Old Hundred

Antarctica - Dec 2008

13Dec2008 14Dec2008	Our first stop on our journey was Buenos Aires. We had a couple of days to visit this city. On our first afternoon, we walked down to Puerto Madero (a former port, now a shopping and dining district). There were a couple of old sailing ships here, the corvette "Uraguay" and the frigate "Presidente Sarmiente". On our second day in Buenos Aires, we visited La Boca (a neighborhood originally populated with Genoese immigrants) It was neighborhoods like La Boca where the tango originated. It is famous for it's colorful buildings. We also visited the cemetery in Recoleta. This is where a lot of the rich and famous of Buenos Aires are entombed. It is worth visiting to see the grand mausoleums.
15Dec2008 16Dec2008	From Buenos Aires, we flew down to Ushuaia, which claims to be the southern-most city in the world (actually Puerto Williams in Chile is further south...) The motto here is "Fin del Mundo" (the End of the World). This is where we will leave for Antarctica. It's a nice little town now but once upon a time, it was a penal colony. We took a tour of the town and visited the old prison (now a museum). Our second day in Ushuaia, we visited the nearby Parque Nacional Tierra del Fuego before boarding our ship, the M/S Andrea.
17Dec2008	It will take two days to cross the Drake Passage. The Drake Passage can be the roughest, stormiest stretch of ocean on the planet. In the days of sailing ships, many ships went down in storms and even today, big waves and wind can cause problems. Our trip south seemed pretty rough to us but the old hands assured us that this was merely a "3" on a scale of 1 to 10. (We would see far worse on the return voyage.)
18Dec2008	On arriving in the South Shetland Islands, our first landing was at Aitcho Island. This island gets it's name from the initials for the British Hydrographic Office (or pronounced "H" "O"). On the island, we found large colonies of Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins. There was also one lone Adelie Penguin. Not really sure why it was there...
19Dec2008	Overnight, we crossed the Bransfield Strait (with considerable rocking and rolling) to get from the South Shetlands to Antarctica. Today we had a very special appointment. We had been given permission to land at Palmer Station. Palmer Station is one of three U.S. bases in Antarctica. The other two are McMurdo Sound and South Pole (referred to simply as "Pole" by those who live and work at these stations). Palmer Station was accepting only 10 ship visits this season and we had one of the coveted invitations. The weather did not bode well, however. When we arrived, the winds were too high to launch zodiacs and without zodiacs there would be no landing. Luckily for us, the wind dropped long enough to go ashore. (It was lucky for the station personnel as well since we bringing fresh strawberries with us.) We had a tour of the station. After leaving Palmer Station, it had been planned that we would go to Neko Harbor but the weather refused to cooperate. So instead, we anchored in sheltered waters for the night.
20Dec2008	December 20th was an exceptionally long day. We awoke early to find a thin coating of snow on the decks. We cruised down the Lemaire Channel to our first landing of the day, Petermann Island. At 65 degrees 10 minutes South latitude, this would be the furthest south that we would travel. Petermann Island had a large number of Gentoo, Chinstrap and Adelie penguins along with Kelp Gulls, Weddell Seals, and Skuas. Upon return to the ship, we again cruised back up Lemaire Channel and then stopped at Port Lockroy Port Lockroy was established late in WWII to monitor German activities in Antarctica. It must have been quite successful since there were no German activities in Antarctica. Port Lockroy is now an Antarctic Heritage Site and the location of the world's southern-most post office. This stop also included a landing at Jougla Point where there was colony of Blue-Eyed Shags. Finally, we sailed to Neko Harbor, where we had an evening landing, watched the penguins and listened for the sharp crack that signalled that the glacier was calving. Neko Harbor is the one point were we landed on the Antarctic mainland.
21Dec2008	Travelling north again, we stopped at Deception Island. Deception Island is shaped like an atoll but the process of how it was shaped is completely different than the typical atoll.The island is volcanic and when the volcano collapsed in on itself, a caldera was formed. There is a gap that allows the ocean into caldera called "Neptune's Bellows". The island is still volcanically active and there have eruptions as recently as 1969 (which lead the the abandonment of the British base there.) Less recently, the island was also used as a whaling station and the remains of the station, including large tanks for the whale oil can still be seen. Before returning to the ship, the last thing we did was to strip down to our swimsuits. The expedition crew had created a geothermally heated hot tub for us to "swim" in.
22Dec2008	After Deception Island, we moved on to Half Moon Island where we anchored for the night. The intention was to make two more landings at Half Moon Island and at Yankee Harbor (on Gibson Island) before heading north across the Drake Passage. In the morning, we got kitted out in our parkas and were all set to embark on the zodiacs when we got word that the winds were too high to safely unload the zodiacs from the ship. We spent the morning waiting patiently in the vain hope that the winds would die. Alas, it was not to be. Our clock ran out and we had to begin the journey north without making the final two landings.
23Dec2008 24Dec2008	The return journey across the Drake Passage turned out not to be a picnic in the park. Winds were 30-50 knots with gusts up to 70 knots. All passengers were asked not to go outside as it was not safe. It turned out that being inside could be hazardous as well. With the pitching rolling of the ship, it was easy to be thrown off one's feet. One passenger and one member of the expedition staff took nasty falls and banged up their heads and another passenger got a gash in her leg that went nearly to the bone. On top of that, many passengers were feeling the effects of seasickness. The ship's doctor was busy. It was a great relief once we were in somewhat sheltered waters east of Cape Horn and a blessing when we finally re-entered the Beagle Channel for the final few hours to Ushuaia. We docked in the late afternoon and we celebrated Christmas Eve onboard the ship.