Across the Drake Passage
Saturday, 12 January: Akademik Ioffe – Beagle Channel
It's 6:30am and the Ioffe is coming into the port in Ushuaia. This is so very different from the Arctic, where the Ioffe was the only ship in the harbour at Resolute, and an ancient school bus, with gears grinding, drove us to a stony beach, where we donned life jackets, rolled into Zodiacs and were taken out to the ship.
But the Ioffe will wait 8 hours or so while I take an excursion to the Tierra del Fuego National Park. And at 4:00pm, we’re in the car park at the pier. Passports are handed over and we’re bussed to a very rudimentary security check, before being bussed a further 100m to the Ioffe’s gangway (they didn’t want us to walk on the pier!).
Two familiar faces from the NW Passage trip: Hayley is our Expedition Leader, and Scott, our very knowledgeable historian. It’s good to be able to find my way around the ship, and soon after unpacking (and taking the 1st Phenergan – just in case), I meet my cabin-mate, Leigh, a school teacher from Brisbane, and an avid photographer. She tells me later that her grandfather had been on many trips to the Ross Sea as a surveyor.
Up to the top observation deck to photograph Ushuaia retreating, and it’s just after 7:00pm when the Captain sounds the horn 3 times and we pull away from the dock – we’re on our way into the Beagle Channel and then south. The adrenaline is flowing – this is my first trip to the Antarctic.
As with the trip to the Arctic, we can be on the Bridge at any time except when a Pilot is on board. So the fly bridge is a great place to be. It’s cool and cloudy with 20 knot winds and flat seas – one of the passengers tells me that he’s picking up a Chilean mobile phone network as we pass Port William, a small town on the southern (Chilean) side of the Beagle Channel. I manage to send a brief text to John, and then lose the signal – I’ll know in 2 weeks whether it was received!
We’re told that the forecast is for reasonably flat seas until tomorrow afternoon, so lots of fingers and toes are kept crossed, and Hayley has passed on a message from the Captain: “no-one is to whistle on the ship – it whistles up the wind.” The maritime superstitions are as strong as ever!
After a chat with new friends in the bar, I’m in bed about 11:30pm. The sky is still bright but no stars are visible.
Sunday, 13 January: The Drake Passage – Antarctic Convergence
It’s 6:30am and the seas are flat. It was a good night for sleeping with the gentle rocking of the ship lulling me back into sleep through the night. We’re well into the Drake Passage, and steaming along at around 14 knots. The air temperature is 8oC, and winds are still a light 15-20 knots or so – very pleasant. It looks like we’re experiencing the “Drake Lake” conditions, a wonderful way to start the next 3 days at sea as we head to the Deep South.
The decision has been made to take the next 2½-3 days to go south across the Antarctic Circle, before taking our time to wend our way north, meandering amongst the islands and the Peninsula. It all looks fantastic.
There is much discussion amongst passengers on the Bridge as to when we’re going through the Antarctic Convergence – the zone at around 60o South, at which the cold waters from the Antarctic meet the warm waters of the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans. It’s been a little foggy much of the day, one sign of the Convergence, and at around 6:00pm we notice the water and air temps starting to drop.
I’ve seen 2 different species of Albatross – the black-browed and the grey headed – both are just soaring around us – magnificent birds.
After a day spending time on the bridge, a little nap during the afternoon, 2 briefing sessions, lunch and dinner, a “bar-talk” about the explorer Ross, it’s now around 11:30, and time for bed.
Monday, 14 January: The Drake Passage – Water Depth 3-4km!
It’s 2:30am and the boat is moving around quite a bit now. I pop a Kwell and go back to sleep. Leigh (my cabin mate) and I have made sure nothing will be moving around in the cabin, so other than the curtain beside my bed sliding from one end of its rail to the other, all is quiet, and I sleep through to 7:00am.
But what a difference a few hours make. Back on the Bridge there is now snow driving across the bow, and a good swell is sending spray up over the top of the ship. The temperature has dropped to 2oC, with the wind at 45 knots – thumbs up for taking a 2nd Kwell at 7:30am! Out on the fly-bridge I duck just in time to get the spray from the cold, salty Southern Ocean as a wave “bounces” over the ship – yum!
About half the passengers manage to enjoy breakfast this morning. It was a good, although quick meal, and lying flat was definitely a good way to be soon after. But I attend 2 briefings this morning (“Seals” and “Ice”), and we hear that the barometer is rising, so this swell will abate as we head further south. Just before lunch, we see beautiful white birds following us, and the sun is starting to shine!
By evening conditions have markedly improved – the sea is now the most amazing deep ocean blue, and a group of Pintados (small white birds with black markings) is following the ship – flying in and out of the waves outside our cabin window. They have been there for hours and hours, playing with the waves.
It has been a day of napping between briefings. Whether this is something to do with doing very little, or the gentle and sometimes not so gentle roll of the ship, or being at such high latitudes, I don’t know. But it has been very hard to read without falling asleep, so I’m in bed by 11:00pm ready for an exciting day tomorrow, with the promise of our first Zodiac excursion in Antarctic waters in the afternoon!