Antarctica on a Tall Ship

It always takes time to settle into a new crew, but it was particularly noticeable after such a long voyage when the crew had become really tight. This change made for a different atmosphere in the Upper Mess and was a great refresher after 2 months at sea.

We are really lucky to have our two “extra deck officers. One is the famous Skip Novak, who will be the Expedition Leader and is an absolute Antarctic legend, and the other is “Piles”, who is an old JST employee who now works as full time Mate for the National Geographic Polar cruise ship. So, we have lots of local knowledge on board! Piles and Skip will be working together to help us stay safe and protect the delicate Antarctic environment as we travel south and land on the continent.

After four days we re-crossed the Drake passage and sailed across the Antarctic conversion zone, so we were in Antarctic waters. It wasn't long after crossing the zone that we saw our first iceberg looming over the horizon and we quickly instigated full Antarctic lock down by closing the forward water tight doors and doubling up on qualified watch ratings on the bridge at all time. 

First view of icebergs in our path (a sign of things to come)

On the 21^st February we arrived a Deception Island at 1400hrs. This is an active volcano and formed a ring rising out of the sea with a tiny inlet into the mouth of the volcano which forms a lagoon which is known to be the safest anchorage within Antarctica. The inlet is known as Nelson's bellows and we sailed through and did a tour of the inside of the volcano before launching the DOTI boat (our small zodiac boat) to take all the voyage crew onto the shore where they were free to explore the old whaling station and English station that had been abandoned after the most recent eruption in the 1960's. The island is covered with ash so that what looks like rocks is actually ice saturated in ash! The voyage crew returned to the ship in the late evening and we were finally anchored with engines off and all checks completed at 2330hrs.....A very long day, but completely worth it!

Old whaling station and Base A on Deception island

 As we continued to sail south past Trinity Island the scenery became even more beautiful and I felt particularly blessed when I was walking across the deck to lunch just at the moment that a hump back whale decided to breach off the starboard side. After my evening rounds I followed my usual pattern of making myself a cup of tea in the upper mess and headed to the Chart room to report to the officer on watch (the bosun). On stepping outside towards the chartroom I skidded on the snow that had settled on the cold deck even though the on-duty watch had already put salt down.

After a night at sea (with the Captain and OOWs steadfastly looking out for icebergs) I woke up and walked across the deck to breakfast to be greeted by the most perfect day Antarctica could possibly produce. Blue skies, flat water and we were surrounded by magestic snow covered mountains with icebergs all around us (so that the helm kept having to change to avoid them). It was a perfect. Even more beautiful than I had dared to imagine. The blue colours within the icebergs I had seen on TV but it just doesn't do it justice. It is such a beautiful colour and the atmostphere down here just fills me with inspiration. I can now understand why so many of the current polar experts came down here once and then did everything they could to forge an Antarctic career.....It's just stunning. 

Passing bergs

On the advice of Skip, the Captain decided to make an additional stop-over at Cuverville so that we could land the voyage crew in amongst a large colony of gentoo penguins. We dropped the anchor within a large bay facing the Cuverville landing site where we were surrounded by icebergs and gentoo penguins that jumped out of the water in little pods moving between the land and the open sea. It was so amazing to sea such a tranquil and yet dynamic environment that was pristine. The wildlife continued to enthrall me when an Orca whale surfaced and blew about 5m from the bow just as we were preparing the DOTI boat. It was great to see it so close up and it made me remember the cirlce of life and force of nature as the great orca patrolled the beach for the tiny gentoos.

Curverville

 After lunch I was allowed a short stint ashore and climbed into the DOTI boat to help one of our wheelchair users transfer in from Nelly. It was great being on a little boat again and fantastic being so close to the icebergs and leaping penguins. It was just impossible to know where to look, the scenery was so incredible. We landed and positioned the wheelchair facing the gentoo colony and I wandered down the beach to see a couple of whale vertebrae (left overs from an old whale station). I then walked very carefully around the colony and enjoyed a few runs up the hills in 2m deep snow to stretch my legs (and practise for the Sahara!) The gentoo penguins were real characters and fell over on the slopes nearly as much as I did! I was being so careful to stay more than 15m away from the penguins that I nearly missed the skewer as it flew a low pass over my head and I only just managed to sheild my face as it did a second dive bomb and nipped at my coat. It landed close to me and I slowly moved away so as not to disturb it any more (although I'm still not sure why it took such a dislike to me!) 

Looking back towards Nelly from my position at the top of the slope was like looking back 50 years at one of the early tall ships expeditions to Antarctica. I wonder if Shackleton felt the same sense of awe when I looked back towards his ship with a foreground full of penguins and icebergs and a back drop of snow laiden mountains.

On the 24^th February we sailed around Cuverville island in absolutely perfect conditions. Skip made sure we all kept perspective by commenting over dinner “it can only get worse” says Skip....and it did. But first we were able to enjoy the flat waters of the straits, sailing under blue skies, surrounded by bergs and mountains (althgough we were keeping a keen look out to avoid the numerous “growlers”).

We were lucky enough to see humpbacks within 5m of the ship- waving there pectoral fins and pounding them on the waters surface before rounding their back above the water, blowing and showing a full tail flip. This was repeated on numerous occasions by various groups of whales (at various distances from the ship) alongside the displays of jumping gentoo penguins and the constant backdrop of beautifully carved icebergs and mountains. We also passed Weddell seals bathing on the larger icebergs and gentoos and adelies congregating on other bergs. We were even blessed by the appearance of a leopard seal. The size of this seal was impressive (about 4m in length) and it's jaws were big enough to fit a mans head inside (a concept that I would prefer not to dwell on!)

We continued to motor as the weather deteriorated into a snow storm and all of us on deck resembled snow men as we prepared to anchor in Port Lockroy just as dinner was being called in the upper mess. It wasn't until later in the evening, when the Captain called me to take the sticks (turn on and control the main engines from the bridge) so that he could drop a second anchor, that I was able to take in the surroundings. We were anchored in a bay surrounded by shear cliffs of white with some low lying rock off our starboard stern where a few buildings stood against the weather....This is Port Lockroy.

Within a couple of hours I was called to the bridge again as a large iceberg came perilously close to Nelly's hull and the Captain was worried that we would have to move to avoid a collision. But, luck was on our side so the deck officers launched the DOTI boat in preparation for any more large icebergs appearing in the bay instead.

In terms of the British presence in Antarctica: Port Lockroy was known as Base B (and Deception Island was Base A) due to the time of arrival of the first British explorers. At first Port Lockroy was a general base for exploration but it soon became a scientific hub. The science eventually outgrew the tiny low lying island of land so that Port Lockroy is now maintained by the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust who put a small team on the island for each summer season to maintain the buildings, man the little museum and shop and generally provide a presence in the “safest anchorage in Antarctica” for passing cruise ships.

2 2nd's in Antarctica (Marcin is the 2nd mate and I'm the 2nd engineer)

Having dropped two anchors and Nelly having been blown around in circles during our time in Port Lockroy, there was no surprise when the deck team struggled to untangle the anchors as we came to leave to head for a tour around one of the nearby islands for a bit of sight seeing and to allow us to make some fresh water using our reverse osmosis (RO) plant. The deck team put in an enormous effort navigating us through the Gerlach channel as a snow storm pretty much blinded us over night so that the on-watch team had to rely mostly on radar to avoid icebergs. Well done guys!

We returned to Port Lockroy and as the VC went for a walk around some of the surrounding land to see some more penguins and the blue-eyed shag colony's, I got stuck into the 500hour service on both of the main engines. It was great to spend some time on my own in the engine room looking after “my boys” and I felt that they appreciated a bit of TLC. It was, however, slightly unfortunate that my “ships cold” that I had been desperately trying to ignore decided to manifest itself as I lost the ability to breath due to a tightness in my lungs, constant coughing/sneezing, hot/cold flushes, muscle aches, pains and weakness....This made wrestling with the belt tensioner even more frustrating than usual and I was so grateful when the Chief had pity on me and let me finish up half an hour early.

We are “supposed” to work approximately 0800-1700hrs at sea with ever other night on duty (which involves about 30minutes of checks etc. at 2200hrs and anything else that requires attention in the late afternoon, evening or early morning). However, in reality we are working much longer hours than this, and even when we aren't working we are still expected to help out whenever required or answer questions etc. So it is easy to find yourself quickly exhausted on a long voyage. After the toils of the Southern Ocean voyage and the madness of the maintenance period in Ushuaia I am finding that I am much more physically and mentally tired than I would like to be. I'm still absolutely loving being in Antarctica and doing my job, but I am finding it very hard (and I'm not ashamed to admit it) as this is a physically and mentally demanding job and you are constantly on the go here. 

To make matters worse, my cold turned into three day long flu-like virus with a vomiting bug thrown in for good measure. This meant that I missed our first attempt to reach Vernansky station- which we had to abort due to ice in the channel and was only vaguely aware of us arriving when I stepped onto the deck for some fresh air and caught the most amazing view of a solid blue iceberg! I could just about see a hut on a near by ice pack which was the Vernansky station. This is the old Faraday station where all the English science moved to when it became too big for the Port Lockroy island. The station was abandoned by the brits and is now run by the Ukranians, who were happy to come on board the Lord Nelson for a while to enjoy our bar and we were all pleased of the new faces. It was great being so far south and the VC were taken off on the zodiacs to explore one of the surrounding islands.

The next day we headed back to Port Lockroy to wait for a weather window to head back North and I was pulled out on deck (in my “only just well-enough to stand up” state) to be stood on the bridge and pointed to look out in the direction of a small block of ice that was floating within 15m of the ship. On top of the ice was lying a massive leopard seal. It must have been about 4m long and it was amazing to see so close! It had such presence and you could imagine the damage it could do with it's jaws when it opened its mouth to yawn. So much power in such a sleek looking creature. Completely awe inspiring. Once again I felt so privileged to be in this wonderful place.

We finally found a good enough weather window to start heading North, but the winds were strong and the sea was messy and we were soon being pushed down by a Northally gale that kept us well below the South Shetland islands, heading west through a storm. It was a demonstration of true Southern Ocean conditions and (once again) the deck team stood long and hard watches where they had to constantly support the helmsman as they battled through rogue waves and gales.....It was an amazing experience and only fortified my desire to come back to sail the Drake Passage in a smaller yacht. What a ride!

After 4 days of heavy seas we finally crossed the Antarctic Convergence Zone and we were really on our way back to Ushuaia. Whilst I am definitely ready for some leave time, I can't help feeling that I have a lot of unfinished business in Antarctica and I know that I am going to do everything that I can to find a way back down here. It really is a place that can't be described, or photo'ed but needs to be experienced. It makes you feel small and yet part of something at the same time and really illustrates the raw beauty, power and vulnerability of nature.