We spent about 3 days in Cape Town. We had a ball of a time there, visiting The Waterfront and soaking in the Christmas carnival atmosphere there. We also did a bit of sight seeing there. After loading 2 helicopters and 3 pilots along with our fuel stock for the whole year, some polar clothing and food supplies and 2 more expedition members, we sailed for Antarctica on the morning of 25th Dec 2007. It was a poignant moment. I was leaving the civilised world for one long year. I did not know what lay ahead. We were all on the deck till land faded out of view. What lay beyond that huge ocean was the fabled land of Antarctica. The climate was getting colder each day. Soon the Albatross was seen- a beautiful bird with a huge wing span. It could glide thousands of kilometres and could dive with lightning speed. Soon we entered the Roaring 40s- the first layer that maintains Antarctica in isolation. These latitudes had some of the stormiest seas. One low pressure system followed another, and the ship tried to negotiate through them but still we were caught in a few spells of rolling and pitching, with stuff falling all over the place. The dining room floor was littered with tomato sauce and jams. Chairs were lying all over the place. Temperatures were almost subzero by now. We were expecting icebergs any moment now. We spotted the first one on 30th Dec at 53deg south, 14 deg east. It was a conical structure, with a bluish, glassy tinge to it. That one was photographed extensively. We had to wait some time before sighting the next iceberg. But soon we reached the second layer of nature’s defence of Antarctica, and perhaps the most formidable layer- pack ice. Pack ice is frozen ocean, where the ice has broken down into pieces due to melting in the summers or due to storms. They are huge pieces, several feet in thickness which can shatter the hull of a normal ship. But ice class ships like ours have a strengthened hull that can easily negotiate pack ice. Pack ice was the reason most ships were unable to reach Antarctica when it was first being explored and sank many others. Many crews had to winter over in Antarctica because their ships were stuck on pack ice.
This was a fascinating place. Miles and miles of frozen ocean all around, littered with ice bergs. The ship used to smash the pack ice by its weight as it made its way south. The speed was reduced to a crawl- 2 knots as compared to a normal of 10-12 knots. The crunching sound of ice under the ship was music to our ears and the sight of huge pieces of ice being smashed was awesome. Soon enough we started sighting Antarctica wildlife- penguins (Adelie and Emperor) and seals passing us by on floating ice. There were occasional sightings of the killer whales as well. The seas were extremely calm here. Since 31st Dec 2007 when we crossed the Antarctic circle, the sun stopped setting. We ushered in the New Year in broad daylight. There was no night or evening. The sun used to circle the sky crazily. The length of the shadows varied with the time of day or night. We depended on thick curtains to simulate night and enable us to sleep. On the 3rd Jan 2008, I was woken by sudden jerks of the ship, as if it had been hit by something. I went out and saw a vast expanse of ice as far as the eye could see. It was not broken like pack ice. It was uniform, frozen ocean- fast ice. In the distance, I saw a huge wall of ice that extended for miles together. Then I realised that we had reached Antarctica. And to think that till a month back, this place sounded like something out of fairy tales. The ship was banging against the thick fast ice to break it in order to moor itself. So thick was the ice that even the ship which weighed several thousand tons was unable to break it. The huge ice wall in the distance was the ice shelf- the nature’s 3rd line of defence, the part of the huge polar continental ice that protruded into the sea for a 100 km. This area was called India Bay. Our ship comes here every year. On the fast ice, were the trademarks of Antarctica- the penguins. The most adorable creature on earth. They resembled stuffed toys. They had crowded around the ship in hundreds out of curiosity. One could spend hours together just watching their antics. The way they waddled and squawked was the most enticing.
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