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Antarctica - Crossing the Circle

Part 28 - Around the World 06/2015 - 02/2016

By Beyond All Maps - Portraits of our Planet by Thorsten Mehret

May 26^th, 2016

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Ushuaia

Beside Punta Arenas in Chile, Ushuaia is the main hub to Antartica in the world due to its proximity. It´s the capital of the Argentinian province Tierra del Fuego and always in dispute with Puerto Williams on the Chilean side about the title of the most southern city on earth. Puerto Williams is indeed further south, but according to Chilean law it is officially a town and not a city. I wonder when Chile will change the status just to score off its ever lasting rival Argentina.

Ushuaia is a neat city in beautiful surroundings. I was especially surprised to see many beautiful flowers so far south. Due to the extreme long distances for supplies it´s one of the most expensive cities in South America, which I can definitely confirm, as unfortunately I had to do some shopping for warm clothes to be prepared for Antarctica.

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Ushuaia with a beautiful mountain panorama in the back

Ushuaia also has a history for being a good place to lock people away far from the rest of the world. The presidio was build in 1920 for this purpose and mainly used to imprison political prisoners and violent criminals. This was stopped in 1947, and nowadays the presidio is used as a museum for Antarctic expeditions and more. Well worth a visit.

The Ship - AKademik Ioffe

The Russian vessel was formerly used together with its sister ship Vavilov for sonic underwater research. Well, this is the official version. The unofficial version on the ship was that the research with the unique technical sonic equipment was more used to follow underwater submarine activities, meaning it was build as a spy ship. Due to technological advance, the old technology onboard got obsolete and the ship was transformed to care for tourists. It´s not the most comfortable ship available on Antarctic cruises but has some other advantages. Due to its former purpose, it has an extremely silent power unit, a stabilizer to reduce movements from waves, it´s build for bad weather and has a high Ice Class with a strengthened hull. It has massive and fantastic space outside for watching the wildlife and scenery. Everything is open to use, the front, the back, the top and even the bridge.

Why Size Matters

Well, at least in Antarctica it does, and here smaller is better. A ship with around 100 tourist is ideal. It´s big enough to offer some comfort and at the same time small enough to anchor at the most interesting places, thereby maximizing the onshore experience. In Antarctica a maximum of 100 visitors are allowed on a landing site at the same time, sometimes even less. That means ships with more tourists must organize the excursions in shifts, limiting the time of the experience significantly. Sometimes not everyone can go on every excursion. On the Akademik Ioffe we had in general 2 excursion of around 3 to 4 hours each day. Adding time for breakfast, lunch and dinner, there was not much time left for relaxing. But that´s not why you come to Antartica anyway, right?

Leaving the Beagle Channel

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Crossing the Drake

Gosh, did I fear the 2 x 2 day crossing of the Drake Passage! It has a reputation for very high and rough sea, and knowing that I’m very prone to seasickness, I saw myself already 2 x 2 days praying to the porcelain god. Fortunately the sea was much calmer than expected, and together with a seasickness patch from our ship´s doctor it worked well. I guess he had a busy time the first 2 days, as soon the majority of guest had a patch behind the ear.

The crossing was by far less boring than expected, thanks to some presentations by the staff, talking to the excited guest and looking for wildlife and the first iceberg from the bridge. The staff was fantastic, always among the guests, answering their many questions and being as excited about the upcoming adventure as the guests.

Soon we passed the the Antarctic Convergence where cold, northward-flowing Antarctic waters meet the relatively warmer waters of the Subantarctic, causing heavy fog.

Antarctic Convergence - The adventure starts behind the fog

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Crossing the Circle

Few ships make it to the Antarctic Circle, and for a while it looked like we won´t make it either. A barrier of pack-ice blocked our way and we had to find a way around, several times changing course. It took us almost an extra day, and everyone was extremely excited when we finally made it and passed the Antarctic Circle with an appropriate ceremony.

Honestly, it´s somehow strange being so thrilled about an imaginary line. But everyone was. Probably it’s just the feeling of being one of the few persons ever being so far south that gives a sweet taste of adventure.

Would I do it again? No! I think the time and money is better spent including the Falklands or South Georgia in the itinerary instead of reaching the Circle, although still a cool thing to do.

Gathering for the polar circle crossing ceremony.

Finding our way to the antarctic circle.

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Detaille Island

This British base was primarily built in order to survey geology and meteorology work. When the time came to relieve the base in 1959, the ship was unable to break trough the sea ice and reach the island. The decision was made to abandon the base so the men sledged 25 miles over the sea ice to reach the ship, taking with them only the minimum of their belongings and scientific records. Apart from a stranded party of three in 1965 for 6 month the base has remained unoccupied since 1959, and much of the original content is still there.

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Fast Ice

Probably the most memorable excursion. We went in the late afternoon to make some steps on fast ice. Around 40m from us was a group of Adele Penguins, which suddenly decided to have a closer look at this strange looking, big red penguins on their ice. They were incredible curious and not shy at all, walking around us. Together with the warm afternoon light and blueish background a fantastic photo opportunity that resulted in some of my favorite pictures of the whole trip.

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Flying PEnguins

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Sunset in the Crystal Sound

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Ice

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Armstrong Reef

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Sunset in the Grandidier Channel

What a beautiful sunset, and what colors thereafter! I was awestruck. And the best thing, it lasted for ages at this latitude.

Yalour Island and Waddington Bay

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Vernadsky Station

It can be very hard to visit an operating research station like the US Palmer station, as they have more important things to do than taking care of tourists. Not so with the Ukraine Vernadsky Station. Here, the opportunity to make some extra money seems to be welcome and the most southern bar in the world a good spot for doing so. But to our disappointment and disbelief there was no more Vodka available. What? An Ukraine Station without Vodka? Impossible!!! And indeed our Russian friends told us later they managed to get some of the hidden supplies during their special private tour. Obviously the supplies were running low.

Btw, we were told that at winter times, it´s not uncommon that they have tho leave the buildings through the roof due to the snow.

At the most souther bar and no vodka. Come on.

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Petermann Island

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Pleneau Island

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Lemaire Channel

To my big surprise it was much warmer in Antarctica than expected. The coldest temperature at 07:00 o´clock was -1 degree celsius. But man, everything changes with the strong winds that make your skin feel like in a deep freezer.

Sunset in the Butler Passage

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Camping at Damoy Point

Camping in Antartica sounded like a cool thing to do and it was. Well, the number of campers declined quite a bit when we were told that we will be cold and hypothermia occasionally occurs, but there is no way back to the ship during the night (only in real emergency) and it´s best to avoid taking a leak, as only a bucket behind a wall of ice is available. Btw. to relieve oneself in nature is strongly forbidden in Antarctica.

Like everyone else, still having the warnings at the briefing in mind, I was well prepared. Two layers of thermo underwear, three pair of wool socks, a silk inlet, a fleece inlet, a warm sleeping bag and metric, and finally a water proof gore-tex outer shell. It took quite a while to have everything including me in place and it took far less time afterwards that I felt like being in a sauna, so I had to open up a bit. I slept well (almost too warm) and short, as at 6 am we already had to make our way back to the boat, where a hot chocolate was waiting for us. Despite the warnings, almost nobody felt cold in the night and we were told it was an unusual warm night. Damn, were is the adventure ;-) ?

Peeking out the sleeping bag in the night, a lonesome penguin passing by.

Neumayer Channel

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Almirante Brown

Antarctica is a de facto condominium, governed by parties to the Antarctic Treaty System that have consulting status. Twelve countries signed the Antarctic Treaty in 1959, and thirty-eight more have signed it since then. The treaty prohibits military activities and mineral mining, nuclear explosions and nuclear waste disposal, supports scientific research, and protects the continent’s ecozone.

As there might be a time after the condominium, some states already prepare by showing permanent presence in some areas, even if only by shelters that are serviced once a year. This might make it easier to claim the area when time comes.

Cuverville Island

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No day dream. A dutch operated sailing ship for sailing enthusiastic tourists.

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Wilhelmina Bay

Famous for the almost guaranteed whale encounters and also this time no disappointment.

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Another Sunset

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Deception Island

Deception Island is an island in the South Shetland Islands archipelago, with one of the safest harbours in Antarctica. This island is the caldera of an active volcano, which seriously damaged local scientific stations in 1967 and 1969. The island previously held a whaling station; it is now a tourist destination and scientific outpost, with Argentine and Spanish research bases. With all the remains from the whaling period, it has quite an eerie atmosphere.