Chile : Articles : Antarctica

By Pedro Chanceaulme

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Day 5

Next morning we reach latitude 66° 33´ South and we cross the Antarctic Polar Circle accompanied by a dozen of Orcas, petrels, and a lot of other seabirds. We arrive Cristal Sound, whose bay was frozen. Insistently the snow petrels accompanied us flying in circles above the ship. Half dozen of hunchback whales slept floating in the surface of the sea and we passed very close without waking them up.

Later on we find minke whales and many Antarctica skin, crabeaters, leopard and wedell seals resting on the ice with their breeding swimming close to their mothers' watch. We continue navigating toward the Detaille Island guided by a couple of minke whales that allowed us to shoot wonderful pictures. Regrettably the ice didn't allow us to disembark in Detaille Island and captain decided to head North toward Barcroft Island. During dinner we happily celebrated our crossing of the Antarctic Polar Circle.

Day 6

During next morning we explored Barcroft Island finding skin crabeaters, wedell seals, and adelie penguins, Antarctic blue eyed shags, skuas, and a lot of other seabirds. It began to snow and the wind grew stronger, enough reason to return to ship with some difficulty and soaked by the water sprinkled by the wind, the waves, and the zodiac navigation. After being safe on board the ship head for Adelaide Island under a hard blizzard. We had dinner and we went to bed while a furious storm of snow and wind loosened out, sleep was the best option to pass the stormy night..

Day 7

The new day offered us the same hard blizzard than last night, changing captain's plans determining to go to Prospect Island, but the bad weather continued and a new change of plans was made, heading now to Port Lockroy in Weincke Island where we would arrive near midnight. During the day we always carry out countless activities and those interesting chats that experts offered us with videos and movies of this vast and interesting continent-laboratory.

Day 8

After breakfast we approach by zodiacs to Port Lockroy and landed under a soft but persistent rain. We visit a gentoo penguin's colony and we could sight a great quantity of hairy, nice and always hungry chicks being fed by their mothers. A solitary blue eyed shag and an adelie penguin observed us with reluctance.

In the beach we found several dispersed bones of hunchback whales, where somebody had built a complete skeleton of whale starting from diverse bones, giving a quite real impression of the gigantic dimensions of such mammals. During the return to the ship a couple of hunchback whales emerged very near the zodiacs, allowing us to shoot some fascinating pictures of so majestic animals.

During the lunch we head Petermann Island and we explore the island in our zodiacs, finding a great quantity gentoo and adelies penguins. We also find two monuments made in memory of the two British scientists of the BAS (British Antarctic Survey) that died when they fall down in an ice crevasse during the return trip to their base and the other one, in memory of the famous Frenchman Jean Baptiste Charcot. We return on board and immediately the ship head for Paradise Bay through the Lemaire Channel.

The sun showed the majesty of the place, illuminating the brilliant snowy picks and the glaciers that give the paradisiac name to the place. It is also the first place in the Antarctic continent where we landed, all other explorations were carried out in islands of the Antarctica Peninsula. We had good weather and most of us enjoy climbing a hill behind the Argentinian Base Admiral Brown, but we enjoy much more slipping down the hill. Turning back to the ship we visit a colony of blue eyed shags, on board a delicious French dinner was waiting us.

Day 9

A dense fog delayed our night track toward Baily Head, in Deception Island. Regrettably strong waves didn't allow us reach land. While we had breakfast the atmospheric conditions improved and we could disembark to observe the skin seals in the beach, but the main attraction of the day was undoubtedly the immense colony of Antarctic penguins that go from the sea their nests high in the rocks, marking deep trails among the rocks that have used these birds for years in its way from the feeding areas to the resting areas and vice versa.

We returned to the ship and our next stop was Port Foster, in the interior of the enormous nine kilometers crater flooded by the sea. To get into the crater, the ship should go through the Neptune Bellows, a narrow channel that slips among vertical walls of cooled magma. A wrecked whale ship reminds every captain that attempts the pass, the precision of the maneuvers he has to carry out. Immediately we boarded the zodiacs to visit the ruins of the Hektor Whaling Company, an old Norwegian whaler station remains semi buried in the ashes of the last volcanic eruption of 1970, that survives in such lonely latitudes.

Scientists have data of the important volcanic activity in Deception from 1842, 1912, 1917, 1967 and 1970. We prepared a small trek to Neptune Window, a crack between two geologic outcroppings in the ring of the crater. We found marine elephants, skin and wedell seals and colored petrels in the beach under the window. We returned to the ship and moved toward Pendulum Cove, named by scientists that carried experiments 100 years ago. We also had the opportunity to take a bath in the icy sea that due to a flow of thermal waters made bearable the temperature of the water to take a pleasant bath, of which we took many pictures.

After our strange experience of taking a bath in Antarctic waters we boarded the ship and move quickly to the Hannah Point in Livingston Island, under a gray colored sky and low clouds. There we found a dozen of nice macaronis penguins blended among an Antarctic penguins colony. Scientists had information that a couple of these subantarctic penguins migrate to this point first time in 1992, and the current population is about 12 couples. Exploring, we found gentoo penguins and we could observe chicks of South giant petrels, gulls and Antarctic doves in the rocks. Marine elephants and seals dozed placidly on the rocky coast. We returned to the ship for an excellent and abundant dinner, necessary to recover strength after so many day's emotions.

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