Sailing the Southern Seas

Looking back at the blog I realize there is little chronological order in the postings. I have been a poor reporter. In my defense, the experiences have been overwhelming and, at times, difficult to reduce to simple words or sentences. The photographs help express the immensity, beauty, and desolation of our southern oceans but even the photographs cannot express or convey our feelings of wonderment and awe that we have experienced over the past weeks. It is hard to fathom an entire continent that is for all practical matters uninhabited and, for the most part, unexplored. Mountain ranges that have never been climbed and vast plateaus that have never been crossed. We have been fortunate to touch a small part of this vast continent. Our push south through the Lemaire Channel and on through Crystal Sound in an attempt to cross the Antarctic Circle represented, in a small way, the history of exploration on this continent. We came close but, even with our modern ship, we were turned away by ice even as our goal was in site. An incredible experience. Our adventure did not stop there. We sailed around the tip of the peninsula and into the Weddell Sea only to be rebuffed again by pack ice and ice bergs. I will never forget the sound of the hull cleaving through the pack ice or the way the ship shuddered and groaned as it slammed itself into thicker slabs. The crab eater seals barely stirred to mark our temporary presence in their realm.



Turned back again, we followed Shackleton's desperate route to Elephant Island. Beautiful in its harsh severity. Again, we were more than lucky to make a landing. There is only a two percent chance of making a landing on this jagged rock of land. It is beyond my imagination how that small group of men could survive for one hundred days without giving up all hope and the relief and joy they must have experienced when the "Boss" Shackleton returned for them.




From there we sailed in two days what took sixteen for Shackleton. South Georgia Island, isolated in the Antarctic Ocean south of the convergence, is amazingly diverse. We sunned amongst the tussock grass and watched seal pups play and albatross feed their chicks in one cove and fought for warmth and shelter from furious wind and sleet in the next. We circled and back tracked around the island for five days and were accompanied by vast swarms of seals, sea birds and penguins. Never did we expect to encounter the huge numbers of animals. In many places it was difficult to walk due to the density of seals, penguins, and sea birds along the shoreline. Life and death played out both ashore where the skuas and giant petrels are ever alert for an untended chick or egg and in the surf patrolled by the reptilian looking leopard seal gorging on inexperienced penguin chicks. Luckily, only one of our party was bitten by a fur seal.


We have another day at sea before reaching the Falkland Islands. So far we have been accompanied by fin whales with their geyser like spouts, wandering albatross with eleven foot wing spans, and giant petrels with their large hooked beaks.

I wish I could share more photographs and videos but the Internet is too limited.


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Location:At Sea 600 Miles East of the Falklands