Drakes Passage Southern Ocean

At 7am today we are at:
61° 53' South
57° 22' West
Entering the Antarctic Sound
Air Temperature: 34°F
Starting to see icebergs all around
Winds: Calm

Well we are about half way to Antarctica and are in the middle of the passage. The fear of the Drake caused Magellan to find his strait so he could avoid the passage. The Drake has struck fear in the hearths of many a seasoned sailor. The shrieking or screaming fifties. Well the fates have smiled upon us, rather then the screaming or shrieking fifties it is in fact, miraculously, the seldom seen Drakes Lake. The ocean stretches out from us its smooth leaden gray surface merges with a leaden sky. Gray and calm. So calm few seabirds are flying. Most need the helping lift from strong ocean breezes and waves to stay aloft. Today they are becalmed.
Jonas, our expedition Leader, says its as calm as he has ever seen it and he has done this passage 121 times. He also says if Schafer is up and around, you know its calm. (I'm not exactly a good sailor)

Had a wonderful lecture from our onboard ornithologist. Introduction to sea birds on a day there were few sea birds flying. Seems appropriate.




Here are the basics of bird watching on the Southern Ocean:

If it's really big (like a B52 Bomber) it's in a group called the Giant Albatrosses, which includes the Wandering Albatross and the Royal Albatross. These are the largest albatrosses and the longest winged flying birds on earth with some having a wing span of more than 12 feet. Pace that off on your classroom floor and just try to imagine a bird that large.

If it's smaller then a B52 but still has very long wings, it's in the small and medium albatross group known as the mollymawks. Easily separated from the big guys by a dark mantle bridge on the back that links the uniformly all-dark upper wings. This group includes 5-11 species depending who you ask and argue with.

Some of these birds leave the nest, go to sea for a very long time. It's often 5-7 years before a young albatross is ready to breed and it is only then that it makes its way back to some of the Sub-Antarctic Islands to breed.

So many species are truly at home here in the watery world: Storm Petrel, Diving Petrels, Procellaria Petrels, Fulmars and Shearwaters. There are the delicate Blue Petrels and the tiny Prions that hug the waves fluttering like a butterfly.

Finally, there is the not-to-be-forgotten Imperial Shag, sometimes called the Blue-eyed Shag. A beautiful black and white cormorant of the southern oceans with bare vivid cobalt blue skin forming a ring around a dark reddish eye, a rakish crest of feathers all set off by a couple of big orange carnuncles or knobs. Quite the festive garb.

Around the ship today there were numerous Cape Petrels. They are probably the most common bird we see. Even to the bird-watching novice they are an unmistakable, medium pigeon-sized petrel with distinctive black and white checkered upper parts and mostly white under parts. Hardly ever beating their, wings they soar swiftly, arcing high above the water then plunge to graze a tip of their wing across it all the while expertly exploiting the breezes from the oceans wind and waves. It is the most hypnotic, graceful dance on the wind that you could ever hope to see. Much of my day was spent out on deck watching them and trying to get a good photo of these swift creatures.

Tomorrow they say the calm weather should hold. We should start seeing icebergs once we get into the Bransfield Strait and Antarctic Sound right near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Had a few scattered snowflakes fall between the gray overcast and bouts of sunshine we had today. The water temperature has dropped another 2 degrees. Its getting to the point were you need to bundle up to go out on deck. Its beginning to feel a bit like Antarctica. I can't wait.

RUSSIAN WORD FOR THE DAY: Good Morning! Dobray Utra!

On Board the Kapitan Khlebnikov in the Beagle Channel

TIME: 23:00

Today I was up early, gathered together my stuff, and ran upstairs for breakfast at 7am. Breakfast is served -- at this quaint bed and breakfast -- on the third floor in the great room. Bounded on two sides by huge picture windows, the room welcomes in the morning. I stood in front of one of the south-facing windows and looked down on the Beagle Channel and the docks. Brilliant sunshine, fluffy clouds, and a view that went on forever: It is truly a beautiful place.

Already at the dock below was our ship, the Kapitan Khlebnikov. The ship had docked about 6am, returning from the last Snow Hill Island-Emperor Penguin Trip looking unscathed. With the break up of the Soviet Union, many of the Russian icebreakers and research vessels have been leased by Antarctic tour operators to be used for eco tours to the frozen Polar Regions. Many of them spend the Antarctic summer (our winter) down south then travel north to the Arctic regions when summer warms the northern latitudes. This is a completes a mechanical cycle of the same migration that the Arctic Terns make. Its hard enough to fathom a ship making the journey, but is seemingly impossible for a small bird.

The Kapitan Khlebnikov is a diesel electric icebreaker operated by the Far East Shipping Company (FESCO) and is registered in Vladivostok. It is 132.4m long and about 26-75m wide and nearly 50m high. For those of you into all things engine:

SPEED: 20 knots (36.5km/h).

PROPULSION: 3 twin DC electric motors, each producing 5400kW in either direction to turn the 22 m long propeller shaft...and yes, Mom, they do carry a spare propeller shaft.

PROPELLERS: 3-4m diameter with four hardened steel blades that turn at about 120-180 times per minute...and yes, Mom, they also carry a spare one of those, which can be deployed at sea.

HULL: 45mm thick where it meets the ice and 22-35 mm elsewhere.

ANCHORS: 2 weighing 6 tonne each with 300m chain...and, yes, Mom, they carry a spare chain too.

OPERATING RANGE: 10500 nautical miles (19,500km).

HEATING: Two boilers provide water for heating system, hot water supply, and steam.

FUEL USE: Daily 6 engines use 13 tonne each, 5 auxiliary engines use 2-5 tonne each, 2 boilers use3 tonne, and 2 air curtain compressors 2-5 tonne each.

MAXIMUM DAILY FUEL USE: When breaking severe ice, 78 tonne fresh water provided by a vacuum distillation apparatus heated by exhaust gasses. 80 tonne daily can be produced.

AIR CURTAIN: Can be deployed to help with breaking ice.

ICE KNIFE: Fitted 26m aft of prow.

ICE SKIRT: A polymer coating on the hull to reduce ice friction.

HELICOPTERS: 2 on board to assist in ice navigation by helping to scout for open leads.

That's a lot of facts but to make a long story short, it is an impressive ship that I'll be boarding later today. I grabbed a taxi and took my bags to the Hotel Los Albatros. From there the bags were taken down the dock and loaded onto the Khlebnikov. At about 3pm I walked down the pier, was checked through three security checkpoints, and wandered toward the ship. The Khlebnikov is so big when you are standing next to her. She rises 8 decks with the bridge on top of that. Not a graceful shape; she looks unbalanced as though a square eight-story building was plopped down on top of the deck, but she looks strong and sure. I'll take that over good looks any day.

I boarded the ship and made my way to my cabin on deck 5. There it was, cabin 506: my home for the next 14 days. Almost as soon as we had cast off, we had the mandatory lifeboat drill. Lifeboats in this region of the world look like orange submarines. They have to be completely enclosed and heated. I was told a person would only last about 4 minutes in the frigid Antarctic waters. The lifeboats come equipped with engines, food for a week and all sorts of emergency equipment. So we all ran around with our life jackets on looking a lot like big orange "Gumbys." We found our muster stations and peered, a bit apprehensively, into the open hatch of the lifeboat. I'd rather not experience one first hand in the southern ocean.

After the Captain's reception and dinner, I crawled gratefully into bed. We will continue down the Beagle Channel, and by 12 midnight we'll be on the Drake. I wonder how it will be.

RUSSIAN WORD FOR THE DAY: Ice! Lyot!

Ushuaia, Argentina: Anticipating The Drake Passage

TIME: 19:00

I spent another day in preparation. Practiced my talks and checked my gear and repacked again. Once on board the ship, there will be no opportunity to drop by the nearest REI for a pair of gloves.

I also ran by the neighborhood grocery story for some bread and water to get me across the Drake. "The Drake." That's a simple word that can strike of bit of fear in me. The Drake or more correctly the Drake's Passage is the little body of water from South America's Cape Horn to the South Shetland Islands of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was named after Sir Francis Drake although he had enough brains to avoid it altogether and sneak around the horn via the Straights of Magellan.

The good news is that the 500-mile crossing is the shortest distance between South America and Antarctica. The bad news is that it is considered the roughest water in the world. There is no significant land anywhere in the world at that latitude. The circumpolar current can really race around with no land to block it. It lies between about 56 and 60 degrees south latitude. It's not uncommon to have 40-foot seas and hurricane force winds there. Sailors feared this area and said, "below 40 degrees there is no law, below 50 degrees there is no God." Sailors also dubbed this area the "furious fifties" and the "shrieking sixties."

The really good news is that I know what lies on the other side. I will put up with some discomfort to visit the magnificent Antarctic Peninsula and its incredible wealth of wildlife.
I can't wait

Ushuaia, Argentina: Preparation Day

TIME: 17:00

WEATHER: High clouds with intermittent sprinkles
TEMP: high:46°F low:37°F

SUNRISE: 05:38
SUNSET: 20:55

Today was spent in preparation. Rechecked all my gear. Worked on the onboard presentations I’ll be giving and gazed out the window at the harbor all too much. The highlight of the day was seeing an Andean Condor during one of my harbor-gazing episodes.

The Andean Condor is a big...really big...vulture. With its four-foot-long body, 33 lbs weight, and a wingspan of over 10 feet it looked for all the world like a turkey vulture on steroids. Turkey vultures have a wingspan of only about 6 feet, weigh a mere 3 lbs, and lack the white neck collar and wing markings of the condor. Because of their heavy weight, these enormous condors prefer to live in windy areas where they can glide on air currents with little effort. They live along the Andes Mountains as their name suggests but also along the pacific coast of South America down to Cape Horn where Ushuaia is...and where I am gazing out my window.

I thought I should start preparing you a bit for our trip to Antarctica. No one had ever even seen the continent until 1820. The first landing took even longer. It wasn’t until just over a 100 years ago that the continental beach was marked by human footsteps when Carsten Borchgrevink lead a British expedition there. Imagine that! Just over a hundred years ago, humans first landed on the continent of Antarctica.

No one owns Antarctica. No country has claimed it, no sovereign rights are imposed upon it, and there is no president and no currency. It has no native populations and no permanent residents. It is not carved up into countries, counties, and cities. It is the world’s largest, wildest, and greatest wilderness. By the international Antarctic treaty of 1963 it is a place of “peace and science.” Military activity has been banned on the continent forever as well as all things nuclear: nuclear facilities, testing, and the storage of nuclear waste.

The Antarctic is enormous -- unbelievably vast. It is about the size of United States and Mexico combined but with a summer population of about 4,000 hardy scientists and support staff. In the winter the number drops to only 1,000 really, really hardy souls.

The Antarctic Continent is a place of superlatives. It is the highest, driest, coldest, and windiest continent.

FACTS AT A GLANCE
Lowest temperature recorded on earth - Vostok station -89.2°C / -128.6°F
Average thickness of Ice: 1,829 m / 6,000 ft
Highest Mountain: Mt. Vinson - 4,892 m / 16,050 ft
Average wind speed: 37 kmh / 23 mph
Maximum recorded gust: 248.4 kmh / 154 mph at Mawson Station
Average summer temperature at South Pole: -27.5°C / 17.5°F
Average winter temperature at South Pole: -60°C / -76°F

Despite containing 70 percent of the world's freshwater and 90 percent of the world's ice, much of Antarctica classified as a desert, with the annual snow accumulation over much of East Antarctica being the equivalent of less than two inches of rainfall.

Too many facts and figure for one day. I just wanted you to get a feel for the magnificent wild place we will be visiting. If you would like more information on Antarctica there is a wonderful education site you can visit aptly named Cool Antarctica. Visit it at: http://www.coolantarctica.com/index.html

I’m going to wander into town and find myself a nice dinner. The Argentines sure know how to cook.

Ushuaia, Argentina

Look at a map of South America and you will find Ushuaia on the very tip of Cape Horn -- just about as far south as one can get in the world. In fact, Ushuaia touts itself as the southernmost city in the world. It’s a modern tourist town of 60,000 people that has become the major jumping off spot for Antarctic expeditions.

Ushuaia is the capital of the Argentine province of Tierra Del Fuego. Spectacular to fly into, the town is on the southern edge of the island and is wedged between the Martial Mountains on the north and the Beagle Channel on the south.

The town was originally settled by the British as a site for a penal colony. The place was remote and wild and escape impossible. These “forced colonists” built many of the town’s original old building.

Absolutely spectacular to fly into, the area is a rugged landscape of jagged snow covered peaks that drop abruptly to the Beagle channel. The plane is forced to do a gradual descending spiral over the Beagle channel then lands neatly on the runway next to the water. Looking up to the mountains you see dense dark green of the Megellanic subpolar forests where you can find endemic trees of the area: Winter's bark and hard log mayten and several species of Nothofagus.

I’m staying at Posada del Fin del Mundo (hotel at the end of the earth) a fine old world style bed and breakfast that is heavy on the friendly manner and exceptional service. Located in the residential part of town it is a welcome respite from hustle of the main tourist area.

Take off to Ushuaia

Traveling by air seems to be equal parts magic and luck. It is pure magic that one can load themselves into a “tin-can-with-wings” and fly across the country in just a few hours. The luck part come in where you need everything to go right – with no weather delays, no missed connections, and enough precious luck to keep every thing mechanical working properly. Today was not a lucky day… but it sure could have been worse.

I left Las Vegas at 7:15 am 3 Nov and flew to Forth Worth, Texas. We pulled up to the gate and the plane broke. American Airlines rushed around and found another plane about 4 hours later and continued to Miami with 10 minutes to spare so I could time to make my 8:30 PM flight to Buenos Aires.

The Buenos Aires plane broke but could be fixed in a couple of hours. Arrived Buenos Aires with an hour to spare only to find the flight to Ushuaia was boarding 45 minutes early. Somehow it all worked out and by 1:40pm local time, Nov 4, I arrived in Ushuaia having flown nearly 9,000 miles in just over 44 hours.

Clothing list:
Light weight Long Underwear - 2 Pair
Heavy weight Long Underwear - 2 Pair
Heavy weight Waterproof Bibs -1
Heavy weight Windstopper Fleece Pants -1
Pullover Fleece top – 2
Long Sleeve Polyester T shirt – 2
Short Sleeve Polyester T shirt – 3
Light Weight Fleece Jacket
Pants – 2
Sock Liners - 3 pair
Heavy Socks - 3 pair
Regular Socks – 1 Pair
Rain Jacket – 1
Rain Pants – 1
Cold Weather Parka -1
Medium Weight Gloves – 2 pair
Heavy weight Gloves – 1 Pair
Glove Liners – 2 Pair
Fleece Neck warmer – 1
Fleece hat – 2
Thin Lightweight Ski Mask -1
Ski Goggles -1
Trekking Poles – 1 pair
Arctic Sport Muck Boots – 1 Pair
Yak Track Pro – 1 Pair
Sleeping Shorts - 2 pair
Cotton T-shirt for sleeping – 1

Equipment List
Leatherman Tool
Watch