Day 243 – 60°40’ S, 065°01’ W, Drake Passage, Southern Ocean

We’re currently in Drake Passage which, although sounds like something from a Carry On film, is actually a narrow stretch of water separating South America with Antarctica. We’d all heard terrible stories about this stretch of water as it can either be as calm as a lake (Drake Lake) or really stormy (Drake Shake). At the moment it’s not too bad, hardly lake like but could be a lot, lot worse.

We’re on our way home from having spent five days around the south Shetlands and the Antarctica Peninsula and those five days have been incredible. After dinner each night Woody gives a little summary of what we’ve been up to during the day and his short talks are usually littered with the word ‘stunning’, people started criticising his overuse of the word, but it’s difficult to sum the place up any other way. It is just breathtaking.

Our first day of officially being in Antarctica was when we reached Point Wild at Elephant Island. We took the zodiacs out for a cruise around the turbulent waters there and saw a monument to Commander Pilato Pardo of the Chilean navy who, in 1915, rescued 22 members of Shackleton’s Endurance expedition that were stranded there for 135 days living in upturned boats. I just can’t imagine what they went through as there seemed to be no visible place to land and the wind was a howling gale for us. They we there in the depths of the Antarctic winter so the ice would have been much thicker and the temperatures much lower. Our hands, feet and faces were numb from the cold after just an hour out in the zodiacs and we are here in the summer. This was also our first experience of riding the zodiacs through brash ice and skirting past glaciers and it was a brilliant feeling. The fur seals and chinstrap penguins looked at us like we were mad and as we got covered in icy, salty sea-spray I was inclined to agree with them. Apparently, we heard a few days later, one of the elderly women on another zodiac had a big panic attack out there as she was absolutely petrified of falling in the sea. I’m glad I wasn’t with her at the time because it was worrying enough but I did feel sorry for her.

The following day we headed off to Half Moon island, so called because of its crescent shape. We took a walk with Annie to a high point on the island while watching out for skuas that quite often attack walkers if they get too close to their nests. It was only when I saw how big they were that the threat seemed more serious than I’d first imagined. They are huge birds with very sharp, strong beaks and I was regretting not taking a hat out with me that day as Annie had previously mentioned that they can quite easily take a chunk of head with them if they choose to. This is the place that I also saw my first Weddell seal and managed to get a nice picture of it for the Weddell’s back home. We walked back to the boat the other way round a big hill in the middle of the island and then took a look at the chinstrap penguin colony. There were very impressive views from this island and the occasional thunderous noise where a big lump of ice had ‘calved’ from one of the glaciers to form a new iceberg. The trouble is that it’s quite hard to see this happening as the sound reaches you a few seconds after it has actually cracked off so you can often only see the ripples or waves in the water.

That afternoon, after lunch, we headed round to Deception Island which is actually a huge caldera created by a massive volcano eruption some time in Antarctica’s distant past. Many of us were on the bridge of the ship as the Captain manoeuvred us through the tricky 230m wide opening into the mouth of the caldera. Many ships have met a sticky end in this entrance as there are some spiteful rocks just 2.5m below the surface of the water on the port side. There was a brilliant air of tension in the bridge but once we were in we were all amazed at the sheer size of the space. This volcano is not extinct either and there have been recent minor eruptions and seismic activity so in theory it could have gone off at any time during our visit. The fact that you’re reading this though means that it didn’t. Obviously. We were told that there are a series of hot springs under the water in this secluded bay and that there are not many animals around as they can’t feed on the ‘cooked’ sea-life. A swim in the warm waters was recommended and many of us had our trunks and swimming costumes on underneath our waterproofs when we finally got to go on land. However, what they didn’t tell us was that the water was only about 1.5 degrees warmer than the rest of the Antarctic so was actually freezing cold! It didn’t deter some people though, mainly the younger people in the group who, I guess, had something to prove to each other. They didn’t stay in for long and dashed in and out while bravely shouting and egging each other on. That was one experience that I didn’t mind missing out on. At one end of this island is a big gap in the wall of rocks called Neptune’s Window and from here we got our first really clear view of the Antarctic Peninsular – the bit that sticks out from Earth’s most southern continent. We were really excited at that point and couldn’t wait to set foot on it.

Another evening of over-eating in the dining hall passed and we woke to the sight of Charlotte bay where we were taken out in the zodiacs for a short cruise to look at the icebergs. Many of them were immense and we felt dwarfed by them as we got closer to them and could see how much bigger they are under the water. Depending on the density of the ice, they generally only show a tenth of their mass above the water line and the remaining nine tenths is carved into the most beautiful blue crystalline shapes by the movement of the water around them and bubbles escaping from the ice. We also saw pancake ice forming on the surface of the water where small patches of ice are pushed together by the movement of wind and water to form small circular patches of slushy ice. These would eventually freeze together to make pack ice. In the afternoon we were hoping to have our very first landing on the peninsular so that we could truly say that we’d set foot on the continent of Antarctica. However, it wasn’t to be. The guides scouted the landing site but due to the thick ice it was impossible to land. We had to content ourselves with touching the rock at Spigot Point and Rich took it one step further and poked a wellied foot out of the zodiac so that he could say that he set foot on land. I don’t think it really counted but he was happy that he did it. Rather than exploring the land, we cruised around Orne Harbour in the zodiacs and explored more icebergs. We also got some good sightings of a couple of humpbacks which was a real treat. We couldn’t see them too well as they were well in the distance but we saw lots of spouting and could hear them well enough.

On our third day in Antarctica we took a trip to Port Lockroy which is one of the biggest tourist sites in the area, mainly due to the well stocked souvenir shop and fascinating museum. The museum is crammed full of items that show the history of the place and is manned during the summer by 3-4 people. There’s no heat or electricity so it must be a pretty hard life there, though they keep busy by running the shop and the post-office and counting the penguins in the colony that shares their living space. We were the last ship to visit for the season as they were packing up for the winter so they hitched a ride with us and we’ll be taking them to Ushuaia. Just next to this island is Jougla Point where there is a huge colony of gentoo penguins. Here I got a little bit annoyed with one of the guides, Axel the German, as he shouted across to me to make sure that I steer clear of the penguin chicks and that I was too close. He was hollering all this and making me feel a quite embarrassed just after I’d spent five minutes or so taking pictures of him holding his hands out to some other chicks and getting them to peck his fingers or let him stroke them. Bloody hypocrite. I laughed to myself later when I heard that one of the woman in the group who’d also got pictures of him doing it had shown it to the senior group leader who in turn had given Axel a bollocking for interfering with the penguins.

When we left Port Lockroy we sailed up the Neumayer Channel which was just stunning. It was a narrow channel enclosed in high, snow covered mountains. Large icebergs and bands of smaller ice chunks floated alongside the ship in the inky black water and looked fantastic. A small pod of Orcas swam alongside the boat, keeping a respectable distance and this was a really rare thing according to Kirsten, our animal expert. Despite the freezing wind on the upper exposed decks, the place was packed with people taking in the view and snapping away on their cameras. It was only spoilt slightly by one of the group that constantly talks into his ancient video camera and gives commentary to everything he sees. He’s a nice enough bloke but a bit of a geek making him the source of amusement to quite a few people on this ship. Last night there was a bit of a party atmosphere on the boat and some of the young clique decided it would be a good idea to stamp Simon’s face with the ship’s ink stamp so he was walking around the deck with green smudged pictures of the company logo all over his cheeks. He must have rubbed his face raw trying to get them off. Poor sod.

Our day was rounded off with a barbecue on deck which was a bit surreal. There we were tucking into sausages, ribs, steaks and burgers while decked out in as many layers as we could put on and enjoying the amazing backdrop of snowy mountains and icebergs floating by. Someone bought back a huge chunk of glacier ice to put in drinks which was a great touch.

Our final day in Antarctica turned out to be the one that I will remember most, not through any planning or design but by pure, old fashioned luck. We finally got to land on the Antarctic peninsular at Neko Harbour and after everything that we’d seen so far it was a relief to finally complete the journey. I really hate the overuse of the word journey as it seems that every reality TV program has some sort of journey or other that the punters are taking. However, this really felt like the climax of a great adventure. We’d all been working up to it for so long and having booked the trip almost 18 months ago it was nice to finally step foot in such a wonderful place. We walked around a fairly large gentoo colony and climbed up a steep hill covered in thick, compacted snow and ice. It was a bit precarious, but safe enough despite clambering along in treadless wellies. Once at the top we had the most fascinating view of Neko Harbour and could see for miles. The sun was shining on a group on mountains far in the distance and against the dark grey sky it looked stunning. We had a great view of several glaciers and one of them looked like it was teetering on the brink of calving. Huge fissures marked the edges and the crevasses were the deepest, most fantastic blue colour I’ve ever seen. Having spent a while on top of the hill, we clambered down, trying not to slip on the steep, icy path and headed to the zodiacs for a quick berg cruise before joining the boat again.

In the afternoon we sailed to paradise harbour which, on the face of it, didn’t look any more like paradise than any of the other beautiful places that we’d seen. We sailed across to the landing point in the zodiacs again and was treated to a proper landing gangway as there was an Argentinean science base there. Gentoos wandered around the place and it dawned on me that this was to be our last landing on this fantastic continent. Despite the stench of the penguins, I’m really going to miss them and their funny little ways. We walked to the top of another hill for yet more fantastic views and a final few pictures. On the way down Mary, a Scottish ex-head teacher that we’ve become friendly with, was obviously overcome with excitement as she laid on her back and tried sliding down the hill like an excited kid in her first snow. It was great to watch a normally sensible lady laugh like a drain.

On the way back to the ship, we took one last cruise around the harbour in a zodiac with Kirsten, taking in more fantastic views of the glaciers and icebergs. Shortly into the cruise we heard the sound of whales blowing so Kirsten steered us towards it. Just then we saw two Minke whales in the near distance. We stopped the engine and drifted for a little bit and seconds later one of the whales came right alongside our boat. We were all absolutely taken aback by this fantastic giant and were all shrieking with joy. As it swam round, it blew out a big blast of air from it’s breathing hole and we saw the huge plume of bubble rise to the surface of the crystal clear water. This creature was so close we could see the barnacles around its mouth and head. It then surfaced and blew again before disappearing under the calm water. There were around eight of us on that little zodiac and we were all grinning from ear to ear. I could hardly talk because of the encounter and it was one of those moments in your life when you feel more alive than you ever have done before. The second minke swam under the zodiac to join the other. After regaining our composure, we started heading for one of the huge glaciers to take a look and were distracted again by a crab eater seal. Kirsten was hugely excited as she had never seen one being so interactive before in over ten years of research. This seal was following our zodiac, popping his head out of the water and studying us and at one point even tried climbing into the boat with us. This is completely unheard of. Crab-eater seals are notoriously shy usually and there’s very little research carried out on them because they usually clear off before you can even get close to them. We finally set off to look at the glacier again and in the distance we heard one of the glaciers breaking off huge chunks of ice into the water. It sounded like a loud thunder clap but this time we managed to see the ice actually falling off rather than just hearing the sound and seeing nothing. At this point, one of the other passengers on the boat saw a huge jellyfish floating by and passing under the boat. It was massive, about the size of a big beach ball and was a brilliant orange colour with long tentacles and a what looked like a Spanish flamenco dancer’s skirt fluttering around underneath it. Beautiful.

We finally got to look at the glacier before getting a call over the radio telling us to head back to the ship. I was pretty much in a daze for the next few hours after seeing the whale and it has fulfilled one of my biggest lifetime ambitions. Later on, there was a charity auction in the bar where money was being raised for a ‘Save The Albatross’ campaign which is something that one of the guides supports. To get the bids flowing they were dishing out free champagne which was a very welcome end to an absolutely fantastic day.

The weather turned a little last night and the sea got a lot rougher on the start of our journey back to Ushuaia. I didn’t sleep very well at all but I think much of that was because of the adrenaline still running through my veins. I was a very happy man as I drifted in and out of my broken slumber.