Countdown
Eight days until I leave for
Antarctica. Every morning my first
thought is the number of days to go.
Let
me bring you up to date on how my Antarctica adventure came to be.
Five years ago I was supposed to go
to Antarctica as a reward for losing 40 lbs.
I booked and planned for the trip for most of a year. Two weeks before I was scheduled to sail, the ship I planned to travel on, the MV Explorer, sank on November 23, 2007.
See www.youtube.com/watch?v=a1cDBsLZNAg.
That date was called Black Friday in the United States, not because the
ship sunk but because it is the day after Thanksgiving, the biggest shopping
day in the United States. Well, this year
on Black Friday, Marsha, my wife, got an email from Overseas Adventure Travel
which greatly reduced the price of this trip.
Marsha made the mistake of forwarding the email to me. The rest is history, thanks Marsha!!
This time I will sail on the MS Corinthian
II. This time the ship has covered life
boats! Basic itinerary is leaving the
U.S. on 2/11/2012. Spend 2 nights in
Buenos Aires, 1 night in Ushuaia (the most southern city in Argentina) and 9
nights aboard the Corinthian. Four days
on the ship are basically transport to/from the Antarctic.
The questions I get from most people
are: 1) why do you want to go? And 2) what do you plan to do? Why boils down to two things, because I can, and to see my seventh continent. What I
will do is observe and photograph.
Penguins, seals, birds, whales and a very different landscape are on my
agenda.
Sunday
2/12/12 Buenos Aires
Arrived in Buenos Aires on Sunday morning.
I only had several hours sleep on a 10 hour flight from Atlanta. I met around 40 people in Atlanta who will be
on the Corinthian with me. Only three of
them are in my sub-group of 23 who will be directed by Marta Bul. Some of the others got a nasty call from OAT,
one day before the trip, saying they will only be allowed 30 pounds of luggage
on the flight from Buenos Aires to Ushuaia.
Additional luggage will cost them $2 USD a pound. Fortunately this does not apply to my group.
Sunday was basically a day for
rest. We took a short walking tour of
the general area around the hotel, including a visit to a mini-street mall and
lunch with our guide and had a brief orientation. In the evening we went to a steak house. Unfortunately they ordered the lowest grade of
steak for us, so it did not compare well to the Argentine steak house we visited
in Israel.
Monday
2/13/12 Buenos Aires
We had a morning city tour. First stop was down the street from our
hotel, the Plaza de Mayo.
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This is the
central plaza near the major government buildings. It is the main demonstration location for
Argentina. Every day some group is
protesting. Currently a group of
veterans who served in the Falkland War, but who were never in combat, have camped
for 100 days trying to get a government pension.
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Also there was a long line of 200 to 300
people waiting in line to get cards which will exempt them from the March
increase in transit fares. Fares will be
increasing from 1.25 pesos to 2.50 pesos (4.3 pesos to $1 USD) anyone can get
it, but it is only free until March 2.
So people willing to come downtown and wait 2-3 hours will get one, no
other requirement.
We then visited the Catholic Cathedral
where San Martin is buried. A mass
was going on, but our visit was not restricted.
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By bus we
drove to the west side of the city, the Boca area. The impressive football stadium is ringed by
black and white coca cola ads at the top of the stadium. Why black and white? The rival football team
colors are red and white, no way they were having the enemy’s colors on their
stadium. Boca’s colors of blue and yellow gold came
about by accident. They played another
team that had the same black and white colors they had back then. The two teams agreed that the loser of the
match would have to change their colors.
Boca lost, but how do you pick new colors? After much debate they decided to choose flag
colors of the next ship that arrived.
Near the stadium is a tourist trap,
shopping area. We had 45 minutes in this
colorful area.
Our last stop was the Recoleta
Cemetery. Anyone who has the power
and/or the money who wants to be buried in these row after row of mausoleums. Every which size and style. Each one is touching the one next to it. The cemetery is full, but you can buy a spot
from some family that is a little down on their luck, rip down their mausoleum
and have your own built. Current price
in excess of $25,000 USD, around what a
doctor earns in a year in BA.
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| Above is a typical row. Below is the mausoleum of Evita Peron. |
After a day tour of Tierra de Fuego National Park, with a fantastic local guide
We boarded
the ship after 4 P.M. (The blue ship is
ours.)
Getting everything stowed is an interesting
task as each set of draws is held in place by a metal bar. With a single cabin I had plenty of
room. The cabin is well above average in
size and décor. Only the coffee table
which shows in their brochure is missing (same in a few rooms I checked). Here
is my suite. (I only have one chair.)
Oh, and yes, we did an abandon boat drill
before sailing.
OOPS, just
got word from the Captain that do to a disagreement between the government and the
fuel company, the ship has been unable to get fuel. This has been going on since Saturday. They HOPE it will be resolved by tomorrow
morning. If it is, we will be able to
sail after getting five hours of fuel.
Hence minimum delay is 16 hours.
Needless to say this sucks.
Thursday,
2/16/12, Aboard the Corinthian II still at Ushuaia dock
At breakfast we were told no oil
yet. We took a birdie walk to kill the
morning.
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| South American Tern |
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| Kelp Geese (white is male) |
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| Kelp Geese (female) |
After lunch
still no oil, some went to a hike around a lake. Glad I did not go. They got sun, hail and rain. 7 PM we are told oil will be delivered. Started arriving at 7:30. Sometime tonight we will leave Ushuaia.
Friday,
2/17/12, Beagle Channel and Drake Passage
At 1 AM we began to sail. First four hours was in the protected waters
of the Beagle Channel. Around 5 AM we began
the crossing of Drake Passage. Seas are
6-9 feet. Good thing I had my bed belt
on, rock and roll time.
Around 8 I crawled out of bed. I didn’t have my sea legs. Crashed and grabbed across my suite and
finally got dressed. Crashed and grabbed
my way to the dining room. I was walking
so bad a waiter grabbed my food and brought it to the table for me. Around 2/3 of the passengers made it to
breakfast today, by dinner we were only missing around 10 dinners.
A highlight of today was shooting
albatrosses. We saw three types: Wandering, Royal and Black Browed. I got
decent pictures of the first two.
Wandering have black marking on their rumps, Royal have white
rumps. The following images were shot
when the seas were around 6 ft. Use that
knowledge to get perspective. The
Wandering wingspan is around 12 feet.
The Royal wingspan is around 10 feet.
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| Three images of the Wandering Albatross, We saw 16! The waves are around 6 feet. |
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| Royal Albatross (white tail) |
We are
hoping to do our first landing before dinner tomorrow. For now rocking and rolling.
By the way I had my sea legs by dinner time.
Saturday,
2/15/12 Drake Passage
Until lunch time it looked like our luck has changed for the
better. We are making 16 knots in a calm
sea. We plan to land on Aitcho
Island. Scratch all that (and if I told
you where we were going in a post card, it is wrong). The seas picked up to a Beaufort wind scale
of 9. Winds of 51-61 mph, seas 15 feet. That is measuring from the horizon; from top
of wave to bottom is 30 feet!! No ship
landing today.
My sea legs basically
disappeared.
So how bad was the ride?
Walking was close to impossible even when one held a hand rail. When you got up, you timed it between
waves. One third of the passengers did
not show up for dinner. Most people managed to stay in their beds with the aid of a bed belt. A passenger got removed from his bed multiple times. A passenger had to call for help to get up after her bed
flipped. The ship's piano
turned over last night, even though it was anchored down.
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| (Image by OAT Exhibition Staff) |
Sunday, 2/19/12 Micholson’s Landing and Cierua Cove
But this morning the sun is out, temperature 32 degrees. Today
we had the mandatory lectures IAATO briefing and the Zodiac briefing. IAATO is the International Association of
Antarctica Touring Operators. Then we
decontaminated our boots and clothes.
We finally ride the zodiacs to Micholson’s Landing on
an unnamed island just south of Elliott Island.
Main viewing is Gentoo Penguins and Antarctica Fur Seals. Here are a few pictures.
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| Some of the Gentoo Penguins are still multing |
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| Antarctic Fur Seals do not eat penguins |
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| Fur Seals are fast moving and will attack people |
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| Corinthian II |
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| Proof that I am here |
The second excursion today was a two hour Zodiac ride in Cierua Cove. No tourists are allowed to land in the area. We got up close and personal with Chinstrap Penguins, Leopard Seals, Minke and Humpback Whales. Also saw some beautiful icebergs and the first black ice I have ever seen. Black ice looks black from a distance but when you get up close you see it is clear and the black is just refraction off the ice.
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| Leopard Seal, around 9 ft. long. They eat 12-16 penguins/day. As a species they eat 250,000 penguins a year. |
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| Black Ice is perfectly clear when you get close to it. |
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| Chinstrap penguins. Around 18” long, smaller than my book says. |
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Many penguins stop near the ocean to dry off before heading
back to the rookery.
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The orange pink penguin, bottom center, got too close to another penguin. Guano is shot out.
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| As we were getting ready to return to the ship, Humpback Whales were spotted. |
Monday 2/20/12
Wiencke Island - Port Lockroy and Waterboat Point
We are having a very full day with
three landings. The first two landings
are on islands very near the Antarctic Peninsula. The Waterboat Point landing is on the
Continent.
Damoy Point on Wiencke Island is our first landing. Both
the Brits and the Argentine have previously had camps here. It also had one of the early airstrips for
Antarctica. It is no longer used and has
lots of crevasses.
Port Lockroy It was used for whaling between 1911 and 1931 and British military operations during World War II and then continued to operate as a British research station until 1962. It is currently open during the summer season as a museum.
And courtesy of the Expedition staff some images of the museum.
On the way to the next landing we passed some nice icebergs. Remember 9/10 of the iceberg is below the surface.
Waterboat Boat - Gonzalez Videla Base - The Argentine station was active from 1951-58, and was reopened briefly in the early 1980s. It is now an "inactive" base, with fuel and supplies in storage in the buildings for emergency use, or in case the base were to be reactivated in the future. It is on Antarctica Continent.
This area is our best landing so far.
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| Penguins porpoising |
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| Gentoo Penguins leaving the sea |
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| Penguins braying - they do not sing. Will call for children or to find parents. In this case they are braying to keep other penguins away. |
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| Okay, I'm bragging |
Tuesday, 2/21/12 Deception Island and Livingston Island
How can
today be better than yesterday? We found
out during breakfast. On the PA came an
announcement about a pod of whales off the starboard side. Well, the dining room could not be emptied
faster by an announcement to abandon ship.
For around 40 minutes we got to watch these magnificent animals bubble
feeding. Bubble feeding is when a group
of animals work in unison to encircle a group of sea life to maximize the amount of sea life they capture.
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The land behind the whales is Neptune’s Bellows. It is a narrow entrance to Whaler’s Bay at
Deception Island. The Bay is a caldera. The sea is calm, we can sail in. On the top of the hill there is a spot to view the ocean outside the bay.
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On it is the remains of a Norwegian whaling station which was
evacuated after the 1967 eruption of the volcano. The wildlife was limited on this landing,
Antarctic Fur Seal and a single Chinstrap Penguin.
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Head shot |
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| Walking back from the lookout. The caldera is clear. |
I must admit I skipped the next landing. It was in the same Bay. Some nuts took a polar plunge into a barely
heated vented area. No regrets.
In mid-afternoon, we had our last landing at Hannah
Point. Hannah Point lies in Walker Bay
on the southern coast of Livingston Island. It is named after a sealing vessel that was
shipwrecked at this site in 1820. The
landing was loaded with Southern Elephant Seals, Gentoo Penguins and Chinstrap
Penguins. The Gentoo were very
active. Most of the Chinstrap’s were
still molting and hence were a bit boring.
The Seals were just resting.
Here comes a picture overload, Hannah Point is a magnificent
location.
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| Southern Elephant Seals. Only the mature males have the elongated snout. We did not see any. |
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| Penguins have no fear of the Elephant Seal. |
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| Feeding |
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| Way too much trust! |
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| Chinstrap |
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Nest building or repair.
He was very particular about which rocks to use.
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| South Polar Skuas |
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South Polar Skua
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Both the Gentoo and I are tired after a long exciting day.
Wednesday and Thursday, 2/22-23/12 Drake Passage
After an exciting last landing, the Corinthian II is heading
back north. The sea was calm when we
started out but early Thursday morning it has gotten more interesting. Not as bad as going down, waves around 10 feet and
50 kpm winds.
Thursday evening the we had a cocktail party and the
Captain’s dinner. It was our opportunity
to acknowledge the fine service by the crew.
Late Thursday we reentered Beagle Channel. On Friday around 6 AM we reached harbor. An early breakfast was the last good thing
on the trip. 30 hours later I arrived
home.
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