Tales of Seven

And Then My Ship Sank

A few years ago, I headed down to Antarctica on a boat, for a 2 week adventure to the 7th continent. There was some real trepidation about the 3-day journey across Drake Passage. It was renowned for having some of the worst waters in the world, and our trip would take us far away from civilization and rescue boats.

The second day of our trip, a storm whipped in and brewed up 40+ foot seas. The water was ice-cold and prospects of rescue should anything go wrong weren't high. We all pushed that aside and focused on trying to just manage the day-to-day existence in this foreign and violently turbulent world.

Today I read an article about one of those ships going down. It struck something, and a small, football sized hole capsized the entire ship. All 150 passengers were put into lifeboats, with the good fortune that a nearby ship was able to rescue all of them successfully.

It turns out that the boat that went down was The Explorer owned by Gap Adventures and the very same boat I took to Antarctica. There's something to cause a moment of pause!

Yankee Harbor, Antarctica

"At the break of dawn, the majority of the ship's passengers opt to do a sunrise landing at Yankee Cove. It's freezing cold and a biting wind pulls the warmth out of us immediately.... toes and fingers go numb. We're dropped onto a pebble shoal that juts out into a small harbor. Glaciers are on all sides and the outline of rocky mountains can be seen through the gray darkness."

Sunrise is a beautiful and dramatic peach and yellow as the light hits the glaciers and mountains. We walk, shivering, along the windy shoal toward the mainland, passing a few scattered penguins, whale bones, and one, lone fur seal. And as we hit the mainland, a colony of 1000s of penguins are in the hills leading to the mountains, shuffling and calling out to eachother."

"We can hear the sound... the chatter of millions of tiny pieces of ice... as each quiet wave drifts in and out with ice and pebbles in tow."

- Notes from my Diary, Yankee Harbor, Antarctica

 

Antarctica - March 2006

Get a taste of what it's like to travel to Antarctica.

I posted this some time ago but finally got it up on YouTube and Google video (allowed me to post it here in a better size for viewing). The song that accompanies the slides is one I listened to as I crossed Drake Passage :).

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Sounds of Antarctica: 3 Minutes in a Penguin Colony

... a brief recording of my walk through a bustling colony of penguins in Antarctica....

Swim

We dressed in our bathing suits.

Then, we layered over them long underwear, fleece, windbreakers, down jackets, boots, two layers of wool socks, hats, and scarves... a fortress of warmth built on a base of insanity. This was our chance to swim in Antarctica, in the slightly warmed waters of an old volcano.

We're all lined up to get into the boats when we hear an announcement "Good news! The first boat has landed and there are 4 inches of warm water at the site."

Pause. 4 inches is all we got. 4 inches of volcano-heated nothing...

undress. dash in. submerge (sort of).  flip over like a piece of toast a few times, dash out, dry off, get dressed, then join the paparazzi of other travelers taking pictures of the crazy people in 4 inches of water.

Done.

Our glaciologist in 4 inches of water

Antarctica Slide Show

I've attempted a first slide show for one of my trips. The widget is still a bit quirky on my screen, but I'm hoping to sort through the issues over the next couple of days. The slide show (top left corner of my blog) shows pictures from my trip to Antarctica in March 2005. Be sure to have your volume on for the music :)!

1st Landing - Antarctica

In our first landing in Antarctica I expected a quiet, windblown landscape. It was, in fact, brimming over with sound....

• The ice is alive – large chunks of ice float just offshore , cracking, popping, dropping pieces, and rolling over in a large‘whoosh’. Millions of tiny pieces of ice crowd against the shore and as waves draw them in and out form a sort of indescribable white background noise.
• Penguin metropolis – chicks waddle around in large pods making high pitched peeping sounds. Parents raise their heads up and make trilling noises to the sky. Each time a penguin or chick attempts to join a new pod, there is a great rush of activity, trilling and peeping as the new world order is determined.
• Seals - Huff, huff, huff, huff. Breathy seals. Stake out their territory and warn us off with deep huffs, growls, and impressive teeth.

And then, finally, the wind – against the bluffs, against the ice, against us, against the water.   Alive.  More pictures of my trip to Antarctica at http://www.heidas.com/Album1.htm

 

En Route to Antarctica

Journal, 2-20-05

Our boat starts to rock around midnight on the 20th, rolling back and forth from the starboard to port sides. While initially alarming, these are actually quite mild waters and the feeling quickly becomes common. The first night of sleep on board is, however, short, due to all these new sensations - vibrations of the ship, the sloshing of water of the ship sides, and the occasional, loud bark of our Russian captain through loudspeakers.

Journal, 2-21-05

We get our first glimpse of the horizon as a fog that has followed us the whole trip finally dissipates.

At meals, there are loud choirs of shouts as particularly big waves part passengers from food, silverware, and their own feet. Waves are growing in strength.

Journal, 2-22-05

--CRASH--

Heavy boat rocking followed by loud crashing noises as loose barrels smash around the cargo hold. We awaken the morning of the 22nd to violent rocking of the boat. Waves are 8 meters high. Both of my roommates are unable to get up at all and are terribly sick. Curtains sway into the horizontal position. Massive waves are seen out the port holes - the horizon vanishes as we swing into each trough. While in bed, waves are strong enough to send me airborne. It takes me 3 attempts to even get out of the room as I felt sick immediately upon standing up. Walking down hallways is astonishingly difficult with the hallway moving in a nearly circular motion. 70% of the passengers never make it out of their cabins.

Journal, 2-23-05

We're approaching the islands off the coast of Antarctica and find some refuge in their waters. Icy, cold, gray air. Choppy waters. Wind that takes the breath away with its chill. We see our first, huge, tabular iceberg off the side of the ship. Today is the day of our first landing in what is to be a land of black, blue, gray and white.