I did it! I actually crossed the Antarctic Circle! What an amazing feat although I really had nothing to do with it. Who would have ever thought this small-town Texas girl would ever make it here. Certainly not me! But make it, I did.
The day started out with the announcement that breakfast was being served in the dining room. Oops. I hadn’t set my alarm so I was running late. I had been so tired last night that when I came back to the cabin, I fell asleep typing my blog posting. Doug and Chris had gone outside to enjoy a cigar and some Shackleton whiskey. He woke me coming into the room. I gave up the ghost on writing for the night and went to bed. I slept hard. I needed it.
So when the announcement woke me up, I jumped out of the bed and hurried through my morning ablutions. We were only 10 to 15 minutes late. Actually, we weren’t late at all because you could eat anytime between 7:30 and 9 AM. Liz was still sitting there when we came in so we joined her. Doug got his omelet and I got my oatmeal. I’m so happy I can get it here.
For most of the morning we were sailing down to the circle. Not much was happening and the seas were fairly empty of both ice and critters. At 9 AM we made our way down to our lecture on exploration in Antarctica. It was a plethora of names and dates. Meru covered some of the early history which I had never heard about. That was interesting. I had no clue that explorations to this region began as early as 1769 when John Goode was sent to study the transit of Venus. He was given a secret envelop with further orders to explore the Antarctic region. Although he never saw land, he saw many fur seals which he faithfully reported back. When he returned to the region, he found it full of seal hunters.
Goode was followed by Will Smith, not the actor although Meru used his face in the slide. In 1819 Smith had the job to sail through to Cape Horn. In order to avoid the awful weather around the Cape, he decided to sail further south. He spotted the South Shetland Islands. When he reported the sighting, nobody believed him. To prove he had seen the island, he sailed back to verify them. He sailed back a third time and this time he made landfall.
After Smith an explorer by the name of Bransfield came south to explore the Shetland Islands. He is one of the people credited with seeing Antarctica first. Bellinghausen sailed to the regions and saw lots and of lots of ice. He didn’t realize there was actually land beneath that ice. He reported the latitude and longitude. He also circumnavigated the continent. He spent an astonishing three weeks below the Antarctica Circle.
By the year 1820 sealers had gone to the continent and had slaughtered just about all of the fur seals. What a crying shame. In the same year, Nathaniel Palmer had gone to the continent and had built a sealing station in Deception Bay. The bay was in the middle of an old caldera so the station was protected. As he sailed looking for seals, he spotted the peninsula of the continent. Of course he had to name it after himself—Palmerland. In 1830 Graham spotted the peninsula and he name it after himself. Ultimately the peninsula came to be known as the Antarctica Peninsula.
In 1923 an explorer named Weddell came down this way. He discovered a large sea to the right of the peninsula. Of course he named it after himself. He was actually a merchant who just happened to have a passion for exploration. Later in life he pushed to conserve the area. The seals they found in the Weddell Sea are also named Weddell-Weddell seals.
The French were not about to be left out of the race for exploring and claiming Antarctica. They came down between 1837 and 1840 and tried to circumnavigate the continent. However, their way was blocked. Dumont B’Urville named the penguins he saw after his wife—Adélié.
Charles Wilkes was a American who came down here for exploration in 1839. He was the first to actually land on the continent rather than an island. In 1843 James Clark Ross—British—discovered and named the Ross sea. In 1845 the British put together a dream team of sailors and scientists. In order to gain experience in traveling the frigid waters, they took two ships named the Erebus and the Terror (they has been Ross’ ships) to explore the Northwest Passage. Unfortunately the ships got lost and stuck in the ice. A rescue mission was mounted when people realized there was a problem. The rescuers found some relics from the ship as well as some bodies. Eventually they learned that the two crews had resorted to cannibalism in order to try to survive. Obviously it didn’t work as they all perished. So much for the dream team.
One gentleman by the name of Markham was on the rescue team. He was extremely influenced by what he saw. He became a member of the National Geographic society and pushed for an Antarctic expedition. He wanted to bring the glory to Great Britain that the dream team had failed to do. He had a list of people capable of leading the team and among them was the name Scott. Markham chose Scott to lead his expedition as he felt Scott’s military experience would stand him in good stead. Also among the team members was a young man named Shackleton.
In 1891 Markham’s team had explored what is now the McMurdo area of the continent. They made their base there. Then Scott made the decision to try to reach the South Pole. Shackleton was part of that team as well as Scott. The two clashed severely as Shackleton wasn’t military and had his own ideas. Shackleton, however, was a natural leader and the men naturally him. Not so Scott. The push for the pole ultimately failed and Scott blamed Shackleton. In fact on the return to the McMurdo base, Shackleton became so ill that he couldn’t pull his share of their supplies on his sled. When the group made it back to McMurdo, Shackleton was sent home even though he had recuperated on the trip. Later Scott wrote a book about the effort to find the South Pole and he blame Shackleton for the failure. Shackleton was heartbroken over the accusation.
Shackleton eventually decided to lead his own expedition to the region. He did come up short in finding the South Pole but did end up further south than anybody else. He came very close to having to overwinter as he almost missed his ship back. He funded future expeditions by writing books and giving lectures. Scott and Shackleton were polite in public but let their vitriol fly when nobody else was present. They were each determined to outdo the other.
In 1920 Scott returned to Antarctic for another try at the South Pole. Meantime Amundsen who was Swedish had decided to give the South Pole a try as well. However, first he realized that he and the men needed to train for it by going to the Arctic Circle. He trained personally by going on any expedition he could get on. Like I said earlier, he was on the failed Belgian expedition. While in the Arctic, he learned various skills from the Inuit people. He learned from them how to navigate icy waters and how to dress for survival in Arctic conditions. He learned how to use a dog sled. He soaked up all the knowledge that he could. Amundsen was quoted as saying that adventure was just bad planning.
Before Amundsen could mount his expedition to the North Pole, people were claiming to have already discovered it. First Frederick Cook swore he found it. Then Peary said Cook was lying and that he had found it. Turns out later that neither had truly found it. Nobody reached the actual North Pole until 1969 and then it was completely overshadowed by man landing on the moon.
Meantime, Amundsen decided to head south and go for the South Pole. He gave his crew the choice to go with him or not. They all chose to go. The race was on as Scott was going for it as well and he was already at McMurdo. Scott had taken motorized sleds with him but lost one when transferring it from the ship to land. The other two wouldn’t work in the cold climate. Amundsen brought sled dogs with him.
Scott hadn’t done a very thorough job planning out the try for the Pole. He miscalculated supply needs, didn’t flag his caches of supplies well enough for the return to base camp….In the end Scott and all of his men perished. Amundsen reached the pole and made it back home alive. His sled dogs, however, did not. Amundsen and his men ate them. I believe that was part of the plan. Not a part of the plan that I like!
Meru also told us some survival stories. There was one expedition rescued by an Argentinian ship. I fleetingly wondered it if was the ship we had seen in Buenos Aires. Then there was the sad story of Mawson. He explored the McMurdo area. Unfortunately one of his sled with all of their food and tents fell into a crevasse. Mawson was the only survivor. Of course the penultimate survival story was the Endurance expedition led by Shackleton. Despite all of their hardships, he brought all of his men home. Some survived this ordeal on die in WWI just a few years later.
While all of this exploration was going on, countries began making their bid for part of the Antarctic pie. Countries were claiming segments closest to them. Few overlapped and most were roughly wedge-shaped. During WWII Great Britain was afraid that the Germans would use Antarctica to their advantage. The Brits destroyed all of the old whaling buildings and built British stations there. They also took down the Argentinian buildings. However, when the Brits left, the Argentinians went back in and rebuilt their stations and took down the British ones. Other countries began building bases in order to have a claim.
The U.S. was the only major country that did not lay claim to any soil on the continent. The push to claim the region ended in 1959 when the U.S. called all of the countries with claims to a meeting to put an end to it once and for all. In a stroke of diplomacy the twelve countries all decided that Antarctica would be owned by nobody. There could be no future claims and that all current claims were frozen. Who would have thought a bunch of politicians could be altruistic!
Although the U.S. didn’t claim any land in Antarctica, during the Cold War they did do training down there to prepare for war. It was called Operation High Jump. The first woman stepped onto the continent in 1935. Her name was Caroline Mikklesen. Her husband was a merchant. In 1957 the first person crossed the entire continent. Tourism began here in 1970. In 1987 for the first time a woman headed a base on the continent. She was Australian. Anne Bancroft led the first all-woman expedition to the South Pole. And just a couple of weeks ago Barbara Hernandez did a 2.5 km swim in Antarctic waters as her way of asking for more protected marine areas around the continent.
The region has quite the history. I was exhausted by the time Meru had finished her hour and a half lecture :-). We were suppose to have another talk, this one on geology, at 11 but Diego gave us a break and pushed it back to 11:30. Thank goodness! I needed to give my brain a break to digest all it had learned.
We spent the time in our room, occasional wandering outside to see the gorgeous scenery floating by us. It was otherworldly. Doug kept the TV on the navigation channel and after 11 it showed that we had crossed the Antarctic Circle. We figured that was the real reason Andres’ geology talk had been postponed. However, it was around 11:30 when I heard the ship’s horn blasting. I think the captain was signaling that we had crossed the line. Doug was out on deck so I took a quick photo of the TV for him.
Not too much later Neil called for everybody to come down to the lounge as we had some important visitors—King Neptune and his wife. It was a hoot. The expedition members and trip leaders were dressed up like pirates (yes, I know. There were no pirates in Antarctica🤪) and mermaids. Pablo was Neptune and Maria was his “wife.” In the background they played music from “Pirates of the Caribbean” and then segued into the “Little Mermaid.” We all had to swear our guilt to Neptune for eating sea food and not wanting to experience the Drake Shake. He pardoned us. Then to mark our transitions from landlubbers to “bluenoses” we had to kiss the ceremonial fish. And yes, there really was a fish and yes, we kissed it. Alright most of us air kissed it. Nobody wanted anybody else’s’ germs. We also were turned into bluenoses by the application of blue lipstick to our noses. It took quite a while for this process so Neil played the piano and did a rocking good job of it. He played with verve. We heard “The Entertainer” and other songs that I can’t remember now. I loved listening to him. He played for quite a long time. After everyone kissed the fish, we had a chance to take photos of Neptune and his crew. Doug and I got a photo with Neptune himself. It was a fun way to finish out the morning before dashing off to lunch. Before we scattered for the meal, Diego announced that we were going to try to do a landing in Crystal Sound. We were all excited about that.
And lunch was worth going to. The “Chef’s Action” center was doing stir fry today. I could smell the garlic cooking. Yum! I had that and some salad. After eating it was a waiting game. We were suppose to have the first group land around 2 but Diego came on and said that Detail Island where we were going to do our landing was blocked with ice. Instead we were going to sail further south and see what we could do there.
Meanwhile, we kept busy admiring the scenery. I saw a couple of whales which was nifty. I even caught a seal on a tiny berg. That was cool. It turned out to be a crab-eater seal which doesn’t even eat crab. It eats krill much in the same manner as a baleen whale. Interesting. The bergs and the snow-covered land formed a landscape that was nerve-tingling. I couldn’t get enough of it. There water was still as glass. It was sunny. The day was total perfection. I wanted to pinch myself to see if I was dreaming.
At 2:30 Diego announced that there was too much ice in our new location so instead of a landing, we were all going on a zodiac ride. We would be in the second group leaving around 4:30, That gave us a good deal of time to get ready. Around 3 we started piling on the layers. I knew it would be colder just sitting in the zodiac than it had been climbing slopes yesterday. I have four bottom layers on and four top layers. Plus I packed my heavy duty mittens in my waterproof bag. I was ready. Doug and I ended up waiting for our turn out on the deck because it was just too hot indoors with all of those clothes on.
The ride itself was wonderful. We had Luise as our drive. We also had Lori who is the Asst. Expedition Leader. Both were very knowledgable and shared some of that knowledge as we navigated the icy waters.
Being in a zodiac you got a whole new perspective of the area we were in. We were up close and personal with ice and apparently Luise is an ice expert. They showed us the bergs and told us the different types from the dry-dock which had a hole in it that looks like you could dock your boat in it to the tabuleau which looks like a huge table to brash ice which are the tiny chunks floating in the water. She showed us how you could tell the story of an iceberg by checking out its various water levels which leaves lines on the ice. If there are vertical lines, those form from where air bubbles escaped from the ice. The deep dark blue ice is more compressed and has fewer air bubbles. That is really old ice. New ice is cloudy as it is filled with air bubbles. If you are quiet and listen, the water around you sounds like a subdued bowl of Rice Crispies. It snaps, crackles, and pops. This is the air escaping the ice. Of course the bulk of an iceberg is below the surface of the water. Although it varies, the general rule is that only 10-15% of the berg is above water. We’ve seen some huge icebergs go by. If that was only 15% of the total bulk, the thing had to have been ginormous.
It was an unreal feeling floating through the ice in the water, so close to icebergs you could almost reach out and touch them. Most of it was brash ice but there were bergy bits as well as some darn large icebergs. We saw a dry-dock berg that was highlighted with a pale blue. Others had been sculpted by Mother Nature into strange and fantastic shapes. The mountains surrounding us were white behemoths, dark gray rock bits adding contrast to the snow. You could see the sun shining through the clouds on one tiny section of the mountain range. Those mountains were touched with gold. I couldn’t get enough of it. I had a swivel head as I tried to see everything.
As we motored along, you could feel the bump of the ice beneath your feet. You could hear it as well. The first time I thought I had dropped something by accident. Nope. Just moving over a bit of ice. Luise pointed out a snowy petrel flying in the distance. This is the only bird that breeds this far south. They are completely white and feed only at the edge of the ice. They are rare so we were especially lucky to see one. We also saw skua and the tiny storm petrel which is so much smaller than the giant petrel. It was amazing how one species of bird could vary so greatly.
The other group of zodiacs had spotted a seal lying on top of an iceberg. When they finally started heading back to the boat, we were able to move in and see it for ourselves. It was a beautiful Weddell seal. The other side of the zodiac got to stand and take photos. Then we got to. The other side took so long with their pictures, I was afraid she was going to slide off the berg and vanish into the gray waters. She did slip from one side of the iceberg to another. It was fun watching her maneuver her massive body. Weddells are the second largest of the seals, only beaten by elephant seals which we most likely won’t see here.
On our way back to the ship after what seemed like mere moments, we took some time to harvest a few bits of iceberg for the bar. Plus is gave Luise a chance to show us new ice as opposed to old ice. We hooked up with our fellow Green team zodiacs so she could share her information and the ice examples to them as well. Then we had a moment of silence so that we could drink it all in. I have to admit that my eyes teared up. It is impossible to explain how powerful it is being here at the bottom of the world. This land is immense, powerful, deadly, and unbearably beautiful. I can well understand why the explorers of the Heroic Age kept coming back time and time again. At that moment, I never wanted to leave. Antarctica had captured my heart and part of me will always belong to her.
It helped that our zodiac ride today had been picture perfect. Last time Doug and I did a zodiac ride in Antarctic waters, it had been sleeting, windy, and just nasty. I was frozen by the time we got back onboard the Corinthian. The ride was well worth the discomfort though because we saw a humpback do a spy hop just a short distance away from us. It was fabulous.
This zodiac ride didn’t feature any astounding animals antics, just scenery so beautiful that it touched your soul. It was a ride of a lifetime. And it was with physical pain we had to end it. Reluctantly we all cha chaed out of the zodiac and onto the ship. A hot cup of spiced tea as well as a warm towel awaited us in the lounge. Since we were last to go out, we only had a short time to get cleaned up. Unbelievably it was already 6 PM.
We both showered and then headed down for the recap of the day. We stopped in the bar and I tried the Cape Horn beer tonight. It was okay, too bitter for me. At the briefing Diego gave us a short recap and then explained what we would try to do tomorrow. It will be Adélié penguin day in the afternoon. Tomorrow morning we will get to explore one of the old huts in the Argentine Islands. I believe it is called House.
Then Diego, Annick, and Meru did mini-lessons for us. We learned that krill feeds off of algae which grows on the ice. They can clear one foot of algae in ten minutes. That’s pretty quick. We also learned that some of the ice in Eastern Antarctica has been aged to 2 million years. Holy cow! Can you imagine drinking something with that ice in it?
Annick did a cute bit on whether penguins were monogamous. Since today was Valentines Day, it seemed like an appropriate topic. Her answer was that it depends. That is the typical answer for most things down here on the bottom of the world. The larger penguins such as the emperor and king penguins were much less likely to stay with the same mate for two or more breeding seasons. That is what the definition is for monogamy in birds. They have to stay together for two breeding seasons. The smaller penguins such as the gentoo and chinstrap tend to stay together more. In fact the chinstraps tend to be the most monogamous. Over 82% of them breed two seasons or more together. Monogamy as a whole for Antarctic penguins, however, is lower at a mere 15% as opposed to penguins in South America or Africa.
What are the reasons for the high “divorce” rate? Sometimes it is because one of the partners arrives too late for mating season. You can only wait around for your partner for so long before you need to breed to have success. If you wait too long, the chicks won’t survive the winter. The “teen-age” penguins typically switch partners a lot. And some times it is a matter of failed previous breedings. If a pair keeps failing to produce chicks, they switch partners. For them it is about the biological urge to reproduce, not love.
I found it interesting that sometimes the chicks are not biologically the chick of the male that takes care of them. Some times the male of a breeding pair will allow his female partner to mate with another male if the male brings rocks to help build the nest. In effect they exchange rocks for sex. In fact 15% of the Adélié penguins switch partners. It is all able producing healthy offspring.
The recap ended up with a small bit on the film festival held every year in Antarctica. Who would have thought? I guess it is one way to break up the monotony of being here. We saw the winner of the five elements category titled “Bad Hammer.” It was hysterical and short. They didn’t speak English but we clearly understood what was going on. It was a great way to end the recap.
We all then trooped down to dinner. I went with grilled chicken and a baked potato and veggies. I did try the chef’s crush (salad). The menu item names were definitely Valentines Day inspired. It was cute. The chicken was nice and juicy and tasted excellent. I was glad I had gotten it.
Tonight we are steaming our way back up towards the peninsula. Tomorrow we have our morning outing at the unoccupied hut and then the afternoon we visit with the Adélié penguins. It sounds like another wonderful Antarctic day.
Tales from the Trail 