The Seventh Continent

On Feb 2, we made our way past notorious Cape Horn. Once we round the Cape, we head for Antarctica -- 750 miles south! This stretch of water, the Drake Passage, at the very bottom of So. America, has some of the most violent weather conditions in the world. This is where the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans converge and to make it more interesting,the water and winds surrounding Antarctica, the Southern Ocean, play a major force here. The winds often create gales with waves more than 65 ft. high. The yearly weather forecast for the area announces an average 200 days of gale and 130 days of cloudy sky; for the remaing 35 days, "the wind is strong and the sea is rough" - to put it mildly!

It was rough, but, old salts that we are, we managed okay. We crossed it west to east this time, which is supposedly a little easier. In 2003, we crossed east to west and therefore joined the elite group that were authorized to wear an earring in the left ear (at least that's what they told us it meant!)

Monday Feb 5th was bright, sunny -- and amazingly calm!!! The great Antarctic Peninsula and mainland appeared before us. We thought we had seen things last time, but nothing to compare to the next two days. Three people from the British Antarctic Heritage Trust on Port Lockroy came out to the ship to give a talk about their lives in this remote outpost. The temp is just about freezing (warmer than home we're told!)and it's sunny and bright standing outside. Penguins floated by on small ice flows, oblivious to us. We have 3 naturalist/geologist/Antarctic scholars on board who are giving live commentary from the bridge as we cruise.

And what cruising it's been! On Tues. the 6th, we woke up to look out our windows to see whales (one with her calf) breaking, hundreds of penguins surrounding the ship in search of fish, seals, albatross...just about every type of animal that lives down here was putting on show for us. And it continued all day long!!! We passed one island with an enormous penguin rookery --- they estimate there are over 200,000 PAIRS of penguins on this one island. They're all you can see -- all the way up the hills and on the beaches. Depending on the wind direction, they're also all you can smell! But it was such an amazing two days. We cruised in and out of small coves where the different countries have research stations and saw some of the workers.

Today (Wed.)has been grey and a bit more swells. But we headed into "Iceberg Alley" - and again what we've seen! These enormous bergs float right by use. The ice is pure and the most beautiful blue color.

One of the lecturers this morning gave a talk about Edward Shackleton. He explored the continent in the 1920s. His boat, the Endurance, became stuck and was ultimately crushed by sea ice -- yet he and his crew survived almost 2 years stranded here. An amazing tale of courage and perseverance.

Tonight we pass Elephant Island and head back across the Drake Passage to begin our return north p the coast to Port Stanley in the Falklands. It may be a bit rough, but it's a small price to pay for all the wondrous things we have seen in the past few days!