Date of Entry:  February 10th 2016

Date of  Writing:  March 16th 2016, Hostel 53 Sur, Punta Arenas, Chile.

After 4.5 days at sea I’m in bed between watches when the call comes through the boat to wake everyone up.  I’ve long since taken to sleeping in my life jacket and several other warm things to allow for quick exit from the interior of the boat so I’m one of the first out who’s not on watch but I’m lacking my major coats, any gloves, and several other things required to stay out long in the strong winds this far south.

Still as I climb out into the cockpit and up onto deck it’s all worth it. Icebergs surround us, glimmering under a suddenly brilliant blue sky, and I can’t decide where to look.

I also can’t believe the wake up call wasn’t a scream of “Ice HO!!!”  But such trivial judgements are forgotten as my attention turns to  truly massive platform of ice ahead of us, these flat topped monsters are called tabular bergs and we have stumbled upon a very rare moment, sizeable waves crashing against the base of the perhaps 60 meter berg (another hundred or two under the surface)  and exploding in vicious fireworks of spray, some stretching up and over the berg.  It’s unlike anything I’ve ever seen, even from a significant distance.  Albatross soaring around our boat only adds to the drama of the scene and I can’t imagine a better arrival to Antarctica (Or rather Deception Island an Island in the South Shetland Archipelago just north of the peninsula)

As the cockpit becomes quite crowded I eventually slip back inside as we sail closer to the giant berg.  it hurts to leave but takes all of two minutes and we’re about a half hour from actually passing the giant tabular berg and If I’m going to leave the sheltered from the wind cockpit to make more room and sit up on deck I need more clothes.

It’s worth noting though that during my whole trip Antarctica was not all that cold, which is normal in the summer, and I think the lowest temperature we ever got was around -5 celcius. That said the wind is biting so don’t go without a buff (sold everywhere in Ushuaia).

Soon enough I’m back out climbing above the cockpit to a seat raised at the back of the boat watching amazed as a few penguins and seals swim around. We approach the giant tabular berg waves still smashing into this giant figure of Ice.  Despite being Canadian I’ve never seen any icebergs before. Well today that has all changed, and let me tell you they are beautiful. Almost impossibly so.

A few brief words on icebergs in general. a lot like snow flakes each one is a work of art, just the scale is different.  The colours shift and change as do markings, shapes, sizes.  Some are jagged and rough, some impossibly smooth,colours very from blue to white, to green, often with veins of countless shades of each colour.  there’s one things that’s sure though; they are all beautiful and I hope you all get a chance to see some someday because it’s a spectacular experience.  As we pass by fairly close to the massive tabular berg I turn around to snap a few more photos of the side of it as massive waves erupt from behind dancing into the crisp air in powerful bursts.

As we drift past this giant which has our captain all sorts of excited (seeing the waves like this is incredibly rare especially on such a nice day)  my attention shifts to the countless smaller bergs dotting the pure blue seas all around us, as well as the distant shadows of actual land masses and mountains.  Some of us try to guess at which part might be the continent, though I sadly can’t recall well enough to tell you if we could even see it from there.  Still the icebergs backed by snowcapped distant mountains is a hard sight to beat. We all revel in the joy of making it through the drake passage and feelings of sea sickness start to fade as we share in the incredible feeling of awe that comes from sailing across the drake passage and reaching land past the 60th parallel.

It’s also Enora’s a.ka. Shaza aka Merial’s birthday and I have to admit I’m a little jealous.  I mean can you imagine a better birthday than arriving at Antarctica?  It’s a ludicrous day and her birthday just adds to the jubilant mood of the group.

But icebergs with a few penguins and seals swimming beside them isn’t everything that Antarctica has to offer. No, there’s also whales, and we are truly blessed when several of them make an appearance as we sail in closer to deception island, our first Antartica anchorage.

In the end there’s 4 in total spotted in different sightings, 2 humpbacks and what we believe to be two minkes spotted more briefly.  Still the humpbacks emerge from the deep blue waters just a few meters from the boat giving us a spectacular show and more or less completing our incredible introduction to Antarctica.  As I watch these giant creatures swimming, breathing and diving beside us, I begin to understand why Antarctica is so expensive, and why every single person who I have met, even who visited briefly on a big cruise ship, has come back raving about it and insisting I try to go.  Serious thanks to all of you.

We continue on our path heading towards Deception island, which offers a very sheltered bay to anchor in, in the form of an volcanic caldera. Sealing and Whaling operations were very common here and now there are several scientific bases on the island, though the volcano is still active and throughout history there have been several major eruptions causing damage to the scientific stations as well as the old whaling and sealing bases.

Deception also has a strange link to Aliens as several different cruise ship passengers over the past 30 years have been found trying to escape the boat to wait for the aliens at various locations in the island.  To me it seems strange, but hey, who am I to judge.

There’s also been an incident with hippies coming to the beach and spreading bali seeds all across it, in some sort of ritual.  Bringing other species of flora to a place like Antarctica is incredibly dangerous, and for every landing there is procedures to make sure it doesn’t happen accidentally.  Pretty incredible to think it was done intentionally.

Deception is  also home to the largest rookery for the Chinstrap Penguins at Bailey’s head where over 100,000 chinstraps make their nests and raise there young every year. Don’t worry, we visit there and I promise it’s amazing.

But we haven’t reached Deception yet and that is one thing today teaches me.  You can often see a long way in Antarctica and on a sailing boat just because you can see something doesn’t mean you’re there, it often takes hours.  Luckily these hours are filled with more incredible ice bergs, terrific scenery, albatross’,  and a general sense of excitement spreading through the boat.

The blue of some of the icebergs really is magical, and while the scientific explanation has something to do with the age of the ice, the amount of air inside and the lack of reflective surfaces in the ice leading to refraction of blue green light from the sunlight, I prefer to think of it as a glowing source of power deep inside the truly ancient ice, and for me at least, that’s more what it looks like.

Eventually we head in to Deception Island through a narrow opening in the caldera and sail past dark volcanic rock beaches, passing by ruined ships and abandoned whaling stations as we motor deeper into the caldera. The wind is due to pick up overnight so we are heading to Darrel’s preferred anchorage deep in the caldera at telephone bay which seems very sheltered from the wind and waves.  We drop anchor, a somewhat tricky procedure I’ll eventually get quite good at, and then there’s more work to be done as we pull the zodiac up from storage and start inflating it.  We interlock all the metal plates together before dropping it in the water and attaching the outboard.

We’re all tired and the work is a little complex but Darrell sees us through and soon enough the Zodiac that will bring us to and from every landing over the next month is ready to go.  Sadly by this time it’s so late that no one has the energy to land and our attention shifts to a special birthday dinner for Shaza in the form of a giant barbecue.  Cooking outside is cold but you do get to watch a few penguins and seals on the black beach nearby.

Hell, you might even get a special birthday visit from a curious Weddell seal less than a year old, swimming up to the boat and peering curiously at these strange creatures and the smell of sizzling meat.  I only have my go pro handy but it’s a cool moment to cap a truly amazing day.

The dinner is absolutely delicious, and everyone is ravenous. While we did have some frozen meals to warm up during the Drake, even those lucky as me who didn’t suffer to badly from seasickness ate limited amounts.  Those not so lucky eat like it’s their last meal.

It has to be said that during our month in Antarctica we ended up eating entirely too well and my diet certainly suffered, but you need fuel for all the adventures so nothing can be done.

The night is crowned when our sole American passenger James brings out Enora’s birthday brownies in a penguin costume loaned to him from Freestyle Adventure Travel.  Sadly I don’t have my camera but her reaction is priceless and we all enjoy a nice desert before eventually turning in.  Tomorrow will be our first landing and I’m almost too excited to sleep.