Drake Passage Part II

Update #6

Zombies - Our second and third days on the Drake Passage would put the
crew to the test, after watch shifts, cold nights, rolling seas, sea
sickness, and only a few hours of darkness each day, sleep depravation
was starting to kick in. Our shifts were split into 3 hour watches, each
with three crew, and either Darryl or Ben navigating, and competing for
the speed record when the wind really picked-up, the record finally
going to Darryl who managed to top 22 knots while surfing the yacht on a
huge rolling wave! These make Cook Strait look tiny by comparison.

A Bump in the Night – It wasn't long after the speed record was bagged,
before something went bump in the night and woke a few from their deep
sleep. The yacht had rolled heavily from side-to-side and in the process
threw Mary from her top bunk. With the lights back on we found Mary on
the floor bleeding from her head, we managed to patch her up the best we
could given the circumstances, and get her back to sleep. In the
morning Ben gave Mary a check-up, and after applying some benadine and
making a turban for her head, Mary was declared ship-shape again.

Phantom Burglars & Ghost Ships – After some time spent in the Antarctic
convergence zone, we modified our shifts to include the iceberg watch,
which basically involved two people poking their heads out into the wind
and sea-spray to lookout for Icebergs, fondly called Iceburglars by
Jane, probably because after a while she thought they'd all been nicked.
That was until the radar picked-up a massive burglar ahead, after
slowing the yacht, we patiently waited for a mountain to appear, it
never did though, we suspected it was just fog – or was it… later that
evening, still in the fog, visibility down to 100m, up pops something
that looks like a ship, after a couple of exchanges with a Russian
ship-mate, we thought we were set to pass well clear of each other,
although they decided to play a crazy Ivan on us and continue head
towards us, only a glimpse of a steaming light seen through the thick
fog indicated how close we actually passed!

Deception Island

Land Ahoy – and not a moment too soon. It was a hard run across Drake
Passage, the crew were tired and land was a welcome sight this morning.
When first seen, Deception Island is very peculiar shape, and now has
a relatively new and fascinating crown-shaped volcanic add-on (1970),
apparently the skyscraper sized appendage appeared over-night. On a map
Deception Island is crater shaped, with one small opening where the
crater wall was breached by the sea.

Growlers – As we lined-up our course into the mouth of the crater, we
were on the look-out for Growlers, and still the prize for finding the
first Iceberg. Growlers are small chunks of ice that break-off larger
ice sheets, icebergs or fast-ice still attached to the mainland. Some
of these can be fairly substantial and even the smallest ones can be
rock hard so it's best to avoid them in a fragile yacht.

Deception Landing – We found a mooring in a sheltered corner of the
crater, on the way we noticed that we weren't the only visitors, a
cruise ship had been parked-up in one corner for the night, another
smaller vessel was tucked in there too. We decided that we needed to
conquer this Island and get some much needed exercise, so we jumped into
a inflatable Zodiac and off we went – what a great feeling for the whole
crew to finally walk on Antarctica J We spent the next 90 minutes
open-jawed, pottering around an area with similar terrain to Ruapehu,
and like any respectable Kiwi or Pom would do, we were soon reduced to
making snow slides.

Hot Water Beach – After a lunch break back on the boat we were feeling
quite please with ourselves, and began talking ourselves up a little
over who would brave the local spa facilities found on the Island. A
number of beaches boast hot volcanic spas and are easily identified by
steam from where the spas meet the icy cold Antarctic Ocean. The
boasting was done, the bait was taken, and within an hour a group of us
found ourselves on our way, togs in hand, while Ross and Ben went to
check-out the local ski slopes. The beach landing was a little rough,
and it had started to snow, but after a 15 minute dig we had created a 5
person spa fit for a Roman Emperor. It was a little hot to start with,
but after adding a couple of Growlers we soon settled in – after 30
minutes we may never have left if it wasn't for the tide breaching our
spa walls!

Anchor Watch – Just when we thought they were all over, a new watch has
been introduced. Thankfully it's only an hour per person this time, and
only when we are on an anchorage that can change wind direction during
the night. Peggy & Chris are taking the first few hours tonight, I'm
still awake drying my clothes from today as we hope to take on a larger
walk on the Island tomorrow and visit a few penguin rookeries to get a
real taste of the Antarctic wildlife.

Chow
Posted by Stephen
1:47am 17th December 2007