We Made It!

December 13, 2011

SOUTH SHETLAND ISLANDS, ANTARCTICA -- Well, we had quite a night last night! We ended up staying awake through the night. Sunrise moved up from 4:15am to 3:47am, a pretty significant difference! We decided around 1am that since we were awake anyway, and past 59 degrees south, we would stay up until we got to 60 degrees. The reason this is significant is that 60 degrees south is the politically defined boundary for Antarctica, as covered under the Antarctic treaty. Once you hit 60 degrees, you are politically in Antarctica, and thus the excitement! As it turned out, we stayed up until 4:13am, after sunrise, when we hit the boundary and technically made it to Antarctica!

The second boundary for making it to Antarctica is the Antarctic Convergence, the largest biological barrier in the entire world. The exact boundary is always changing, but when it is hit, the sea temperature drops from around 37-40F to 30-32F, and 99.9% of sea life disappears accordingly. Anything that can survive south of the convergence inhabits the Southern Ocean – this is where the Atlantic and Pacific end, and the Southern Ocean begins. Residents of the Southern Oceans are Antarctic by nature, or at least can survive it for certain periods of time. As it turned out, we crossed the convergence around 9pm yesterday, so before hitting 60 degrees south for the political boundary. Biologically we had made it to Antarctica!

After a few hours of sleep we had a few more lectures following breakfast. We learned about marine animals in and around Antarctica, with one on dolphins and whales, another on seals and fur seals, and a last one on penguins, of course! We also had a mandatory IAATO briefing – the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, which guides how all tour operators, including G Adventures, must operate while in Antarctica. It sets out all kinds of rules for landings – no two ships can ever land at the same place (which means we haven’t seen any other people since we were in Argentina), we have to stay a certain distance from all animals (5 meters from penguins and most other birds, 15 from seals and fur seals, 30+ from animals displaying certain behaviors of aggression), and other various rules such as not leaving anything on shore. As such, we aren’t to bring tissues on shore; tripods must be disinfected prior to bringing them (since they will actually touch the ground), etc. Also, no more than 100 people can ever land at a single time – since our ship is more than that, we were broken into two groups to alternate landing times. Group 1 goes for an hour, then Group 2 (my group), then the order is reversed for the next landing and beyond. The briefing and the strength of the rules followed were rather pleasing – it shows an attempt at minimal impact while still providing for what is sure to be an incredible experience.

After all the lectures and briefings, and more time on deck and on the bridge noticing how the water got darker and the air colder, we got past 61 degrees south, and it was clear we were nearing the continent itself!

The third definition for Antarctica is, of course, land, and at around 5pm, several hours ahead of schedule, we first spotted Nelson Island, one of the South Shetland Islands, some 60 miles off the coast across the Bransfield Strait from the Antarctica continent mainland itself. For the first time in two days, the waters calmed, and we were able to see land, mostly covered in ice and snow. As the land came into view, very shortly thereafter we noticed a large number of penguins welcoming our ship into the Nelson Strait! Our first penguin viewing was so exciting! It is the type of thing that just gets your heart racing and leaves you with a very wide grin. I will never forget the look on Kathryn’s face, she was most excited of all, at least visibly! Seeing dozens of penguins swimming and jumping into the air in motion leading our ship, and looking out at both Antarctica for the first time, and the massive ocean – it was something that cannot really be described appropriately. Suffice it to say that it was the highlight of the trip to that point. Then, just as the penguins started to taper off, we looked off to the port (left) side and we saw a humpback whale surfacing! The humpback was quite a ways off from us, but it was absolutely massive. I remember thinking to myself that for all the times I have been to aquariums and zoos all around the world, seeing these animals truly in the wild was just surreal. A humpback whale, penguin colony, and the South Shetlands all within an hour? Speechless.

A couple hours later, after we found a lee (a lee is a term meant for protection on the leeward side of an island, in order to protect us from the wind and the waves), we went up to the bridge to look out and saw another two humpback whales, and this time they showed us their fins and their tail – again, so exciting to see this in the middle of the ocean, out in the wild! After spending six hours yesterday on deck looking out and seeing a whale for three seconds, it was wonderful to see all these penguins and three humpbacks over the course of a few hours, nevermind calmer waters, land, and the sense of arrival.

At night it turns out we won some champagne for that first whale sighting though! Howard won a bottle for spotting the first whale seen on the ship, which he generously gave to me, and Anthony, who was with us to spot it, won a bottle for guessing the closest time for spotting it (there were contests for us to post when we thought we’d see the first whale, iceberg, and cross the convergence). We shared it with everyone and had another great evening at the polar bear bar, watching the sunset at 10:57pm – what a day!!!