Preliminaries

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Wednesday, April 6, 2022 - I Did It

After several aborted attempts and a lot of research - although too much is not enough - I finally booked and put down the deposit on an Antarctic expedition.

Mary Jane, my wife, and I had previously discussed such a trip when I was considering traveling for the season that just ended but I still felt a bit sheepish about telling her.  We’d already decided it would be a waste of money for her to come along - she gets motion-sick in a car, much less a ship heading into the stormy waters of the Antarctic Convergence; she hates the cold; there are no outlet malls in Antarctica.  Still, in an odd way it seemed a betrayal of my family: I was going somewhere without them and I was withdrawing a considerable amount of money from the family budget to do it.  So I put off telling my wife for several days.  When I finally did tell her at dinner, “Well, the big news of the day is that I booked an excursion to Antarctica.” Her matter-of-fact reply was, “When are you going?” I replied, “Leaving after Thanksgiving, returning before Christmas.” And we continued eating.  That was that.  Very anticlimactic.  Done.  It took me a while to figure out she needed a while to process the information.

I put off telling my daughter even longer.  She is away at college and I initially thought that I’d let her know when she came home for the summer. Eventually though, I decided I’d better let her know too - the more I put it off, the weirder it will seem when I eventually do.  The fact that it had to be done over the phone though made it all the more awkward.  It happened when we got to the, “What did you do today?” part of our daily conversation.  My response was, “I booked myself on an excursion to Antarctica.”

Unlike Mary Jane, who matter-of-factly and without missing a beat, asked when I was going, Gianna paused a bit.  Processing.  And also unlike Mary Jane, who took overnight to process the new information, Gianna took about 3 seconds to process and she shouted out and rhetorically asked since the answer was obvious, “You’ve been planning all of this without letting me know?!”  Wow, I’m glad I didn’t wait any longer than I did.

Opening the door gave me the opportunity to go into and share some of the particulars regarding my decision.  To explain how this journey is more akin to an expedition than a cruise.  Weather and ice permitting - we’ll be sailing to the Weddell Sea on the east side of the Antarctic Peninsula where the massive tabular icebergs calve off the Larsen and Ronne Ice Shelves.  It also  provided a platform to relate some of the preliminary and surprising research I’ve uncovered:

That there was once a nuclear-fueled power generator (a nuclear reactor) in Antarctica.  The U.S. built one at McMurdo Station in the 1960-61 season and while it didn’t melt down it created so many problems it was soon after removed – along with tons of contaminated soil.

And Operation Argus – yet another nuclear project. This was conducted in 1958, prior to the signing of the Antarctic Treaty, and it entailed high altitude nuclear testing in the Southern Ocean. No one cared much about penguins in those days. Thankfully, those days are over - hopefully, they will never return.

And so on.  More information to process . . . 

A Brief History of a Brief History

According to oral tradition, a Polynesian explorer named Tamarereti first saw the snow covered mountains of Antarctica – more likely, the South Shetland Islands.  That legend would make him the first human to set eyes on the White Continent.  In 1520, Magellan came within 620 miles of the Antarctic Peninsula when he became the first westerner to round Cape Horn in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago.  

Over 200 years later, departing Plymouth, England on August 26, 1768, Captain Cook, the great explorer/invader (depending on your perspective) came no closer on his first trip to the southern ocean aboard the HMS Endeavour.  But his first expedition whetted the world’s appetite for confirmation of a vast southern continent, Terra Australis Incognita, and on July 13, 1772 he set sail aboard the HMS Resolution to determine whether or not there truly was a great southern landmass.  On January 17, 1773 he became the first westerner to cross the Antarctic Circle.  Well, technically maybe not the first as that honor would’ve gone to the person standing at the prow of the Resolution as it crossed the 66° 30’ S latitude.  

But traversing the Antarctic Circle is not the same as setting foot on or even seeing Antarctica.  Cook continued sweeping the vast ocean, circumnavigating the continent at high latitudes, going as far south as 71° 10’ S on January 30, 1774 before being stopped by the ice pack - but he never set eyes on Antarctica, coming within as little as 80 miles of the Antarctic shore.  In 1775 he returned to England and reported to the Admiralty that Terra Australis Incognita was a myth.  Ironically, given the high latitude he had penetrated, if he had been just 12 degrees or so to the east he would have run right into the middle of the Antarctic Peninsula.

But Cook’s expedition sparked a rush of adventurers, sealers, and whalers to the southern ocean, more than eager to cash in on the riches that Cook encountered there.  And although reports conflict, it appears that westerners first set eyes on Antarctica in January 1820.  A Russian expedition claimed land-sighting on January 27, 1820 and a British expedition claimed the same feat just 3 days later but ice prevented either group from actually setting foot on the land.  According to National Geographic, John Davis, a sealer and explorer, was the first westerner to set foot on the Antarctic continent, Queen Maud Land as it was then known, in 1821.

For the next 90 years, explorers continued their expeditions to Antarctica with standing at the South Pole set firmly in their sights. Norwegian explorer, Roald Amundsen, achieved that goal on December 14, 1911. Captain Robert F. Scott led a British expedition that accomplished the feat just over a month later.  He must have been devastated when he reached the 90° latitude and encountered a Norwegian flag flying there.  He didn’t have long to lament that though because on the way back the entire expedition perished.  Scott’s last entry in his journal was dated March 29, 1912, two of the expedition members, Edgar Evans and Lawrence Oates, had previously succumbed on the journey back. Scott’s body and those of fellow explorers Edward Wilson and Henry Bowers were found huddled in their tent 8 months later - just 11 miles from a cache of food and supplies they had positioned for themselves on their way to the Pole.

Since the time of Amundsen and Scott there have been many “firsts” in Antarctica having to do with treks, traverses, deepest, tallest, and flights.  It’s as though, for a time, the White Continent had become a giant circus ground for adventurers achieving their goals, sometimes in the name of science and exploration. 

There is still a tremendous amount of important research being conducted there today by various countries and coalitions of countries.  And every few years the scientists get together for a year-long Sturgis of the Antarctic for international polar geeks - the most recent being the International Polar Year in 2007-2008.  The first International Polar Year took place in 1882-1883 and given the relative newness of Antarctic science research that IPY focused mainly on the northern polar region but there were four projects planned for the southern polar region.  These were geomagnetic and weather stations but by the end of the exercise only 1 station was successfully completed.

In 1957-1958 the world’s scientists (and militaries) gathered again in a spirit of cooperation for the International Geophysical Year which was more global in scope but Antarctica played an important role by virtue of its location at the bottom of the globe.

Sometime after that, even though research continues (remember the giant ozone hole of the 1970s?), the tourists started arriving.  Although, on a continent with no indigenous people, aren’t we all tourists? Lars Eric Lindblad is credited with arranging the first tourist expedition in 1966 in the MS Explorer and for every pretty much year since, ships of various sizes have visited the continent.  Overflights of the South Pole began in the 1970s, but as mentioned earlier, are they even visitors?  To be sure though, they definitely do have an impact on the environment.

The Tourists

So, how many people visit Antarctica each year?  I don’t know that any one person or organization knows the exact number but many sites profess to know.  Maybe the wide distribution of guesstimates gets down to the definition of a visitor - is it a tourist, a researcher, an explorer, a flyover, a sail by, or any combination of the preceding?  And the agenda of the writer/organization needs to be considered as well - do they want to pump up the numbers to make it seem like it’s out of control and that through some perverse application of Heisenberg’s principle we’re decimating the pristine environment, or are the numbers suppressed to make the idea of travel there seem more exclusive and alluring?

2007-2008 season 46,091(Lonely Planet)

2015-2016 season 38,478

2018-2019 season 36,907 (Cool Antarctica)

2018-2019 season 55,489 (Trip Savvy)

2018-2019 season 56,000 (New York Times)

2018-2019 season 54,226 (IAATO)

2019-2020 season 74,381 (IAATO)

The Tour Operator

The International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) was founded in 1991 by seven private Antarctic tour operators who recognized the absolute need to preserve this pristine environment. The 100-plus IAATO operators and members agree to adhere to the organization’s standards and guidelines that promote environmentally safe and responsible travel in Antarctica.  It is not a guarantee that any one operator will not break or bend the rules, but it’s a start.  Personally, I wouldn’t even consider a tour operator unless it was a member of IAATO.

The Tour Operator in this booking, Intrepid, is based out of Australia and, yes, they are an IAATO member.  Actually, they partnered with Chimu Adventures to charter the Ocean Endeavour for the season and they also are an IAATO member.

The Ship

According to the International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators (IAATO) there are about 95 ships registered to sail in Antarctic waters.  They range in size from the 12 passenger El Doblon to the 3000 passenger M/V Norwegian Star.  IAATO categorizes ships into four classes and each class carries its own guidelines:

• C1  – Traditional expedition ships that carry 13-200 passengers and make landings
• C2 –  Mid-size vessels that carry 201-500 passengers and make landings
• CR – Vessels that carry more than 500 passengers; cruise only, no landings 
• YA – Sailing or motor yachts that carry up to 12 passengers

I opted for a C1 ship - The Ocean Endeavour.  

A 12-passenger yacht, as intimate as it might be, just seemed a bit too small, and a CR class ship was absolutely out of the question - Antarctica is not a drive-by destination in my opinion. A smaller ship means less logistical issues getting people off/on shore which translates to more shore time so one of the C1 ships was the clear choice.

The Ocean Endeavour was built in the Szczecin shipyards of Poland in 1982 and was originally named for the Russian poet, Konstantin Simonov. The shipyard was one of the important centers of Polish resistance to the Communist regime (remember Lech Walesa and Solidarnosc in the1980s?) which resulted in the overthrow of the Communist government which in turn paved the way for the collapse and dissolution of the USSR the following decade.

The Konstantin Simonov was originally built for a Russian shipping company as a Ro-Ro ferry to ply the Baltic waters which is far enough north to ice up in the winter.  Since then, it has undergone several remodels and name changes - Francesca, The Iris, Kristina Katarina, and most recently, the Ocean Endeavour.

The first extensive remodel came only 6 years after it was launched to turn the ship into an expedition cruise ship, but it continued to sail as the Konstantin Simonov. After a sale in 1996 it was renamed the MS Francesca where it sailed the Mediterranean for the next 5 years. In 2001 it was again refitted and relaunched, this time as The Iris and it stayed primarily in the eastern Mediterranean. In 2010 it was refitted yet again and was resurrected as the Kristina Katarina to serve as the flagship of the Finnish Kristina Cruises to sail again in northern waters.

And, finally, in 2014 the ship was refitted, sold and renamed as the Ocean Endeavour.  In its current iteration it is 450 feet (137m) long, has a 53 foot (16m) beam, a draft of 18 feet (5.5 m). The relatively shallow draft for a ship of its size supposedly allows it to get closer to remote islands and unique locations located in more shallow waters.

The Ocean Endeavour sails under the Madeira (Portugal) flag and accommodates 199 guests. - right at the break-point from a C1 to a C2 in IAATO’s vessel classification system.  The Ocean Endeavour is C1 classified.

It has an ice-strengthened hull with an ice class rating of 1B which is characterized as “moderate” ice conditions which, honestly, is fairly mild but should be good enough for the austral summer.  You really don’t know until you experience the ship in person but my best guess is that it’s comfortable but doesn’t qualify as a luxury ship.  Likewise, it’s not a fishing trawler either.  It is an expedition ship.

The Gear

Intrepid is providing outer gear, muck boots and parka (on loan during the expedition), as well as an inner jacket (to keep).  Other operators provide a complete parka for you to keep - a nice gesture but I certainly wouldn't base my decision on which operator to guide me on an expedition based on a "free" jacket.

With all the turmoil with travel this summer of 2022, much of it focusing on checked baggage, my goal is to pack everything else in a carry-on and an under-the-seat backpack.  I believe the trick will be to insulate the camera gear with clothing and plan on doing laundry a couple of times. The gear also includes two camera bodies - a Canon T7i and a Canon 800D; one 8 lb. lens, the Sigma 150-600 for wildlife shots; an assortment of other Sigma and Canon lenses and filters and such; and a tripod sturdy enough to hold 10 lbs of camera gear in possibly adverse weather. I went with the Dolica GX600 Proline for the tripod - disassembled, it will just fit in a carry-on but its capability remains to be seen.