Antarctica 2018

Antarctica with Quark Expeditions via Exodus Travels. We flew Heathrow to Buenos Aires with BA then Buenos Aires to Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego with Aerolineas Argentina. We left the UK on 24th January and boarded the Ocean Diamond in Ushuaia for 18 days on January 26th.

1. Tierra del Fuego and the Falkland Islands
2. Ushuaia
3. Zodiacs to Saunders Island on The Falkland Islands
4. Surrounded by penguins
5. Rockhopper penguin
6. Black Browed Albatross
7. Turkey Vulture

The Ocean Diamond is a modern, stable super-yacht, and one of the largest of Quark's small expedition ships. Carrying a maximum of 189 passengers, had two stabilizers, an ice-strengthened hull and could travel at 15kn.

It is one of the fastest, and most eco-friendly ships in Antarctica. There were 101 elegantly designed cabins and suites, all with exterior views, and expansive common spaces, a club lounge, and a spacious restaurant. The ship offered numerous adventure options, plus on-board features such as interactions with photography instructors. After a full day of exploration, passengers could relax, browse books or DVDs in the well-stocked polar library, or enjoy stunning polar scenery from the sun-lit, panoramic observation lounge. Length 124m (407 ft) width 16m (52 ft).

Environmentally, Quark was extremely thorough. All our clothes were vacuum cleaned before each new trip ashore, and after each trip we had to hose down our waterproof trousers and boots and walk through a sterilising bath to avoid any cross contamination between islands. There is an eradication program in some places, of invasive species from Europe, mainly Pearlwort and Bittercress probably brought in as seeds on clothing.

Oh, and definitely no toilet stops allowed when ashore. Go before you go, and if you must, they will take you back to the ship.

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January 28th. Our first landing by Zodiac was Saunder's Island on West Falkland where we saw penguins King, Magellanic, Rockhopper, and Gentoo. The were also Black Browed Albatross with chicks, Brown Skua, Greater Upland goose, Caracara and Turkey Vultures. It was quite warm but storms were on their way. As a serious storm was promised we didn't have time to visit Stanley, the ship docked briefly to complete some paperwork then we fled ahead of the storm towards South Georgia. The sea was rough with 7-8 m swell but not as rough as in the Falklands where several cruise shops were trapped for three days in Stanley Harbour.

1. Magellanic penguins
2. Map of South Georgia
3. Grytviken
4. Southern Fur Seal
5. Ernest Shackleton's Grave
6. Grytviken church
7. The museum.

January 31st. Our first sighting of South Georgia was through fog and drizzle. We sailed down the northeast side of the island past drear glaciers which tipped into the sea and rows of inhospitable rocky headlands. Eventually we moored in Cumberland Bay which allowed us to visit the main settlement, Grytviken. Grytviken contains the rusting remains of a whaling station, Ernest Shackleton's grave, a church and a museum plus a handful of summer residents. It was an interesting place, the museum was fascinating, it only lacked a café. Shackleton died of a heart attack here during his 1922 expedition.

The story of Shackleton's 1914 expedition is legendary.

Shackleton's ship Endurance departed from South Georgia for the Weddell Sea on 5 December, heading for Vahsel Bay. As the ship moved southward, first year ice was encountered, which slowed progress. Deep in the Weddell Sea, conditions gradually grew worse until, on 19 January 1915, Endurance became frozen fast in an ice flow. On 24 February, realising that she would be trapped until the following spring, Shackleton ordered the abandonment of ship's routine and her conversion to a winter station She drifted slowly northward with the ice through the following months. When spring arrived in September, the breaking of the ice and its later movements put extreme pressures on the ship's hull

Until this point, Shackleton had hoped that the ship, when released from the ice, could work her way back towards Vahsel Bay. On 24 October water began pouring in. After a few days, with the position at 69° 5' S, 51° 30' W, Shackleton gave the order to abandon ship, saying, "She's going down!"; and men, provisions and equipment were transferred to camps on the ice. On 21 November 1915, the wreck finally slipped beneath the surface.

For almost two months, Shackleton and his party camped on a large, flat floe, hoping that it would drift towards Paulet Island, approximately 250 miles (402 km) away, where it was known that stores were cached. After failed attempts to march across the ice to this island, Shackleton decided to set up another more permanent camp (Patience Camp) on another floe, and trust to the drift of the ice to take them towards a safe landing. By 17 March, their ice camp was within 60 miles (97 km) of Paulet Island but, separated by impassable ice, they were unable to reach it. On 9 April, their ice floe broke into two, and Shackleton ordered the crew into the lifeboats, to head for the nearest land. After five harrowing days at sea, the exhausted men landed their three lifeboats at Elephant Island, 346 miles (557 km) from where the Endurance sank. This was the first time they had stood on solid ground for 497 days. Shackleton's concern for his men was such that he gave his mittens to photographer Frank Hurley, who had lost his during the boat journey. Shackleton suffered frostbitten fingers as a result.

Elephant Island was an inhospitable place, far from any shipping routes; rescue upon chance discovery was very unlikely. Consequently, Shackleton decided to risk an open-boat journey to the 720-nautical-mile-distant South Georgia whaling stations, where he knew help was available. The strongest of the tiny 20-foot (6.1 m) lifeboats, christened James Caird after the expedition's chief sponsor, was chosen for the trip. Ship's carpenter Harry McNish made various improvements, including raising the sides, strengthening the keel, building a makeshift deck of wood and canvas, and sealing the work with oil paint and seal blood. Shackleton chose five companions for the journey: Frank Worsley, Endurance's captain, who would be responsible for navigation; Tom Crean, who had "begged to go"; two strong sailors in John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy, and finally the carpenter McNish. 

Shackleton refused to pack supplies for more than four weeks, knowing that if they did not reach South Georgia within that time, the boat and its crew would be lost. The James Caird was launched on 24 April 1916; during the next fifteen days, it sailed through the waters of the southern ocean, at the mercy of the stormy seas, in constant peril of capsizing. On 8 May, thanks to Worsley's navigational skills, the cliffs of South Georgia came into sight, but hurricane-force winds prevented the possibility of landing. The party was forced to ride out the storm offshore, in constant danger of being dashed against the rocks. They later learned that the same hurricane had sunk a 500-ton steamer bound for South Georgia from Buenos Aires. On the following day, they were able, finally, to land on the unoccupied southern shore. After a period of rest and recuperation, rather than risk putting to sea again to reach the whaling stations on the northern coast, Shackleton decided to attempt a land crossing of the island. Although it is likely that Norwegian whalers had previously crossed at other points on ski, no one had attempted this particular route before. For their journey, the survivors were only equipped with boots they had pushed screws into to act as climbing boots, a carpenter's adze, and 50 feet of rope. Leaving McNish, Vincent and McCarthy at the landing point on South Georgia, Shackleton travelled 32 miles (51 km with Worsley and Crean over extremely dangerous mountainous terrain for 36 hours to reach the whaling station of Stromness on 20 May.

 

1. King Penguins
2. Returning by Zodiac to the Ocean Diamond
3. Stromness
4. King penguins discussing our ship
5. Gentoo penguin and chick
6. Elephant seals.
7. Chris, on rock with camera.

February 1st. We anchored off Gold Harbour on South Georgia and went ashore by Zodiac. Here there were thousands of King penguins, conservatively estimated at 55 thousand pairs, also a large number of Gentoo penguins and Elephant seals. After lunch on the ship we went on a Zodiac cruise at the nearby Cooper Bay where we saw Chinstrap and Macaroni penguins, Blue-Eyed shags and Snowy Sheathbills.

Cocktails and gourmet dinner.

For the next few days we sailed back along the north coast of South Georgia, visiting St Andrew's Bay and Salisbury Plain and saw a lot more King Penguins. Over the 4th and 5th of February we headed out to sea, once again running before the storm to reach Elephant Island. What a dreadful place, the cloud was low, ice and glaciers everywhere and it was hard to imagine anyone surviving four and a half months on the windswept beach at Point Wild.

1. Macaroni Penguins
2. Young Fur Seal
3. Attacked by a Skua
4. King Penguins
5. Lunch
6. Point Wild, Elephant Island.

A bust of Captain Luis Alberto Prado, (circles) with a monolith and plaques, have been placed at Point Wild to celebrate the rescue of the survivors of the Endurance by the Welch. The inscription reads: "Here on August 30th, 1916, the Chilean Navy cutter Welch commanded by Pilot Luis Pardo Villalón rescued the 22 men from the Shackleton Expedition who survived the wreck of the Endurance living for four and one half months in this Island".

The sea was too rough to allow any landings so after a couple of tries we headed for Paulet Island on the east side of the Antarctic peninsula. The voyage through the Antarctic Channel to Paulet Island was stunning, and many of us were up at 5.00 am to watch icebergs and glaciers drift past. We moored near Paulet and we visited it by Zodiac to check out the huge colony of pretty but rather smelly Adélie penguins. Later, we took a Zodiac tour along the coast where there were icebergs, Weddell seals, Blue-Eyed shags. All very impressive.

After our 3-course lunch we sailed to Brown Bluff but couldn't land as there was too much sea ice.

 

1. Map of the Antarctic Peninsula.
2. It's a glacier
3. Adélie penguin
4. Sue with camera
5. Ship with icebergs
6. Blue-Eyed shags
7. Cape Petrel

1. Gentoo Penguins
2. Hainault Island. Hut and ship in the snow.
3. Kayak team.
4. Adélie penguins out fishing.
5. Minke whale
6. Minke whale
7. Much excitement.

February 8th. Snowing furiously, but undeterred we were loaded into our Zodiacs and transported to Hainault island where there was a small hut that we couldn't get into, and a lot of sad looking Gentoo penguins. After lunch it was back on the Zodiacs again for a cruise along Cierva Cove where we began to see Humpback and Minke whales. The Minke's would come quite close and on occasions pass right under the Zodiacs causing much excitement.

After dinner, the weather cleared to a fantastic sunset and we were surrounded by Humpback whales. Unforgettable.

1. Clearing
2. Humpbacks by evening light.
3. Sunset.
4. Humpbacks
5. Fluke
6. Fluke
7. Last light.

1. Humpback in Wilhelmina Bay
2. Ocean Diamond, Whilamina Bay.
3. Port Lockroy.
4. Port Lockroy, Bransfield House.
5. Inside the Post Office
6. Queuing for the barbecue, Sue enters the outrageous hat competition.
7. Unclimbed mountains, Anvers island.

February 9th. It just gets better. A perfect day, blue sky, no wind and the sea a glassy calm studded with icebergs. The ship moored in Wilhelmina bay and we set off by Zodiac, scattering to the four corners of this majestic bay, surrounded by Humpback whales. They were feeding and sending clouds of bubbles to the surface to herd the shoals of Krill. Unforgettable.

Later, we sailed the narrow Neumayer Channel to the little British outpost of Port Lockroy where you could buy postcards and special stamps. We bought a $10 fridge magnet.

Back on the ship, there was the Polar Plunge where 57 of our shipmates, dressed in swimming cozzies chose to abuse their bodies by plunging into the polar waters of -1C. They were tethered and the doctor was at hand for potential heart attacks.

1. Neumayer Channel
2. Us, Portal Point
3. Crabeater seal.
4. Leopard Seal
5. Icebergs
6. Rough sea
7. Captain Oleg Klaptenko bids us farewell.

And that was it. Thanks Quark, Captain Oleg and Woody the Expedition Leader and all the staff and crew for a once in a lifetime trip. We enjoyed every minute of it, even the Drake Passage. Everyone from the captain and crew to the expedition team were extremely friendly and always had time to chat.

It may take a while for my waistline to return to normal though.

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Sailing to Antarctica.

• On either side the inlet lay
• Steep walls of ice in white and grey
• And on the beach were penguins gay
• Onward through the endless day
• Sailing to Antarctica

 

• Past rock and glacier deepest blue
• The Ocean Diamond bore us true
• Ice bergs, whales and petrels too
• Scents of seals and penguin poo
• Sailing to Antarctica

 

• When homeward scattered, sun or rain
• In city or on crowded train
• Those magic moments will remain
• We may not pass this way again
• Sailing to Antarctica.

 

 

 

chrisandsue59@gmail.com