December 28, 2006- January 14, 2007

Well, my pictures of Antarctica are FINALLY here! I am so sorry for the delay, but as you all know life has been a little bit busy for the fiance and me.

Antarctica was one of the most majestic, spiritual, pure and heartbreaking places I have ever been to. The penguins speak for themselves in the photos- they were so cute that you did indeed want to take one home with you, but I would never be able to decide between a Gentoo, Adelie or Chinstrap. Maybe an Adelie because they are so corny and funny!

  

The icebergs were gorgeous and heartbreaking at the same time, especially the tabular icebergs which have broken off from Larsen Shelf A and B in 1995 and 2002 respectively.

 

Of course the ship, the Norwegian Nordnorge and its staff were wonderful to us, even through the dreaded Drake Passage. Gravol is indeed a wonderful drug, and it got my mother and I through these rough unprotected seas. The Filipino crew treated us like family, and made the trip really special, as well as taking this long awaited mother-daughter trip.

 

I have included the daily reports of what our days looked like in Antarctica below, in hopes that you might get a good glimpse of our trip of a lifetime. Enjoy!

December 29, 2006- Ushuaia, Argentina

A journey is a person in itself, no two are alike. And all plans, safeguards, policies and coercion are fruitless. We find after years of struggle that we do not take a trip; a trip takes us.” John Steinbeck

Ushuaia National Park tour, with beaver dams, Lapataia River and Roca Lake.

December 30, 2006- Drake Passage

“For sheer downright misery, give me a hurricane, not too warm, the yard of a sailing ship, a wet sail and a bout of sea sickness.” Apsley Cherry-Garrard

The Antarctic Convergence is where the warmer waters of the north meet the colder, denser, less saline waters of the south. As the colder water sinks beneath the warmer, a mixing occurs that brings nutrients to the surface. Found between 40 degrees south and 60 degrees south, the convergence is an ever-changing frontier. It is the biological limit of the Antarctic ecosystem and anywhere south of the convergence is known as the Antarctic Ocean. While there is often a low fog in the area and an increase in wildlife, other than using a thermometer, there is no way to know when you are crossing it; the seas do not get rougher and the water does not change. The waters of Antarctica circle the continent in the world’s biggest ocean current at an estimated rate of 150 million cubic metres per second. Once carried far into the northern oceans, the dense polar water has a cooling effect on tropical and temperate waters and is important to the oceans’ balance.

December 31, 2006- Drake Passage, Whalers Bay, Deception Island, South Shetlands

“You wait. Everyone has an Antarctic.” Thomas Pynchon

In February 1819, British merchant William Smith was rounding Cape Horn in his brig Williams when he was blown south by a storm and first sighted the South Shetland Islands. Smith was promptly made the pilot of his own ship as the British authorities in Valparaiso placed aboard naval Captain Edward Bransfield. Together Bransfield and Smith surveyed the islands naming them for their similarity in latitude to Scotland’s Shetland Islands. They then crossed Bransfields’ eponymous strait and sighted the Antarctic Peninsula. This was considered for many years to be the first known sighting of Antarctica. However, an ethnic German from Estonia working for the Russian Navy named Thaddeus Thaddevich von Bellingshausen had unknowingly beaten them by three days. Being a Russian ship captain, Bellingshausen was working off the tenth month Julian calendar and it wasn’t until the 1940s when his work was translated into the twelve month Gregorian calendar that his prior claim was discovered.

A portion of the wall of the volcanic caldera of Deception Island has collapsed, flooding the interior and creating an amazing natural harbour. Access to the interior is through the 200 metre-wide (660 feet entrance known as Neptune’s Bellows, so named for the winds while howl through. There is a rock in the middle just under the water and the area to one side is foul. Therefore the ship will have only 100 metres (330 feet) with which to navigate. Once safely through the Bellows, Whalers Bay will begin to appear off the starboard side of the ship. Whalers Bay was home to factory whaling ships as early as 1905. A shore station named Hektor was set up in 1912 to process the meat and bones left behind by the ships. The station closed in 1931 after modern additions to the factory ships allowed them to process the entire whale (blubber and all!) at sea. During Operation Tabarin in 1941, the British built Base “B”. Both the base and station were finally destroyed by a mudslide during the eruption, which lasted from 1967-69.

January 1, 2007- Cuverville Island- Neko Harbour

“I now belong to a higher cult of mortals for I have seen the albatross.” Robert Cushman Murphy

The Errera Channel is a scenic, narrow waterway between Ronge Island and the Arctowski Peninsula on the mainland. It was discovered by the Belgica expedition and named for Professor Leo Errera of the University of Brussels, a benefactor of the voyage. Errera is home to Danco and Cuverville Islands. Cuverville Island supports one of the largest known Gentoo penguin colonies. This can be apparent from miles away given the right wind direction (i.e. the smell is strong!). Early in the season, snow cover impedes but doesn’t stop penguins accessing their nests and an intricate network of ‘penguin highways’ is carved into the snow. The shallow waters between Cuverville and Ronge islands often trap and ground icebergs (an iceberg graveyard). This makes for superb ship-cruising through the channel. Up from the rookery at Cuverville, steep cliffs lead to the island top. These cliffs should be avoided so as not to damage the mosses and lichens that grow there. The cliffs area also home to skuas that are vigorous in defending (through dive bombing) their well-hidden nests.

Andvord Bay penetrates deep into the Antarctic Peninsula; from here the Weddell Sea side is a mere 50 km away. Once inside the bay, one is surrounded on all sides by the mountains and alpine glaciers of the peninsula. The bay is splendidly scenic and fills with castellated icebergs and wildlife in the long days of the summer. Nestled at the bottom of the bay is Neko Harbour, named for a whaling ship which anchored there in the early 1900’s. Neko features an Argentine refuge hut and a Gentoo penguin colony onshore. It is also one of the rare places in the Antarctic Peninsula area where one can come ashore on the Antarctic mainland. Please do not enter the refuge. Hike up the hill to the penguin rookery and an amazing view of Andvord Bay but do not continue onto the glacier as it is heavily crevassed. The glacier across the tiny harbour is very active and creates very impressive but dangerous waves when it calves- please stay off the beach because of this.

January 2, 2007 – Almirate Brown Station, Paradise Bay, Lemaire Channel, Petermann Island

“Who would believe in penguins unless he had seen them?” Conor O’Brien

The Argentine base of Almirante Brown is located on the Antarctic Peninsula mainland near Skontrop Cove in Paradise Harbour. It is named for William Brown, an Irish immigrant who became a national hero in Argentina and is know as the father of the Argentine Navy. In 1984, the station’s doctor went slightly mad and burned the base down. All seven members of the base staff were subsequently rescued by the American research vessel Hero. The Argentineans sent down a crew every summer to rebuild the base but, as many of the Argentine bases, it has been closed in recent years. The empty base makes for a nice landing where you can view the station and the Gentoo penguins that call it home. A steep hike up the snow-covered hill is rewarded with a magnificent view of the entire bay.

After lunch we will enter the beautiful Lemaire Channel. The Lemaire Channel was first sighted by Eduard Dallman in 1873 and then charted and traversed by Adrien de Gerlache in 1898. He named it for Charles Lemaire, a fellow Belgian who explored the Congo for King Leopold III. Given the right weather, this eleven kilometer-long (seven mile) and 1.6 kilometre-wide channel can be strikingly beautiful. The steep cliffs and glaciers of Booth Island to one side mirror the opposite shores of the Antarctic Peninsula. When protected from the wind, the clear waters offer an extraordinary reflection of the mountains in the water; there can appear to be four different sets nudging each other. So many camera clicks can be heard during a traverse of the Lemaire Channel that it is known by expedition staff as the “Kodak Alley”. Navigation of the channel is dependent upon ice conditions but one doesn’t need to travel all the way down to experience its beauty.

Petermann Island was first discovered by German whaler Eduard Dallman and named for geographer August Petermann. It is perhaps more famous for its 1909 resident Jean-Baptiste Charcot. His ship Pourquoi Pas? Wintered in a tiny cove on Petermann that Charcot named Port Circumcision. There is a cairn and plaque from the expedition on a hill near the ship’s old anchorage. There is a 1950’s era Argentine refuge that in recent years has been kept up and visited regularly by the staff from Vernadskiy, the nearby Ukrainian base. Vernaskiy was British Base Faraday until 1996. There is a cross commemorating three men from Faraday who had holed up in the refuge but were lost trying to return to the base after a climbing expedition in the winter of 1982. Adelie penguins, imperial cormorants (blue-eyed shags), and the world’s southernmost Gentoo penguin colony are the main attractions here. This is the southernmost destination we will reach, at 65 degrees. The Antarctic Circle is at 66.5 degrees, so we are not far.

Gentoo penguins are like suburbanites- they like easy, calm weather.

January 3, 2007 – Port Lockroy, Enterprise Island (Wilhelmina Bay)

“I have often had the impression that, to penguins, man is just another penguin- different, less predictable, occasionally violent, but tolerable company when he sits still and minds his own business.” Bernard Stonehouse

During Operation Tabarin in 1941, the British set up two bases in the Peninsula area to keep an eye on enemy shipping and destroy old fuel dumps. They chose Port Lockroy as an important anchorage and imaginatively named their base “A”. Its counterpart, the equally imaginative Base B, was built at Whalers Bay, Deception Island: it seems they had used up all their innovation when naming the entire operation after a Paris nightclub favoured by the staff. Since its restoration in 1996 by the Antarctic Heritage Trust (AHT), Base A on Goudier Island at Port Lockroy has become one of the most visited sites in Antarctica (14 000 tourists last year). It now operates as a museum, kept much like it was in the 1950s, as well as a post office and souvenir shop with all proceeds going to the AHT, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving historical huts in. We will then cruise north up the very beautiful Neumayer Channel.

After lunch we will cruise northwards through the Gerlache Strait. The bay and cove carved western side of the Antarctic Peninsula is separated from Brabant, Anvers, and the other islands of the Palmer Archipelago by the Gerlache Strait. Named for Belgian Adrien de Gerlache who came through here in 1897-99, the strait is beautifully scenic and comprises much of Antarctica’s ‘inside passage’. Among the first expeditions in the area was German Eduard Dallman in the first steam-powered ship in the Antarctic, Gronland. Dallman was only interested in whales and didn’t care to name any of the bays and channels he discovered. Next came De Gerlache sailing in Belgica with such notables aboard as Henryk Arctowski, Roald Amundsen, and Frederick Cook. The Swedish South Polar Expedition explored the area in 1902 before becoming marooned in the Antarctic Sound. Frenchman Jean-Baptiste Charco came through here in 1904 in Le Francais and again in 1908 on the cleverly named Pourquoi Pas? One of the most comprehensive expeditions in the area was the small but capable British Graham Land Expedition in 1934-37 led by John Rymill.

The mountains and high flakier walls of the Antarctic Peninsula around Wilhemina Bay ensure that there is plenty of dramatic scenery, interesting ice in the water, and the possibility of witnessing a calving. Enterprise Island in Wilhemina Bay has the partially submerged wreck of the whaling ship Guvernoren near Foyn Harbour. The 3433 ton ship caught fire in 1915 and was run aground in order to rescue men and supplies. There were no fatalities. The bay is a choice feeding place for whales and therefore was a choice hunting ground for whalers. As Shackleton was marching his men across the ice of the Weddell Sea, his final destination was to be Wilhemina Bay where he anticipated whalers could be found for rescue. As well as the possibility of whales, Weddell, crabeater, and leopard seals can be found here and Antarctic terns nest on some of the bard cliff faces.

January 4, 2007 Brown Bluff, Erebus and Terror Gulf

The descriptively names Brown Bluff lies on the coast of the Antarctic Sound at the end of the Tabarin Peninsula. Curiously, the Tabarin Peninsula was named after a Paris nightclub favoured by British explorers during the 1940s. Adelie penguins, gentoo penguins, kelp gulls, and Cape petrels all breed here in under an ominous 745 metre-high (2450) cliff. An even, stony beach with many rocky breaks often offer easy landings. Later in the season, there are so many Adelies lounging on the beach that is may be impossible to land without disturbing them. Be aware that your landing site may change over the course of landing operations due to tides. Make sure to look for leopard seals patrolling the water off the beach. Experienced staff will tell you that the best way to experience an Adelie rookery is to sit quietly and just observe nature’s greatest comedians at work.

On leaving Brown Bluff, MS Nordnorge will sail south through Antarctic Sound and enter the Weddell Sea, Erebus and Terror Gulf. The east side of the Peninsula is a stark contrast to the warmer, wetter western side- here there is less snow fall and the climate more reflective of the continental Antarctic. The Weddell Sea, named after James Weddell, is often full of pack ice which moves in a clockwise direction around the whole area, bringing with it huge tabular icebergs which have broken off the ice shelves found to the sound (e.g. Larsen A). Erebus and Terror Gulf is named after the British Explorer Captain James Clark Ross’s two ships which did initial surveys of the area in the 1840s.

January 5, 2007 – Arctowski Station, Drake Passage

“The continent has become a symbol of our time. The test of man’s willingness to pull back from the destruction of the Antarctic wilderness is the test also of his willingness to avert destruction globally. If he cannot succeed in Antarctica he has little chance of success elsewhere.” Edwin Mickleburgh

Named for Henryk Arctowski, geologist on Gerlache’s 1897 Belgian Antarctic Expedition, Poland’s Arctowski research station is on the shores of Admiralty Bay, King George Island. The bay was once home to Admiralen, the first factory whaling ship in the South Ocean and whalebones still litter the beaches. The bay is now home to a Brazilian station and American and Peruvian summer camps as well. Base staff at Arctowski built an information centre so that tourists could continue to visit the station without interrupting ongoing work. Often incorrectly referred to as a ‘gift shop’, the little wooden hut was built from recycled materials by station personnel in their spare time and offers welcome respite from the biting winds. Personnel often make the station’s official stamp available and there may be t-shirts, pins and information packages for sale in American dollars. Please do not leave the beach as there are fragile moss beds and grass just inshore. The Adelie penguin rookery is designated an Area of Special Scientific Interest and cannot be entered by visitors.

January 6, 2007 -Drake Passage and Bridge visit

“If 70% of the earth’s surface is covered by water, how come so much of it seems to be between Antarctica and Cape Horn?” Seasick Passenger

Human eyes did not see Antarctica until 1820 yet it had been known to exist since the time of Aristotle. Although it has been on our maps and charts and satellite photos for less than two hundred years, it survived in our imaginations for two thousand years before that. Among all the mythical and magical places of the world- Atlantis, El Dorado, the Fountain of Youth- Antarctica is the only one we have found so far. Its very existence is proof of magic. The history of Antarctica is however one of resource rape; first the seals and then the whales. Will there be a third era? We encourage you to keep Antarctica a part of your life always. The people who visit Antarctica may be the continent’s best hope for its pristine survival, as they become advocates and emissaries.

January 7, 2007- Cape Horn/Puerto Williams

“I am the albatross that waits for you at the end of the earth. I am the forgotten soul of the dead sailors who crossed Cape Horn from all the seasons of the world, but they did not die in the furious waves. Today they fly in my wings to eternity in the last trough of the Antarctic winds.” Sara Vial

One of the greatest graveyards for ships anywhere, crossing Cape Horn is a rite of passage for sailors the world over. Cape Horn was discovered in January 1616 by Dutchmen Jakob Le Maire and Willem Schouten, sailing in the Unity. They named the cape for their ship Hoorn, which had accidentally burned at Puerto Deseado on the Patagonian coast. Horn Island, of which the famous cape forms the southernmost headland, is just eight kilometers (5 miles) long. The cape itself rises to 424 metres with striking black cliffs on its upper parts. A monument in the form of a large relief sculpture depicts an albatross in flight. It commemorates those lost at sea. A poem by Sara Vial is engraved on a metal plaque nearby.

Puerto Williams (population 2000) sits on the southern shores of the Beagle Channel on Navarino Island. Captain Robert Fitzroy of Britain encountered the Yahgan (Yamana) and Alacalufe peoples here in 1828, four of who he brought to England aboard the HMS Beagle, “…to become useful as interpreters, and be the means of establishing a friendly disposition towards Englishmen on the part of their countrymen.” The names given to the Fuegians by the crew were: York Minster, Jemmy Button, Fuegia Basket and Boat Memory. Their original names were, respectively: el’leparu, o’run-del’lico, and yok’cushly. Boat Memory died of smallpox shortly after his arrival to England his name is lost. Missionaries and fortune seekers established a permanent European presence here in the 19th Chile built a naval base here in 1953. In Puerto Williams you will be able to find the bow of the Yelcho (located in front of the Navy’s supermarket). This was the tug, commanded by Captain Luis Alberto Pardo, which rescued Shackleton’s men from Elephant Island.

January 8, 2007- Beagle Channel and Strait of Magellan

“Our principal intention will and has always been to preserve and augment the number of the Indians.” Carlos V

 The Beagle Channel, named for Charles Darwin’s ship, separates Isla Grande de Tierra del Fuego from several smaller islands to the south. Its eastern portion is part of the border between Chile and Argentina, but the western part is completely within Chile. The Beagle Channel is approximately 240 kilometres (150 miles) long and is about five kilometers (3 miles) wide at its narrowest point. With its jagged peaks and undulating hills, small southern beech tree, it is a strikingly beautiful waterway. Not long ago, this harsh land was inhabited by three indigenous tribes, Adapted to hard living conditions, they etched out a living here for perhaps as much as 8000 years. Once the sealers from the north and the first European settlers arrived in the 19th century however, their days were numbered. Today there are no pureblood descendants left.

The Strait of Magellan is arguable the most important natural route between the Pacific and Atlantic oceans. From its first traverse by Europeans in 1520 until the Panama Canal was finished in 1914, it was the second most traveled course between the two oceans, after the Drake Passage. Portuguese navigator Fernao de Magalhaes (Ferdinand Magellan, or Hernando de Magallanes in Spanish) was the first European to cross the strait and he originally named it Estreito de Todos los Santos (Strait of All Saints) because his ships entered on November 1st All Saints Day. Magellan was attempting to circumnavigate the globe but was killed in the Philippines. Only eighteen of the over 200 original crew made the complete trip back to Europe. The strait was considered very difficult to navigate in the age of sail due to the harsh climate and the narrowness of the passage. Although it is easier for motor vessels, pilots and navigators still treat the strait with great respect.

January 9, 2007- White Narrows and Puerto Natales

“I think that in future times the Spaniards who discovered this empire will be much esteemed and their names will be more talked of than in these present times… that which esteem most is not the conquests nor battles with the Indians, but the labour of discovery.” Cieza de Leon

Puerto Natales (population 20 000) is located on the banks of the Ultima Esperanza (Last Hope) fjord. The name Natales comes from the Latin natalis which means birth. The name for the fjord is somewhat more interesting. It was named in 1577 by navigator Juan de Ladrillero who was desperately searching the western exit to the Strait of Magellan. He was unsuccessful. Puerto Natales is the capital of the province of Ultima Esperanza, one of the four provinces that make up the Region de Magallanes y de la Antarctica Chilena. It was founded in 1911 and originally colonized by people from Chiloe as well as German and English settlers who founded the region’s cattle industry. It has since become a tourist centre, known as the gateway to Torres del Paine National Park, the Cueva del Milodon (Milodon Cave) and the Bernardo O’Higgins National Park.

January 10, 2007- Chilean Fjords, Estero las Montanas

“The Kingdom of Chile is like the sheath of a sword, narrow and long. It has on one side the South Sea, and on the other side the snowy Cordillera which skirts the whole country. The land is of such good airs and so wholesome that no man has been seen to fall sick there.” Marmolejo

Battered by westerly winds and storms that drop huge amounts of rain and snow on the seaward slopes of the Andes, this rugged, mountainous area, called Magallanes, is geographically remote from the rest of the country. Alacalufe and Tehuelche Indians subsisting through fishing, hunting and gathering, were the region’s original inhabitants. While the Alacalufe and Tehuelche survived in reduced numbers, there remain very few individuals of identifiable Ona, Haush or Yaghan (Yamana) populations.

January 11, 2007- Chilean Fjords, Gabrielle Island, Tucker Island, Agostini, Hyatt and Serrano Sound

“…they died like dogges in their houses, and in their clothes, where in we found them still at our coming, until that in the ende the towne being wonderfully taynted with the smell and the savour of the dead people… Our Generall named this towne Port Famine…” Francis Pretty, crewmember to Sir Thomas Cavendish

The city of Punta Arenas (population 120 000), capital of Region de Magallanes y de la Antartica Chilena, sits alongside the Straits of Magella at latitude 54 degrees South. It first appeared on English navigational charts in the 17th century as Sandy Point and the current name grew out of the Spanish translation for this – Punta Arenosa. Although the current city founded in 1843 is very nice, it came from rather inauspicious beginnings in the form of earlier settlements. The first, Nombre de Jesus in 1584, failed due to harsh conditions and remote location. A second called Rey don Felipe became known as Port Famine (Puerto Hambre) after all its residents starved. This is where Pringle Stokes, captain of the HMS Beagle, locked himself in his cabin for two weeks before shooting himself in 1828. Although the first European settlers had trouble finding food and water, the original inhabitants did not. A culture of canoe hunters called Kaweskar inhabited these shores for centuries.

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