georgia is by ship, there are no airports here and it's too far from land to helicopter. Our ship took 3 days to cross to the nearest island with an airport, the Falklands. This means non-stop day and night motoring, which gets quite boring after the sights and action of the first part of the trip. 

After clearing customs in Stanley, Falklands, we immediately boarded a bus to the military/civilian airport at Mt. Pleasant, an hour away. After waiting in a crowded room for three or four hours, we eventually get on a plane to Punta Arenas, Chile, near the southern tip of South America. There we went through a security check/immigration station and back on the same plane. They did not instruct is as to the procedure (not even in Spanish) so it was highly confusing. BUT, it worked out, as these things usually do despite a great gnashing of teeth by many of the passengers.

From there we go on an amazingly bumpy flight to Santiago. We land around midnight, now traveling since 8 am. After mass confusion at the airport (again), I get to my hotel for a well-deserved one night layover.

The next day I hang out at the Santiago airport until my flight at 6 pm to Buenos Aires, note that this is the opposite direction to where I am headed. I wait in the Buenos Aires transit area until my flight leaves late at 1:30 am. This is not terrible, the transit area is very nice. But finally we all get on a big, crowded Air New Zealand flight and are off.

Almost immediately we run into severe turbulence. I've never experienced that much bumpiness on an airplane before, I was wondering if the plane would break apart. I was actually thinking that it would be a very interesting and unique way to die. It went on and off like this for the first two hours while flying over land. But eventually it calmed down and many more hours later we landed in Auckland. It's very easy to get around here, got to my hotel to recover after almost a week of multi-mode traveling.

Total distance: 10,000 long miles. Now I'm more than ready to hike for a month.

More Antarctica stories coming next.

 Beer in Santiago

Latte on the Waterfront

How to get to Antarctica

The shortest way to ship to Antarctica is to cross the Drake Passage between Cape Horn and the Antarctic peninsula. Well, easier said than done, as is everything in any good adventure.

The Drake Passage is notorious for rough travel. This is the the only place the ocean is open all the way around the world, and so huge currents and waves build up, making for some real fun at sea. 

The first 6 hours down the Beagle Channel from Ushuaia were calm and smooth. We hit the Drake Passage around midnight. At some point during the night, I noticed the boat rocking big time, but it was rhythmic, not a problem. By breakfast the next day, you could hardly walk without holding on to something. There were rail handles in all hallways. Conveniently, they were well stocked with barf bags. I was ok, but many passengers used them over the next two days. It was common to pass someone in the hallway getting sick. That didn't bother me, I'm probably desensitized from all the times people got sick while on climbing expeditions. Pretty normal in extreme conditions and very temporary.

More serious were injuries from people falling or getting a door slammed on them. One guy broke a rib, another woman hit her head hard when she fell in the dining room. A couple of people were so sick we didn't see them for days. What fun! In the long run everyone was ok.

The first day was very wavy, but I got up to the bridge and saw Orcas and penguins in the turbulent ocean. Late on the second day it was much worse, I didn't go up to the bridge but never felt ill. I did not have much of an appetite either, as was true with pretty much everyone. In the meantime, we got presentations on wildlife and history in the lecture room, on the bottom deck where the wave motion was minimal.

At some point on the second day, we crossed the Antarctic front, this is a boundary between the south Atlantic and Antarctic currents and where the air and water temperature drop dramatically. The ecosystem changes to the Antarctic wildlife system, and soon icebergs appeared.

I have to say that the motion we encountered was really no more than Shelly and I have experienced on a normal sailing passage. The difference was how long it lasted.

On the third morning we woke up to a calm ocean filled with giant icebergs. We were in the South Shetland islands, about to make our first landfall. Finally, Antarctica!

Me on the Polar Pioneer in the Beagle Channel

Barf bags conveniently placed in all hallways

The Locals

Seals, Penguins and Shackleton

Big adventure, too much to tell about in one email so I'll send more after I get to New Zealand, where internet access shouldn't be a problem. Right now I'm in Santiago on a one day layover, getting on a plane for NZ tonight.

More in a couple days, off to the airport for my next leg of travel torture.

One of the big topics on the trip was Ernest Shackleton, a major hero in these parts. I didn't realize it is the 100 year anniversary of his famous Antarctica disaster. He's buried in South Georgia, a pic included. His "right hand man" Frank Wild is now buried next to him. The old whaling town of Grytviken has the original church which has a Shackleton memorial room. There is so much Shackleton in Grytviken that I was joking it should be renamed "Shackle-town." :)

Me with King penguins at Gold Harbor, South Georgia.

Princess Anne (the queen's sister) was here with us at the same time.

Elephant seals in Antarctica

He's Alive!

Finally received a Spot Beacon from Mr. Nash this morning.

Click here to see Map

So it appears that he hasn't been kidnapped by pirates and that the boat is still afloat. He's at South Georgia Island. We'll have to wait for pictures until he gets to wifi but in the meantime, here's a video from the tour company he went with. Warning there are fuzzy little penguins.

Antarctica & South Georgia Footage by Pieter de Vries

More about the boat

Information about the Polar Pioneer

Mark said he's on deck 3.

Passage Weather

Mark will be on the boat until the 23rd. He'll be going to Antarctica, South Georgia Island and the Falklands.

I thought it would be fun to post the wave heights in the area every day so he can see what it was when he gets back to the internets.

The Boat

Mark found the boat he's supposed to leave on in a few hours. Then he'll be out of email range for a while but I'll upload any location spot beacons.

This is the boat. Has a Russian crew.

This one shows the scale. His is the boat in back.

Ushuaia

Made it to Ushuaia, Argentina this morning. Spectacularly beautiful. It's a town surrounded on one side by snow covered peaks and the other by an ocean travel. This is the southern-most city in the world, so I'm now about to fall off the bottom of the earth..:)

The photos are from my hotel, one looking toward the mountains and the other toward the commercial doc. My ship will be there but it apparently hasn't arrived yet. The SPOT beacon worked here but may not as we go south on the ship. The manufacturer website has no coverage for Antarctica. I'm not sure if this is because of the satellite orbits or because no one has ever tested it there. I'll try it, though won't likely have any emails until the ship docs at the Falklands.

Off to find food and beer!

See it on the MAP

Local desert, supposed to look like the mountains here

First Stop Buenos Aires

Map Link

Made it here, no problems. Even got off the plane with all my stuff..;) Easy to get a taxi here. Went out to the park and sent a spot beacon message but it apparently hasn't gotten through yet.

It is hot here! Pretty cool, in the park outside the hotel there is free wifi everywhere.

Having a beer at the bar before dinner now. Leaving for the next flight at 3:15 am tomorrow.

[update: the SPOT beacon has done its thing. Click the Map Link up top.]

Testing the Map

Mark's big sabatical adventure starts today. Off to the airport in a few minutes.
I'm testing out posting his spot beacon location so please click here