South To The Vortex

The ship’s navigation table holds two nautical charts. Both charts show the ship has now entered waters that have never been surveyed. Using depth soundings, our captain charts a safe and steady course. He may be a seasoned Antarctic sailor, but he’s never sailed this channel before today.

Oncoming dusk makes it harder to see, then the heavy snow starts. Huge snowflakes stick to the windows, making it harder to see the icebergs that plug the channel. Thankfully, the floating barriers appear clearly on the radar. The monitor shows the ice as huge blobs of orange. One enormous glob dominates the channel ahead on the monitor. It’s only three kilometers distant from us.You need to visit this site to learn about antarctica travel adventures.

The captain quietly issues a command at the one kilometer mark. With quick response, the helmsman alters the course of the ship. Though we can barely make it out at first, the tabular iceberg, unique to the southern ocean, appears like ghostly in the fog and snow.Sporting straight sides that rise rapidly into the air, this berg is over one hundred feet tall. The top is very flat and very wide.

The berg, with its massive size, found me awestruck. It was simply one more of Antarctica’s treasures.We were headed to the dashed line found on the bottom of your globe – the Antarctic Circle – in our polar class cruise vessel. We’ve passed many inaccessible and empty areas of the world to get here. It took an additional 79 years for someone to winter over on Antarctica after it was found in 1820. While attempting to find the southern pole, many adventurers died. Scientists were the next group of people to come to Antarctica. You used to have to be rich to travel to Antarctica. Now, because the price of travel has fallen so much, you can cruise there for about the same amount of money as you could travel in the Caribbean.

The shape of Antarctica is similar to a manta ray with a curved tail. The very tip of South America is 500 miles away from Antarctica. This stretch of seas is called Drakes Passage and is notorious for its turbulent waters.Getting through these waters, which have also been called ‘the slobbering jaws of hell’ is the real price to pay to see Antarctica. We followed the advice of one passenger, who suggested we make sure everything was stowed and that the porthole latches of our cabins were secure before we went to bed. Learn about adventure antarctica tours.

After sailing from Ushuaia, in Argentina, we sailed through the Beagle Channel and reached the open ocean. Rough water bounced us to and fro for two days. We didn’t see any land during that time. Nearly gale-forced winds pounded us the whole time.Passing my fourth deck window, ocean spray shot into the air from waves breaking on the bow. A passenger?s seasickness greatly affected the height of the swells he or she saw. Some reported swells between fifteen and forty feet.

After two days sail from South America, we got to the Southern Ocean.I saw a coastal archipelago first thing that morning. The seas seemed to have been calmed by the land. Wispy clouds shielded high mountain tops. The ridges stuck through the smooth glaciers at sharp angles. Frozen slab ice entered the water. It was rough and bumpy, cracked and dirty. These mountains, which could have been in Everest’s range, looked out of place sticking up out of the water.

Our Antarctic cruise reminded one passenger of the labor of childbirth. Antarctica?s stats show it to be the windiest, highest, driest and coldest continent of all seven found on our planet. Antarctica?s polar plateau gets the same amount of precipitation as Death Valley, but the continent holds 70 percent of all the freshwater we have on earth. This land is not owned by a single person, has had no aboriginal peoples, nor any animals that remain year round on it.

We have to rely upon the weather to plan where to sail or when and where to land on shore in this inclement area. Even though we are warned to be flexible, our first landing comes right on schedule. Our assigned groups met on deck. After the call for my group, I climb into an inflatable boat with nine other people. We travel across a mere quarter mile of water until we run aground. And then, with just one step, I am among the few who can say they’ve stood on the Antarctic Continent.

Tags: manta ray, huge blobs, straight sides, travel adventure <BR/>

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