18th Feb - Antarctic Ahoy !!

18th Feb - Antarctic Ahoy !!

We woke up at 5.30am and for the first time on this trip, the ship was not listing plus or minus 30 degrees so washing and getting dressed seemed very civilised.  It’s cold now, about minus 4 degrees and a low cloud base hangs over the continent. We very excited to see icebergs as far as we could see and we are not talking lettuce here !

On deck, the most breath-taking sights that everybody on this boat had ever seen, the famous Lemaire channel with its low cloud base hanging tantalisingly over the 2000m tall peaks.  Interestingly, this was the first time a ship has managed to go down this channel this year as it has been frozen to a depth of 3m, so the crew were as excited as us to be able to do this.

Tense moments on the bridge as the Russian captain and crew navigated the channel watching out for some pretty large icebergs but the scenery was stunning.

The light was so unusual, it looked like it was from an alien planet – a strange mix of grey and turquoise water and ice mixed with the green and orange algae, the icebergs had formed into stunning ice sculptures and on many of the floating ice sculptures, seals, penguins and sea lions carried on with their day as we all stood in total amazement.  Then on top of that, total silence with the occasional ice explosion where the glacial ice clinging to the mountains, fissured and fell off into the sea.  For all of us, stunned silence as nobody could believe what they were seeing….everybody was pretty speechless.

After breakfast, we were then to kit up for the cold.  This does involve about 3 -5 layers topped off with the external gear they supply, waterproof & warm dungarees, waterproof jacket and giant green gumboots. It took us about half an hour to get everything on and after we had got all sorted, we couldn’t move, breath or regulate our temperatures so we needed to get outside quick as we were boiling up.  

After the sterilisation process and the difficult process of getting your boots on when you are trussed up like a turkey, we then wobble down the gangplanks to get on the Zodiacs and off to our first experience on dry land at Peterman Island, which is the furthest south we are going to go.

From a distance, the place looks cold and forbidding but teeming with penguins and unbelievably,

a small French sailing boat had sailed down the Drakes Passage but was now occupying the inflatable landing bay and refused to move so we had to get off the Zodiacs on the rocks which did not impress Janette one bit.  Our first Antarctic paddle !! Steve did his thing about the French again.

We spent about 2 hours in here paying particular attention to the routes marked out by the guides which seemed to be the ones with the most penguin poo and ice that breaks as you walk on it….still, we were waterproof to a depth of about 45cm….Steve had found a 46cm drop getting on the boat and learnt what “Ingress” meant.

Back on board our Zodiac RIBs and then we were given a real treat.  A tour around a real active research station. 

The Verdansky station, formally owned by the British, presumably from the time we were Great Britain, was now an active Ukranian research station. For many years, we have always wondered about the origin of the Money Supermarket Meerkat. Now, at last, we had met him, he is actually a scientist studying in Antarctica called Boris and talks exactly like Sergey.  When we asked him what he was working on, he didn’t seem sure but we noticed that here in the middle of Antarctica, where no boats or planes can land, they had a great bar and sold Vodka Shots and had a pool table so we assumed that this was accounting for most of the research.

Research Station although we believe that these are more about

occupation than research.

There did not appear to be much by research equipment and most of the activity seemed to be showing tourists around.

It might be a research station but it had a great bar selling vodka.

This is the only place to post postcards, so we sat in the research station & wrote the postcard for Mum. Probably the most remote post office in the world !!

Back on ship, a quick sterilisation with industrial strength gunk cleaning fluid, quick lunch and back into the kit up room and back for round two…

When they said we were going to “Wordie Hut”, we had not quite realised the significance of this.  It was a perfectly protected (by temperature) research station originally run by the British still with the original office, living accommodation and desks but the significance of all of this is that it was here that the hole in the Ozone layer was discovered– god, see how nerdy we have become !!

After taking in the significance, we re-boarded our RIB, re-sterilised, de-kitted, dined, drank and crashed out.  With the boat now anchored for the night….sleep was for the first time undisturbed.