Antarctica part 1

I´m back and alive after my amazing trip to Antarctica. Hmm, where to start. There is so much to say… I think I will try to write a few of the better stories in the following days. I will premise these stories with a general account of the trip. Here goes…


















I joined the Santa Maria Australis, a 60 foot ketch sailing yacht, in Puerto Williams. I was the third crew member with a German skipper and first mate. There were 5 guests aboard, 2 Germans, 2 Russians, and 1 Spanish. Luckily everyone spoke good English. Our first day was spent sailing East, down the Beagle Channel. We spent our first night Harberton Bay, the sight of one of the first missionaries, Thomas Bridges, in the area. The next day we said goodbye to the calm waters of the Channel and entered the menacing Drake Passage…

For the next 4 days, our heading was due south, behind moderate wind and waves. We lucked out and had relatively good weather. I don’t think the waves ever grew bigger than 15 feet, but I did get a little sea sick. I am proud to say that I did not throw up though. Life at open sea was a bit monotonous and boring. We drew straws for watches and I ended up having the 2:00-6:00 AM & PM shift with the Sergi, the Spanish guy. During the watch, we took turns at the helm, keeping the ship on course. The graveyard shift was pretty hard sometimes, especially as we neared the Ice (Antarctica) and had to be on iceberg and growler (small chunks of ice) watch. During these watches, one of us steered and the other stood outside the cockpit in the wind and snow, peering into the dark, foggy gloom. One couldn’t last long outside in those conditions (especially at 3:00am) so between the two of us on watch, we switched every 15 minutes. When not on watch, there wasn’t much to do…I did a lot of laying in bed, listening to music.





















We finally reached Antarctica bringing with us poor weather that never really left. Nearly every day was cloudy, cold, rainy, or snowy. Despite the weather, we still had a great time.

Anyways, once we reached Antarctica, we spent one night in a spot and moved through the channels and islands the next day. At each spot it was my job to go out in the zodiac and secure 4 or 5 shore lines from the boat to large rocks. This often proved to be a challenge especially when trying to pull 75 yards of 1 inch thick line from the boat. On the bright side, I became really skilled with tying the bowline knot.

We were able to stop at many Antarctic bases of different countries and visit them. Also, we saw many ruins of old waling stations and such. We reached our furthest south point just south of Vernadski Station. From there we turned north and headed back.

Well, that’s the quick and dirty of it. Stay tuned for more details…