The Antarctic Plunge

Right after breakfast, the captain maneuvered our ship through a narrow passage called Neptune’s Bellows, which is the only entrance to horseshoe-shaped Deception Island.


Deception Island is an old volcano that collapsed on itself and filled with water, creating a caldera. The name comes from the fact that it looks like an island but is actually the rim of an active volcano. This island is different from the other islands we’ve visited – it has black sand (from the most recent eruption in the late 1960s) and remnants from buildings that existed before that eruption. Both Britain and Chile had scientific bases set up on the island, and the ruins of those buildings still stand as a stark reminder that Nature always wins when the challenge is Human versus Nature.



Our Zodiac arrived on Deception Island when a small Weddell seal did. We watched it slither up onto the beach and play a bit. Much more graceful than when they just lay there resting on land.


The highlight of today was jumping into the water. For most of the trip, the water has ranged from 0 to 2 degrees Celsius. That is VERY cold! But there is a section of beach on Deception Island that has warm sand (and steam, as you can see in the seal picture above), due to the molten activity that still exists underground. The top inch of water, therefore, is quite warm. Once you get a foot into the water, it reverts back to cold – around 40 degrees F. Julio, our expedition leader, advised us that if we wished to take a polar plunge, this is the safest place to do it. He and the crew prepared towels for us and thought of all the details. I joked that all week I had been eating well on the ship to add an extra layer of blubber so I could ensure I wouldn’t have any chance of getting hypothermia.

Many people brought swimsuits, but I didn’t even think I might jump in the water. I did bring workout clothes because there is a fitness center onboard the ship. Our trip is over half over, and I have yet to use my workout clothes. So I decided to give my clothes a workout this morning. I wore my sports bra, tank top, and soccer shorts under my Antarctica clothes.

We walked around Deception Island for ~2 hours and looked at the old buildings, hiked up to a lookout point called Neptune’s Window, a narrow break in the volcano’s wall that allowed us to look out to sea.



At 11am, people started stripping down to swimsuits to take the plunge. I think over 20 people ultimately jumped into the cold water, and I'm pretty sure none of us lasted longer than 10 seconds. I ran into the water, dove head first, and turned around to run back out. It was so cold that my body froze momentarily and my chest constricted.



I ran for the towels, put one on my head and one on my body. I knew it would take too long to get dressed, so I threw on a fleece top, grabbed all my gear (boots, clothes, backpack) and boarded the Zodiac to come back to the ship. Upon arrival in the mudroom, Alessandra gave all the swimmers a small cup of hot cocoa that was spiked with a dash of peppermint schnapps (non-swimmers couldn’t have any). Then, I hopped in the warm shower and headed into the sauna (not too hot) to defrost. It was fantastic, and within 15 minutes I felt normal again.

We headed toward Half Moon Island and encountered some large waves. When we arrived at Half Moon Island, Julio made the decision that we could not land there. He was concerned that it was too risky to get all the Zodiacs on the beach and back to the ship. One of the crew said “Any idiot can get a Zodiac onto the beach; but the real test is getting the Zodiac off the beach and safely back to the ship.”

The bad news is that our final landing was canceled. The good news is that within an hour we saw a humpback whale, which we wouldn’t have seen if we were landed at Half Moon Bay. I saw another humpback whale at dinner. I was just looking out the window because staring at the horizon helps calm any seasickness, and I first saw the blow spray, then saw the whale. I jumped to the window to see if I could see the whale again, but it had been so close to the front of our ship that I believe it went to the side or under our ship, disappearing from my view. You can’t tell that any of my pictures are humpback whales (only splashes and a bit of a back or fin), but one of my fellow passengers took some great ones and shared with me. These are Gerry Morris’ photos, which I assembled into this short video:


By dinner, we were back in Drake Passage and our outside decks were closed. I was so sick our first time in Drake that I have no idea how large the waves were. This time, I watched the waves from a window and could see their immensity. Truly, our 6334-ton ship is no match for these powerful waves. During dinner, our ship rocked so far to the right that the whole dining room crashed to the right. The tables and chairs are bolted down throughout the ship, but I nearly fell off my chair (I had a broad-shouldered girl sitting next to me and I would surely have fallen had she not been sitting there). Everything that was on our table moved to the right (utensils, plates, drinks) and many of them fell on the ground. Food that was about to be served went crashing to the ground in the dining room. I can’t describe it well but it was quite a mess.

I didn’t want to test the strength of my magic patch, so I headed to bed. When I’m in bed with the magic patch, I enjoy the rocking and rolling of the waves, and I slept really well.

Cruising the Errera Channel by Zodiac

After lunch, our expedition leader Julio made the call to scratch our intended location for a different excursion that would take advantage of the calm water and nice weather we were experiencing. We headed out in Zodiacs to explore the Errera Channel. We saw seals, penguins, and many beautiful ice sculptures. The three most interesting things we saw:
1. We saw an iceberg that looked like bubble wrap. We touched it and it “crackled” under our fingers.


2. We saw a chunk of turquoise ice underwater with four interesting thin sculptures jutting above the water. Lauren started to comment that the four looked precarious, one of them crashed over into the ocean. We teased our Zodiac driver Scott that we’d like for him to detonate small bombs at future strategic moments of our Zodiac excursion.
3. We saw a chunk of black ice, so Scott reached in to bring it aboard. We brought it back to the ship and the staff used it in the drinks tonight at the bar. It’s crystal clear (versus black) now that it’s out of the water.


We also saw a crabeater seal, so cute:


Here is the scoop on icebergs: snow falls over decades on Antarctica and the surrounding islands. It gets packed and packed with the weight of new snow until it is compressed into solid sheets of ice, called glacier ice. Some of the glacier ice forms ice rivers, which is glacier ice that flows over time as new snow is compressed into solid ice. Eventually, some of this glacier ice breaks off and falls into the ocean to create icebergs. The icebergs are freshwater (frozen) while the ocean is saltwater. Over time, the water erodes the ice to create unique shapes.











After dinner, Alan played us some songs on a guitar (there is supposed to be a musician on our trip, but he got sick or hurt himself and couldn’t make it). That was a lot of fun – he started out in the gift shop and eventually took us up to the bar, singing and playing Pink Floyd, Tom Petty, and other rock songs for sing-a-long.

Just after 11pm, the ship started rocking and rolling, so I was grateful that I put a new magic patch on this morning rather than waiting. The ship has an open bridge policy, so unless they’re maneuvering through thick ice or a very narrow channel, they always welcome us to come up and watch them work. I never realized how complex it was – they even have differential equations!

Hiking on Danco Island

I overcompensated, clothes-wise, for this morning’s excursion because Siberia was still on my mind. Yesterday afternoon’s weather was what I expected in Antarctica, frankly, but I am so grateful to actually have this unexpected nice weather instead!

Anyway, as I left the ship this morning, I had these layers:
Top: 1 (skin) to 5 (waterproof outer)
Bottom: 1 (skin) to 3 (waterproof outer)

We landed at Danco Island and started a hike to the top.


Let me better explain what I mean by “hike” in this blog. Firstly, I am wearing knee-high rubber boots and three layers of socks any time I leave the ship. The boots have decent traction on the bottom, but the important thing is that they’re waterproof. Every time we exit the Zodiac, we step into water and then wade to the land/ice/beach. The snow here is interesting – the best description I have is light powder that has been frozen. Sometimes you can take a step and stay on the surface, but more often than not your leg sinks a foot or so into the snow. Pulling that leg out requires that you place your weight on the other leg, which sometimes also sinks in the snow. At times, it takes 5 minutes to walk a few paces.

We learned the “trick” to walking in these conditions is to tread lightly and prep the snow first. Take your foot and stamp it a bit in front of you where you’d like to walk, and then lightly place your foot there as evenly as possible (toe-first or heel-first nearly guarantees that you’ll sink). Do it again for the other foot. You can imagine this isn’t very quick. Add to it that when you start hiking up the side of a hill or mountain, you need also worry about traction so you don’t slip. But the best way to ensure traction is to dig your boot into the snow a bit, which often causes you to sink. It’s quite challenging and a good workout. Sometimes, you’re better just to hike in the foot holes that others have made. It makes for an adventure either way.

Today, I sunk into the snow a lot for the first 50 yards. Then, I caught some good snow and made good progress before happening upon a smaller section where most of us sank. After only 100 yards, I was hot. I needed to take off some layers, but it’s not as easy as it sounds when you’re on a slope and you need to keep on your outer layers. It took me 5 minutes, but I finally did remove layers 1, 3, 4, and 5 from my top and layer 2 from the bottom. I felt like one of those logic puzzles where you move certain animals in a certain order to get them from one side of the river to another on a raft that only holds so much weight and with animals that eat each other. Here is what I did:

I removed my coat and laid it on the ground, then sat on it to remove my boots one at a time. Right boot off, remove outer pants and layer 2 pants, boot back on. Left boot off, remove outer pants and layer 2 pants, put outer pants and boot back on. Remove right boot again, put outer pants on, replace boot. Remove all layers on top, then put layer 2 back on.


We placed all our clothes and backpacks in a huge pile on the side of the mountain, and hiked up the rest of the way without coats, hats, and gloves. I picked up some fresh snow along the way and ate it – it was pure and delicious. The view from the top was spectacular, and this was the place where I finally experienced pure serenity. The dome mountain was kind of like a mushroom, and there were only ~30 of us up top. We each picked a different direction to walk down, and as you walked down the outside of the mushroom, you easily got to a place where all the people and sounds disappeared. I was all by myself, with the pristine beauty of Antarctica. No penguin calls, bird sounds, or people – complete and beautiful silence while I enjoyed the water and icebergs below and the gorgeous mountains on the other side of the channel. It was certainly the most peaceful time I’ve had in years, perhaps ever.



On the way down, we opted to slide again. It wasn’t as easy, since my coat was down the hill, but I tried to stay mostly on my pants. I twisted and turned a bit, picked up some nice speed, and just had a great time. Sliding down hills in Antarctica is even more fun for me than waterslides!

Sailing through Ice

After our morning excursion, we continued south towards Petermann Island. We encountered a lot of ice, and seals love floating ice. We saw two crabeater seals and a leopard seal in short order. (I learned that crabeater seals actually eat krill, but Norwegians called krill crab, hence the name.)



They’re easy to spot because they are light-skinned, and leopard seals are easy to spot because of their markings. Up until this point, all the seals I had seen were hanging out on land so they just look blubbery and lazy. Seeing them on floating ice was great because they moved, even slithering like a snake across the ice to the ocean, dipping in, and then popping out on another piece of ice. That was great to watch.



The ice grew thicker and thicker, and at one point I didn’t think we could go any further. (We have a captain and an ice master on board, but still….) The ice master took us further than I could have imagined as he cut through slabs of ice. Unfortunately, we got to the point where Petermann Island was directly in front of us but we couldn’t safely get there, even with Zodiacs. We did make it all the way down to 65 degrees 30 minutes before we had to turn around. This photo gives you an idea of how much ice is there – that dark spot is a large seal:


This video shows us moving through the ice:


We saw a chunk of blue ice floating, check out the interesting texture:


Since we couldn’t land on Petermann Island, we headed over to Port Lockroy. This is the busiest destination in Antarctica, because it is a sheltered bay. Bransfield House on Goudier Island has a small gift shop and post office inside the museum. Four people live there for the season, with no running water or electricity. They arrived a few weeks ago and have been digging 5-6’ of snow each day to allow visitors to a restored British scientific station.

Since there are nearly 120 passengers on board our ship, the crew had to split this afternoon excursion in two. Half the group headed to Goudier Island while the other half of us went over to an adjacent island that we’ve all come to call Siberia (actual name is Jougla Point). This afternoon, we experienced the type of weather that we feared in Antarctica – cold air, heavy winds, and gusts that pierced our skin. We stood on the side of a hill with our arms out, and leaned back (downhill) 30 or so degrees while the wind supported our bodies by pushing us back uphill. That was cool! This particular picture isn't on much of a hill, but you get the idea:


We also saw more penguins, and an additional seal. But it was so cold and windy that none of us stayed for long. We headed back down to the Zodiac to be transported elsewhere. When we finally made it to Bransfield House, we were grateful for the haven.




Evening aboard the ship was full of food, fun, and even karaoke in one of the bars. I started feeling queasy, which reminded me that my magic patch was indeed older than 72 hours. I took a seasickness pill and was knocked out for the night.

Tip of the Iceberg

(I can't recall if these pics are from this iceberg cruise or the next one...)

We woke up at 4am with howling wind. That’s actually one of the most dangerous things about Antarctica – you can get stranded somewhere because the Zodiacs can’t get you back to the ship. All of the girls were cold and tired, and we all had to pee (even though none of us had anything to drink since dinner the night before). We put our boots back on, hiked over to the little portable toilet, and froze our bums while we squatted in the open air over the toilet seat. Then, we took down our tent (much more difficult than pitching it, on account of the wind), packed up, and headed down to wait for the Zodiac. The wind made it colder than any cold we’d so far experienced in Antarctica.

We were thrilled when the two Zodiacs arrived to take us back to the ship.


I took a nap before breakfast, grabbed some quick food, and headed out on our morning excursion. I knew that the previous day would be hard to beat (setting foot on Antarctica for the first time, amazing weather, an outdoor BBQ and deck party, camping…), but the morning expedition competed quite nicely!

The area is called “Iceberg Alley” and it lies at the base of Anvers Island in Pléneau Bay. See how small our ship looks:


Scobie was our driver and Matt joined the 5 of us so it was a small group. Also, having both Scobie and Matt with us ensured that we learned a lot and had every one of our many questions answered.


Boating between the icebergs was incredible. They are massive, and the part that sticks above the water is likely only ~10% of total size. WOW! Scobie pointed out that the large icebergs go all the way to the bottom of the ocean and therefore don’t move. But smaller chunks of ice do float around in the ocean.






It was fun to look at the icebergs. It’s reminiscent of that game where you lie on your back, stare into the sky, and tell each other what animals the clouds look like. In this case, we were out in the sun on a zodiac, describing the icebergs (“Look, a crocodile!”).
The nice thing about this game with icebergs is that the icebergs aren’t constantly changing shapes, so people can actually see what you see.






The views were magnificent! The water here is the prettiest blue I’ve ever seen. Clearer than Lake Tahoe. Bluer than the Mediterranean Sea. A deep blue that I can’t very well describe (and it doesn’t show very well in pictures). The icebergs range from light blue to white, depending on how old the ice is and how much snow has collected. Just under the surface of the water, you can see the skirt of the iceberg, which is old solid ice and has a turquoise color.



All of this against a background of snow-covered mountains, which themselves have blue strips of varying degrees where there are cracks and crevasses. And a warm sun against a blue sky (a different blue than the icebergs and the ocean). Simply amazing, and certainly the most beautiful thing I’ve seen in my life.



At one point, we saw a mini avalanche on one of the islands. We didn’t see the start, but we did see the snow rolling and exploding in the air. It was such a reminder of God’s strength and power, and that it is truly by His grace that we live. We also saw penguins frolicking in the water, which makes it quite obvious that these birds live in the ocean – they are agile, fast, and fun in their element.



Our typical day looks like this: eat breakfast, go on a morning excursion, eat lunch, go on an afternoon excursion, sit together and recap the day, eat dinner, and then free time to watch a movie, sit at the bar, whatever. Though this ship isn’t as large as the cruise ships that are floating cities, we still have many options onboard. Although they have a defined schedule, you can participate in as much or as little as you desire. That fact came in quite handy for our afternoon excursion.