Cruising the Antarctica Peninsula - February 9, 2010
During the night our ship continued southwest through the Bransfield Strait headed toward Anvers Island. Early in the morning we entered one of the main attractions of Antarctica, the Gerlache Strait. As the ship leisurely cruises along, we felt as if we were ice bound by the mountains on both sides. Our ship slowly maneuvered between the islands of the Trinity Peninsula on the port side and the land mass with high mountains of Palmer Archipelago on the starboard side. We saw what we thought was pink snow. This seasonal phenomenon really was algae that live on the snow. The spray from the sea combined with the nutrients (or more mildly put “poop”) from the penguin colonies enable the algae to grow. The color of the algae can be pink, red or green. After lunch we passed Wiencke Island as we entered the Bismarck Strait to make a right turn into Neumayer Channel. Over the loud speakers came the voice of Capt Perrin advising us to “hold on”. Winds of 80 knots (66.7 miles per hour) were coming across the bow as we started our turn. The ship listed to the port side, then the starboard, and then the port side again. Passenger safety is always the captain’s main concern. The decision was made to skip the Newmayer Channel and exit the Gerlache Strait the same way we had just traveled. The port side views were different than the ones we saw in the morning. We saw Wiencke Island, the peaks of Mt Francais on Anvers Island, and Lion Island.
In the Neumayer Channel we would have seen deep cut fjords with a glacier that is 8 miles long and 2 miles wide flowing along the Allardyce Range. The mountains rise straight up from the water appearing like sea cliffs. The channel is shaped like an “S”. Since the channel is so narrow, there are times where there appears to be no visible exit.Look carefully at the photo below and you can see the MS Bremen in the middle of the photograph cruising in the bay close to the shoreline. (Click the picture itself for a better view. Click on your back arrow to resume.) In order to appreciate the height of the surroundings, take note of the size of ship in relationship to the mountains and glaciers.
February 10, 2010 - Deception Island
At 7am the weather was cloudy as we viewed the mouth of Deception Island. This island is ring shaped with an internal crater that is almost 8 miles in diameter. Smaller ships are able to enter the mouth of this natural harbor (Whalers Bay) to explore this collapsed volcano filled with water. Deception Island is considered one of the largest crater islands in the world. The volcanic rock has huge iron deposits on the rocks that provide a colorful array in the sunlight. In 1969 the British and Chilean research stations were destroyed by a volcanic eruption. 
The beaches and waters of the island are home to Weddell and crab eating seals, as well as Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins. On the towering brown cliff of Bailey Head thousands of Chinstrap penguins nest as far as 600 feet up the side of the mountain. It is a long walk for them to reach the beach for food, but the ice is thinner higher on the side of the mountain enabling chicks to hatch sooner than on the beach. This timing could mean life or death for a chick. The white dots on the black shore are penguins.
Large amounts of “bergs” are blown here by northern winds. We enjoyed the varieties of icebergs that the seas presented to us. Each iceberg has its own “DNA.” Like snowflakes, no two icebergs are identical. The blue striation of color throughout the iceberg is a beautiful sight. Like glaciers, light reflects differently through the iceberg. If the weight of snow forced oxygen to be released they become bluer. You can tell the age of a berg by its color. 
The young ones are always bright white while the dark blue ones are very old. The largest of the bergs is an Ice Land that could be the size of a small city of several thousand square miles. Our ship dwarfed some of these tall icebergs. As the size of the iceberg decreases over time they turn into Tabular Icebergs (100 to 150 feet high) with flat tops. Pieces break off the Tabular Icebergs to form Bergy Bits in various shapes and sizes with jagged edges and spiraling columns formed by the winds and waves. Tomorrow our journey of viewing natural formations of land and ice is coming to an end as we enter the Drake Passage to circumnavigate Cape Horn.
February 11, 2010 - Cape Horn Cruising
During the night we headed North-North West through the turbulent waters of Drake Passage. We can say we passed over the Antarctic Convergence or Polar Front. This is a shifting liquid boundary where cold dense water is moving north toward warmer water from the Atlantic and Pacific. We sailed from the Atlantic Ocean into the Pacific Ocean and then back into the Atlantic again.
When we arrived in close proximity to Cape Horn the weather was clear but the seas were rough with huge waves. The Chilean pilot, who is required to guide us as we circumnavigate around Cape Horn Island, was unable to travel the 9 miles in his small boat to join our team on the bridge. Who knew that this southern most tip of South America is really an island that is part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern Chile? Today 1400 feet above sea level there is a Chilean military outpost that controls all of the traffic in the area.
When Sir Francis Drake circumnavigated the world in 1578 he reported the existence of a wide open ocean south of the Straits of Magellan. On January 29, 1616 two Dutch navigators, Jakob Le Maire and Willem Schouten sailed the Eendracht through “Cape Hoorn”, the southern most tip of South America. This island is part of the Tierra del Fuego archipelago of southern 
Chile. The island was named after Hoorn, Holland where Schouten was born. At that time it was very important to discover another route to the East Indies, since the East India Company’s charter did not allow any other Dutch trading company to use the Straits of Magellan or Africa’s Cape of Good Hope to reach the East Indies.
In 1848 gold was discovered at Sutter's Mill, California. Cape Horn became the passageway from the Atlantic to the Pacific coast. By 1869 the transcontinental railroad became the safer and quicker means to cross North America than the dangerous prairie. In 1914 the opening of the Panama Canal caused traffic around Cape Horn to decline even further.
Many lives have been lost in these waters due to 65 foot waves, gale storms that occur 200 days per year with 130 days per year of heavy clouds. The temperature most of the year is 
cold. Today the seas were rough, but the weather was clear. With our binoculars we could see the chapel and lighthouse sitting on top of the brown cliffs of granite. We could also see the cast aluminum monument with a cut-out representing an albatross in flight. This monument was erected in 1992 as a memorial for all the sailors who have perished undertaking the treacherous voyage rounding the Cape. As one approaches the Cape Horn Memorial he can read the incription and understand the significance of the albatross.
The Cape Horn Memorial Inscription reads:
I, the albatross that awaits at the end of the world...I am the forgotten soul of the sailors lost, rounding Cape Horn from all the seas of the world. But die they did not in the fierce waves, for today towards eternity, in my wings they soar, in the last crevice of the Antarctic winds.
Next: Ushuaia (Isla Grande Tierra del Fuego), Argentina
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