Cape Horn & Beagle Channel
For almost two days we have been riding the swells of the Southern Ocean, a large body of water surrounding the great white frozen continent of Antarctica. We can call Antarctica the freezer and the Arctic the refrigerator, as the Arctic is very much the opposite, a frozen ocean surrounded by land.
Our voyage across the ocean between the Continents are rarely never more than 36 hours. We can only admire the travelers on early expeditions who spent days or sometimes weeks in the Roaring 40’s, the Screaming 50’s and the Howling 60’s. Still the Drake can be a challenge and our Expedition Leader and Captain, we all agree, made a great decision as we sailed out early from Antarctica. Our ride on the edge of a deep low (storm!) was in fact almost pleasant, although not everybody onboard will agree.
Many happy faces showed up this morning as we approached the southern tip of South America, the famous Cape Horn. At last we had completed our transition and now after many days in the ice and snow it feels strange to see green islands covered with trees. Soon we were into the shelter of the Beagle Channel.
During our visit south we were able to feel the majestic place we call Antarctica, known for a lot of different things: the coldest, the windiest, the highest, more than 98% covered with ice. Now it is in very early summer, life has just started to fire up, penguins are incubating eggs except the emperors, which are winter breeders and now about to disperse from their colonies. The whales have started to arrive in the south to feed from their breeding and winter areas in the north. Still the landscape we saw was maybe more winter than summer, but life will progress because the summer season is short and soon again Antarctica will be imbedded with more snow and the sea will freeze again. In fact the sea ice surrounding Antarctica in late winter almost doubles the size of the “frozen continent.”
We have now learned that Antarctica was not only explored by Shackleton, Scott and Amundsen. Before these three ventured into Antarctica we saw many sail around: James Cook, Bellingshausen, d’Urville, Wilkes and of course James Clark Ross.
The Heroic age of Antarctic exploration 1895 - 1922 had many more explorers to find their way south. Now we know more names, Gerlache with his expedition onboard his ship Belgica, the first to winter below the Antarctic Circle. Later in the timeframe 1901-1905 several expeditions came south, Nordenkiöld with his ship Antarctica, Bruce with his ship Scotia, Drygalski with his ship Gauss and of course the ship Francais commanded by the gentlemen explorer Charcot.
The peak of the Heroic age was the race to the South Pole in 1910 - 1912. The English expedition under the command under Robert Falcon Scott was again back to McMurdo Sound to challenge the cruel cold inland of Antarctica but also soon became aware of a Norwegian explorer who also wanted to be the first to ever reach the South Pole, S 90oS. Roald Amundsen had sailed from Norway with the ship FRAM and based his winter station on the Ross Ice Shelf at Bay of Whales. He had years of experience from both Polar Regions and was using a completely different technique, skis and dogs.
In October 1911 both groups departed from their wintering bases to begin their approach to the hostile South Pole. Amundsen’s diary describes the trip as a “nice winter expedition” and skiing was easy and his dog teams were having heydays. Scott’s diary is very much the opposite and he talks about the suffering of his men to man haul the sledges. As we all know Roald Amundsen made it December 14, 1911, one hundred years ago and today December 17, 100 years ago they left to race back to the world and spread the news. A small new nation Norway had beaten the British Empire and even worse, the Royal Navy had seen its first defeat since the battle of Trafalgar.
During the days we made a rather comfortable ride from Antarctica and heading to South America, the Centennial for Amundsen’s achievement together with his team were enjoying a pleasant visit at the South Pole. Today December 17 one hundred years ago Amundsen started his race back to the wintering base Framheim. His goal was now to reach Hobart, Tasmania, as fast he ever could to ensure the world hear about their achievement. Scott at the same time still had more than month to struggle for reaching the Pole. He and his men did use the “British bulldog technique” adapted by the Royal Navy. We all know that Scott and four companions never made it back. Scott’s remark about the Pole was very different: “My God this is an awful place!”
Amundsen and his men had years of polar experience, and Amundsen had learned how to survive in the extreme environment that we also have touched but still only on the edge. The key for Amundsen’s success was skillful planning, using skis and dogs and also his men all had spent time in ice and snow.
Still today skillful planning and even more so, FLEXIBILTY to meet almost anything is always a key to any successful visit to Antarctica. Amundsen was flexible just as our visit had a plan but required the flexibility to change — and very soon flexibility became the core to achieve anything. We have seen during our adventure how the conditions in Antarctica change very rapidly hour by hour.
One thing we also learned: these explorer names keep coming back in both in the Arctic and Antarctica. Now as we have seen the icescape, we know why! The ice hits your soul! The “Polar Bug” comes over any human every visiting the real Polar Regions. I’m sure many during this voyage received the “virus” and it can only be cured by rapidly jumping on a trip, either north or south, to see the real icescape. Antarctica is and will always be a lifetime experience.
The secret to Amundsen’s total success was to understand calories! As we slowly approached our final destination Ushuaia in a very calm Beagle Channel our galley crew arranged Argentinean lomitos with cold beer on the sun deck. Salut for Antarctica!
