Part of the experience of going to Antarctica requires a sort of “right of passage”—Drake Passage that is. For some the thought of crossing this body of water brings on thoughts of nausea and hours of discomfort. In 1578 Sir Frances Drake was blown southward after passing through the Strait of Magellan to find that open water existed south of the southernmost islands of South America. In subsequent centuries sailors dreaded having to “round the Horne,” particularly from east to west against the prevailing westerly winds and easterly flowing ocean current. Historical accounts tell of ships spending weeks trying to make it through these waters.
For the National Geographic Explorer and its group of excited “soon to be” Antarctic explorers, leaving the Beagle Channel and turning southward into the Drake Passage was almost imperceptible. Even after long hours of flying from various destinations across the world and tiring airport waits, the compliment of guests on the ship rose excitedly to a very tranquil ocean passage. Those keen to see wildlife were on the decks with binoculars and treated to a long list of species observed flying along the ship and over the slightly rippling waters. Three or four species of albatross crossed into view as well as other Southern Ocean seabirds. By breakfast the list of sightings kept by the staff naturalists had already covered much of the white board on the bridge.
The first activity after breakfast was to meet the compliment of naturalists guides and educators for the expedition. As they introduced themselves we learned that many had a tremendous amount of experience in Antarctica and elsewhere in the world. We also came to realize that their expertise was varied and soon we would be treated to all kinds of information about everything from how to capture our experience via cameras to the undersea world to seabirds and various other aspects of this remote part of the world. We also discovered that through the great fortune of having fantastic weather we would make landfall hours ahead of schedule. Therefore the early afternoon program was cancelled for the time being and instead we attended the mandatory briefings for visiting Antarctica and also the procedures for safely going ashore. This was then followed by “decontamination” procedures. In order to insure no foreign organisms such as seeds were not inadvertently brought ashore on our first landings, the staff processed any outerwear clothing and packs or camera bags. An army of vacuum cleaners and scrub brushes with disinfectant wielded by the staff cleaned any previously used equipment.
Then following this we were treated to the first presentation by the Global Perspective guest speaker, Peter Hillary, eloquently telling us the stories of his expeditions to the North Pole, South Pole, and Mount Everest. Soon we again gathered in the main lounge for the first evening Recap. Various members of the staff gave short presentations on topics of the day from sightings recorded on the bridge to size perspective in some of the seabirds observed during the day to historical accounts of albatross. All then went to dinner but few dallied in the dining room afterwards anticipating resting in preparation for rising early tomorrow, which promised to be our first views of land and Antarctica, possibly even sightings of some of the wildlife.
