Lauren Haworth
Antarctica Trip
February '05
Ushuaia, Argentina | |
 | This was my first look at our ship, the Polar Pioneer. It had 6 decks. My room was on deck 3, right at dock level in this shot. |
 | I went horseback riding on nearby Mt Susana |
Setting Sail | |
 | A better shot of the ship |
 | My cabin: two narrow beds, a sink, closet, and desk. |
Drake Passage, sailing south | |
 | We had relatively calm seas when we hit the ocean. There were many low rollers to toss us around at night, but the weather was as good as can be expected for this dangerous stretch of water. |
 | We spent many hours on the bridge watching seabirds, dolphins, and whales. That's Roger, our naturalist, in the foreground. |
Deception Island | |
 | Our first iceberg sighted in the distance. |
 | Land ho! Our first sight of the South Shetland Islands |
Deception Island | |
 | Dressing to go ashore: rubber boots, two pairs of socks, long underwear pants, fleece pants, waterproof pants, 2 long underwear tops, fleece jacket, waterproof jacket, hat, sunglasses |
 | After easing through Neptune's Bellows, we anchored in the large sheltered Whaler's Bay. It was pouring down rain, so these shots had to be taken through my waterproof camera bag. The tanks on the left were used to store whale oil, back when tens of thousands of whales were slaughtered here. |
Cuverville Island | |
 | Approaching Cuverville Island |
 | Our landing site |
 | Which was covered with Gentoo rookeries. The smell from all of the penguin guano was almost overwhelming. |
 | Real penguins aren't those cute white birds in the photos. They're usually quite dirty, like this. |
 | Arriving back at the ship |
Lemaire Channel | |
 | This year has been a heavy ice year, and we weren't sure we'd be able to get through the Lemaire Channel. When we left Ushuaia, the word was that it was still blocked. But the day before we got there, another ship made it through for the first time this season. We approached carefully. |
 | Captain Gena kept a close eye on his mates as we eased our way through at about 4 knots. This 11 km channel is only 1600 meters wide, and the ship channel is quite narrow. |
 | Glaciers poured down cliff faces along each side. One glacier calved off a small berg as we passed. |
 | The sun poked through for a brief moment. |
Booth Island | |
 | Each bit of bare rock held a Gentoo rookery |
 | Seals slept on the pack ice in a bay on the far side of the island |
Crossing the Antarctic Circle | |
 | We tried to go down the Grandidier Channel, to approach the Circle via inland waters, but there was heavy pack ice |
 | Instead, we went out to sea and headed south through open ocean, before turning into Crystal sound to cross the Antarctic Circle (The circle is the point of latitude where you first get a 24-hour day of darkness in winter.) |
 | The captain, helmsman, radio officer, and 3rd mate discuss their options |
 | As we head into the sound, the radar shows a clear path to the Circle |
 | We all enjoyed champagne on the bow as we crossed the circle at 66°33'S 67°18'W and the captain blasted the horn |
 | Our expedition leader, Howard Whelan (left), smiles as we achieve his goal of crossing the Circle |
 | The GPS reading on the bridge proves we made it. |
 | The Crystal Sound was gray and gloomy, but still breathtaking |
 | As we headed further south, there was more and more pack ice in the Sound. Here, some seals are startled awake by our passing. |
 | We turned north again, passing some Adelie penguins as we re-crossed the Circle |
Fish Islands | |
 | As we headed north, we again attempted the Grandidier Channel. At first we were able to push through the pack ice. |
 | We eventually had to turn back, as there was just too much pack ice. We went back out to the ocean and sailed north to the Fish Islands |
 | We explored the Fish Islands from the Zodiacs, as there were no good landing sites on these tiny islands |
 | There were Adelie penguin rookeries on these islands. |
 | A closeup of an Adelie |
 | We cruised right below some of the glaciers, with their snow and ice looming over our heads |
Vernadsky Station | |
 | We ran into too much ice for the usual approach to Vernadsky Station, so Howard went ashore on a reconaissance mission to see if we could land on the other side of the island. |
 | We eventually made it ashore, and were met by 3 of the Ukrainian staff from the station |
 | A fur seal also met us at the landing site |
 | We had to trek a kilometer across the island through deep snow and across tricky rock outcroppings. My trekking poles came in handy. That's the base behind me. |
 | Once we got inside, we added our coats and boots to their large collection in the mud room |
 | We parted with many of our US dollars in the self-proclaimed "southernmost souvenir shop on the earth". I acquired a t-shirt and a burgee from a former Soviet research ship. |
 | We visited Faraday Bar, built when this was a British base called Faraday. The Ukrainians bought it from the British for one pound. |
 | I'm posing by the device that was used by a Ukrainian scientist who first discovered the hole in the ozone layer over Antarctica. It is still in use measuring the ozone layer. |
Petermann Island | |
 | We landed amid icebergs |
 | This island held an encampment of American researchers, in addition to its Penguins |
 | |
 | We often saw molting adult penguins like this. He has to sit here hungry until all of his new feathers grow in and he can go back to sea to feed |
 | On snow, the penguins would often "swim" along instead of waddling |
 | The only plant life we saw in Antarctica was the occasional moss between rocks |
| Penguins create these highways between the shore and their rookeries. I could sit along side and they'd walk right by, completely ignoring me |
 | A Skua (left) eyes the penguin chicks in this rookery, with the adult penguins keeping a close eye. Skua will often kill small penguin chicks. |
 | As the chicks get older, the parents will leave them alone in these crèches as they go to sea to feed |
 | A penguin parent feeding its chick |
 | The 3 American researchers came aboard for a hot shower and a drink, but then had to go back through snow and 30-knot winds back to their camp as we left |
Port Lockroy | |
 | We anchored off Port Lockroy |
 | This former British base is now just a museum. |
 | I bought some postcards and mailed them from the base |
 | This Gentoo chick must have thought I was its mother. |
 | The penguins at this heavily-visited site are very used to humans, and let us get quite close. |
 | A whale skeleton |
Waterboat Point | |
 | We needed to kill some time as another ship was at our next stop, Neko Bay, so we stopped at Waterboat Point. It was named for an early base here made from an overturned water boat. The first real research on Penguins was done at that base. |
 | A Snowy Sheathbill |
 | There were a number of fur seals that were eager to pose for our pictures. |
 | |
 | This cute chick is unfortunately so tiny that it is unlikely to survive. The chicks have to be fully fledged and able to go to sea before winter, when they'll be abandoned by their parents. |
Neko Bay | |
 | We anchored in Neko Bay |
 | We took the Zodiacs out to explore the icebergs before our landing. This one had a tunnel through the middle |
 | We then made our only landing on the Antarctic mainland |
 | We cruised around a bit more. This shot shows the two types of algae (red and green) that grow in the snow |
 A magical moment: We climbed out of our Zodiac onto this ice floe to take a picture (you can't easily tell from this angle, but we're on a floe in the middle of the bay). As the Zodiac pulled back for this shot, three Minke whales swam by just 15 feet away on the other side of the floe. Of course not one of us had a camera to record the moment, as we'd handed them over to the people on the Zodiac to take our pictures! | |
 | We had a barbecue on the back deck that evening. |
Almirante Brown Base | |
 | We visited the Argentinian base Almirante Brown, it was closed for the season except for a guy there to make some repairs |
 | We hiked up the hill for a great view of the bay below |
 | The real reason we climbed the hill: a great sliding track back down |
 | Sliding down the track |
 | Others built snowmen. We had to dismantle the snowmen when we left, as the Antarctic Peninsula is always supposed to be left looking untouched. |
Paradise Harbor | |
 | As we awoke in Paradise Harbor, the clouds began to lift |
 | This crabeater seal was eager to pose for us. It kept rolling around to give us different angles. |
 | A glacier's edge reflected in the still waters of Paradise Harbor |
 | A Weddell seal on an iceberg |
 | The glaciers were everywhere. One of the other Zodiacs got an up close view of a large iceberg calving off. On my Zodiac, we heard lots of cracks and groans of the ice, but nothing came down |
 | This leopard seal was a bit shy, and dove off his ice floe as we approached. |
 | However, he was curious, and kept popping up to look at us as we circle the berg. |
 This shot says it all. Antarctica is unbelievably strange and beautiful | |
 | In honor of our location, Tina's cocktail of the day was a "Paradise Snow": Vodka, Kahlua, cream, and ice run through a blender (with a green cherry on top) |
 | Sailing out of Paradise |
Melchior Islands | |
 | Chinstrap penguins on one of the islands. This is a rarely visited area, so they were very curious about us |
 | This leopard seal was also curious, and popped up around our boats for a while |
 | A large harem of fur seals hanging out |
 | We had to fight some serious wind and waves going back to the ship. My roommate Kathy was in good spirits despite the dousing. |
Passage Home | |
 | The Drake Passage was a bit rougher on the return trip, with 4-5 meter seas, but this was still a smooth passage |
 | We approached Ushuaia at dawn |
 | Coming into port. |
Buenos Aires | |
 | It was strange to be in a major city after all of the empty spaces in Antarctica |
 | The main square. The balcony in the background is where Eva Perón made her famous speech |
 | Tango dancers performing for tips in a nearby square |
 | How come it doesn't look so good when I try it? |
 | La Recoleta, Buenos Aires' famous cemetary |
 | A day trip to Colonia, across the Rio Plata in Uruguay |