A VOYAGE TO ANTARCTICA
Sailing to the end of the Earth.
The Antarctic continent rises suddenly out of the Southern Ocean. Glaciers tower over the jagged coastline, a barren landscape devoid of vegetation. Beyond the shore stretches a vast ice sheet, larger than Europe and in places as thick as the Alps are tall; beneath it is the largest desert in the world.
The scale of Antarctica defies imagination—perhaps because our understanding of Earth’s southernmost continent is relatively new. Though it was first sighted by Western explorers in 1820, for almost a century Antarctica was the preserve of whalers who set up makeshift camps on its rocky inlets. It wasn’t until the turn of the twentieth century that explorers like Scott, Shackleton and Amundsen endured extreme conditions to explore the continent in the name of political achievement and science.
Today, tourists are taken to Antarctica on specialized ships crewed by elite teams of expedition leaders, engineers and mariners and equipped with modern navigational and communication systems. But those who undertake the journey today will still be confronted by the same sense of their own fragility that those early explorers had as they made their crossing in wooden ships, traversed the frozen seas on sleds and survived on penguin and seal meat once their rations ran out. Antarctica offers little in the way of hospitality, but then such is the allure for those privileged enough to embark upon the trying—and expensive—journey.
Most expeditions begin and end in the Argentinean city of Ushuaia in Tierra del Fuego, at the southern tip of the South American continent, and cross the Drake Passage—some of the most treacherous waters in the world. The voyage can take forty hours when it’s calm, but a rough passage can be almost double that, with even the most powerful ships forced to reduce speeds to navigate the power of the sea.
“A healthy fear of the sea is a mark of sanity for any sailor, but the Drake Passage doesn’t deal in sanity,” says lifelong sailor Ross Beane on board the ship Sea Spirit as it crosses the passage, en route to the scattered islands and archipelagos of the Antarctic Peninsula. “If you fail to fear this stretch of sea, you won’t survive long.”
GETTING THERE Most expeditions to Antarctica range from twelve to twenty-four days. Sea kayaking, excursions on small boats and camping are the primary outdoor activities allowed by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, which manages tourism on the continent. Camping is limited to thirty passengers per ship.
SEE & TOUR Port Lockroy is an abandoned British whaling camp on Goudier Island that now serves as a research station, a museum and the southernmost post office in the world. It is run by a small seasonal team working the austral summer. Around 70,000 cards are posted each year to more than 100 countries.
STAY Around fifty ships are approved to sail in Antarctica, ranging from passenger vessels, such as the Sea Spirit, to large cruise ships carrying up to 450 passengers. Luxury mobile hotels, such as those run by White Desert, construct pods on the ice sheet and are accessible only by a chartered private jet.
WORTH KNOWING Over the past hundred years, average temperatures across the Antarctic Peninsula have increased by 36°F (2°C)—more than twice the average increase on Earth. It’s uncertain how the landscape will change, but animal behaviors have already shifted due to the warming waters.
During the passage, expedition leaders prepare passengers for the experiences to come once landfall is made, with lectures about Antarctic wildlife and natural and human history. Stories of disastrous expeditions loom large in many tales of the Southern Ocean and the Antarctic. “Boarding this ship, I feel like I’m ignoring the warnings of many of the best nautical adventure stories I have read,” says Beane. “Shackleton barely survived it. Drake’s discovery was a near disaster. Is this wise?”
The South Shetland Islands are the voyagers’ first sight of land, and the captain steers his ship with wary eyes, inspecting conditions and assessing the feasibility of landing ashore. Thick ice floes are always moving and essential passageways can be blocked, requiring the captain to alter course and chart new routes. Deception Island, a collapsed, still active volcano, is protected by its high cliffs and narrow entrance—known as “Neptune’s Bellows”—and is home to one of the safest natural harbors in Antarctica, Port Foster, one of the locations where expedition leaders begin excursions.
Knowing you are entering a realm seldom touched by humankind is both exhilarating and humbling. There are currently eighteen active research stations in the South Shetlands, such as those built by Chile, Spain, Brazil, South Korea and Poland, but otherwise, the only evidence of human presence on the peninsula is abandoned whaling stations. Standing ashore also offers a closer look at the extreme and constantly changing landscape. “It’s remarkable to be on a stretch of land surrounded by icebergs, some bigger than the ship and others taller than the island I am standing on,” says Beane after the first landfall of the voyage. “It feels like the seas are closing in as they drift slowly around me.”
It’s a sense of wonder that only grows during the voyage. These vast, enigmatic landscapes—a myriad of whites and blues stretching endlessly in each direction—offer an encounter of emptiness greater than anything most people will experience in their lives. For anyone daring enough to take the journey, the lone white continent at the bottom of the world will leave a lasting impression.
GETTING THERE Most expeditions to Antarctica range from twelve to twenty-four days. Sea kayaking, excursions on small boats and camping are the primary outdoor activities allowed by the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators, which manages tourism on the continent. Camping is limited to thirty passengers per ship.
SEE & TOUR Port Lockroy is an abandoned British whaling camp on Goudier Island that now serves as a research station, a museum and the southernmost post office in the world. It is run by a small seasonal team working the austral summer. Around 70,000 cards are posted each year to more than 100 countries.
STAY Around fifty ships are approved to sail in Antarctica, ranging from passenger vessels, such as the Sea Spirit, to large cruise ships carrying up to 450 passengers. Luxury mobile hotels, such as those run by White Desert, construct pods on the ice sheet and are accessible only by a chartered private jet.
WORTH KNOWING Over the past hundred years, average temperatures across the Antarctic Peninsula have increased by 36°F (2°C)—more than twice the average increase on Earth. It’s uncertain how the landscape will change, but animal behaviors have already shifted due to the warming waters.
Primavera Base, on Cierva Cove of Tierra de San Martín, is one of thirteen research stations run by Argentina on Antarctica. The base is active only during austral summers, when it hosts around eleven staff who carry out area logistics, including search and rescue operations and support for scientific research.
Penguins are the most common birds in the Antarctic. Their colonies, known as rookeries, can count a million nesting pairs. Many visitors to the Antarctic Peninsula return with a defining sensory memory—the stench of guano, or penguin poop, which western winds carry far and wide.
Visitors to Antarctica are not permitted to approach wildlife and must maintain a precautionary distance of 16 feet (5 m) from penguins and seals. When visiting a colony, walk slowly and carefully, and increase your distance if you observe any changes in behavior.
An abandoned whaling station on Deception Island; the rusting tanks once held thousands of gallons of whale oil. Before the end of the whale oil industry in 1931, approximately five hundred thousand animals were killed on the island. Since then, however, some populations of whales, such as humpbacks, have rebounded and now are a common sight along the Antarctic Peninsula.
Deception Island is an active volcano. Its name comes from the very narrow, easy-to-miss opening into the caldera, known as Neptune’s Bellows. The volcanic geology of the island patterns its glaciers and mountains with streaks of ash.
