Travel with Dale & Margaret

Well, there really isn’t a back side to an island but, after thinking about it carefully, our Captain decided that rather than give up on Antarctica, after spending a fairly calm night on one side of the island, that we would move to the other side and hope that the weather clears.  Right now there is a marine layer at about 800 feet that covers the mountain peaks but gives us a view from time to time of the coastline and some very blue icebergs.

This is the island that Earnest Shackleton spent five months on back in 1915 after his ship “The Endurance” was entombed in ice in the Waddell Sea 100 miles from the coast of Antarctica.  An amusing story that Terry Breen, our resident anthropologist, told us this morning included the ad that Shackleton posted to attract a crew for his Antarctic expedition:

Men wanted for hazardous journey.  Small wages, bitter cold.  Long months of complete darkness.  Constant danger, safe return doubtful.

They got over 5,000 applicants.  Go figure.  And, the ad proved to be true for the most part — they got what they were looking for.  The Endurance made it’s way to Antarctica where they found themselves in a colder than expected summer where they ended up trapped in sea ice.  As there was nothing they could do, they hunkered down and waited for the ice to melt.  Something like 8 months later they were still stuck and now they discovered that their ship was being ripped apart by the ice.  Fortunately, they were able to remove everything that could prove useful to them before their ship was ripped to pieces.

They had a photographer on board (Yeah!) with a large format camera that used glass plates.  When the ship was getting ripped apart he realized that he had forgotten a box of his equipment and had to dive into the frigid water to retrieve it.  That’s commitment you have to admire!

They took the lifeboats, loaded all the supplies and started pulling the them overland with the sled dogs (started with about 60 of them) and men.  After a short time Shackleton decided that it was too hard to try to traverse this way and decided they should just stop where they were, make a temporary shelter out of boxes, etc. and call it Patience Camp…Shackleton knew it was going to take a lot of patience before they were rescued.

The sea ice they had built their camp on started to break up so they loaded everything back into the boats and set out on the open ocean.  They finally landed on Elephant Island on April 16, 1916.  It had been 426 days since they were on dry land.   The island wasn’t very hospitable, however, and their tents were shredded by the catabaric winds (coming down from the mountain peaks…very cold and strong).  Turns out they learned why NO ONE ever came to Elephant Island….it sucks.  Well, I guess no one except for cruise ships like the Mariner!

So, they took six men  and a modified 22 1/2 foot lifeboat and headed North to South Georgia Island where they knew a whaling station was located.  The lifeboat had a tarp, higher sides, makeshift masts and supplies that would hopefully last the trip.  They had average seas of 53 feet with 16” of ice accumulating on the tarp that they had to chip off from time to time.  Ugh…and we thought we had it bad with a little rocking and rolling on the Mariner.

Frank Worsley, the captain of the Endurance, had frostbite so badly that he was only able to make one good siting on his sextant the entire journey.  After 14 days, they came within sight of the South Georgia island but 70 mph winds pushed them back for another 3 days.   Eventually they landed on the opposite side of the island from the station.  To get to the station by sea at this point would require them to sail around the island — about a 150 mile journey.  They decided instead that they would climb up and over the mountains.  Shackleton took two men, some makeshift climbing gear and set out on the 22 mile journey.  As they crisscrossed their way over the mountains they heard a whistle from the camp, made a makeshift sled, linked their bodies together and slid 1500 feet down to the camp!

The men were then rescued from the other side of the island but it took three failed attempts and five months before they were able to take a Chilean tugboat and rescued the others from Elephant Island.  Not one man had died — but unfortunately they had to shoot and eat the sled dogs.

An amazing story for sure and here we are….right where a lot of the action happened.  I have a fantastic book at home that is complete with all the photographs that document this epic journey.  I will re-read it upon our return with an enriched perspective and a deeper respect for the man and his crew.

Our Captain had to make a few tough decisions these past few days…the weather wasn’t cooperating with our plans as we sat (or more like floated) around and waited.  We ended up just off the coast of Elephant Island which is so named because of the elephant seals that supposedly live there (we didn’t see any but we heard some noises that sounded like a dog barking!).  So our Antarctic experience has consisted of Elephant Island and Deception Island…not much, but it looks like all we are going to get this trip.

In the Atlas in the library downstairs Elephant Island seems to be the Northern-most of the South Shetland Islands. There are other smaller islands around and numerous icebergs, including the traditional type of iceberg and the tabular or shelf-like type.  We arrived late afternoon and pretty soon the sky started to clear and the swells calmed down as well. The captain all but stopped the ship and did bow thruster-assisted 360’s for most of the afternoon giving us all beautiful views from our suites!

Everyone was on whale, penguin, seal and bird watch.  We didn’t get to see a whale although there were numerous sightings, including multiple sighted by Jean-Michel Cousteau (Jacques Cousteau’s son) who is on the ship giving a lecture series.  It seemed that the whales were just hanging out having a good time (not migrating) so we hoped for more sightings but alas none came for us…

Margaret and I had multiple penguin sightings from our veranda.  They are tough little buggers to take pictures of however as we are pretty high up on the ship (deck 9), the ship is moving, and the penguins are going really fast jumping out of the water like dolphins but only about 1/5th the size.  Regardless, your intrepid photographer (that’s me) managed to get multiple shots of them although most were of their rear end as they jumped and dove so fast that was all I could get! I did get a couple shots of them out of the water and also a couple with multiple penguins in one picture!  See the Picture Gallery for Elephant Island for more pictures. http://gallery.me.com/travelwithdmcontent#100267&bgcolor=black&view=grid

With vivid blue skies and clouds of all shapes, sizes and hues competing for attention I, once again, stood in awe as I clicked picture after picture, never ceasing to be amazed at how rapidly the panorama changes. It’s tough for me to pick out the best ones for the Galleries but eventually I’ll do a Cloud Gallery from the entire trip.  The toughest thing about sky/cloud pictures is they show every bit of dust on the lenses and sensor, a bane of digital photography.  Thank goodness there is a “healing” tool  in Lightroom which I’m getting quite good at now.

The sun continued it’s very slow descent into the sea as we watched from the Observation Lounge (front of the ship on the 12th (top) floor.  It was hard to keep up with it while having interesting conversations with John Wheeler pictured above (who also has a great blog at http://www.southamericancircumnavigation.blogspot.com) and David, both of whom shared the the Machu Picchu experience with us.  We talked and talked and talked, so much in fact that by the time we looked at the clock it was 9:45 pm and all the dining venues had closed!   It stays light so late here (we are so far south that in the summer – which it is now — the sun doesn’t set until late and rises very early). While I wasn’t very happy about being all dressed up with no place to go, we went back to our room and had a very nice in-room dining experience. Margaret had a hamburger (her personal favorite especially at midnight after an evening at the casino!) and I had a perfectly cooked salmon dinner.  And we got a nice red wine to top it all off!

The ship is going to hang out around Elephant Island tonight as the seas are flat and we are hoping for good weather in the morning.

Other sightings: While I didn’t see any whales I did see Charlie Gibson in the reception area this afternoon! Although my mother trained me to take pictures of stars and she had many with famous golfers, I decided to be low key about it.  If you don’t know him, he was the host of Good Morning America for about 12 years and the anchor for ABC’s World News for 3 years.  I guess he agrees with us that cruising is a great thing to do after retiring.  Not sure if he is going to be a speaker but it would be fun if he is!

As our Captain would say “Ciao for now”!

I woke up this morning to the rocking and rolling of the Mariner.  Looking at the clock it was only 6:30 am but something drew me to the window. Looking out I saw an iceberg that must have been at least 200 feet long and 50 feet high directly abeam our veranda about a mile out.  I took the picture above and went back to sleep.  Ho, Hum…just another morning in Antarctica.

We have been transiting the Drake Passage heading to Antarctic Peninsula.  We are planning on stopping just short of the Continent at Deception Island.  The ocean is quite rough with swells between 15-20 feet, breaking with feathery waves that are accented by 70 knot winds.  The ship is going quite slow, around 5-6 knots, the Captain is keeping us either directly into or with the wind directly at our stern — to try and give us the most comfortable ride possible.

Deception Island is a horseshow shaped island that has a story similar to Santorini.  In simple terms a volcano that blew its top, leaving a caldera that filled with water.  While it hasn’t seen any action lately it was particularly active in the 19th century and late 18th centuries and saw eruptions during two episodes this centur (1906-12 and 1967-70), resulting in the destruction of scientific stations on the island.  Come to think of it, that wasn’t all that long ago!  The island is famous for tourists swimming in the volcanically heated waters but, since we have a ship larger than 500 people, we cannot launch any zodiacs to go to the beaches.

There is an opening into which we are going to attempt entry if and when the weather and waves provide an opening.  For now we continue to pace back and forth expectantly.  They have locked many of the exit doors around the ship (they made an announcement that they didn’t want us on open decks — don’t want grandmother blown off the bow!) but later opened the doors off the Observation Lounge on the 12th floor.  Of course I took advantage to take still and video pictures of the icebergs floating by.

Apparently, there are penguins swimming by the ship but I haven’t seen any yet.  There are some sea birds that are flying near the ship.  They seem to enjoy flying low over the water and barely avoid hitting the waves as they break. We’ve heard about some whale sightings but we haven’t seen any yet.  I keep going out on our veranda — complete with my alpaca hat, gloves and jacket, but haven’t had any luck yet.

A few terms:

Berg – a smallish iceberg with less than 10 feet showing above the water.

Growler – an iceberg with more than 10 feet showing.  However, this is somewhat relative when there are some icebergs that are over 128 miles long!

Tabular – the type of icebergs that are broken off a large ice sheet or table.  A picture of one floating by our ship is below.  Terry Breen, our naturalist on the ship says that this one might be one  mile long and a hundred feet tall.

The captain gave up on getting into Deception Island’s bay so we have now gone by Livingston Island, turned the ship downwind and are heading back to Deception Island.  Along the way we went by a huge tabular iceberg of which I got some good still and video pictures.  At 4 pm we are off the coast of the island but the weather is still not good enough to head in.    We now have following seas so the boat is a bit smoother.

Final update: The weather never improved as we have an unusually static front overhead so we are going to head North to the Northernmost South Shetland Islands, the primary target being Elephant Island.  More on that tomorrow.

Deception Island Picture Gallery: http://travelwithdm.smugmug.com/Travel/South-America/Deception-Island-Feb-8-2010/25168670_rdLnck#!i=2064213376&k=npwC3TV

We arrived at Ushuaia, which is a coastal city in an archipelago called Tierra Del Fuego off the southernmost tip of the South American mainland, across the Strait of Magellan — known by many as the “end of the world”.  The famous Cape Horn is the southernmost point.  We are now 2,480 miles from the South Pole.

This city was founded as a penal colony and the tour we are on today takes us on a narrow gauge train that was used to transport prisoners.  There continue to be squabbles between Chile and Argentina over the rights to this area and the prison was established to assist in the settlement of it by Argentina much like the British did in Australia.  We are now officially in Argentina.

Margaret had another day of recovery, deciding to stay back on the ship and get rest as she continues to recover from her bout with bronchitis and the effects of the antibiotics.  So, I headed out by myself on the “End of the World Train” a tour that leaves at 2:00 pm and is scheduled to return at 7:30 pm.

After a 15 minute bus ride to the train station we arrived at the train station which was very well done.  There were a number of pictures of the history of the railway, a nice store and coffee counter and two old steam engine trains with smallish red cars.  We lined up, entered the platform and boarded the train.

The train went VERY slowly through meadows that contained a meandering river that was pretty but less than spectacular.  After about 15 minutes, we stopped at a “station” and walked around looking at the meadow and river before continuing on.  At the end of the 7 mile ride we got off the train, walked a couple blocks and boarded a bus for the ride to a large catamaran-style boat that would take us on a trip to the “End of the World” and then back to the port.  This was an impressive “cat” with three levels, flat panel displays located throughout and a nice food service area where they charged $4 for coffee and hot chocolate.

I sat with a very nice couple, Cindy and John and spent some time learning about John’s new Nikon D5000 camera.  John is a very “with it” kind of guy and we had discussions about Macs vs PC’s, the iPad and Kindle, etc.  I learned later that he was the CEO of a high tech company in Silicon Valley for 20 years and worked for IBM for a long time before that.  Cindy was more Mac friendly so, of course, the two of us won the Mac vs. PC discussion.  Ha ha.

For a view of the area we are in click on this link: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Chile.estrechodemagallanes.png

The catamaran started out in the Beagle Channel, which is the channel that cuts from the Pacific in the West to the Atlantic in the East.  It is so named because the HMS Beagle made a couple trips here, first with Robert FitzRoy and later by the famous Charles Darwin.  Next we headed to the East were we made several stops including a comorant sanctuary (comorant’s are sort of a cross between a penguin and a pelican — see the photo below), a sea lion island and the “End of the World” lighthouse.  We were able to get very close which was pretty cool.  We then sped up and headed back to the port.  The entire boat trip took about 2 1/2 hours and was quite comfortable.

As scheduled, we arrived at the dock where the Mariner was tied up at 7:30 pm.  I went back to the room where I found Margaret reading in bed.  She was feeling better but not good enough to go out.  After ordering our dinner from the Compass Rose dinner menu we were treated to in-room service by Tapin, our butler, who gave us very formal treatment!  Margaret had a filet and I had veal 3 ways plus the lobster that would have come with Margaret’s dinner.  Quite nice!

Ushuaia Picture Gallery: http://travelwithdm.smugmug.com/Travel/South-America/Ushuaia-Feb-6-2010/25168551_KSgjNP#!i=2064200945&k=Gh9vztM