Day 5 & 6

Nov 23, 2022

First full day at sea! At this point we were just dropping off the continental shelf of South America with increasingly deeper water of the Atlantic below us. Woke up to “Good morning, good morning …” over the ship’s intercom, which would soon become our daily wakeup call at 6:45AM. Took a hot shower which was not easy on a rocking boat. I did not feel it till that point, but as soon as I shut the bathroom door, I started to get nauseated right away. The entire bathroom was probably 6’ x 4’, so not very large. The tight enclosed space must have triggered it. Went down for breakfast and it hit me like a brick again. I was dizzy and my vision got so blurry that I could barely make out what I was serving myself. Hot water and fruit helped get over that. Slowly others started rolling in and one of the expedition crew members sat down with us to chat. As you imagined most of the conversation revolved around sea sickness, wave swell sizes and about the ship.

‘Honduras’ is a brand-new ship, built in 2019 but was idle for a whole year as these expeditions were suspended due to the Covid-19 pandemic. It was specifically built to make the voyage through the Drake’s passage and had special stabilizers to dampen the rocking.

The Antarctic Peninsula is an extension of the Andes Mountain range. Beyond the tip of South America, it submerges under the water. The shifting of 2 tectonic plates pulled the range to the east to form a curvature, from what would have otherwise been a straight line down to the Antarctica peninsula. The range resurfaces in some areas (South Georgia and South Shetland Islands). But the most interesting of all is that there are six small rocks (Shag rocks) that stick out above sea level west of South Georgia that are in fact the peaks of the mountain range.

I made a quick trip back to the room to just lie down for 15 mins to clear the cobwebs from my head before heading back down to the lounge area in deck 5 to start the day of briefings. The ship was really rocking now, and people were trying their best to balance themselves. The first two were mandatory Zodiac and IAATO briefings. The Zodiac one was about how to get on and off the inflatable boats, including the mandatory use of the ‘Sailor’s Grip’, which involves grabbing the forearm rather than the palms while being helped on and off the Zodiacs. This is to avoid any unfortunate injuries like pulling on fingers and breaking them if either the ship or the Zodiac suddenly rocks violently due to the sea. The IAATO briefing was about our responsibility to keep Antarctica protected due to its highly sensitive environment. They were going to vacuum and sanitize every single item we plan on bringing to the continent, including the insides of our pockets for those little specks of dust we never find. The whole point is to make sure we do not introduce any foreign pathogens to the environment and inadvertently infect the local wildlife. No food of any sort is allowed on the continent, and we can’t even place our stuff on the ground or even kneel if we are near wildlife. Even the moss on the island (if any in summer) is probably 1000’s of years old, so we were told to be very careful to not step on it and destroy it.

The Antarctica Treaty signed in 1959, currently consists of 55 countries, deemed the continent to be no-one’s property and that it should only be used for peaceful purposes with no military or weapon testing allowed.

Following that we broke for lunch and found ourselves a nice booth in the dining hall that could seat all 8 of us. After lunch onto the next class, which was mountaineering. They had 4 types of mountaineering; basic (no crampons required), intermediate (with crampons), ice-climbing (mountaineering boots and crampons) and finally alpine which is more technical (mountaineering boots and crampons). During the break 5 of us took the opportunity to go up to the bridge. Very

modern and very automated. The bridge officers explained that the ship is mostly automated and all they had to do for open sea water sailing is plot the course and the ship navigates itself there. Nobody on the bridge had pushed a single button for the last 2 hours!! Had some fun with a map to see if we could plot a course and the captain was just staring at us bemused for the entire 10 mins, only to inform us that the numbers on the map we were assuming to be co-ordinates were actually sea depth levels.

With enough embarrassment for a day, we headed back down to continue our briefing sessions on kayaking, photography, and camping. We were arranged into 4 color groups by the expedition team and that was to be how they would break up our activities. The next day was going to be when we start signing up for our activities. Signing up does not mean its guaranteed, since the weather in Antarctica changes so quickly and the wind gusts make it dangerous at times. It could be the case that we end up doing only a few of those activities. Anyway, all we can do is cross our fingers and hope for pockets of sufficiently decent weather conditions.

The briefings and demonstrations went on for the whole day and by the time it was over, it was dinner time. We had a quick recap session, where Pippa gave us a rundown of the plans for the next day and the weather followed by a talk on whales and seals. Dinner was a 4-course plated meal with some excellent company. The group was beginning to really gel and so we decided that despite our color groupings we were going to time our activities so that we stayed together.

After dinner I decided to head to the back of the ship to capture some bird photos as they tend to congregate at the rear of the ship. We ended up playing a few games of Jenga, and that turned out to be fun on a rocking ship. Straight to bed all of us went after that.

Nov 24, 2022

Another full day at sea sailing south kicked off with a noticeable chill in the air as we passed the Antarctic convergence last evening. After breakfast with the group, it was time to sign up for activities. They called us by group and mine was up first. I lined up a lot earlier than needed and was able to get my name right at the top of the list for camping and kayaking and found an earlier spot for mountaineering also. Our entire group managed to somehow get on the same schedule

for camping. There really wasn’t anything on the agenda in the morning so we just sat around playing games, reading, chatting amongst each other till lunch. With nothing else to do some of us decided to venture out to the bow of the ship. There was a real chill in the air accompanied by the cold spray of sea water, and so was increased levels of excitement and anticipation. With every swell the ship was riding we got closer and closer to the Antarctic Peninsula. The swells were a lot larger today, but surprisingly there was no seasickness, and I was able to find my footing on the ship as well. Either it was the patch or the fact that the larger swells meant the ship took just a tad bit longer to go up and come down, instead of the short and faster rocking we experienced the previous day. What was fascinating to me was to see how the swells were pushing the ship in a particular direction and the ship was actually autocorrecting to get back on course. The entire ship was fighting the massive power of the sea to just stay on course.

Afterwards, we all headed down to deck 3 for the mandatory disinfecting and cleaning of all our outerwear and any equipment we planned to bring onto land. This is essentially done to make sure we do not bring any foreign bacteria or seeds on the continent and contaminate it. The crew stuck vacuums in our pockets, used picks to remove all the fiber from the Velcro straps and scrubbed down our boots. We also got our muck boots (rubber boots that go all the way up to your knees) which we were supposed to wear while on the continent.

There was a lecture on the different types of ice, followed by some free time again. So what else can you, let’s go out again. But no matter how many times you go outside and look out on to the horizon, there is one thought that always hits you... every minute that passes by is a minute closer

After getting numb to our bones and a quick recap meeting from Pippa, it was time for dinner. We were surprised with a turkey dinner! After all it was Thanksgiving in the US. After dinner the anticipation of what the next day was going to bring for us was just too much. We were going to make landfall on ANTARCTICA! And right on queue someone shouted out that they could see land. All of us immediately rushed out. It was freezing, windy, a cold spray of water and some flurries but nobody was going to miss this sight. It was way of in the distance and hardly visible, but the dark shapes shrouded in mist and clouds could not be missed.

I don’t care how old you are but the excitement on the ship was at an all time high. Everyone was jumping and shouting on that wet rocking surface. It was a sight that will forever be memorialized in my brain. I just stood there with everyone else for almost an hour determined to soak in every moment of it.

We got a short briefing on how to use our snowshoes later that day and how to move safely through crevassed areas. The day came to end with a few rounds of cards and a round of drinks.

Days 5 & 6 photos