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
1 comment:
Photo bomb! ;)
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