Aug 25 2010
An Antarctic Cruise
On the ship’s navigation table, two nautical charts are laid out. The charts both show these waters have not been surveyed. The captain relies on a heading of depth soundings. He may be a seasoned Antarctic sailor, but he’s never sailed this channel before today.
Dusk sets in and reduces visibility. Then is starts to snow in earnest. The windows on the bridge are soon covered in flakes, obscuring the floating barriers that fill the channel. Luckily, the radar clearly shows each iceberg. Strangely, the icebergs are shown in orange on the monitor. A giant orange clump waits imposingly ahead. Three kilometers separate us from the berg. You need to visit this site to learn about affordable antarctica tours.
The captain finally issues a quiet order at one kilometer. The ship is quickly steered from danger, as the helmsman follows his command. Fog and snow cloud our vision, but we see a spooky sight; the tabular iceberg, which can only be seen in the southern ocean, appears. These bergs resemble the American plains; they have very flat, wide tops and the sides are straight. They can be over one hundred feet tall.
Antarctica has struck me speechless again. We were headed to the dashed line found on the bottom of your globe – the Antarctic Circle – in our polar class cruise vessel. We’ve mapped a route that will bring us past some of this world’s least hospitable and least inhabited areas. Antarctica was first seen in 1820. It took another 79 years before someone wintered over there. Very soon after that first winter, explorers searched for the South Pole in a deadly quest, scientists followed them.Now you don’t have to be an independently-wealthy individual to travel to Antarctica. Now a trip to Antarctica cost about the same as one to the Caribbean.
Some people say that Antarctica looks a bit like a manta ray with a curving tail. Between the end of that tail and the tip of South America lies five hundred miles of ocean. This stretch of seas is called Drakes Passage and is notorious for its turbulent waters.It has also been called the ‘Slobbering Jaws of Hell’ and extracts a high price for passage. One nice woman reminds us to stow all of our gear and make sure our cabin portholes are well latched before we retire for the night. Learn about adventure antarctica tours.
After leaving Ushuaia in Argentina, we traveled through the smooth waters of the Beagle Channel and into the open ocean. The ship was tossed for two days on very rough water with no land in sight. Near gale-force winds were our constant companion. As waves crashed on the bow, spray splashed above my fourth deck window. Passengers saw swells that were somewhere between 15 and 40 feet, though observers tended to see taller swells as their seasickness grew worse.
We got to the Southern Ocean after two days on the sea. The next morning, I woke up to a view of a coastal archipelago. The sea seemed to be settled a bit by the surrounding land. Super tall mountains wore wispy clouds at their peaks. Dark, angular mountains speared through the smooth, white glaciers. Rough, tumbled ice filled with cracks and dirt fell into the sea in large slabs. Looking like the mountains suddenly jumped from the ocean, they seem tall enough to be home to Mt. Everest or the like.
The trip to the continent is similar, according to one passenger, to the labor of childbirth. Compared to all the other seven continents, Antarctica is the windiest, coldest, driest and highest. It shares the same amount of moisture that Death Valley receives, though holds seventy percent of the world’s fresh water reserves. Antarctica claims no original human populations, human owners, nor animals that make it a year-round home.
In this rough environment, shore landings, as well as sailing routes, all depend on the weather. Even though the guides had warned us to be prepared for waiting, our first scheduled landfall became a reality.We’ve been assigned groups and told to meet on deck. There are nine other people in my group, and when the time comes, we board an inflatable boat. My group of ten nears the trip’s zenith as the driver powers the boat towards land. Then, with that last step, I am finally standing on Antarctica. I am one of the few people who have been able to do so.
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