Antarctica – The Last Frontier Part 4

Moving right along with our Antarctic exploration dream, we follow our authors and photographers, Alice and Peter leisurely cruising through straits, islands, archipelagos and peninsulas.

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

ANTARCTICA - THE LAST FRONTIER (Part 2)

Continuing with the dream of visiting Antarctica just to see what it was really like? We now look at the second installment of our series about the excitement of cruising to, in and through Antarctica. The article was written and photographed by our good friends, Peter and Alice who have favored us with their cruise business. We thank Peter and Alice for their friendship, their encouragement and their preparation of this series.

Visiting Port Stanley in the Falkland Islands

The Falkland Islands are a United Kingdom Overseas Territory by choice. Supreme authority is vested in Her Majesty The Queen and exercised by a Governor on her behalf, with the advice and assistance of the Executive Council and Legislative Assembly.

After we left Buenos Aires the seas became a bit rough and choppy. Captain Perrin had to slow the ship down to reduce the amount of rocking; therefore, we arrived in Stanley approximately 3 hours later than scheduled. Stanley’s port requires tendering which is about 2 ½ miles out and takes 20-30 minutes. The whole process took a lot longer than normal. Three early morning tours were cancelled including ours.

The main street (Ross Road) in town is along the harbor and you can easily walk around town shopping and sightseeing. There are five different species of breeding penguins on the Falkland Islands. Gentoo and Rockhopper Penguins are two species of these penguins. A shuttle to see Gentoo penguins at Gypsy Cove is available at the pier ($20 round trip per person).

The Falkland Islands (300 nautical miles off Argentina coast) are approximately 200 islands covering 4,700 sq miles (a little smaller than Connecticut). It rains or lightly snows 250 days a year with an average temperature of 60 degrees. Gales occur frequently and they say it is rare to have calm sunny days. The weather can be quite unpredictable. Within a 20 minute period you can experience all 4 seasons. Fortunately for us – we didn’t since we had a beautiful sunny afternoon with a mild breeze.

Stanley became the capital in 1845 and, being British, the currency is the Pound Sterling but they cheerfully take US dollars or credit cards. It is a very small town (the largest of the Falklands) with about 2,100 residents out of a total population of 3,000. Our ship had 2,556 passengers. Also in port was the Norwegian Sun with about 1,000 people. The population of this small town more than doubled with these two ships in port. The shopkeepers were very friendly and happy to see us.

With the opening of the Panama Canal in 1914, the Falklands no longer served as a major shipping channel. Previously, many sailing ships (mostly traders and whalers) rounding Cape Horn succumbed to the fierce winds and waves of the South Atlantic. Ships stopped at the Falklands for provisions, water, coal or repairs. The Falklands were also supported by sheep farming. Currently there are 500,000 sheep. With a major decline in wool exports (they still export fine expensive Merino wool), farmers are now subsidized about $40 million per year by revenues generated by the fishing industry. It is yet to be determined what will happen to this area’s unexplored oil and gas deposits.

Argentine Special Forces invaded the island on April 2, 1982. Even today, landmines still exist on the island, but not in Stanley. The Argentineans were met with stiff resistance from the Royal Marines. Battles took place in the air, on the sea (the Argentinean cruiser General Belgrano was lost with most hands), and on land in the Northern part of the island, The Queen Mary was anchored off shore acting as a troop and supply vessel. With tremendous loss of life (900 people), a British Task Force liberated the island on June 14, 1982 after 74 days of occupation. The loss of this war caused the collapse of the Argentine military dictatorship and resulted in the restoration of constitutional democracy in Argentina. Only recently was the ban lifted to permit citizens of Argentina to visit the Falklands. Passengers were advised as a courtesy not to wear clothing with an Argentinean logo ashore. We visited the 1982 War Memorial honoring the British Forces lost in this war.

On our walk through town we visited Christ Church Cathedral (built in 1892) to view its beautiful stained windows. Adjacent to the church is Whale Bone Arch built in 1933 to commemorate the centenary of British rule. It is made out of 4 converging whale ribs. The four lower jawbones are from blue whales caught in the South Shetland Islands.

We walked past the lovely gardens at the terraced Jubilee House (named to celebrate Queen Victoria’s golden jubilee). Along our walk there were many 150 year old brightly painted wooden pioneer cottages with carefully planned colorful gardens. The roofs are made of corrugated iron since slate was too expensive.

Next - CRUISING THE ANTARCTIC PENNINSULA

ANTARCTICA - THE LAST FRONTIER

Have you ever dreamed of going to Antarctica just to see what it was really like? We sure have. This is the first installment of a series about the excitement of cruising to, in and through Antarctica. The article was written and photographed by our good friends, Peter and Alice who have favored us with their cruise business. We thank Peter and Alice for their friendship, their business as well as their preparation of this series.

Antarctica – The Last Frontier

In the last 40 years we have been very fortunate to have traveled to many places around the world. Our journeys started in 1964 when Peter was employed by Pan American World Airways. For the next 23 years, we took full advantage of airline employee discounts for airfare, hotels and car rentals. We traveled to Europe, the Caribbean, South America, Australia and of course throughout the United States. Some cruise lines offered airline employees cruise discounts. In the early 80’s we took advantage of one of these specials. We left New York on the MS Scandinavia headed for the Caribbean. Being “airline people” we always want to get to our destination as quickly as possible and it was difficult for us to understand the attraction people had for cruising. We were “hooked”. We now have probably over 20 cruises under our belt traveling on many different lines: Royal Caribbean, Norwegian, Celebrity, Carnival, Home Lines and Princess. Our destinations have taken us throughout the Caribbean, Mexico, Panama Canal, Alaska, Baltic Sea, Australia, Hawaii, and South America. We have crossed the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans a few times.

One place we decided we wanted to go was around South America. We had been to Buenos Aires 30 years ago and decided it was time for another visit. We checked out various itineraries offered by the cruise lines and the one that intrigued us the most was offered by Princess. The Star Princess had a 16 day cruise including 5 days cruising the Antarctica Peninsula and Cape Horn. We had Yvonne and Brad book our cruise. The cruise started and ended in Buenos Aires with several ports of call. Here’s our condensed itinerary:

02/02/2010 Embarkation and departure from Buenos Aires, Argentina
02/03 & 02/04 At Sea
02/05/2010 Stanley, Falkland Islands
02/06/2010 At Sea
02/07 – 02/10 Antarctic Peninsula – Scenic Cruising
02/11/2010 Cruising off Cape Horn
02/12//2010 Tierra del Fuego - Ushuaia, Argentina
02/13/2010 Punta Arenas Chile
02/14 – 02/16 At Sea
02/17/2010 Montevideo, Uruguay
02/18/2010 Arrival and disembarkation at Buenos Aires, Argentina

Whenever we return from a trip people always ask us --- “so how was your trip?” There is no doubt that this trip was by far the “best” vacation we have ever taken. We would certainly recommend this cruise which leisurely takes you cruising around the least visited continent on earth dotted with frozen landscapes and filled with abundant wildlife. This was truly a once in a lifetime experience. Even during their summer (our winter) this area of the world has rapid changes in weather conditions during a short period of time (sometimes as short as 20 minutes). Lady Luck was certainly on our side for this voyage, since the weather was near perfect.

Buenos Aires, Argentina (BA)

We usually like to be in the start city a few days before boarding our ship. You never can be sure about departure weather delays, airlines arriving on-time or the location of your luggage. Much has changed since our last visit to BA. In the 1980’s it was under military rule with an economy suffering from hyper-inflation. Today it is an exciting vibrant cosmopolitan city rich in history. It is more like a typical European city except the location is in South America.

The only negative issue, we had during the entire vacation was the length and aggravation boarding the ship. All passengers were told not to board the ship before 1:00 PM. Unfortunately; it seemed all 2,500 passengers showed up at precisely 1:00 PM including us. Passengers were everywhere dragging their luggage in a light humid drizzle. Porters were not available to help you. We finally found the bag drop area cordoned off with temporary barriers. In the small opening there was a man holding a fistful of money who accepted your luggage once you showed him your cruise documentation. We took pictures of our luggage being added to the 15 foot stack (who knows how deep). Baggage handlers filled carts with bags from the huge stack and wheeled it to another area where it was loaded on trucks to take to the ship.

What about preferred check-in? Unfortunately, Buenos Aires does not have a typical cruise ship terminal. Instead you are escorted through lines in the cargo terminal during the check-in process even though you filled out your paperwork on-line. We finally secured our cabin keys and had to wait in another holding area to board the transport bus to the ship. An added surprise at check-in was that we had to surrender our passports that would be returned to us when we reach Montevideo. A helpful hint --- always have a photocopy of your passports and credit cards with you. We passed 2 other cruise ships anchored at the dock. No wonder all the chaos in the check-in terminal. After more than 3 hours we were relieved to finally put our key into the cabin door. Surprise and relief – our luggage arrived at the same time. Such perfect timing!

Lectures at Sea

Our Sea Days between Buenos Aires and our next port of call, Port Stanley, were not at all boring. We had opportunity to attend several shipboard lectures to prepare us for what we were going to see, these lectures started the very first sea day. We could go to the 700+ seat Princess Theater, or view the live presentation on your cabin TV or catch a rerun of the lecture. We were privileged to have three outstanding lecturers, each with a different specialty to learn about where we were going. Here’s what we experienced:

Dr Bernard Stonehouse’s first Antarctic trip was 1946-1950. During WWII he served in the Royal Navy. After the war he started his life’s work when he joined Falkland Islands Dependencies Survey. This 11 member group spent 3 years in Antarctica. On this journey Dr. Stonehouse spent 3 years as biologist, dog sled-driver (100 dogs), meteorologist, pilot, and surveyor. During this expedition he discovered an Emperor penguin colony that led him to spend three winters studying their breeding cycle. We now can identify different types of penguins. Normally the underside of a penguin’s flippers is white. If you see it is pink you can assume the penguin is overheated and needs to turn on his natural radiator to let out some heat. He starts flapping his flippers to cool down. It was fascinating to listen to Dr. Stonehouse relate his experiences as an ecologist with interests in environment management. He performed studies to determine the ecological implication tourism would have in Antarctica. I loved his take on “global warming” or as he puts it, normal cyclical changes in weather temperatures.

Dr. Tony Walker is from Mansfield UK and currently lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia where he works as a Senior Environmental Consultant for Dillon Consulting. His first trip to Antarctica was 20 years ago as a Marine Biologist on Signey Island, South Orkney Islands where he performed 200+ scuba dives. Many dives were performed under very thick ice. After this he spent 30 months (1993-1996) as a seal scientist on Bird Island, South Georgia. He served as Base Commander at the research center. Can you imagine your only communication was 100 words per month per person on a telex machine? They certainly needed that 1 liter of alcohol per month to warm their bodies. Dr Walker has published 40 scientific papers and reports about his research in Antarctica. Our recommendation to you is to keep your distance from Leopard Seals. They are the top of the food chain in Antarctica.

Chris Gunn is a naturalist, author and illustrator from Essex, UK. For the past 5 years he has been working in Scotland on various projects for the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society. About 13 years ago he was in the Falkland Islands doing wildlife photography. Having a great set of binoculars is a good thing to pack for this trip. You could meet Chris at 7:30 am on Deck 12 to listen to him describe and point out the many species of wildlife (flying, diving, or just coming by on an iceberg). He gave an enlightening lecture about ice. Two types exist, Sea Ice and Land Ice. Within each category there are many different types of ice. The high content of salt in the sea prevents water from freezing until the temperature reaches 28.6 degrees (1.86 Celsius) turning water into Frazil Ice. The next phase is the formation of Grease Ice. I was trying to imagine the evolution of the water alongside the ship becoming rock solid and trapping us in this location for the winter and then releasing us in the spring when it thawed. Thank goodness we have those ice captains on the bridge.

Please come back to read more about Peter and Alice's exciting cruise to Antarctica. We'll try to have a new post every week.