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| WEEK 1: DECEMBER 31, 2007 - JANUARY 5, 2008 |
New Year's Eve, Puerto Williams, Chile
Our trip to the southernmost town in the Western Hemisphere - Puerto Williams, Chile - took the better part of five days, the six of us departing from various points (New York, Los Angeles and Aspen) with stops in Santiago and Punta Arenas along the way. Finally this morning we flew across Tiera del Fuego to this tiny town of 2,000 on the Beagle Channel where we found our boat, the "Pelagic Australis," waiting.
I have been awaiting this day for several years ... I think the first time I talked with the boat's owner, Skip Novak, about hiring it to sail us to Antarctica was five years ago. Since then the dream of taking a team of friends and kayaks to the Antarctic Peninsula has been lodged mid-brain. That we are finally here, stuffing our 42 big duffle bags of fkayak gear and boxes of camera equipment, piles of fleece and down into the bow of the boat, is like a waking dream. A great one.
Just after the turn of the New Year we are off. In the next few days we will sail 600 miles to King George Island, in the South Shetland Islands off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. Our kayaks are waiting there (I cached them there a few weeks back, on Thanksgiving Day...) and from there we'll head further south, towards the Weddell Sea.
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January 1, 2008 Puerto Williams, Chile
Tomorrow we will be crossing the Drake Passage, the windiest place on earth...
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January 2, 2008 Drake Passage
We're finally off. We left Puerto Williams...
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January 3, 2008 Drake Passage
We're in the middle of the Drake Passage...
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January 4, 2008
75 miles north of the South Shetland Islands, Antarctica
We've been sailing hard now for nearly three full days and are - finally! - nearing land. We should arrive off King George Island sometime early tomorrow morning, anchor, have a small sleep and then take our first steps on solid Antarctic ground.
On King George there are a dozen science bases, as well as our kayaks and 7th teammate Graham Charles (who has been patiently waiting there for a week, since being dropped off by the cruise boat he was working on). It's also where we hope to hook up with a ride in either a Twin Otter airplane or a helicopter; both for the aerial photography/videography chance but also to be able to scout the ice still gathered around the eastern edge of the Antarctic Peninsula.
Now that we've made it this far south we have to deal with the reality of the ice, always a great unknown in and around Antarctica. Each year the pack ice that freezes around the continent varies. In recent years, especially along the Peninsula, the pack ice that freezes atop the sea has melted or moved quickly out to sea thanks to strong winds and the warming of the ocean here by more than 5 degrees (F) Ð a more rapid change than anywhere on the planet. This past Antarctic winter was a very cold one = typical as recent as the 1970s, but unusual the past 20 years - which means there is still lots of pack ice bumped up against the continent.
Based on satellite maps we've been studying the past two months, the Weddell Sea where we intend to explore is still very heavy with sea ice. A pair of giant icebergs, disallowing the pack ice from being blown out by typical winds and storms, has blocked the entrance to the Antarctic Sound, which will be our entrance to the Weddell. Our goal is to get as deep as we can into the Weddell, as deep as the ice pack will allow. An aerial view will help us decide our best course before we head further south in the "Pelagic Australis," our kayaks now strapped to its bow.
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This data/image shows the extent of the ice surrounding the continent on December 13, 2007, less than one month ago. | |
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A DYNAMIC HOME ON THE ICE
 Imagine what it would be like if your house or apartment grew and shrank every year. In the Antarctic winter, sea ice more than doubles the surface area of Antarctica, giving expanded habitat for animals like penguins, seals, and seabirds. The winter sea ice can extend over 7.2 million square miles (19 million square kilometers) of ocean surrounding Antarctica, that's an area of sea ice more than two times the size of the United States. In the Antarctic summer, much of the sea ice disappears and then reforms the next winter.
Animals who live on the sea ice and humans who travel across and through it must be able to "read" the changing ice and choose safe places to travel and rest. As surface water cools to the freezing point, ice crystals start to form. If the weather and sea conditions are calm, the ice crystals join together and thicken into young ice, a fibrous and weak ice you would want to try to avoid if you were out for a walk. Even a slight ocean swell can break the young ice into pieces that knock against each other, forming flat circular slabs of thin ice that look like pancakes and are called pancake ice. If it's cold enough the pancakes will eventually freeze together and then freeze fast to the shore, forming fast ice.
Animals like penguins, seals, whales, and sea birds rely on waves, wind, tides and currents to buckle and crack the fast ice to allow access between the ocean water and the ice surface and to create breathing holes. Humans traveling across the sea ice try to avoid these leads of open water.
During normal summers, the fast ice breaks apart and forms floes, pieces of ice anywhere from 65 feet (20 meters) to 6 miles (10 km) across. The floes drift on the currents until they pack tightly together forming pack ice. Modern ice breaking ships can move through sea ice, but pack ice gave early explorers a lot of trouble - in 1915 Ernest Shackleton's wooden ship The Endurance was trapped when the pack ice closed around it, holding it for ten months before crushing it as the spring thaw allowed giant floes to grind the ship between them.
- Elizabeth K. Andre
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January 5, 2008 King Georges Island, Antarctica
We arrived at King George Island after a crossing of three days and one hour...
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Does Anyone Own Antarctica?
Antarctica has no native people and was officially "discovered" only 188 years ago. There is no agreement about which of three sailors first saw the continent; a Russian, a Brit or an American. It is also possible that any of a number of people aboard the numerous sealing boats sailing greater and greater distances south in search of dwindling seal populations could have been the first to see Antarctica.
Great Britain, New Zealand, France, Norway, Australia, Chile, and Argentina all made claims to parts of the continent. Other countries, however, would not recognize those claims. Until the middle of the 20th century, Antarctica was a virtual "free-for-all" as ships from many nations hunted fur seals, elephant seals, and whales until the populations of these sea mammals collapsed.
In 1946 the International Whaling Convention formed to try to conserve the populations of whales. Fifteen years later, twelve countries including the Soviet Union, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Argentina signed the Antarctic Treaty. The Antarctic Treaty suspends all claims to Antarctica and designates the continent as a scientific preserve. The treaty also bans any nuclear explosions, dumping of nuclear waste, or military activity on the continent.
In 1991 the Protocol on Environmental Protection was added to the Antarctic Treaty. The protocol aims to further protect the Antarctic environment. Among other measures, the protocol forbids any non-native species (besides humans) to be brought to Antarctica. Even sled dogs had to be removed from Antarctica. The end of the Antarctic sled dog tradition saddened some people, but most took comfort from the protocol's strong message of the need to protect the Antarctic environment and ecosystems. - Elizabeth K. Andre
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