Antarctica :
Dream Voyage
Cruising on the "Antarctic Dream"
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penguins shuffle...pitch in a few 25-story building-sized aquamarine icebergs with their tops jutting above the waterline at odd angles. There are glaciers elsewhere: the lingering bits in Montana’s Glacier National Park will melt by 2020. New Zealand’s Fox and Franz Joseph’s Glaciers, attractions I marveled at in the 80s, now seem puny. Alaska and Norway have significant offerings, but Antarctica is a glacier that’s 1.5 times larger than the U.S., and is constantly calving icebergs into the ocean. It’s a live show.
The daily landings are epic, but the Zodiac tours that don’t touch land were also highlights. We toured several iceberg showrooms, where ice art ranged from Renaissance classics to bizarre surrealism, while snoring seals napped on ice floes and bergy bits (ice chunks smaller than minivans). The stunning array of ice sculptures were all crisply reflected in calm waters. And if we can stem the tide of melting ice, it will remain unspoiled here—the universally approved 1959 Antarctic Treaty permits only research. Visiting boats aside, there’s nowhere to eat, sleep, or gamble.
The Drake Passage
Frequently patriotic about Chile, the Dream’s crew restocked a Chilean research station with fresh water and other supplies. While visiting the station (probably an incognito Chilean Navy Base), one-third of a nearby ten-story building-sized iceberg calved, pushing a huge wave toward the base and scaring researchers and panicked tourists into uphill sprints. As the remaining two-thirds of the berg rocked giant and slow in recovery, witnessing something that colossal oscillate in slow motion morphed into a dreamy optical illusion. I watched while others fled. If this had been a deadly emergency, I’d have been the guy left behind cheering, whoa!
Recently, ships on this route have been known to sink (miraculously, everyone got off a GAP Adventures ship with a rock-torn hull in time and were rescued by a nearby ship), lose engines, and be partially crippled in savage Drake Passage storms (the Clelia II cruise ship), or be dented by uncharted rocks (Polar Star) forcing passengers to be transferred to other ships. Luckily, scheduled ship traffic means help can be available, and Chilean and British Navy ships have also aided rescues, but this is the worst place on earth to fix a problem. The Antarctic Dream is one of the safest ships in the industry. Its ice-strengthened hull was built specifically for polar navigation and exploration, it has an emergency heliport, and three engines (just in case, a carryover from its Chilean military days).
My most intense sense of Antarctica’s unpredictable spirit was in the narrow Lemaire Channel, which our ship passed through in both directions in a matter of hours. Our initial passage through the glacially flanked channel was calm and picturesque. The return was savagely ice-clogged because a brutal windstorm knocked gigantic glacier chunks off the towering mountains lining the passage. Our bulldozing return through the channel was tricky, especially in stormy 80-knot winds.
Deception Island
Before tackling the Drake Passage again, northbound, we disembarked to trek around Deception Island, an eight-mile-diameter volcanic caldera with a brown-rock moony landscape. A long hike around the caldera’s rim, battling gale-force winds, provided a final chance to stride upon an otherworld evoid of anything familiar. Another part of this island’s shoreline steams where geothermal-heated water flows into the icy ocean, making a warmish swim an option in a very finite area. A Canadian guy and his Greek wife also took the plunge. I later found out that dip probably landed him in an Athens hospital suffering pneumonia.
My final Antarctic wildlife observation may have been a return to New York omen. No doubt a ‘beachmaster,’ a hefty, dominant, snarky male seal guardingvand breeding with his harem on his breeding beach galloped 100 feet on strong fins toward a neutral Swiss guy snarling like a frenzied junkyard dog. Yes, this is still their place.
‘Dock rocking’ is the swaying sensation felt on land after being at sea for a long time. Mine resembled a two-beer buzz and lasted days. Despite the fuming seal and fruit war, this Antarctica dream enlightened and bewildered. Goodbye, sweet air.
Getting There
To sail the Antarctic Dream visit:
www.antarcticdream.com
Phone: 877.238.7477.
Season runs from November 1 until March 6
11-day expeditions depart and return to Ushuaia, Argentina. Kayaking available.
LAN flies seamlessly throughout South America, including to Ushuaia, the gateway to Antarctica.
www.lan.com.
On my way to and from Antarctica, LAN made it easy for me to stop over in Buenos Aires and Uruguay—and anywhere else on your South American wish list. LAN’s gateway cities for the U.S. are San Francisco, Los Angeles, Miami, and New York (JFK).
Lonely Planet’s Antarctica guidebook is one of the niftiest guides I’ve ever taken on a trip, partly because it doesn’t have to toil with sleep or eat listings. (It’s internationally illegal to ....