2016-11-07: Santiago, Chile to Ushuaia
I looked out at the jagged mountains through the icy window. Their steep slopes quickly disappeared into the cold looking waters. I was very tired, yet I couldn’t sleep. I had finally dozed off a little when we touched down. We prepared as much as possible before getting outside, but still, when I was enveloped by the freezing air, I was glad to get into the heated car. It was lightly raining outside too. It looks like heaters here are a necessity.
Our quaint little Airbnb home felt like it came out of a 60’s movie. Our host Gloria told us that for steak we should go to La Estancia Parilla. It had a huge fire grill cooking whole lambs over it. The pit master was always busy chopping up meat, and checking the ones on another fire grill. Both the steak and the knives were big. The heavy meal of steak and chorizo made us very full and ready for bed.
2016-11-08: Ushuaia, Argentina to Drake Passage
We slowly glided through the Beagle Channel out to the open ocean. I looked at the beautiful snowy mountains. I knew I wouldn’t see actual land for a long time. My hands were cold. I hoped that it didn’t get colder than this. Though, after putting on all of our proper gear, I finally felt warm.
The food on the ship was better than I expected. There was even a wine menu!! The ship was a Russian Research vessel, called the Akademik Ioffe. It was cool to see most of the ship’s writing in Russian. I found it very luxurious to have a computer balance the boat by pumping water to different containers. This meant that we would be less seasick.
The dining room was very nice. It was large, and had long tables – allowing the passengers to talk and socialize, my favorite! We met two girls that were going to Port Lockroy for a summer job. Port Lockroy is a remote British Antarctic Survey base (@BAS_News). They are going to be there with 2 other people. We are going to drop them off a Port Lockroy on this trip. I want to have that cool job!
In the very back of the ship was a lounge/bar. Once, we were in Antarctica, it was ok for anyone of any age to drink alcohol (Not saying that I drank any!). There were also many educational talks that occupied us during this long, 2 day journey.
Once out on the Drake Passage, we found it very rocky. We all put on patches that prevented sea sickness. The downside of this is the fact that people may get the side effects of dizziness and sleepiness. Though, we all had that effect, so we were sort of napping the whole way across.
It was the end of the day for us. We had gotten up this morning in Ushuaia for some last minute shopping. There were much more stores than I thought. Eventually, we finally found suitable socks.
Our lunch was across the street from the post office. We had a delicious Southern King Crab, or Centolla in Spanish.
At the hotel our guides were going to meet us at, we found many other people going with the One Ocean company. It was cool to talk with all these people. They all had a great personality.
2016-11-09: Drake Passage
We stood in the Bridge, the control room, and gazed out at sea. We could see our focused captain steering the wheel while, his crew told him how many degrees right or left. There were many birds accompanying us on our journey. Maybe they get very lonely flying in the open ocean by themselves.
There was a group of small, black, birds with white spots that played with the boat. They would circle us and maneuver through the boat’s obstacles. They were called the Cape Petrel. Some other birds were more conservative of their energy. They would glide alongside us, barely flapping their huge wings. They are the Albatross and Giant Petrel. An Albatrosses wing span can get as long as 3 meters! Also, I want to have a bird checklist to see how many I have seen out of the vast amount of bird, and marine species.
I have to stay in the Bridge if I want to look outside, because I have a cold. I hope that it clears up before I reach Antarctica. Most of the time, due to the seasick patch, we were napping instead of being on the Bridge or outside.
2016-11-10: Drake Passage
We stood at the Bridge and peered through the window at sea. There were many whale spouts. One of our guides told us that it was unusual to see so many whales this far south the Drake Passage. He estimated there to be about 100 whales. My favorite part was rushing from side to side, based on the sightings. We would run to the port side (Left) to see the blue whale. We then would hear about a humpback to starboard, so we would run to the right. One of the whales even breached!
It was also amazing to see all the sea birds. I wonder how hard it is to live on the ocean, and to sleep on water. The swell is about 6 feet, the temp is 0’C, that is very cold! They endure many struggles. My favorite bird sight of the day was a White-Mantled Sooty Albatross. It was huge!
Today, I finally recovered from my cold. I am in good health, and am excited for the journey ahead. The sun sets at a very late time, and rises early too. Our guide said that soon there will be very little time that is dark.
I also am especially curious about the camping trip. Staff say that there will be no tent, just a big sleeping bag with a hood for your head. I also don’t know about the restroom situation, by law you are not allowed to pee on Antarctica. Luckily camping is optional.
This morning, we fitted our foul weather clothing that the company provided. I also am really excited about finally leaving behind the roaring Drake Passage to enter the mildly calm seas of Antarctica. Our captain plans on taking us to the sheltered side. We finally wouldn’t need that patch!
2016-11-11: Antarctica
We slowly trekked through the small mountains of rock and snow. Screeching penguin calls filled the air. The island was full of action. At some places there were mating Chinstrap penguins, while nearby, a lonely, isolated, Macaroni penguin waited for a companion. Other couples worked on their nest. The male would bring a rock, and the female would decide if the rock was worthy of being part of the new nest. Most males looked for their own rocks, others, however, stole them from their neighbors. Some couples had already finished their nest, and were heading out to sea for some food. They would toboggan down the hill to the sea. After finishing their meal excursion, they would have to waddle up the tiring slope. This is life on Half Moon Island for the Chinstrap penguins.
We took the Zodiacs dinghies back to the main boat, and, by that time, we had worked up an appetite for Lunch. The Mess Hall was buzzing with penguin stories, all interesting to hear.
While we had lunch, our ship continued on to Whaler’s Bay, a bay based inside of Deception Island. I was a bit astonished and scared when I heard that the island was the crater of an active volcano!! That is why we are doing the Polar Plunge here, it is a bit “warmer”. Our expedition leader, Boris, said that the water temperature was about 2’C.
When we arrived, we were dropped off at the old whaling station that gave the bay its name. The buildings were abandoned, and very little was left. There were many mounds of wood that were the remains of buildings. We found barrels too. Even though the metal bands had rusted away, they were still in a circle.
We started our walk towards Neptune’s Window, a gap in the jagged mountains surrounding us. The walk didn’t seem that far, but ended up to be quite a trek. When we were finally up there, we could see the Antarctic Peninsula for the first time.
Whale Remain and Naptune’s Window in the back
We also could peer though a scope provided by our great naturalist, Dick Filby. The scope pointed at a Giant Petrel nest perched on the cliff.
The whole time we were walking, I was debating on if I should do the Polar Plunge. I finally decided to do it. Everyone in my family did it. We stripped to swim trunks as fast as we could, then, on the count of 3 dove in. I felt the water rush over my shocked body. My body was all numbed. I screamed wildly and ran out with my hands flapping in the air like a maniac. We were all still numb when we jumped into our clothes, and still numb when we were back on the boat, and STILL numb when taking a hot shower and Sauna. After that, my body finally was relieved. I still find it crazy to swim in 2’C water, while it is snowing.
Also before we were on the Zodiac heading back, as a grand finale, a male, named Avi, stripped naked, and ran wildly into the water, commenting while stripping,
“Sorry guys. There is no better way to do this.”
12 Nov 2016: Antarctica
We were just resting in our cabin, when the loud radio sounded. We rushed outside just in time to see the killer whales. My parents didn’t see them, but I managed to see them arc over the water. One of them gave me a spine chilling fierce evil eye in the process. We laid down once again and dozed off. Yet again, we were awakened when the radio came on. This time, it was much more urgent than the last. We peeked outside, and saw an Emperor penguin on an iceberg all by himself. It is very rare to see them here, on the Antarctic Peninsula. It looked as if it was looking around for its buddy, while slowly rocking. It must be very scary to be by yourself in an Ocean. Later, Dick Filby, said that it wasn’t lost, and was just hunting, they can swim up to 100 km (62 miles) away from where they started.
On our way to Paulet Island from Deception Island had amazing scenery. There were Tabular Icebergs everywhere, growing up to 20 meters tall, 200 meters wide, and 500 meters long!! Plus, that’s just on the outside, the ice above the surface is usually 20% or less, imagine how deep they go! Some of them went deep enough to scrape the ocean floor, making them stationary. One Tabular Iceberg had a collapsed middle, I wonder what the bottom looks like. The lighting was perfect for pictures. The only problem was the temperature, about -5’C!
As we approached Paulet Island, we could see the tiny dots, each was a penguin. It was amazing to see the vast numbers of them. Our guide said that there is about 100,000 pairs, which is 200,000 penguins. That’s amazing!! Even our ship was dwarfed by the amount of penguins.
We were walking along the shore with our guide, all of a sudden there was a lot of commotion among the penguins. We quickly spotted two fighting penguins, one of them ran into another penguin. He angered it. The next thing we knew, there was a 3 way fight. There were many intense jabs and screeching. Eventually, one was chased to the edge of the colony by the other two.
We walked along, and I noticed many dead penguin carcasses lying around. I asked the guide about it. He said that every year, the parents instinctively abandon their chicks after the chicks mature to a certain age. If the weather isn’t good, or the penguin isn’t strong enough, they die of starvation, or hypothermia. A few ways down, we also found an abandoned egg. It was all eaten up by the gulls and skuas. We could see the skuas eagerly circle the colony looking for eggs like this one. I honestly wonder if penguin egg tastes good.
We crossed a couple penguin highways, and found a small hut made of stacked rocks. It was made when an expedition party was marooned on the island. They had to build a shelter to last them through the long and hard winter. It must’ve taken a long time to find the rocks for the hut. The rocks must have had to fit together correctly, or else the wind would knock the the rocks over. Especially since, even now, in the summer, I almost get pushed over by the wind!
13 Nov 2016: Antarctica
Antarctica – a land with long, cold winters and short summers. A land with blizzards, and always with snow. A land inhospitable to many life forms. Very few animals survive in this barren, icy, desert. One of these hardy animals is the penguin. Living all over Antarctica, they have a very hard life. For example, in Mikkelsen Harbor, Trinity Island, it is the beginning of spring. The ice has melted a little, and all of the Gentoo Penguin couples have come to this island to reunite. They remember the location of their nest from the past year, and stand where they know the nest is buried by snow. They gather at the top of the hills, where snow melted first. All the penguins gather at the tops. Their guano builds up into, stinky, pinky piles capping the top of the hill with guano. The guano actually helps the ice melt, as it is warm.
Some couples feel that they need a better nest location. They try their luck, and fight with the couple that has the location they want to have. One time, one of the penguins, chased another, head to butt, all the way outside of the colony!
I was so absorbed watching all of this fun, and walking around, I didn’t notice that a huge group of sea ice had surrounded the island. We were stuck!! I was actually really looking forward to digging trenches with the shovels, and sleeping in them. The zodiac had to push ice, back out, then push more ice, then back out – and so on. After about 15 minutes of this process, we did finally get into the boat. We didn’t get to sleep here after all. We then did the reverse process to back out.
Thinking the day was done, we hung up our gear to dry and rested up before dinner. I was just thinking about how well today went when the radio came on. They had made a last minute decision to take advantage of the great weather, and have an early dinner so that we could fit in sunset zodiac cruise. EPIC!!
After dinner, and out on the boat, we could see icebergs floating around. We even found a small peice that our guide said was about 100,000 years old, because the ice had been there so long, that it managed to squeeze all the air bubbles out, no wonder why it is clear instead of white. We were also treated with some hot cranberry cider, with many other fruity ingredients to celebrate the great weather.
2016-11-14: Antarctica
We slowly sailed along near the group of Sea Ice. These kinds of ice, were different from what we have seen before. This kind of ice has never fallen off a glacier. Instead, this ice is frozen saltwater. It looks different, instead of tall and fat, these are short and long. These kinds of ice are perfect for seals to rest, hopefully, Leopard Seals. We spotted a group of 3 seals on one of the sea ice. They were Crabeater seals. Many of them had scars. Our guide said that it was from their childhood. Usually baby Crab Eaters get bitten by a Leopard Seal. We watched them for sometime, when one of them slipped into the water. We we watched them some more, and one of the two tried to reproduce with the other!! The male was climbing on the female. The female seemed to be in distress, and was making noises a bit like honking. He chased her around, even onto another piece of ice!! He did many attempts, all ending in detecting failure.
There were many other kinds of wildlife. We would sometimes see the whooshing movement of a snow petrel among the ice, or would see penguins jumping in and out of the water to get out of our way. One of my favorite things to see was the light blue ice on the bottom of icebergs.
We returned to our boat, and to our surprise, had an outdoor barbecue. It was interesting to eat with all of the gear on. It even more awkward to realize that we had to eat quick or else our food will go cold! We could also enjoy the amazing scenery as our boat sailed away from Portal Point.
We then walked with our gear to the bow of the boat. We could see the ice be crushed or pushed to the side by the boat. It was amazing to see the sheer force of this ship. While there, I was still pondering about what would happen tonight. We had decided to go camping tonight. We would dig a hole, and put 4 bags together for 1 person’s bed. The restroom had a great view and crossed paddles meant that it was occupied.
I made bricks of ice with my shovel, while my parents stacked the bricks around our 4 layer bags, to create a wind breaker. After the accomplishment, we were very warm from the work, and ready to rest.
A factor that kept me awake was that although the sunset, it was so close to the horizon, that the whole night, it was like twilight. I woke up the next morning, and, surprisingly, I was colder than when I went to sleep! We all had to rush into our clothes, and get onto the Zodiac to go back to the warm, heated, ship. I had to go to the Sauna.
15 Nov 2016: Antarctica
We walked slowly up the hill in ankle deep snow. When we finally reached to top, we were rewarded by a nice penguin show. We found some fighting, some mating, some calling, and some, well . . . pooing. We had finally landed on the mainland of Antarctica, and was starting to feel the coldness kick in. We hiked back down the trail to the Zodiac launching site. There, we boarded the boat for a cruise. We mostly were just bumping around, but we also got some good things too. We went into a sheltered bay, and, the driver, a fellow friend, Dr Allen, handed the tiller (the part that steers the boat) to me. I could feel her vibrating lightly. She pushed gently against my hand, but I held steady. The boat’s tiller felt different from the kinds I am used to.
This morning, we went to Georges Point. We saw Gentoo penguins and Chinstrap penguins. Surprisingly, there were very few Chinstraps, and many, many Gentoo. Our guide said that every year the population of Chinstraps on this island dwindles. I wonder how the Gentoo evolved to adapt and become better off than chinstraps.
16 Nov 2016: Antarctica
I peered over the edge of the snowy hill, and could see the tips of the mythical mountains. As our group continued, I could hear our large shoes crunch on the ground. Once we reached the top of the hill, we stopped for a rest. I looked back and could see the tiny dots of the other groups. The break was short, and we started off once more. Our view of Port Lockroy was great. We could even see the two people we dropped off, Laura and Hannelore, walking around.
We circled around, and came up to an old hut (Not part of Port Lockroy). We took our snowshoes off and went in. It was quite amazing to see that 9 people were crammed into this 2 room building. The first room had just enough space for a dining table and a desk. There were also 2 very small compartments about 8 feet tall, 2 feet wide, and 3 feet thick. These compartments held all sorts of gear, including, large snowshoes, nails, hammers, and string, there was even a British Flag! The final room had the bunks. I saw the blankets and wondered how cold it got in this unheated, wood walled building. The overall size was very small, and must have been annoying to stay all crammed together in this place during large storms.
Once outside again, we realized that our group had left us! We had to followed the flagged poles back to the landing site. We got onto the boat just in time for lunch.
After lunch, we sailed through the Gerlache Strait to Damoy Point. On our way there, there was a lot of icebergs, and their children, Bergy Bits. We were slowed by avoiding these pieces of ice, and had to go pick up the camping kayakers before they were iced in and we couldn’t. While on the Bridge watching our course, I noticed how tense the crew was. Instead of just one person, there were 3 people on the job. One driving, one with his binoculars looking out for icebergs and giving instructions to the driver, and one monitoring the course. Later we saw our amazing expedition leader, Boris, in the Captain’s office, we spotted him using a map from 1927!
“All the way down here, GPS doesn’t work so well,” says our leader.
“I’ve seen the ship on the GPS map go over land before!” he adds laughingly.
They have to use real maps to figure out our course too. I wonder how complex it is to calculate the course.
On this cruise, I’ve also been able to do my sketches. I met the crew’s artist, Bruce. He’s been teaching me a lot, even in one day. I am excited for tomorrow, he says that if we make a landing, he will bring down some paints to the landing. I am hoping to paint because when I travel I have limited supplies, and pretty much just have airplane kit color pencils, a pencil, and not-so-good-for-drawing graph paper, although, I love to paint.
The fireside chat for today was about Sasquatch. It was interesting to hear about the research that was put into this. One Hollywood film of it is still questionable to this day. The ape-like creature had signs too advanced to be created at that time.
2016-11-17: Antarctica
The magnificent and gentle beast slowly glided under us and nudged us a little bit. Our guides were freaking out over this amazing experience. It checked out every single boat, not leaving anyone out of its attention. If a newer boat came, the whale came to it. It even popped its head up right next to a kayak. It was amazing that such a notoriously timid creature had hung out with us for 35 minutes! I was on the “Creative Boat”, the one in which we learned how to sketch with our on board artist, Bruce. We learned shades, and how to create a distinctive figure by controlled scribbling. My parents were on a separate boat, they weren’t here. They finally came, and while filming underwater, the minke whale came to check out the camera.
Nearby, was a Leopard Seal resting on a small ice floe. Its eyes opened as we approached and it had a reptilian grin spread all over its face, its hunched shoulders gave it a bulky look. On yet another ice floe, there was a Crab Eater. It was on its side and had totally dozed off.
After a quick lunch, we went to Spert island to celebrate our last Zodiac cruise in Antarctica. The rocks were quite different, they were tall, sharp pillars coming out of the ground, instead of rolling, gentle hills. There were many other smaller islands, and a sea arch. The arch was iced in, so we couldn’t go through. The formations were so vertical, that there was very little snow on the sides. Although, there wasn’t much to see in the last cruise, I enjoyed seeing the icebergs, and the mountains, because I knew that nowhere else in this world is like this. We also came into a sheltered bay where our driver, Dr Allen let me steer the boat for a while. Once on board, and moving, I started to feel the boat rock from side to side. I wonder how seasick we will be on our way back.
The fireside chat for the day was our artist, Bruce showing us the “Color of Ice”. He started out with a scribble, and muttered a lot to himself. At first I had no idea where he was going with it. Though, after he made all sorts of great colours. At the end, I could make out the huge icebergs, and the mountains in the distance, his style looked like impressionism to me.
18 Nov 2016: Drake Passage
Today we could finally catch up on the sleep that we lost whilst camping. We missed just about everything scheduled for today, though we did go to Dr. Allen’s presentation. It was about his 18 months on a Antarctic Base. It was funny to hear about how he spent the winter alone with 12 other men. They are left with all sorts of gadgets for them to “play with”. One of his “experiments” was windsurfing on land. They also tied boogie boards to the back of snowmobiles and would race them across the ice. They also did the same thing on water with a powerboat. One of the days, the bay froze over, so they had a thin ice race!! Sometimes, when they finished experimental dives, they would take their weight belt off and would float under the ice upside down!! They also held the world’s first ever underwater, upside down soccer match. Dr. Allen’s team goalie threw up, so they lost.
Dr. Allen was in charge of the dogs, which he describes as wild animals. Doc says that one of the dogs was strong enough to pull the sled by himself. They ate any living thing in sight, and would fight each other all the time. One time the sled dogs went out of control, and drove off a cliff! The dogs were hanging off the cliff with the sled right above them. Luckily, nothing was hurt. Fortunately, the first thing the rescue helper did was he took some photos, so we had some good footage on that. One of the dogs got injured in a dog fight. They left him alone after bandaging him and giving him general anesthetic. They returned in a few hours, they found out that the dog ate the DOOR and left! Doc says that he guesses that it had probably recovered well. The people fed the dogs seal meat, the seal would be frozen – so they would chainsaw the seal open. There were very crazy pictures of that. The dogs would eat everything bone and all. There also was one last 500 mile trek with the dogs because they knew that next year dogs on Antarctica will be banned. Once the dogs were banned, Doc considered taking them to a dog race, but he realized that these dogs could easily, and unhesitatingly eat and kill the other dogs in the race.
2016-11-19: Rounding Cape Horn
Land Ho! Cape Horn came into view, while Peale’s dolphins, jumped and breached alongside. The hazy fog covered most of the land, but revealed its seaside cliffs. It was amazing to watch the Albatross as they effortlessly glided through the air.
The only thing that we did this morning was watch a movie of an old ship with 32 sails cross Cape Horn. The people did crazy things, there were no safety regulations. They had nothing holding them whatsoever, and they were on a pole 7 stories tall! The narrator said that he heard that you could climb down sails. He tried it, and although successful, he says that pinching the sail for dear life felt a “little” bit dangerous. I realized how hardy sailors were when I saw how much water went onto the boat – and they had to sleep in wet clothes! The narrator said it was freezing cold when it was snowing, they had muscle shirts on! The captain was also quite courageous. He noticed someone fall overboard, so he grabbed onto a fixed sheet, although a captain can’t leave his ship, he disobeyed the rules and jumped into that boiling ocean, he grabbed the person by the hair and saved him. I was even more awed when I learned that he did it twice. They were traveling for so long, that one rare time, they managed to spot a 13 foot long jellyfish!! The ship was so self sufficient, that “when she came into harbor, she looked better than when she left.” It was an amazing movie called “Around Cape Horn”. It is amazing that such an old ship was actually filmed. It was like the meeting point between Christopher Columbus’s kind of ship and one of the first black and white films. The movie is a real story stitched together by one of the crew members at the time – Captain Irving Johnson.
A few hours after the movie, we watched our expedition slideshow. It was amazing to see all of the things we had seen from the colossal Tabular Icebergs to the cute tiny little Penguins. It made me feel quite emotional – I even cried a bit. I knew that no place else on earth was like this. Even the best photos and videos couldn’t capture the fullest, beautiful, landscape.
2016-11-20: Ushuaia to Buenos Aires
It was the last time I heard the announcement, it was the last time we all had a meal together, it was the last time we saw each other. I said goodbye to all of the friends I had made, and the great staff members of the amazing voyage made possible by One Ocean, and completed by the hardy crew of the Akademic Ioffe. We were leaving, all going our separate ways – some going home – others visiting glaciers in Patagonia – others were just going to stay in Ushuaia for a couple days, just chilling at a local pub. As for us? We were heading to Buenos Aires before heading back down south to Patagonia to top off our amazing trip.
We stayed in the cafe in front of The Albatross Hotel. I had finally finished a math lesson, when we got outside for a break. We checked out the monument, but missed the Museo Maritimo y del Presidio that was at first a prison.
After the rest, we joined our companions, a journalist, named Peter and a retired man named Ian to a delicious meal at La Estancia Parilla. It was fun to see another one of our shipmates there. They were Michael and Gosia, I wished them luck, they were going to the South Pole! It was amazing to hear that they had already been to the North Pole. Maybe one day I can accomplish this feat!
We called a taxi to the airport. There, we met Michael and Gosia again! We had said goodbye to them 3 times already!! We even saw one of the One Ocean staff, Maria at the airport! We flew over the snowy mountains yet one more time on our way to Buenos Aires.
