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A Once In Your Life Trip: Antarctic Cruising

By: Robert Rodrs

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At the navigation table, two nautical charts wait. They showed these waters have yet to be surveyed. The captain relies on a heading of depth soundings. This channel is new to him, though he's sailed the Antarctic many, many times.

Dusk sets in and reduces visibility. Then is starts to snow in earnest. I struggle to see the approaching icebergs as the large flakes fill the bridge windows. Radar clearly shows them, even with our diminished eyesight. Orange blotches, the program's choice for icebergs, fill the screen. Up ahead, the monitor paints a giant orange blob nearly blocking the channel. Three kilometers separate us from the berg.

The captain whispers his command at one kilometer. No one else speaks. With a flick of the wheel, the helmsman steers the ship away from the danger. A tabular iceberg, which can only be seen in this region, looms like a ghost through the fog and snow. This type of iceberg sports a flat, wide top with sides that rise straight upwards.

Antarctica has struck me speechless again. Attempting to reach the Antarctic Circle, we have been cruising aboard a polar-class vessel. We hope to reach that imaginary vortex on the bottom of the globe. Life was seemingly absent on some of the far-away places we passed on our trip. After being found in 1820, Antarctica waited another 79 years for a human to spend the winter there. Very soon after that first winter, explorers searched for the South Pole in a deadly quest, scientists followed them. Going to Antarctica used to be a rich man's tour. Now a trip to Antarctica cost about the same as one to the Caribbean.

Some people say that Antarctica looks a bit like a manta ray with a curving tail. The manta ray's tail extends to within 500 miles of South America. This is known as Drake Passage. It is home to the roughest seas on the planet. Also known as 'the slobbering jaws of hell,' it is truly difficult to pass through this area to the planets last continent. The matronly passenger told us to make sure our gear was well-stowed and our cabin portholes were securely latched before retiring.to bed.

Our ship left the Argentine port city of Ushuaia and passed through the Beagle Channel. Later we reached open ocean. Rough water bounced us to and fro for two days. We didn't see any land during that time. Extremely strong winds constantly blew. As waves crashed on the bow, spray splashed above my fourth deck window. Though it usually depended on how seasick you felt, you could see swells that were between fifteen and forty feet.

The Southern Ocean greeted us after two days of sailing from South America. The next morning, I woke up to a view of a coastal archipelago. The water was less rough because of the land. High mountains were topped in wispy clouds. Angular, dark ridges serrated the glacier's smooth top. Rough, tumbled ice filled with cracks and dirt fell into the sea in large slabs. These mountains, which could have been in Everest's range, looked out of place sticking up out of the water.

One passenger found the cruise to the Antarctic reminiscent of the labor of childbirth. Antarctica is the world's windiest, driest, coldest and highest continent. It shares the same amount of moisture that Death Valley receives, though holds seventy percent of the world's fresh water reserves. No animals stay all year long on Antarctica and there is no indigenous human population. No one even owns the land.

The shore landings and sailing routes must depend on the weather. Even though the guides had warned us to be prepared for waiting, our first scheduled landfall became a reality. Our assigned groups meet on deck. My name is called and I climb into the inflatable boat with 9 others. We only have one more quarter mile of water to cross before we reach the land. And, with that last step, I become one of the few who can honestly say they've been to this seventh continent.

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