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Your Antarctic Cruise: A One In A Million Experience
Two nautical charts are on the ship?s navigation table. Never surveyed waters surround the ship, according to both charts. A reasonable path, the captain opts to maintain a course drawn on depth soundings. This channel is new to him, though he?s sailed the Antarctic many, many times.
Article Source: TravelFreeGuides.com
The sun sets and our ability to see is reduced. After that, the heavy, thick snow starts to fall. The bridge windows start to accumulate the large flakes and we have difficulty seeing the icebergs ahead. Each obstruction is clearly illuminated by the ship?s radar. The screen shows the icebergs in frigid orange. The monitor is suddenly dominated by a large orange obstruction. The ice is only three kilometers from us.
The captain whispers his command at one kilometer. No one else speaks. With a flick of the wheel, the helmsman angles the ship away from danger. A tabular iceberg shows itself through the fog and snow. This is a unique type of berg found only in the southern ocean. These bergs resemble the American plains; they have very flat, wide tops and the sides are straight. They can be over one hundred feet tall.
The berg, with its massive size, found me awestruck. It was simply one more of Antarctica?s treasures. Our goal was the Antarctic Circle at the bottom of the globe, and our vehicle was a polar class cruise vessel. 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. Scientist followed after the first explorers who wanted to find the South Pole, but perished. Traveling to Antarctica used to be the reserve of the very rich. Now, for about the same cost as going to the Caribbean, you can visit the seventh continent.
Some compare Antarctica to the shape of a manta ray with a curved tail. Between the end of that tail and the tip of South America lies five hundred miles of ocean. This is known as Drake Passage. It is home to the roughest seas on the planet. It has also been called the 'Slobbering Jaws of Hell' and extracts a high price for passage. One motherly passenger told us all to stow everything before going to bed, and to make sure that our cabin portholes were securely locked.
The open ocean welcomed us after we left the Beagle Channel. We?d passed through these smooth waters after setting sail from the Argentine city of Ushuaia. We didn?t see land for the next two days as we were tossed in rough water. Strong, nearly gale-force winds blew at us for those two days. Like bullets, ocean spray shot past my fourth deck window as numerous waves crashed over the ship?s bow. Watching the swells, some said they saw ones from fifteen to forty feet in height. Of course, the swells were much taller to those who suffered greatly from seasickness.
After two days sail from South America, we got to the Southern Ocean. The view of a coastal enclave filled my porthole the next morning. The land mass seemed to have calmed the waters a bit. The peaks of extremely tall mountains were covered in misty clouds. Sharp ridges poked through the smooth glaciers and stood dark against their relative whiteness. Rough, tumbled ice filled with cracks and dirt fell into the sea in large slabs. The giant mountains looked as though they had been plopped into the ocean?s deep blue waters.
Another passenger commented that the trip to get to Antarctica was like the labor of childbirth. Antarctica?s stats show it to be the windiest, highest, driest and coldest continent of all seven found on our planet. Holding seventy percent of the planet?s fresh water in reserve, Antarctica gets the same amount of yearly precipitation as Death Valley. Antarctica claims no original human populations, human owners, nor animals that make it a year-round home.
Due to the rigorous weather and poor conditions, sailing routes, as well as shore landings are dictated by the weather. We are able to make our originally-planned shore landing, though the guides have warned us this is usually not the case. We all met on deck, staying with the groups to which we?d been assigned. On our turn, my group of ten climbs into an inflatable boat. My group of ten nears the trip?s zenith as the driver powers the boat towards land. Then, with that last step, I am finally standing on Antarctica. I am one of the few people who have been able to do so.
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by: Joshua Morgan
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Date: Wed, 9 Jun 2010 Time: 6:10 AM -
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