Paradise Bay and Elephant Island
People thought we were crazy to go to Antarctica,
but of course it was summer there. There was
a little snow as we approached Paradise Bay,
but the temperature was about the freezing
mark and there was no wind. Much nicer
than being in Nova Scotia.
As it was, we left home right after a blizzard to go to summer in Argentina. Then to the cold of Antarctica, the mild temperatures of the Falkland Islands and Patagonia, back to summer in Uruguay, then home to more snow and ice. It was like living six seasons in three weeks.
Antarctica
So what were we doing in Antarctica? Well, it sort of snowballed. Elizabeth wanted to cruise Alaska and see the glaciers. For some reason I couldn't get excited about Alaska. Chile has glaciers, I thought, and I'd always wanted to go to Uruguay. There are cruises from Santiago to Buenos Aires. But why see Chilean glaciers when we could go to Antarctica and see the definitive pile of ice?
From Cape Horn we crossed the Drake Passage and navigated the islands off the Antarctic Peninsula which sticks out between the Southern Ocean and the Weddell Sea.
From Cape Horn we crossed the Drake Passage and navigated the islands off the Antarctic Peninsula which sticks out between the Southern Ocean and the Weddell Sea.
Nearing Paradise Bay there is a very small lighthouse, and the first penguins we saw. In Paradise Bay there is a research station, but from the ship I could barely see it. I could post a lot of pictures of ice and snow, but you get the idea. The ice below left looks like an iceberg in the making.
The crew was largely from south eastern Europe, but there were some from southern Asia. Many had never been to Antarctica before
and I suspect some had never seen snow. I hadn't seen so many crew members on deck at once. They seemed pretty excited--
and I suspect some had never seen snow. I hadn't seen so many crew members on deck at once. They seemed pretty excited--
Elephant Island
Elephant Island was something I particularly wanted to see. Not so much because it is different from any other rocky ice-covered island, but because of how it figured into the Shakleton expedition. This is where the crew arrived in lifeboats from the Weddell Sea. (If you don't know the story, you can read about it at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Imperial_Trans-Antarctic_Expedition . There are any number of films about it at YouTube.) Shakleton's men lived on the beach on the opposite side of the island from where we were.
These are icebergs that have run aground near Elephant Island. One of the naturalists on the ship said that because of the flat top, it had probably broken away from the sheet of ice over the Weddell Sea. The one on the left was estimated at 1.5 km long, which makes it a "large" iceberg. Icebergs are tracked, but only when they are classified as "huge."