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Crossing the Circle, Antarctica 2011

By : April Killingsworth & Hosea Gruber
Trip Begins February 27, 2011
Trip Ends March 12, 2011

My husband & I accomplished our goal of having visited all 7 continents with our Crossing the Circle cruise in March 2011. We started the trip by crossing below the Antarctic Circle, continued with zodiac cruises through iceberg graveyards, saw lots of wildlife, went camping on the ice and did a polar plunge...twice! All in all, it was the trip of a lifetime!
See my photos : Crossing the Circle, Antarctica 2011

Want to go? Akademik Ioffe: Antarctic Circle Voyage

I went to: Antarctica, Drake Passage, Antarctic Polar Circle, Antarctic Peninsula, South Shetland Islands, Macquarie Island
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February 27, 2011
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Embarkation Day

Ushuaia

Our boarding time wasn't until 16:00 so we spent the morning of Embarkation Day touring the Terra del Fuego National Park. It was amazing to see the mountain tops of Chile from where we stood on the other side of the Beagle Channel. We also got to stand at the end of the Pan American Highway...maybe traveling that from north to south will be our next adventure!

Our ship was the Akademik Ioffe and once on board we immediately headed to the outside decks to enjoy the gorgeous Beagle Channel as we departed Ushuaia. The clouds were low, the sunlight was amazing and there was a rainbow welcoming us out to sea. We were off with a bang!

February 28, 2011
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The Drake Passage, Day 1

Drake Passage, Antarctica

Our first of three days sailing the infamous Drake Passage. Thankfully, I had gotten a prescription from our doctor for the patch. I have a terrible time with motion sickness & the patch was a lifesaver! Hosea, on the other hand...not as lucky! We ended up calling the ship's doctor, Dr. Fiona, and she was able to give him some stronger medication than the over-the-counter stuff he was taking. He ended up spending most of the Drake Passage days lying in his bunk while I attended the lectures on my own.

Our cabin was very narrow & small but had 2 portholes and lots of ingenious storage compartments. The bunks were more comfortable than I anticipated!

Today's lectures: Seabirds of the Southern Ocean, Secrets of Polar Photography, Shackleton & the Greatest Expedition of the Heroic Age and Whales of the Southern Ocean. It was exciting to hear about all of the amazing creatures we were about to see!

March 1, 2011
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The Drake Passage, Day 2

Drake Passage, Antarctica

Our second of three days at sea in through the Drake Passage. When the weather is calm we are allowed on the outer decks, but that is pretty rare on the Drake. The waves seem pretty rough, but when we ask a crew member to rate them on a scale of 1 to 10 he says it is only about a 4. I guess we were pretty lucky!

Today's lectures: Seals of Antarctica, Antarctic Geology, The World of Penguins, and Polar Photography - The Grail. We had professional wildlife photographer, Paul Goldstein, as a special guest on our expedition. We really appreciated getting photography tips from him throughout the trip & enjoyed seeing his own photographic view of our journey!

The crew were conducting a poll to see who could guess the first iceberg sighting. It was today! Our guesses were off by about 5 hours too late.

March 2, 2011
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Crossing the Circle! (Drake Passage, Day 3)

Antarctica

Today is the day that we cross below the Antarctic Circle! (66 degrees 33' South) We all gather on the bow of the ship for a photo and a toast of hot cocoa & rum and the captain blows the ships horn as we cross the circle. The expedition crew said at that moment we were further south than any other civilian (i.e. non-military or scientist) in the world. I'm getting chills even now remembering the moment!

Today we vacuumed all of our clothing & bags that we were planning to take with us on landings just to make sure we didn't transport any seeds or other plant/animal particles to the Continent where it can threaten the native habitat. And the day's lectures: Amundson the Sportsman, Scott the Hero? and Glacial Ice.

March 3, 2011
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Stonington & Horseshoe Islands

Antarctica

Typically we would have two excursions per day, one after breakfast and one after lunch. Our first landing was on Stonington Island where we were able to explore two historic huts. The first was British Antarctic Survey Station E which was famous for its surveying work in the late 1940s and early 1950s. Our ship had an excellent historian on board, Victoria Salem, and she was always around with tons of information about all of the huts we visited. At this particular location most of the surveying work was done via dogsled! And this hut was active as recently as 1960. The second hut on Stonington Isl. is the United States East Base, the earliest remaining US hut in Antarctica and the location where the first women to winter in Antarctica lived. The women were accompanying their husbands and Victoria told us that the legend is that the men did not get along, so the women refused to speak to each other out of loyalty to their husbands. It must have been a long winter!

After lunch we landed at Horseshoe Island where we saw another of the British Antarctic Survey's base. This station studied geology & meteorology in addition to surveying the local area.

March 4, 2011
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Detaille Island (Failed Landing)

Antarctica

Today we were supposed to land at Detaille Island, but the seas were too rough so we were stuck on board. Still we had great iceberg viewing when we were allowed on the outside decks & we saw our first iceberg "calve" where a big chunk of ice breaks off and falls in the water. It was so loud! We also had a lecture called: Ice is Nice. :)

March 5, 2011
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Pleneau Bay, Petermann Island & Lemaire Channel

Antarctica

One of our best days! Our first outing was zodiac cruising in an iceberg graveyard in Pleneau Bay. By far one of the highlights of our entire trip. There's a place in the bay where the currents have driven lots & lots of icebergs aground. Many of the icebergs are very old & have come from as far south as the Ross Ice Shelf. We also saw penguins & seals swimming right next to our zodiac, including one leopard seal that was having penguin for lunch. It was a pretty wild ride!

The afternoon landing was at Petermann Island where we saw our first large groups of penguins, mostly Adelie's and Gentoo's. Penguins, penguins everywhere!

Once back on the ship we cruised through Lemaire Channel which was quite beautiful as it was pretty narrow with towering glaciers all around. Loved this day!

March 6, 2011
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Neko Harbour & Paradise Bay

Antarctica

This was probably our other most favorite day... First we landed in Neko Harbour which was our first landing on the actual continent of Antarctica (as opposed to islands). HOORAY! Neko is notorious for its calving glaciers and we weren't allowed to be on the beach in case of a large calving that could cause massive waves. We heard a lot of calving & saw one iceberg flip totally upside down!

Our second landing of the day was at Paradise Bay, also on the continent. We had a steep hike up for a view of the bay from above and then a zodiac cruise around the bay. The sun came out just in time for our zodiac cruise and boy, what a difference the sun makes! The blue sky paired with the blue ice...amazing!

We were also supposed to go camping this night, but the weather conditions weren't ideal so that plan was delayed.

March 7, 2011
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Cuverville & Danco Islands and CAMPING!

Antarctica

After breakfast we landed at Cuverville Island which is small & rocky and home to the largest Gentoo penguin colony in the region. Over 4800 breeding pairs of penguins! One thing you don't realize about penquins before you see them all in their natural habitat...they STINK! So, so stinky...you can smell the guano before the zodiac even pulls up to land if the wind is in your face!

For lunch we had an American style BBQ on the deck of the ship! So amazing to have a hamburger & corn on the cob while surrounded by glaciers. But you had to eat fast because the food got cold quickly!

Our afternoon landing was on Danco Island, which also has a large Gentoo penguin colony. There are spectacular views from the top of the island - cravassed glaciers all around the surrounding islands. We also saw humpback whales as we sailed the Errera Channel.

That night we finally got to go camping! I was under the impression that we would be in tents, but um...not so much. We slept in sleeping bags, inside bivvy bags right on the ice. Because you aren't allowed to leave anything behind on the protected land, we ate dinner on board the ship and got ready for bed (teeth brushing, etc.) before we left the ship for the night. Basically we were just allowed to sleep on land & we were back on board before breakfast. At our campsite we were each given a bottle of water and there was a bucket for...taking care of business. Now I am notorious for getting up in the middle of the night & try as I did to ignore the urge...but it ended up being one of my favorite memories from the trip. Hosea had promised to go with me, but was twisted up & stuck in his sleeping bag. So I ventured off into the dark of the Antarctic night all by myself, just me & my headlamp, the sound of ice & ocean all around. Made me feel both small & invincible at the same time. I know I keep saying this but it was...AMAZING!

March 8, 2011
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Port Lockroy

Antarctica

We were meant to also land on Goudier Island which was right near Port Lockroy, but there were too many penguins to land the zodiacs without disturbing them. So we cruised around the island to see some of the whale skeletons, mostly Gentoo penguins (and 1 Chinstrap!) and pick up some of the popping ice.

We took turns landing at Port Lockroy which has a museum, gift shop & post office. It is also a working British research station that was operated by 4 women scientists this past year. We were one of the last tours of the season & they were shutting down for the winter. We sent postcards at the post office, but the last pickup had already come & gone...the next pickup is November 2011. Today was my sister's birthday so I sent her a postcard. Sorry Amber...I think your b-day postcard is going to be late! So crazy to think of our postcards sitting in that little red metal mailbox the entire winter season. We also got a stamp in our passports here!

March 9, 2011
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Deception & Half Moon Islands (South Shetland Islands)

South Shetland Islands, Antarctica

This was our last day of landings before heading back to Argentina. We landed in Whaler's Bay on Deception Island, known for massive whale slaughters in the 1900s. There were huge metal barrels originally used to store whale oil. It is said that some days the waters would be red because of all the whale blood. You can still find lots of whale bones on the beach. The beach is black from volcanic ash & soot. If you look closely you can also see boiled sea urchins and other tiny ocean invertebrates that got cooked by volcanically warmed waters. This is also the beach where we did our polar plunge! The running into the frigid water was the easy part...wading back out & putting your clothes back on when you're wet was the hard part! Hosea also did a second plunge back on the ship - he jumped off the gangplank with a rope tied to his lifevest so the crewman could haul him back up. He got a shot of vodka and the captain blew the ship's horn in praise of his courage! (I had already showered & was warm from our first plunge...no way was I doing it all over again!)

After lunch (and a long hot shower) we landed at Half Moon Island where we finally got to see...Chinstrap penguins! There are around 3300 Chinstrap pairs on this island as well as one single Macaroni penguin that has been living with this particular Chinstrap colony for the past 2+ seasons.There are also many large birds that breed on this island. You could see the carcasses of penguins lying around from where the larger flying birds had attacked them. We also saw a group of young male fur seals fighting with each other.

Half Moon Island was our final landing on this expedition and home to 3000+ Chinstrap penguins (and one single Macaroni). These are the last of our photos from this trip as we spent the last 3 days in our bunks as we sailed back through the notoriously rough Drake Passage back to Ushuaia. The end of our once in a lifetime adventure!

March 10, 2011
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The Drake Passage, headed home

Drake Passage, Antarctica

The trip back through the Drake was a bit rougher the second time around with waves measuring 6 meters (meaning 6 meters above the horizon line & 6 meters below, so the ship could be rising & falling 12 meters total over big waves!). My patch was still doing a pretty good job keeping my head & stomach settled, but we spent a lot of time keep still in our bunks when we weren't at meals or lectures.

The day's lectures: Orca - Natural Born Killers, Ecology of the Southern Ocean - The Story of Krill, The Antarctic Treaty and Realm of the Polar Bear. No, there are not any polar bears in Antarctica. They are only in the Northern Hemisphere. But this talk certainly got everyone excited for a trip to the Arctic!

We ended the day with the results of the photo competition & we got an honorable mention. I was very surprised considering we were traveling with many wildlife photography enthusiasts!

March 11, 2011
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The Drake Passage

Drake Passage, Antarctica

We spent most of the day packing up our cabin and closing out accounts in preparation for the next day's landing & disembarkation. We were also able to tour the ship once we were in the calmer waters of the channel. I was amazed at how clean everything was, even the engine room! The expedition staff premiered a slideshow of photos from our journey and we ended the day with a farewell dinner hosted by the Captain.

The day's lecture: Living & Working in Antarctica

March 12, 2011
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Arrival in Ushuaia

Ushuaia

We arrived in the port of Ushuaia early in the morning and were disembarked by 8:30am. We spent the day in town & at the airport saying our last goodbyes & exchanging information with the friends we had met on our extraordinary journey. That afternoon we were on a flight back to Los Angeles via Buenos Aires. What an amazing experience we've had! One we will never, ever forget.

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