A passenger’s log

I’m not sure how to start this blog about Antarctica. The trip, the landscape, the ocean, the fauna, the whole experience is in all respects new to me and I’m at a loss for words trying to convey my impressions to you. But I’ll try, though I know it won’t be good enough, even if I would show you the 2000+ pictures I took. You just have to go and see for yourself. You really should.

Wednesday 11 February - Ushuaia & Beagle Channel
The day we boarded the Lyubov Orlova

We board the ship at 4 pm and have a good laugh at our fellow passengers. We bring down the average age considerably, but fortunately we soon find several soul mates. Three Dutch couples of which two from Amsterdam, a Spanish rasta, a young Swiss couple who skied at international competition level and several American girls travelling alone. The rest of the passengers are either grey or travel in herds (25 Japanese, 10 Polish). I get to practice my Spanish and French, but there are no Italians on board, so I’m afraid I’ll have to start all over with my Italian once I get back from my trip. The expedition staff from Quark introduce themselves and do a full boat briefing. We have a tour leader, an ornithologist, a geologist, a historian, a marine biologist, a mechanic, a zodiac driver, a doctor and a hotel manager on board. They are all young, fun, adventurous and above all, they have a deep seated passion for the ice. Most of them practically live on these cruises, spending the summer in the Antarctic and then the other summer in the Arctic, walking on ice and sailing on water pretty much every day. Somewhere they remind me of the people working in diving, except that the temperature difference is about 30 degrees. It promises to be a cold, cold trip...


Thursday 12 February 2009 - Drake Passage
The day I had to hold on to the handrail while taking a shower.

Crossing the Drake Passage, the straight between the South American continent and the Antarctic Peninsula takes about 48 hours in good conditions and we have good conditions. Since we set sail from Ushuaia, our cruise ship with 108 passengers, 55 Russian crew and the 10 expedition staff members, has been braving the sea at about 12 knots an hour. And this has only been possible because the Drake Passage, one of the roughest passages in the world, is being extremely kind to us. According to our tour leader, only one out of ten trips is this calm. And still many passengers spend most of their time in their cabins, trying to fight nausea. So far I’m lucky. Only after my first sip of coffee at breakfast, have I had to run out of the dining area to get some fresh air on deck in order to keep my dramamine and JuicePlus down. But since then, I seem to keep all my meals and alcohol down quite nicely. Which is good, because it would be a shame to throw up the copious amounts of food they serve us on board. It is an all-inclusive cruise after all (except for alcohol, unfortunately :-) )


Friday 13 February 2009 - Drake Passage
The day I learned that penguins go through a yearly catastrophic molt.

Much like yesterday, we spend the day on board, sometimes on deck, trying to spot whales, birds or other Antarctic life. The Drake Passage is still relatively calm so the lectures by the specialists are attended by the majority of the passengers. We are told about glaciers and ice, about penguins, whales and seals, about the first explorers who landed on the Antarctic continent and spent months, sometimes years, lost on the ice, waiting to be rescued... Years... I cannot begin to imagine the hardship... And we learn about the sealers and whalers in the 1800’s and 1900’s and the thousands of animals that were killed for their blubber. Many passengers are by now on the “Drake Diet”, which Siobhan and I don’t suffer from, but Mirjam is less fortunate and spends most of the time horizontally in the cabin. We now understand slogans like “One hand for the ship”, meaning you always have to have one hand free to grab a railing or anything fixed to the boat in the event the ship makes a nice big roll. Still, we are blessed with the “Drake Lake” rather than having to go through the “Drake Shake”.


Saturday 14 February 2009 - Brown Bluff & Gourdin
The day that I set foot on my 7th continent

We make it through the Drake Passage in good time and enter the Weddel Sea. At 5.30 am, Siobhan, Mirjam and I are on deck, to watch the sunrise and the landscape. There is land is in sight. It’s cold, just around freezing temperatures, but that’s not what takes our breath away. It’s impressive beyond words. At 8 am we do our first landing and I take over 400 photographs. In the afternoon, the same. We spot three different types of penguins, two types of seals and to top it all off, there are three humpback whales just when we make it back to the ship. At lunch we celebrate setting foot on our 7th continent with a bottle of wine. At dinner we celebrate life, Valentine’s Day, being on the Antarctic and the fun we are having in our Dutch company with several bottles of champagne between seven of us. I win the Iceberg spotting competition. Indeed, based on careful calculations, measuring of latitudes, longitudes, water temperature and wind speed, my estimate of 13 February at 9.09 pm is the closest to the time the first iceberg is spotted and I am rewarded with a bottle of bubbles. How appropriate :-) . We go to bed early, drunk from the adrenaline, the impressions, the cold and the bubbles.


Sunday 15 February 2009 - Half Moon Island & Whaler’s Bay, Deception Island
The day I took at dip in the Antarctic Sea.

Another two fantastic landings on two islands, with uncountable penguins, fur seals and the remains of an old whaler station. We go for a walk to the top of Whaler’s Bay on Deception Island, a volcano that last erupted in the 1970’s. It is a tough hike, but the landscape is absolutely amazing. And then we go for the Polar Plunge... The water is about 0 to 1 degrees and I know from recent experience that I already tend to freeze in water of 23 degrees. But this has to be done. I am wearing my bikini under five layers of clothes. Thermal t-shirt, cotton pullie, polyester pullie, hooded sweater and parka for the upper body half. Long thermal underwear (yes, those sexy old man’s white undies), tracksuit trousers and skiing pants to keep the bottom half warm. Then a scarf wrapped thrice around my neck, double layer of gloves, double layer of socks, lined rubber boots and not to forget, my new pink woolen hat with “Bella” printed on it. Since there is no one around who calls me like that here in Antarctica and I was just starting to get used to it, I thought it would be nice to do it myself this way. Anyway, after peeling everything off, I run into the water at Whaler’s Bay. A quick dip is more than enough. Been there, done that, got the picture, tick the box... Only 38 of the 108 passengers are crazy enough to do it and I’ve got a certificate to prove I am one of them.


Monday 16 February 2009 - Neko Harbour & Paradise Island
The day we had a BBQ in the Antarctic

I have no words to describe the beauty of today. We are up at 5.30 am again, to watch the landscape go by from the Officer’s Bridge. It’s overcast but the weather changes after breakfast. It turns into a bright sunny day, scattered white clouds against a deep blue sky, penguin highways coming down the mountain side covered in snow, cold blue icebergs drifting in a perfectly still ocean and no matter how I try, there is no way I can convey what I see today. And no matter how many pictures I take (over 800 today alone), I will never be able to capture the sensations I experience. And we are so lucky. The staff tell us that days like this are extremely rare. Until today, I was wearing my five layers of clothes but today the sun is so hot that some passengers even walk around in shorts. Well, ok, it is only the Spanish rasta guy, but you get my point. It is hot. When we are not out on the zodiac spotting seals and watching the glaciers caving in, we are on deck, spotting tailing humpback whales and swimming penguins. And in the evening, the catering organises a barbeque on deck. The day ends with the most fabulous sunset ever and everybody walks around with rosy cheeks. When I go to bed, I want to reminisce about the incredible, indescribable, unsurpassable experiences of today, but my brain is in overload mode and I fall asleep before my head hits the pillow.


Tuesday 17 February 2009 - Lemaire Channel, Pleneau Bay & Petermann Island
The day we were so lucky, again.

Wake up call at 5.30 am over the intercom. Apparently we have ran out of luck, the wind is blowing in excess of 50 knots per hour (6/7 Bft) and the expedition staff is not sure we can make it to the planned landing site. We get up anyway and dress for the cold. Getting dressed requires accurate timing, because as soon as you are dressed properly (those 5 layers I was talking about) you NEED to get into the cold unless you want to die of overheating and dehydration. Actually, this is something that I can’t get my head around. In Singapore, where it’s always around 30 degrees, they insist on putting the air-conditioning on (Ant)arctic temperatures. In the Antarctic apparently, they like to turn up the heater to at least 25 degrees. Maybe a mass migration of the population in both directions could solve some of the global warming issues... Anyway, back to the daily routine. After getting dressed, we go outside directly, either to take pictures from the upper deck, or to board the zodiac that will take us to the landing site or on a cruise around the bay. First thing today is the upper deck, where the wind and the clouds shed a completely different light over the mountains, the icebergs and the pack ice compared to yesterday’s idyllic scenery. It’s hard to believe we were having a BBQ out on deck just a few hours before, but it’s equally impressive. We indeed change course and make our way to another landing site, where our luck turns again. The storm blows over and in the morning we cruise in the zodiac through a labyrinth of turquoise icebergs and in the afternoon we have another landing amongst penguins, seals and whales in a splendid bay under a blue sunny sky. And like yesterday, I think this is the most beautiful place on earth I’ve ever been. In the evening during the recap briefing (or rehab, as we - the Dutchies - like to call it), we hear that the Ocean Nova, another expedition cruise from Quark has run aground last night and is still stuck, down South from where we are. We don’t need to go and help them, another Quark ship is closer by and all passengers are safe, but they are in the middle of the storm that came over our heads in the morning. I cannot help but wonder if the news has already reached the rest of the world and if there are people out there worried about us. It goes to show that a trip to Antarctica is not without risks, but nothing to worry about, I am honestly having the trip of my life.

To be continued...