Getting to Antarctica
The first step in a trip to Antarctica is getting there. The common jumping off point is the Argentine city of Ushuaia, capitol of Tierra del Fuego. From our home in California we flew to Chicago where we caught the overnight flight to Buenos Aires. Our package gave us a couple of days of sightseeing in Buenos Aires, after which we caught the domestic Aerolineas Argentinas flight to Ushuaia. The next day we boarded our ship, the M. V. Ushuaia, and set sail for Antarctica.
The
Drake Passage
The port of Ushuaia is located on the somewhat sheltered Beagle Channel between Argentina and Chile. To get to Antarctica, you sail east to the mouth of the channel and then head south into the waters where the South Pacific meets the South Atlantic, off Cape Horn. This joining feeds the Antarctic Circumpolar Current which circles the globe unimpeded near 60 degrees south latitude. It carries about 600 times as much water as the Amazon, the Earths largest river. This is the Drake Passage, the roughest sea in the world.
As we headed south towards the Antarctic Peninsula the weather held calm. The ship rolled less than fifteen degrees and we made good time. We were vey lucky.
On the way back, the Passage gave us a taste of its reputation. The ship was rolling more than 30 degrees at times and had similar amounts of pitch and yaw. Being very susceptible to motion sickness, I spent those two days flat on my back in my bunk even though I was wearing a Scopolamine Patch.
Landings
in Antarctica
February 12: Barrientos Island.
As we left the Drake Passage, arriving in the South Shetland Islands, we had made such good time that we were able to have our first landing that evening on a small island with a large Gentoo penguin rookery.
February 13: Paulet Island.
High winds prevented landings in the morning, but we found a calm anchorage off Paulet Island in the afternoon, The island and adjacent icebergs were covered with Adélie Penguins.
February 14: Half Moon Island. Deception Island (Whaler's Bay).
The morning landing on a stony beach was shared with Chinstrap Penguins. Further inland were Gentoos, Fur Seals, and whale bones.
In the afternoon we sailed into the crater of Deception Island, a flooded live volcano. The remnants of a whaling station provided historical interest. Some of our party bathed in warm water heated by the volcano.
February 15: Neko Harbour, Antarctic Peninsula. Gonzalez Videla Station, Antarctic Peninsula.
This morning it was raining, so we passed up the landing on Cuverville Island. After lunch we went ashore at Neko Harbor, our only landing on Antarctica itself as opposed to one of the islands. We were warned that if the glacier across from our landing beach calved, we should head for high ground until the waves subsided.
The crew of the Chilean base at Waterboat Point invited us to visit them. Nearby are the remains of a hut where "two crazy Englishmen" spent the winter of 1922. They asked us to stay on the concrete path which they had recently cleared of penguin droppings so as to keep their buildings clean.
February 16: Lemaire Channel. Vernadsky Station, Wordie House, Argentine Islands.
A Zodiac cruise in the narrow Lemaire Channel brought us close to icebergs and Leopard Seals.
In the afternoon we were invited to visit the Ukranian research station on Galindez Island in small groups. While waiting to visit, we cruised the narrom channels between the islands, observing glaciers, rookeries, and various Antarctic flora and fauna.
On neighboring Winter Island was Wordie House which had been relocated there in 1956. It was a look back in time to the 1930's.
February 17: Robert Point, Robert Island. Yankee Harbor, Greenwich Island.
We were back in the South Shetland Islands. Robert Island was very rocky, which Fritz found difficult to handle, so he stayed behind on the "beach." A fur seal decided to challenge the people there until they stood up and proved much taller than the seal. Marie found seals, penguins, and a couple of clumps of grass, a rarity in Antarctica!
Yankee Harbor, our final landing in Antarctica was a long spit populated with Fur Seals, Weddell Seals and Gentoo Penguins. It enclosed a bay where pieces of ice broken off from the nearby glacier were piled up by the wind.