Two nautical charts are on the ship’s navigation table. They showed these waters have yet to be surveyed. Using depth soundings, our captain charts a safe and steady course. This particular channel is completely new to him, though the captain is a regular Antarctic sailor.
The sun sets and our ability to see is reduced. After that, the heavy, thick snow starts to fall.I struggle to see the approaching icebergs as the large flakes fill the bridge windows. The ship’s radar clearly illustrates each floating barrier.The large ice blocks show up orange on the screen. Ahead, we can see a super-sized orange glob, filling the screen. It’s only three kilometers away. You need to visit this site to learn about great antarctica tours.
At the one kilometer mark, the captain whisper a quiet order. The ship changes direction with the adept handling of the helmsman. A tabular iceberg, which can only be seen in this region, looms like a ghost through the fog and snow. With sides that rise straight up for a hundred feet, and a flat and wide top, this is one impressive iceberg.
I can?t believe the very size of this Antarctic creation. Attempting to reach the Antarctic Circle, we have been cruising aboard a polar-class vessel. We hope to reach that imaginary vortex on the bottom of the globe. We’ve gone by obscure, unpopulated regions of the planet on our way here. Antarctica was first seen in 1820. It took another 79 years before someone wintered over there. Explorers wanted to find the southern pole, and soon perished. They paved the way for scientists. Just recently, tourists who were not filthy rich could begin visiting Antarctica. Now, traveling to Antarctica costs a tourist just about as much as a Caribbean adventure would.
Antarctica looks a little bit like a manta ray with a curved tail. The very tip of South America is 500 miles away from Antarctica. This area of water is known as Drakes Passage and sports some of the worst seas on the planet. Passing through these waters, which have also been called the ‘Slobbering Jaws of Hell’ is a stiff price to pay to reach 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.
We left Ushuaia, the Argentine city on Tierra del Fuego, and crossed the calm waters of the Beagle Channel. It’s open ocean after that. For two days we saw no land. We were tossed mightily by rough seas that whole time. Strong, nearly gale-force winds blew at us for those two days. Waves that crashed across the bow of the ship caused spray to rocket past may fourth deck window. A passenger?s seasickness greatly affected the height of the swells he or she saw. Some reported swells between fifteen and forty feet.
Two days out from South America brought us into the Southern Ocean. The view of a coastal enclave filled my porthole the next morning. The land mass seemed to have calmed the waters a bit. Super tall mountains wore wispy clouds at their peaks. Dark, angular mountains speared through the smooth, white glaciers. The ice reaching the sea, is chopped and cracked. It is full of fissures and falls into the water in frozen slabs. These mountains, which could have been in Everest’s range, looked out of place sticking up out of the water.
One traveler found the travel to Antarctica to be akin to childbirth?s labor. Of all the continents on earth, Antarctica averages the coldest, windiest, highest and driest statistics. Death Valley and Antarctica get the same amount of precipitation per year. But, Antarctica stores seventy percent of the fresh water reserves for the planet. No animal makes Antarctica its year-round home, nor is it owned by humans. It doesn’t even have a primordial human population.
The shore landings and sailing routes must depend on the weather. Our guides remind us that flexibility is key. Then our first landfall becomes available. The groups we’ve been assigned to meet on deck. With the nine others in my group, I board an inflatable boat. We finally reach the continent after crossing one more quarter mile of sea.Then, with one small step, I am one of the few who have physically touched Antarctica.
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