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Walt West

(Professor Molchanov Antarctica Cruise, Feb 2005)

Antarctica! I’m writing this brief story of my recent travel to Antarctica in late February 2005. This is just two weeks after returning from a thrilling, unbelievable, and different expedition-type adventure, where you never know what to expect and the itinerary is determined largely by the erratic and changing weather and sea conditions.

My tour was based on a Russian ship, the M/V Professor Molchanov, with Captain Evgeny Baturkin commanding the crew of twenty. We were 42 passengers – 17 from the USA and 25 from nine other countries.

My efforts on the way down confirmed that a trip to Antarctica must be earned. I left home at 2 AM to go to the Philadelphia airport for my flight to Miami. Hours later I boarded a second plane for an overnight flight to Buenos Aires, Argentina. I spent a night in Buenos Aires before boarding my flight to Ushuaia, on the southernmost tip of Argentina. After a night in Ushuaia, I finally boarded the ship and settled in to my cabin.

I was finally starting to get excited and really believing that we were getting ready to go. After all, my first knowledge of the Antarctic went back to 1929 when I, and many others, used to hang on the drama of the short wave radio broadcasts from Richard Byrd in ‘Little America’. From then on, even though I served in the Arctic Polar Regions during WWII and had visited Greenland twice, I’ve always wanted to visit the southern polar region. Now, I was finally going there!

But first, for the next two days, we had to cross the notoriously rough Drake Passage, heading south from Cape Horn. This stretch of sea is known as the world’s stormiest waters, and it can really get rough. We were somewhat fortunate in that during our crossings down and back, we had severe rolling for only about half of the time. During these times, we really had to hold on tight! For the rest of the time, the ship just rolled while we braced!

After arriving in Antarctica, we were lucky enough to experience good weather for several hours at a time, interspersed with the foggy and cloudy conditions that are so prevalent in Antarctica. The weather in the Polar Regions is always changeable, and differs from hour to hour. Temperatures during the daytime hovered around the freezing point, which is “warm” in the Antarctic summer. Sunrises and sunsets were always colorful, though we were close to having 24 hours of daylight!

Our landings and inlet cruises were made in Zodiacs – swift, low-draft, outboard powered landing boats. They hold 8 to 10 passengers – each sitting on the inflatable sides – plus the driver manning the rear-mounted motor. To board the Zodiac, we would go down a sloping ladder along the side of the ship, where we were met and assisted into the boat by members of the crew. We had to time our steps from the ladder platform into the Zodiac to match the sea swells. Once all were boarded on the Zodiac and seated on the round sides, we would hold the ropes on the sides of the boat during the ride to shore.

During our landings we were able to observe penguins up close as we walked among them. We saw three different penguin species – Adelie, Chinstrap, and Gentoo. We were advised not to touch them and not to block their path to the water’s edge as they went in after food. The penguin nests were often a considerable distance from the water’s edge – up to ¼ mile away and up a steep hill. Since penguins do not fly, they just walk and swim, when they went between the nests and the water they waddled each step across rocks and snow, using their flippers for balancing.

We happened to visit the colony during chick-rearing time. Mothers frequently went out to catch krill in the water to bring back to the young chicks. Watching the chicks getting food from their mothers’ throats was fascinating to see. The father penguins were busy building nests for their new families. They would walk to and from patches of pebbles, carrying one at a time in their beaks to deposit in a circle to make the new nest. Occasionally, other penguins would steal the pebbles of a neighbor to aid it’s own construction efforts, with squabbles and fights ensuing.

With thousands of penguins gathered together, the rookery was a noisy place. The mothers would call their chicks by raising their heads skyward and call out a loud “AW-W-H-K!!” Their chicks would then return the call. Somehow, each respective “aw-w-h-k” was different from all the others, and mother and chick were able to identify each other.

In addition to seeing the penguins, we saw many other types of wildlife. Other types of birds – cormorants, gulls, petrels, and albatrosses – flocked to the rocks surrounding us. Although I am not a birder, I enjoyed the opportunity to take pictures of these polar inhabitants in their natural setting. We could walk near various types of seals resting between swims. We were also fortunate enough to be near whales in the bays. They were playing – raising their tail flukes into the air before diving deep into the water.

The scenery, whether in good weather or bad, from the ship or from the Zodiac, was never ending! To use a few adjectives, it was Awesome! Spectacular! Overwhelming! Colorful! Memorable! Breathless! During one Zodiac cruise, we came within 50 feet of the face of a glacier flowing into the water. The face of the wall of ice went straight up above us for 100 feet or more. Although massive, it was equally beautiful. The soft rays of cobalt blue across the face of the glacier were stunning. The Zodiac crew turned off the engine to let us enjoy the view. The quietude of the scene was just overwhelming. Although I was a bit nervous about the glacier calving near us, the experience was well worth the risk.

As vivid as my memories of my adventure are, words and pictures cannot describe the feeling of actually being there and seeing Antarctica! Reality was more powerful than expectation!



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