(Should be read as a continuation of Chile Travel Journal)
I arrived in Ushuaia at 9:00 PM. My last communication with Niek was that even if I arrive late, that I should just show up at the boat... The road into town snaked along the shoreline and I watched carefully to see if we drove past the Ushuaia Yacht Club (Club de Yates). I could see that across the bay was the only place where there were pleasure boats.. Upon disembarking from the bus, I could see it was about 2 km walk, so off I went.. There was no security at the yacht club, so I just walked out on the dock. I saw that La Rose easily as it was the closest boat to shore. I asked a gentleman standing beside La Rose if he was Niek and indeed he was...We shook hands and he invited me aboard. Before we had talked for two minutes or even stepped off the dock, he said to me “I sure hope you know something about diesel heaters” I assured him that I did. On board were three other men. Frans and John from South Africa.. and Hal from the USA. Apparently they had just purchased the heater from West Marine and had it shipped in. Previous to my arriving, an Swiss ex crew member had installed the furnace.. For the last four days, they had been trying in vain, to get the furnace to burn clean. Frans, being the techie on board, had tried everything.. Each time they tried, they would let it burn for several hours. It would soot up the combustion chamber in no time flat and burn only with a dirty orange flame.....
I inspected the heater, and immediately saw that there was no burner ring in it. I drew a picture of the burner ring and neither the skipper nor the crew had seen it laying around before or after the installation. As we were discussing the problem I noticed that the installer had drilled four holes in the burner ring and had used it as a dress ring for the thru deck fitting... The skipper then recalled seeing a ring and went and got the proper dress ring. Knowing that the problem with the heater would be indeed solved, we sat down to a couple glasses of wine and got to know each other a bit.. Tomorrow will see those problems rectified... It was also dinner time on board, so I ate with the crew. One of the crew is leaving back for South Africa tomorrow, and two more crew show up tomorrow night.. That will make us a band of merry adventurers of 6. The crew that are here seem mature, competent and interesting. I see no issues in getting along with them.. They have all sailed before with the skipper and give him glowing remarks.. The boat is a 54 foot cutter rigged aluminum boat (Trintella look alike) that seems to be very well put together and well equipped.. I feel good about both crew and boat. Not only that, but they feel good about me.... So it looks like this dream is about
January 18, 2010
The day started off in a rather relaxed mode. Being South Africans, they are not big coffee drinkers so they started their day off with tea, and offered me instant coffee.. I pulled out my little coffee maker and made myself some real coffee... A bit of morning discussion about the plan for the day.. Frans was due to leave that afternoon, and the two new crew members were flying in that morning... Frans and I tackled the stove.. After getting all the pieces in the right place, we sparked up the heater... It did burn, but not very well. After a bit of exploratory surgery we determined that the fuel level in the fuel metering valve was too low, so we had to shim up the fuel metering valve a quarter of an inch.. After that the heater burned beautifully... I was the instant hero.. Next project was the repair of the pump used to suck sludge out of the bottom of the fuel tank. It constantly dripped.. Frans and I took the pump apart and noticed that it had been repaired before and the one of the ears of the flange was cracked.. Niek thought that the crack was where it was leaking.. Closer inspection showed us some paint had been dripped onto an O ring seal and was preventing it from sealing properly.. Carefully scraping the paint off and reassembling the pump was all that was neccesary. .Between these chores , sending Frans off and getting to know the crew members, the day whiled away. I took a hike into town in the afternoon and started my shopping for warm clothes for the adventure. Rubber boots, heavy socks, fleece jacket, toque, scarf, gloves, jack knife, extra t shirt.... It became apparent on this first day that John definitely had control of the galley.. Fortunately for the crew he is an excellent cook and manager. Without a doubt the galley is his department.
January 19, 2010
Tuesday January 19, 2010
The day was off to an early start...Crew anticipation was high... The expectation of the day was to clear customs and the port authorities and the group of merry adventurers were off to the big adventure. But before we get into the activities of the day we should cover a few of the realities and logistics of the voyage....
How Physics 101, Geography 101, and Meteorology 101 affect a sailor's life....
All sailors, worldwide, have heard stories of “rounding the horn”. Cape Horn is a cape on a small island which is literally the very southern patch of mud and rock in the Americas.. Before the opening of the Panama Canal, all ocean traffic from the west coast of South America, North America, and the far east had to “round the horn” to get their product to markets in Europe and their return trip of European goods to the new world. The only alternative to rounding the horn was to go around Africa, and add months to the voyage.. Time is money. And most shipping went around Cape Horn.... Cape Horn is a particularly nasty piece of ocean. Located about 55 degrees south, pretty well at the convergence zone between the westerly winds of the temperate zone and the easterly winds of the polar zone. Where two wind belts meet, and they are blowing in opposite directions, there is a continual flow of interfering weather fronts at that convergence. Weather systems move across the south Pacific ocean, run into the land mass and mountains of South America and and deflected to the south around the continent. This means that the southern tip of South America is a never ending stream of low pressure systems moving around Cape Horn. That is fact number one.. Fact number two, is that the winds blow around and around the world at these latitudes. There is no land mass except for South America to break the waves and seas. The waves have had thousands and thousands of miles to build and grow angry. When the already large waves come in contact with the storm force winds blowing in contrary directions, they produce monster waves that seem to come from many different directions at once.. If you have an understanding of physics and the property of waves, one begins to understand how several wave formations can intersect each other and create waves that are magnitudes larger than the normal wind and wave pattern would predict.. And just for good measure, lets add in the fact that we have some contrary currents in the area. Circulating ocean currents from the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans meet here, and duke it out.. Again when winds are contrary to currents they add together and make for massive sharp faced waves...As if the above factors were not enough, lets throw in the fact that the continental shelf extends off the southern tip of South America. Back to Physics 101 where we learned the energy of a long wavelength wave is intensified when the water shallows.. Long wavelength ocean waves suddenly build to monsters when the seafloor lifts from the mid ocean depths to continental shelf depths.. That should help the reader understand the dynamics of the sea here, and why so many hundreds upon hundreds of ships have been lost here.. Monster waves coupled with storm force winds that hit you from every angle, is more than many a ship could handle.. The sea bottom here is littered with corpses of humans and ships alike.
How Bureaucracy 101 affects a sailors life...
The boat is presently moored in Ushuaia, Argentina. Argentina claims custodian ship on the area of Antarctica that we plan to visit. To visit Antarctica, the vessel must obtain a permit to visit Antarctica from the country of registry of the vessel. In this case, La Rose is a British registered vessel. Application to visit Antarctica was made months ago. As this is such an unusual request for a British vessel, it is bogged down in bureaucracy and nobody knows where the application sits.....The bottom line is that if one was to wait for the British government to issue permission, one would probably never go... Probably not a big issue by itself, but now it gets complicated...
When cruising on a boat in Argentina and Chile one must first get permission to exit the country and then to check in with the authorities via radio several times a day. This has the security benefit that if one does run into trouble, then there is some “authority” that knows where the boat is, how many people on board, last known position, speed, expected destination, and ETA, etc etc... This is a good thing. The down side is that to report to the Argentine authorities, one does not want to tell them that one is heading to Antarctica without a permit. Once the boat and crew have cleared Argentine authorities and customs and physically sailed into Chilean waters, they no longer care where one goes.. At this point, the Chilean authorities take over...The problem with the Chilean authorities, is that they would like to see the permit too, and also, have just recently started asking for insurance documents in order to sail in Chilean waters... Most cruisers do not carry insurance on their vessels. It is just too expensive. And generally insurance is issued in the country of registry of the vessel. This starts to get a little complicated when a boat has been cruising for several years or if the boat is registered in a country different from the nationality of the owner.
The question involved in this voyage is how to exit from a port legally, and head to Antarctica without a permit, and without proper insurance. The solution.... There is a reason why God invented Photoshop and colour printers. Coupled with a good imagination, the computer and Photoshop can produce wonderful documents...
January 20, 2010
Armed with our new documents, ships papers, and all our passports, Niek headed up to the Port Captain's office and started filling out forms and jumping through hoops. The first hurdle is that the crew has to show up in person when the ship leaves. Niek had taken the hand held VHF radio with him, but for some reason, all of us goofs on board had not turned on the VHF radio on board. So Niek trudged the two miles back to the boat to muster us all down to the Port Captain's office. Off we go. Once there, we all have to sit in a stuffy room and fill out forms while Niek bounced from office to office with the completed forms. Eventually, everything had been signed, and officially stamped so we were happy. We had decided to clear Argentine customs with the destination in mind that we go to Puerto Williams in Chile, which was enroute to Cape Horn. We had 24 hours to leave the country. Once we got back to the boat, we did the check on the weather forecast. Bad news.. There was nasty low after nasty low moving through the Drake Passage for the next three days. A little disappointment of everybody's face was evident. It would be pretty foolhardy to set off in those conditions. The rest of the day was spent doing more chores around the boat, and then the whole crew went out for a fine dinner at an “all you can eat” restaurant in town.
January 21, 2010
Everyone awoke with anticipation. What would today's weather forecast bring.. It was almost immediate disappointment to the whole crew when we saw the UGRIB files with the forecast. Another three days of lows blowing past Cape Horn. We decided to lay over for another day. It all sounded good until we realized that we had checked out of the country and were supposed to be gone by noon. There was no way that was going to happen, so Niek started procedures to see if we could get an extension. Down he trundled to the Port Captain, who was very disappointed that we had not left town. After we all trudged down to the office one more time, he did grant us a 24 hour one time extension. This time we had to leave. We decided we would head to Puerto Williams in Chile which was enroute to the Horn. We spent the rest of the day doing chores and prepping for the big adventure. By early afternoon we were ready.. We slipped the lines and headed out of the harbour. We had a nice 15 knot wind to run with. Louis navigated as we all worked through the sailing systems and sorted out who was good at what... There were a few minor mishaps but all in all, the crew and boat settled down into a routine that seemed to work. Destination : Puerto Williams....about 35 miles down the Beagle Channel and on the Chilean side of the channel. When Puerto Williams finally hove into view we were all happy that we had reached our first destination on what would hopefully be the adventure of a lifetime. We were directed to tie up at the Yacht Club (Club de Yates). It would appear that a yacht club in Chile is not a typical North American yacht club. An old navy supply vessel had been scuttled alongside the shore. It was mostly a rusting hulk of a thing.
The day started with more miscellaneous chores around the boat. On the morning sailors net we heard of Polar Bound getting thrashed off the horn... He was hove to, and making about two knots to leeward.. He said he has been spending most of his day in the bunk. The chore today... Strip off the old mainsail, hank on the new one, set up reefing lines on the new smaller sail. Stretch out the anchor chain, and splice on another 15 meters. Total anchor rode now is 85 meters.. I feel comfy with that. A once through on the safety equipment revealed lots of flares, 6 safety harnesses, and eight life jackets... Install winch handle pocket... Niek went into town to clear with the port captain. We told the port authorities that we were not leaving the country, so we did not have to clear customs. Wind from the NW , gusting to 30 knots.. John had walked into town and picked up some meat empanadas for lunch.. Yumm......Finally, away from the dock....A bit of trouble raising the new main sail the first time out.. The halyard snagged on the upper mast steps and we were fighting for a bit of sea room as we organized it. John finally climbed up onto the pilothouse and freed the line.. And then..... we were sailing. Deep reef in the main, set the staysail, and a comfortable 8 knots...Sun shining.. a beautiful day. Fortunately, the seas in Beagle Channel were only two feet or so.. Late afternoon, furled the staysail and unfurled the genoa to 50%. We saw our first colony of penguins on Isla Gallegos. There must have been 1000 of them crowded together on the shore.. Up above them on a cliff, a huge cormorant colony... Bright sunshine... This is a glorious place to be......We made Puerto Toro the destination for the day.. We tied up to the dock. A local fisherman came down and swapped two pails of crab for two bottles of wine and a bottle of Coca Cola.
January 23, 2010
I awoke at 6:00 AM. The rest of the crew was still sleeping.. Hal got up and plugged in his satellite phone and downloaded the most current forecast. Things look quite good. We are sixty miles from the Horn. By the time we get there, we should be able to expect 25-30 knots of wind. It would appear that we have a couple of day window before the next system moves through.. The decision is made that we are going to go for it.... Niek is still not feeling very well at all. It is very unusual for him not to be the first man up on the morning. This morning, he did not get out of bed at all. The crew is a little concerned about heading off to the far reaches of the planet with a sick man on board. His temperature is 34 degrees C. John administered antibiotics, and we are hoping the fever goes down. We lifted the dinghy up onto the aft deck and lashed it down. A last minute check of the deck and sailing arrangements and we are ready to go.. Louis is a seasoned sailor and competent skipper.. Nieke sat the crew down beforehand and explained that Louis was co skipper... I feel confident in his skills. The division of labour has further refined itself. Ian has taken on the job of line handling and sail control. We had a bit of grief with the length of the reefing lines throughout the voyage so far, but I believe we have all the issues put to bed now. Rigged jack lines and set off under power about 8:30PM. Tried to tune in the morning sailors net at 9:00 AM but we did not know the frequency. Nieke was asleep so we did not want to awaken him for that. Wind from the SW intermittently 5-10 knots so we are proceeding under power and sailing when the wind does pick up a bit... Time for another cup of coffee....
8:30 PM
Wind was strong all afternoon. 20-25knots.. Sailed along with reefed main and reefed genoa. By 6:00 PM the wind had died off completely and we are under power now. There is about a 10 foot swell running with a two foot chop on it.. We are abeam Cape Horn as I write this. When we set the way point for Snow Island today, our landfall for Deception Island it was true bearing of 163 degrees and 480 miles.. We are now 421 miles away. Niek is still down for the count. Ian seems to have picked up the same bug.. Hal is semi sea sick and John is not feeling well. He did manage to put some soup and sandwiches together for dinner though... Saw my first albatross today. A quiet night with only four of us sharing watches.. Ian and Niek are feeling better though,
January 24, 2010
I awoke rather late today as I did two and a half watches overnight.. The skipper listening to the sailor's net was the first thing I heard. Polar Bound had weathered the night and was now within 50 miles of the Horn. We chatted with him a bit and decided to try to raise each other onf VHF radio later in the day if we could, otherwise we would chat with him on SSB later tonight... Winds have backed and is now dead on our nose. La Rose does not point that high so with the big confused sea we didn't manage to do much more than zig zag back and forth across our rhumb line. Yesterday we made 120 miles good.. Today we will be lucky to make 80. Midnight tonight should see us at the half way point across the Drake Passage. Hal shot some birds with his big lens.. The crew sat down to a talk from the skipper as far as ship rules go.. Informative more than disciplinarian. Weather is generally overcast with the occasional rain squall coming through.
5:00 PM the wind has dropped to the point where we are only making 3 knots.. Decided to fire up the engine and motor sail for a bit.373 miles yet to go.. Had a dinner of rice with lamb and beans... Did dishes and we are all looking forward to a hot wash down (shower) with the hot water generated by the engine. Niek recieved text message from his son who does weather reports to us via text.. Looks like light winds this evening but a bit of a blow from the NW early tomorrow morning.. Sorted out the watch rotation for the evening.. Time to go get clean....Clean is good... I had my shower and crashed..
January 25, 2010
I slept through the night. Hal woke up and took a 4 hour watch.. He is feeling a lot better.. Ian is feeling better. Apparently at one point in the night we saw 40 knots.. The autopilot could not keep up so we have been hand steering since then. I awoke to take my first watch of the day. Wind blowing from the SW between 20 and 30 knots. Big seas, and the boat rolled a lot. Tucked another reef in the main and the boat settled down a lot. Gybed and back on course.. A morning nap and John made up some soup and sandwiches again. A welcome relief.. Still lots of albatrosses around. Some little chickadee size birds too.. It makes one wonder how they live out here.. A bit of heat coming into the cockpit from the sun, and it is fairly warm in here now. Niek is talking to Polar Bound on the SSB.
January 26, 2010
Another day of sailing. We are not able to light the furnace in the wind and swell.. Everyone is cold, but onwards we slog. Alternating formal watches through the night and most of us up for sailing duties and chores during the day. John spotted our first iceberg when he was on watch in the middle of the night. Time to turn the radar on and keep a sharp eye....We know we are approaching the frozen continent. Everyone is spending a lot of time “napping” below deck. Fully clothed but wrapped in blankets, trying to stay warm.
January 27, 2010
Another day of sailing.. When I awoke land had been spotted.
January 28, 2010 Deception Island
Misadventure comes in many different flavours. We finally made Deception Island early evening. After motor sailing the last 5 miles into huge seas it seemed as if it was going to be a welcome relief. Upon first analysis it appeared to be a perfect harbour. Nearly circular, the core of a volcano, and surrounded by high mountains on all sides except for the very narrow entrance would give all mariners the feeling of safe harbour. Analyzing the charts and circling the bay, soon turned up a different story. Being the cone of a volcano, the harbour was very deep, to the tune of 250 feet. There was a narrow shelf around the outside of the harbour, but it did not allow enough swinging room if the wind swung around. Adjacent to the old whalers station there was a flat where we could anchor in 40 feet of water and still have enough room to swing. As we approached the spot we had decided to anchor, much confusion reigned between the helmsman and the anchor crew. By the time the anchor was let go, water depth had shallowed significantly.. We let out the anchor rode and set the anchor anyway. By the time the boat stopped moving we were down to 8 feet of water. As this was our first anchoring project I did not make any comments. The skipper, Louis, Ian, and John were all talking on top of each other, mostly in Afrikaan, so I just kept my mouth shut. It is his boat after all. The wind was blowing 20 knots through the anchorage and it was cold cold cold.. We went below had dinner, and all crashed almost immediately.
The next morning at 6:00 AM, Niek got up and told us we were aground.. Looking at the tide chart on the electronic chart plotter confirmed our worst nightmare. The tide was falling and it would go down another 3 feet. Niek radiod Polar Bound who had anchored out in the deep part of the harbour.. It was decided to sit it out and when the tide came back in we would simply float off.. All morning the wind picked up and eventually was gusting up to 35 knots. Very uncomfortable.. Niek, needless to say was a little stressed. There had been some maintenance jobs that had shown up on our crossing of Drake Passage, and he decided it was prime time to tackle them. The ratchet action on one of the primary winches had stopped working so he took the winch off the deck and proceeded to dismantle it. He sent Hal up with a tube of caulking to try to seal up any cracks in the teak deck, so that we would no longer have to worry about deck leaks. John was down with the La Rose plague so I did up some pancakes and breakie while he rested. Louis did the navigation to our next point of call. A cruise ship pulled into the harbour and off loaded a flock of tourists via Zodiac boats to the shore, to allow them to walk through the old whalers station. As a good will gesture the Captain of the cruise ship sends out the Zodiacs while the passengers are ashore, to ask if any boats in the vicinity need anything or if they want a lift to shore. Hal and Ian both took them up on the offer and went ashore for an hour.
When they came back the tide was almost up so we prepared to get underway and reset the anchor. Again, nothing but confusion between the foredeck anchor crew and the helmsman. We winched the anchor in and slowly moved forward. When there was still 40 feet of chain out we could winch it no more. Knowing that we had anchored in only ten feet of water, we knew the anchor chain had fouled on something on the bottom. We tugged, we winched, we let more rode out and tried powering up on the anchor in the hope that we could free it. Nothing worked, and all our toils came to no avail. All the while, the winds were whistling through at 25-30 knots. Very uncomfortable and very cold on the foredeck. As we were trying to come up with a solution to the snagged anchor chain, we went aground again. This was high tide now and the next higher tide than the one we were on did not occur until the same time the next day. We had a dilemna in the making. Laying abeam to that force of wind as the boat lay over on her side, stranded on a deserted Antarctic anchorage did not sit well with skipper or crew. There was no way that the hull would stand up to the pounding of up and down on the rocks in severe the winds The cruise ship had left by now, and we radioed over to Polar Bound to see if he could come over and give us a tow.
By now it was approaching 6:00 in the afternoon. The wind continued to howl at 25 knots.... Niek did have a spare 45 lb CQR anchor on board, so we busied ourselves with attaching that to what was left of our chain. When we started we had about 250 feet of chain. We lost almost 100 feet of chain when we cut it. That left us with only 150 feet. Not a lot of anchor rode at all. We decided to attach a 100 foot line to the shipboard end of the chain and at least give ourselves a fighting chance. Once we had the anchor attached to the remaining chain, and the new rope anchor rode attached, Niek brought us very close to shore where we could drop it in 40 feet of water.. If the anchor held, the wind would blow us away from shore. If the wind swung around 180 degrees, we would find ourselves aground again. It would mean the crew alternating and standing an anchor watch all night. As there were no other possible anchorages in the bay, this was our last hope. As the harbour is the cone of a not very old volcano, the bottom had no clay or mud.. It was all loose gravel and volcanic ash, with no holding power.. The anchor did not set and instead, the wind blew us out to the center of the harbour where the rode, chain, and anchor hung uselessly directly under the bow. In all the confusion the rope anchor rode had jumped out of the bow roller and had looped itself over the side of the housing, so that we could not recover it. We had to free the anchor rode from the housing but there was 250 lbs of chain and anchor hanging on the end of it. Using boat hooks, feet, and pries we managed to get the rode back into the roller. In order to do so, we had to kneel and lay on the deck to apply the forces required. I should point out here that many of the seams of the foredeck had just been re-caulked that morning. The black, icky, gooey caulking was still wet. The clothing of the crew was covered in black caulking by the end of this. Everybody's shoes were covered in caulking and we tracked it everywhere... Once the rode was back in the roller, we recovered the anchor and worked on our next strategy...
As there was no good holding ground in Deception Island, and the forecast was calling for 30 knot winds for four days, we finally came to the decision that we would make a run for Caviera Cove. But first... we would take the inflatable boat over to see if we could unsnag the chain from whatever it had caught itself on. We launched the inflatable boat, and put the motor on it.. Louis, Ian and Hal set off to the bouy that we had left to see what they could do. As the set off, they were taking spray into the inflatable with every wave. They did manage to raise the chain to the surface and get a foot of it on board the inflatable boat, but that is as much as they could do. They tried everything before they gave up and headed back to La Rose.. Remember, the wind is still blowing at 25 knots, and the spray into the occupants of the inflatable boat was horrendous. By the time they got back to La Rose, there wast 8 inches of water in the bottom of the dinghy and all three were drenched to the bone. It looked as if the anchor would have to be abandoned. A conversation with David aboard Polar Bound and he volunteered to give the anchor a tug with his boat if we could get a line to him. We dug out the heavy shore line, loaded it in the dinghy and again Ian, Hal, and Louis set off in the wind and waves. They secured one end of the line to the anchor chain and took the other line out to Polar Bound. Polar Bound made it secure on his boat and gave it a tug.. Nothing..... David manouevered his boat around for a tug from a different angle. This he tried several times.. At one point he actually went aground himself.. Patience was running short with everybody when he gave it a final tug and the rope attached to the chain parted. The chain sank to the bottom, thus ending the salvage operation. There would be no hope now, of recovering the anchor without diving for it. Considering the remoteness of Deception Island, there was not a hope in hell of that. We recovered the tow line, lifted the inflatable back up on deck, and prepared to make a night crossing to Caviera Cove. The wind continued to howl through the bay. We set a deep reef in the main and powered out of the harbour. Huge seas were crashing at the harbour entrance and we fought our way through them.
January 29 , 2010
As it was midnight, I suppose it is time to start a new day. Hell, any day has to be better than yesterday. I tried in vain several times to light the furnace, but between a dirty burner and a bit of wind over the bow, there was no hope. Ian and I shared a cup of hot chocolate as he handed over the watch to me. Just after he poured the coffee, we received a radio call on the VHF from a British naval vessel, asking us to make contact with them. We conversed on the radio with them for a few moments. They enquired as to whether we needed any assistance. We were fine so we declined. We asked them for their opinion of the weather forecast and they concurred that there was a large low that was going to move through the next day. They had been in a bay just north of Deception Island the day before and they had seen 60 knots over the deck. A bit of small talk and they informed us that they were going to alter course to starboard and sail off into the night.. We did get a visual on the boat, but could not make out what kind of boat. Interestingly they never identified the name of their vessel. Ian was bagged and went to bed immediately afterwards. Winds from the SE at 15 knots, boat speed between 5 and 6 knots. Although it was midnight there was still enough light to see fairly well. Gotta love the higher latitudes for the late evenings. During my watch, the wind continued to die, but the large swell continued from the SE.. Standing a watch consists of making sure that the boat continues on course, the sails are trimmed properly for wind conditions, and every fifteen minutes, going below deck to the nav station to check the radar for icebergs or possible other traffic. When the wind dropped below 10 knots, the huge swell still rolling in started giving the autopilot a bit of grief. It could not compensate quick enough from the slewing of one wave, before the next wave hit us. I turned it off and continued to steer by hand. At 2:30 AM, the wind had dropped down to 5 knots and boat speed was spending more time in the 2 knot range than anything else. We have a standing rule on board that when there is only one person on watch that they are not not to leave the cockpit until somebody else is on deck. As I was hand steering, I could not go below deck to check the radar anymore. . As everyone was bagged, I was reluctant to wake anyone up but I did wake up Louis. He came up on deck and took the helm while I went out and brought in the staysail. We sparked up the iron genoa, and were back up to 5 knots, with the rhythmic drone of the diesel pushing us along. Several times we picked up icebergs on the radar directly in our path. The radar would start picking them up at 6 miles away. On all the icebergs we saw, we did establish visual contact with them long before they became a threat to us. .The definition of an iceberg is any floating piece of ice that stands at least 5 meters above the water. Smaller chunks of ice are called bergy bits. The radar seemed to pick up the icebergs and most of the larger bergy bits quite well. It did not do well at identifying the smaller bergy bits though. This required a constant visual watch. Several times we had to alter course when we made visual contact with them. Even though the bergy bits are “small”, they still weigh hundreds of tons and there is no doubt that if it came down to hand to hand combat between a strongly built aluminum sailboat and a bergy bit, that the bergy bit would handily come out the winner... Louis and I kept each other company for the remainder of my watch. Just before the end of my watch, Niek wandered into the cockpit.. From my perspective, his timing was impeccable, as I was exhausted.. At 3:00 AM I officially handed my watch over to Niek and Louis, and crawled into a cold bunk.
Perhaps a word about how things were going. We have been three days without heat now. The cabin was getting to be a bit damp. There was not a hope in hell of firing up the furnace in those wind and wave conditions. Everybody slept in their clothing. The temperature outside was hovering around the freezing point. Most of the crew had come prepared and brought thier own sleeping bags. Initially, I was going to buy one, but Niek said he had ample bedding on board. It turns out that ample bedding consists of two blankets. One wool, one cotton. Every night, I would awaken several times, shivering from the cold. During the day, if there was any sunshine at all, the cockpit warmed up quite nicely. Below deck though remained as an ice box. Most of the time spent on watch or awake, were physically inactive time. Six men on a boat and there is no room for any sort of physical activity, so we could not rely on work to stay warm. Many layers of clothing, soaking up whatever heat is available, and multiple cups of coffee, hot chocolate and tea is keeping everybody going. Moral is actually quite good with lots of good humour amongst the crew.
I awoke to Niek talking on the SSB to the sailors net at around 9:00 AM. We were still under power, as I could hear the clatter of the diesel pounding away. I got up and looked on deck. The vinyl curtain at the after end of the cockpit had been rolled up. The sun was shining brightly and there was not a breath of wind. It was much warmer up on deck than it was below deck. We were a couple of miles off shore, and the panorama that presented itself was spell binding. The continuous chain of mountains, covered mostly with snow, glaciers pouring into the sea in every valley. The colour of the ice. The floating icebergs and bergy bits.. What a glorious sight to wake up to.
Towards noon we arrived at Caviera Cove. Again, everybody on board was blown away with the beauty of the place. I am having difficulty coming up with words to describe the feeling of being here. The barrenness of the land, the dominance of the snow, the colours of the ice and snow. Majestic, dynamic, serene, bleak, so many words to describe what beholds our eyes.
We arrived at Caviera Cove just behind Polar Bound. The bay was full of bergy bits as most of the land around the bay was glaciers moving along their slow journey to the sea. On one of the ice floes, there were two leopard seals basking in the sunshine.. Judging from the colouring, we guessed one male, one female.. Both of them well over 10 feet long. David had cut his engine and was drifting ever so slowly towards that ice flow. He was on deck taking pictures of the rare sighting of the leopard seals. Eventually his boat came to right beside the flow, and he was actually standing on his bow, looking straight down on the seals.. What a photo opp....
We continued motoring along for most of the day. David on Polar Bound took a much wider course than we did. There were many discussions as to where he was going, as he was almost out of sight on our starboard side. We were gifted with the sight of two humpback whales that circled around the boat for a half an hour.
January 30, 2010 Enterprise Island
We awoke this morning to an inch of snow on deck. Below deck it was still nice and warm. The last weather forecast that Hal dowloaded via his satellite phone showed that Sunday was going to bring us a bit of a blow. We knew the anchorage that we were in was questionable so the search went on to find a suitable anchorage to ride the blow out. David suggested Port Lockroy, but it was 60 miles away. There was not a breath of wind out, and none of the crew wanted to spend the next 10 hours motoring down the coast. Further examination of the chart and guide books showed us that at Enterprise Island there was a small harbour there with a wreck of an old ship. It is apparently possible to tie up to the wreck. An hour of consultation and thought and the decision was made to head to Enterprise Island. Dinghy secured, anchor up, and we were underway.... Shortly after setting off, it was decided to take a scenic detour around Bluff Island. Polar Bound was going to come in from the north side. We are about half way around the island and the bergy bits are are pretty heavy. I think we will turn back and leave the channel from the way we came. We finally raised Polar Bound who was about to enter the channel from the north, and explained to him about the ice blockage. He headed back out as did we.... Off to Enterprise Island.. Sky overcast, no wind, a slight SE swell....
Perhaps a word about the penguins. Most of the penguins we have seen so far have been the Chinstrap Penguin. About two feet tall, with an odd tuft of feathers on thier head.. When they swim they seem to stick together in a small flock. Occasionally they surface and seem to fly out of the water for two feet or so, where they plop back into the water. To the layman, it appears that they are just horsing around and having fun.
Dazzled and amazed...
2:30 PM
The day continues overcast and cold. Wind from the SW at 5 knots. We are continuing under power. We just passed the tiny Gaston Islets. Each island less than a square mile. Bare lumps of rock sticking out of the water. The northern slopes covered with snow.. We watched as a trio of penguins ascended the slope to the top. One of them made it to the top, and the other two lost their footing and slid back 100 feet down the slope. It sure looks to me as if they are just goofing off and having fun....
4:00 PM
We have wandered into the harbour at Enterprise Island. A beautiful little cove only a quarter of a mile across, but surrounded by snow covered thousand foot mountains. In the center of the harbour is a rusting hulk of an old freighter that has been run aground and abandoned. There seems to be no information anywhere as to the story behind the ship. The stern is well underwater, but the bow rises 30 feet above the high water mark, with the deck sloping aft until it falls below the water. She has been here for many many years. Holes rusted
through the sides, and not a scrap of paint left on her. Whether she was run aground intentionally or accidentally will probably remain an unknown. There is a 36 foot French sailboat with two men on board tied up alongside. We pulled in behind the French boat and lashed ourselves to the rotting hulk. The protection from wind and waves provided by the hulk more than made up for the unsighltyness of the hulk. I grabbed the furnace and took it ashore for a good cleaning. Brought it back to the boat and re installed it. We determined that part of our problem has been the fuel metering valve is just not allowing enough fuel into the combustion chamber. It is possible to jury rig an immediate fix, but to permantently fix the problem is going to require some machining of the parts. There is still debate as to whether it is a problem with faulty manufacturing or whether it is because we are trying to burn tropical diesel fuel in it which has thickened with the cold temperatures.... Polar Bound finally arrived.. He had stopped to photograph wildlife along the way. He tied up alongside, just as we got the heater sparked up. I went over to his boat and we proceeded to take a look at his Wallas 800 which would not burn properly. He gave us a tour of the boat. The huge 150 HP 8 cylinder Gardiner diesel was a jewel to see.. The construction of his boat can only be described as heavy duty. 15 mm plating on the outside of the hull. The ribs are 8 inches deep and assembled in a shoe box type construction with no part of the hull unsupported for anything more than 6 inches. Incredibly strong. All the ribs are cointinously welded together and to the outer skin. The hull is double skinned. The 15 mm outer skin is designed to withstand the pressures of the ice closing in on the hull. The hull is round bottomed so that if the ice does close in on it, then the hull will essentially be lifted above the ice. The stuffing box has the ability to cope with the expansion of ice if the boat were to be left to overwinter in sub zero conditions. The inner plating is 9 mm aluminum and can withstand sea pressrure if the the outer hull is breached. The boat has5 completely watertight bulkheads so that the holing of any two of them will still leave the boat operational. The 1952 Gardiner was factory reconditioned and installed in the boat. David says that he is the third owner of the engine. He has 100% confidence in this fine engine. Each cylinder has a knock out assembly on the injection pump to disable one cylinder in the event of failure of that cylinder. Apparently the engine will continue to run until it is down to only three cylinders operational. An amazing piece of engineering. He does not even carry a lot of spare parts for the engine as it is such a dependable design. It obviously has his confidence, as there is not back up means of propulsion at all and this is his third trip around the world with it. The rest of the mechanical installation of the boat amazed me at the simplicity and cleanliness of it. I am sure that in an hour I could have all the plumbing and major electrical systems memorized and be capable of operating them. David's vast experience on the sea has obviously been the influence for the simplicity and well organized installations. Polar Bound carries 9000 liters of fuel in his main tanks. He has on board, another 1000 liters in 20 liter jerry cans. The forward hold and aft hold are full of red jerry cans. The aft hold also has close to 300 gallons of engine fuel. The accommodations, although rather sparse, are quite well done and very efficient. There are two “coffin” berths for him to sleep... one port side, one starboard side.. They consist of a berth 7 feet long by two feet wide. The hull is one side of the berth and the other side of the berth is the back of a U shaped settee around a free standing table. The back of the settee comes up almost 2 feet above the berth, the name “coffin” berth. Undoubtably, no matter how bad the boat rolls, one would not get thrown from the bunk. The boat is ballasted and is designed to take a full roll over. When Polar Bound is caught in truly nasty conditions, David lets her lie ahull and she turns beam on to the seas.. The rocking and rolling would be horrendous.....The boat is designed to take a complete roll over.. Impressive.....The galley consists of a Dickenson Bering diesel stove, the Wallas 800, for cooking in the tropics, double sink and microwave. Hand holds are abundant, and I think one could cook in any weather... Taped to the wall was one recipe.. How to cook bread! The wheelhouse is quite large with one elevated helmsman seat amidship. The seat is equipped with a lap seat belt to keep the helmsman in place in heavy seas. He has all the charts on board to go around the world. There is no doubt that electronics are a way of life.. Two radars, depth sounder, chart plotter, an autopilot that can be driven by fluxgate compass or satellite, SSB, and VHF radio.
January 31, 2010
First month of the year is over...... We awoke to a sunny morning, although La Rose was shaded from it by the hulk of the wreck. David had offered to sell Niek an anchor to replace the one we lost and Niek took him up on the offer. We took the 65 lb CQR anchor off and installed the new 55 lb Delta anchor. I questioin the validity of that decision, but then again, that is not my job...... French toast for brunch, and we are off. Heading for Orne Harbour. The skipper of the French cruise ship at Deception Island told David that this harbour is very picturesque and is a must see on a cruise to Antarctica. There is a possible anchorage there, but if not, we will carry on....As we cruised along the wind picked up and when we got to Orne Harbour it was approaching fierce condiitions so we decided not to battle the headwinds and we did not go into the harbour. We proceeded a bit further south to Coriavo Bay and anchored. A nice protected little bay with questionable holding though. The first time we set the hook it dragged, so we re set it. There was a lot of concern about how well it set the second time, so we decided to alternate with anchor watches over night. Hal took the first, Ian the second, Louis the third.. My watch was 3:00 AM to 4:00 PM. I mixed up a batch of bread during my watch. The wind had died and we were sitting pretty stable. It amazed me that at 3:00 AM, with just a bit of moonlight, but all the reflection off the ice, that it was almost daylight outside. Niek relieved me, and he stayed up the rest of the morning. The hatch of the boat had been open all night, and most of the heat from the furnace just disappeared.. The bread dough had not risen, so we moved it closer to the furnace where it was warmer. All except John then went ashore. In the meantime, a Russian cruise ship had pulled into the bay and was offloading it's passengers via Zodiacs to walk among the penguins. One bunch of tourists were walking up the side of the mountain, to get the view from the top. We could smell the penquin rookery from the boat. A little acrid, but considering the thousands of penguins ashore, and the amount of waste they must generate in a day, it was probably not that bad. Although once we got ashore and were walking amongst them the density of the smell increased signifcantly. I started a conversation with one of the guides from the cruise ship. It turned out that she was German, but studying penguins in Cape Town. She had taken a summer job as a guide on the Russian cruise ship and was acting as naturalist. She explained a lot to us about the penguins. The penguins were gentoo penguins. About two feet high..Most of the nesting hens had two chicks. This is an indication that the food source is abundant.
We had a crew meeting today. Niek and John are having their wives fly to Ushuaia, to meet up with them after we get back from Antarctica. He received a text message from them that their only dates of possible arrival would be Feb 28th or March 10th. They required a response as to which date to book their flights. During the staff meeting we all talked about how long we would like to see the trip last... The final decision was that we would try to be back in Ushuaia on Feb 28. Niek is hoping to be back there a day or two ahead of that so that the boat can be brought back to some semblance of normalcy after 6 men being on board for 5 weeks. As we do have to check in at Puerto Williams before we land at Ushuaia, Argentina, it may even be possible for me to fly from Puerto Williams to Punta Arenas and on to Santiago to catch my original flight.. Although I am prepared to forfeit the flight, it would be nice to not have to. I have my fingers crossed although I do not want to plan on it, until we are well on our way to crossing the Drake Passage.
I writ this on Feb 2, 2010. Somehow I have lost a day here. On the same day (whichever it was) that we visited the gentoo penguin rookery, we were not comfortable with the anchorage there for another night.. After we got back on board La Rose, we motored off to a better anchorage. Paradise Bay was our next destination. We sailed for most of the 5 hour trip. Eventually we had to fire up the iron genoa, to bring us into the harbour. We tucked around a little point of land on which the Chilean government was operating a base. We had heard through the grapevine that they welcomed visitors, so Niek raised them on the VHF and we made and appointment tof 9:30 AM the next day for a visit. During the short radio conversation, the radio operator asked us several times that if we needed anything in the middle of the night, to just call them on channel 16. Throughout our visit to the base we received the open and very hospitable Chilean charm. These are very warm people. Ian and I went for an inflatable toodle. We stopped at a bergy bit, so Ian could get a picture of him on a berg. He clambered up on the floe, and I took his picture.. As he was doing that, a gentoo penguin hopped up on the ice with him. The penguin stayed around for fifteen minutes.. He would jump up on the flow, walk around for a few seconds, then dive back into the water, swim underneath the inflatable, and then back up onto the flow. It seemed that he was curious as to what we were.. By the same token, he was completely unafraid of us. These birds have absolutely no fear of mankind. Ian climbed back into the inflatable and off we toodled.. Moments later two huge humpback whales blew only 30 yards ahead of the inflatable. Ian was a little shaken by their closeness, so I could not resist moving closer with the inflatable for a close up in case they breached. Needless to say they dove and we did not see them again. The sea surface is peppered with little pieces of ice. Most are white in colour. The occasional one is clear ice. This is the 10,000 year old ice. We encountered one piece of ice the size of a soccer ball, and Ian insisted we pick it up for ice for drinks. I suppose there is a certain charm, knowing that the ice in the drink is that old.. Next we watched a snow slide off the face of a glacier. The sound is the most impressive. It is like thunder.. As we were about to head back to the boat, Ian was yelling at me “Do you see that?”. I turned just in time to see a huge huge iceberg break in half and slip into the sea. The wave generated by it was at least 4 feet high. Fortunately by the time the wave reached us, it had dissipated considerably. It took the iceberg at least ten minutes of rocking back and forth before it found it's new equilibrium... On the way back to the boat, we picked up David from Polar Bound so he could join us for dinner, which he did.. He also brought over The Bonne Identity, Second movie... Boring
February 2, 2010
We awoke to a glorious sunny morning. The boat was toasty warm, and the cockpit was actually too warm. Everyone walked through breakie and coffee and then we prepared to go ashore and visit the Chilean base. We picked up David and went ashore where we were met by staff from the Chilean base. We received a very warm and hospitable welcome. The base is staffed by 12 men for 5 ½ months out of the year. Two staff were busy painting, two were acting as our hosts, the OIC was busy with paperwork, the mechanic was wandering around fixing things, the rest were out of sight.. We toured the little 500 square foot museum, where Antarctic souvenirs were for sale. We were literally given a tour of every building and system on the base. The staff consists of 9 air force personal, and 3 Navy personal. Supply ships show up three times over the season. Power is generated by one of two main diesel generators. One of the main generators was down for the count, and the base was running off one of the two standby generators. Water comes from reverse osmosis. We inquired about leaving garbage and were told no, as they had to ship their own garbage out. They offered us use of their satellite internet if we wanted to check emails. A couple of the crew did, I declined.. It seems good to me to be out of touch... There is a huge gentoo penguin colony surrounding the base.Much time was spent observing the birds and their habitat. The official word on the base was that it is used for logistical support for scientists from Chile. At present there were no scientific studies being conducted.. I believe that in reality, the Chileans continue to support the base solely for the reason that if ever their claim on Antarctic land is questioned, they can claim that they were the first country to establish a base in Antarctica, and that it has been continually manned since 1951. Apparently a lot of cruise ships stop in at the base over the course of a summer. Up to 2100 tourists traipse through the base over a season. In terms of pleasure boats cruising through, the number drops significantly, down to 20 boats a year. They were amazed to see Polar Bound, as they are never visited by a power boat that small. Ian had run our of Coca Cola to mix with his 10,000 year old ice and rum, so he inquired if we could buy some off them. They volunteered giving us some.. 6 two liter bottles in total. Ian was very happy. We spent several hours at the base before we saddled up and headed down into Paradise Bay. Spectacular scenery as we poked along the shoreline. No wind, so it was a power trip all the way. 5 miles down Paradise Bay we came across the Argentine base called Brown..
When we left Ushuaia, the galley purchased a full lamb and three sirloin strips. The lamb did not last long as the first few days out of Ushuaia were quite warm We had to jettison the lamb as we started across the Drake Passage. We have been eating steaks the last few days to try and use the loins up. Today, we made the decision that the rest of the beef was totally inedible.. Last night's steaks had a bad flavour to them, but nobody got sick. Today, the rest of the loin is green.. Niek thought we could eat it, but the crew revolted and he finally gave in.
8:00 PM
The wind has shifted around to the SW and dropped down to 10 knots. We have been wallowing in the swell all afternoon, but at least we are still making 5+ knots. Niek sparked up the heater so it is nice and toasty below decks. The sun even broke through so it has been a lazy afternoon of reading books, and naps. Even Hal is feeling a bit better. Considering how calm it is outside, Ian decided he is going to continue to work on his BBQ skills and BBQ up part of the roast the he procured. At this point we could call the Drake Passage, the Drake Lake....
Early evening, an Argentine naval vessel cruised up the channel. He announced on VHF who he was, and that he was on standard patrol through the islands. As there were three boats at anchor, Polar Bound, La Rose, and the small cruise ship, he made his announcements in English and Spanish. He told us it was a routine patrol and that if we were in need of any assistance that all we had to do was ask. The patrol is apparently made every second month, with the Argentine navy and the Chilean navy alternating patrols. The ship anchored and the captain of the navy ship jumped in the inflatable boat and cruised over to talk to David aboard Polar Bound. He marvelled at what a power boat that size was doing here, as most powerboats do not have the range of fuel to travel this far. Most visiting yachts are sailboats. Coincidentally, Ian buzzed over in our inflatable to pick David up for dinner aboard La Rose. He got to talking with the captain and was told that the navy ship was just heading up to the northern islands and from Deception Island, was heading back to Ushuaia. Ian explained how we had lost our anchor at Deception Island, and the captain immediately told Ian that he had 8 divers with dry suits on board that were just dying to have a project. He agreed to send the divers down and try to find our anchor. When Ian relayed this back to Niek, he was ecstatic. We plotted on the chart where we thought the anchor would lay and passed that along to the captain of the navy ship via VHF. From Deception Island, the navy ship is headed back to Ushuaia, where it will be in harbour for forty days. If they find the anchor, Niek is supposed to head over to the ship and pick it up there when he returns to Ushuaia. Well done Ian...... The captain of the navy ship then sent the inflatable back to Polar Bound with two boxes of fresh fruits and veggies. Red peppers, cabbage, green peppers, and onions.. David brought most of the veggies over to La Rose when he came over as in his words “I do not cook. I live on canned beans and canned corn beef”. It was a welcome gift to our larder.
When David came over, he immediately sat down with Niek and started talking about heading to the Antarctic Circle. All of the crew of La Rose, except Niek wanted to cross the Antarctic circle. Niek was adamant that it meant nothing at all to him, and it was beyond his comfort zone. Needless to say, most of the crew were a little disappointed. David continued to needle away at Niek, and when Niek received the news about the recovery of his $1000.00 anchor, his mood changed to the point where he was at least open to the idea. Dinner was served up. One more meal of steak, potatoes, butternut squash, and an onion/mushroom sauce.. Yumm... There was talk of meeting up with two other boats that David and Niek had communicated on the SSB with. They were going to be in Port Lockroy over the next few days. David wanted to copy some hand drawn charts of anchorages from one of the boats, and Louis and Niek wanted to meet the skipper of the other boat. Apparently this skipper has designed a new rig for sailboats and everybody is curious about how it works. All the fresh air of the day made us all very tired, and after a shot of Grappa, we all drifted off to sleep.
There was a bit of snow fluttering on the deck this morning. Nothing sticking or staying but to the north, the sky was black and it certainly looked as if there was going to be some weather closing in on us. We had intended to stay put for a day, but after a bit of communication on the SSB with other boats, it became apparent that there was indeed some weather closing in on us. David, aboard Polar Bound, decided that he wanted to head to Port Lokroy and link up with the other boats there. He would try to get copies of the “mud charts” and photocopy them next time he passed a cruise ship. From there he was going to try to make a bee line south to the Antartic Circle. He did invite Hal and myself along if Niek decided not to tackle that. As I have crossed the Arctic Circle, I do feel that being within 100 miles of the Antarctic circle, I would be foolish to not to do whatever it took to cross it. Ian, John and I went ashore to the abandoned Agrentine base called Brown. We wandered around the buildings.. Hiked up the hill behind the buildings. Found a geodetic marker, which was kind of cool. Around the existing buildings were the charred remains of a former camp. Apparently back in the 1960's there was a doctor stationed at Station Brown. Faced with spending the long cold winter there, he decided to burn the camp down, hence forcing his evacuation..... The station was placed right in the middle of a penguin rookerie.. I could spend endless hours watching the colony. The mother birds are very territorial, and will fend off any other penguin or bird of any kind that approaches their chicks. There were two hens still sitting on eggs in their nests, hoping against hope that the eggs laid in the early spring would eventually hatch.. There seemed to be some hens wandering around who do not have chicks. I assume they lost their chicks to either the skuas or some other sad event. I suspect that when they approach another chick from another hen that they are trying to steal a chick to look after. The cackling and cawing when this happens is loud....Ian snaffled a bunch of firewood from the base. It appears they took the timbers from the burned out base, cut them up, split them and had them ready for use in a BBQ or fire. As fires are banned completely in Antarctica, Ian thinks we should have a “conviviality fire” in the BBQ of La Rose.
Ian, the skipper from Persimmon came aboard La Rose. We chatted with him for a bit about his adventures down here. He volunteered to lend us his “mud charts” so we could copy important details about the anchorages we wanted to visit. He has a crew of three besides himself on board. A young French girl, Ann, an Kiwi male Steve, and a German girl Corine. All of them seem to get along well, except for the German girl. Apparently she stays below deck most of the time and does nothing.. It is nothing for her to stay in bed for 36 hours straight. Apparently she was a backpacker that wandered the docks and ran into Ian who was looking for crew.. There is an undercurrent about that if we leave Antarctica before he does, that he would like to send her back with us. Interestingly, I had talked to Ian over the internet before I left Vancouver. He had posted an ad at Crewfinders.com, and I had responded to it. We had communicated a few emails, but his schedule was just not going to match up with anything that I could arrange. I marvel at the small world of cruisers down here.
Over dinner the wind picked up quite a bit. All three smaller boats were tied up alongside Parity. Polar Bound and Persimmon were tied directly beside Parity, and we had tied up next to Polar Bound. When the wind picked up, it was driving all three boats against Parity. His moorings were strong so we had no fear of drifting.. But a problem did develop as the deck of Parity was much higher than the deck of Polar Bound.. When the wind picked up and began pushing La Rose and Polar Bound into Parity, the stanchions of the lifelines of Polar Bound hit the deck of Parity, snapping them at their base. We re arranged the fenders so no more damage would occur, but David was a little out of sorts as to what to do to repair the stanchions. I did make bread and put it on to rise. We had spent most of the evening with the hatch mostly closed, so it was perfectly warm below deck for the bread rise.
February 4, 2010
Everyone woke up early today.. We were all up and about by 8:00. The bread dough had risen beautifully.. Outside, it was overcast and windy. Parity's first mate, Flavio, had delivered Amyr, his wife and two children via inflatable to Australis. We were up on deck just in time to see Australis disappear around the point. Hal and John went ashore for a long hike. Niek tore the forward head apart in the hopes of repairing the leaking shaft. Ian tore apart the secondary winch on the starboard side and stripped the cold hard grease out of it. I caulked a window and baked the bread. Louis has been busy hand copying the mud charts so we would have a copy of them. Flavio had volunteered to repair David's stanchions, and was busy doing that. I must say that I think Flavio is a bit overwhelmed with the responsibility of over wintering Parity in this remote location. David is quite concerned that Flavio is not going to finish the repair in order for Polar Bound to leave at 9:00 tomorrow morning for the Antarctic Circle. The master plan at this time is that Niek and La Rose are going to Booth Island. It is decision time for Niek, as to whether he is going to venture down that far south. If he does not, then I am going to jump ship for a couple of days and scoot off with David aboard Polar Bound to cross the Antarctic Circle. The crew were quite impressed with the buns and bread that turned out today.....I downloaded electronic charts from Persimmon. Most of the crews took the inflatable from Parity II over to Port Lockroy. I went for a brief shore walk. There were two small huts on Dorion Bay. They were emergency huts. Each hut was stocked with food, water, fuel, a small stove and believe it or not, liquor. The idea being that if the crew of Port Lockroy had to evacuate camp due to landslide, fire or other catastrophic event, they could seek shelter here. The whiskey bottle on the shelf had mark half way down the bottle and a note attached to it. It said “when whiskey level drops below this mark, fill it up again”
By early evening, Flavio had finished his repairs. The crews came back from Port Lockroy. Ian lit a fire in the BBQ from the wood that he snaffled from Base Brown. The decision was made to have everybody aboard La Rose for dinner. The girls on Persimon made up a big bowl of rice and some humus, and Flavio brought over a big bowl of Brazilian sausages. La Rose contributed two roasts and butternut squash. It turned into a great meal with lots of lively conversation. A toast was held for Ian's 60th birthday, and everybody got to know a little more about each other. The interesting aspect was the diverse nationalities of everyone. One American. One Canadian. One Englishman. One Brazilian. One French lady. One German lady. One Aussie. One Kiwi. And four South Aftricans. Needless to say English was the common language. Niek teased Ann for most of the evening by singing her love ballads.. “Beautiful, Beautiful Brown Eyes” etc.
Hal and I decided to join David aboard Polar Bound when he left in the morning. Niek was still 50/50 as to whether he was going to venture as far south as the Antarctic Circle. I would rather venture out with David and cross it once, than not at all. When we link up with Niek again and he decides to cross the Polar Circle then I will have the opportunity to cross it twice.
February 5, 2010
We awoke 8:00 ish and prepared to get ready. Niek gave Hal and I our passports as we packed. I went over to Persimmon and downloaded Maxsea so John could load it on his computer. For some reason it did not work... Over the night the mouth of the bay had filled up with ice floes and growlers. Ian let go his mooring line that ran from the boats to a rock across the bay. Without doing so, we could not leave. We dodged what floes we could but we did run into a couple of floes. We got hung up on one flow, but we just pushed it out into the bay, then applied full reverse to dislodge it from under the keel.. Sky is overcast with a 20 knot NW wind, heading for the Lemair Channel. This piece of geography is definitely spectacular. It is purported to be the most photographed part of Antarctica. Every cruise to Antarctica includes a trip down through the channel. Towering peaks, vertical cliffs, ice walls, glaciers, snow and penguins. It truly is beautiful. 90 miles from the Antarctic Circle. Our speed, 6.8 knots. We should be there in 15 hours. Depending on visibility, brightness, and our state of being we are debating whether we will run straight through to it, anchor for the night or lie ahull. It certainly is nice cruising in a nice warm cockpit in shirt sleeves with the Gardner engine pounding away down in the bowels of the boat. The sun has come out and the additional brightness is definitely putting a superb touch on the day... We powered along all day. Making an average of 6.5 knots. Wind from the SE at about 15 knots. Lots of sightings of whales. At one point a pair of humpback whales swam across our bow. Hal jumped out with his camera to try to get a close up photo of them. David and I were standing in the wheelhouse when it became apparent that we were going to hit the closest one. I blurted out that we were going to hit it just as he cut back the throttle. My heart was in my mouth as I watched the body of the whale disappear from my vision as it went under the bow. Fortunately, there was no thump or lurch of the boat. Running into one of these behemoths is considered illegal by the Antarctic Treaty Organization. Although there is not much we could have done to prevent the collision, my biggest fear was dealing with a very pissed off whale after giving him a thumping on the back with the stem of the boat. These whales are massive. Surely twice as big as the boat itself.... Ouch! David brewed up dinner of rice and a fish meal with curry. Yummy.. I was getting hungry...
12:15 AM (3:15 GMT) (4:15 GMT+1)February 6, 2010
Time is a funny thing. The weather forecasts and SSB operators are all in different time zones. To ease the confusion of who is in which time zone and what time they are talking about or forecasting, everything is reduced to GMT. At this part of the world, we are supposedly GMT-3 hours. The various instruments around the boat are all displaying GMT. The one clock on the boat is displaying GMT+1 which is the time in England (David's home port) right now. Considering it is midnight outside and almost bright enough to read, and there are three different time pieces around, each of them displaying different times, I am just a little confused as to what time it really is. On top of those man made issues, one has to consider that time zones are set up that they change one hour for ever 15 degrees of longitude. On the equator this interprets into a one hour time zone difference every 900 miles. As one approaches the poles and the lines of longitude come together it means that there is a new time zone every 300 miles. Generally politics dictate that time zone changes occur at jurisdictional boundaries such as borders or little populated areas. Here there are no borders. Here there is no population base to affect by changing time zones. It all leaves me confused as to what time is it really?
We decide that it is getting too dark to make out the little growlers. We can easily still see the berg and the bergy bits, but the growlers and floes are just too hard to see. To the west we can see some clouds building. The weather forecast has fore warned us that some weather is indeed moving in. My guess and the forecast is that we still have a day or so before we see it. At this time of night the sky to the north is fairly dark. To the south though there is still the crimson glow of sunset. We have stopped the engine and are now just drifting. This is called “laying ahull” in sailors parlance. I have never laid ahull for the whole night. There is a large island about a half a mile to port, windward of us. We are laying beam on to the easterly wind, so hopefully we will drift away from the island. The wind continues to blow from the E at 15 knots but we are warm and cozy inside the boat. The seas are about 2 foot, and the boat is just gently rocking in them. The occasional larger wave does seem to make the boat lurch though. We have decided to post a watch until daylight. I have the first watch, and I am sitting in the helm seat enjoying the view of the sun that never sets. We are only 40 miles from the Antarctic Circle. We should easily be there by noon. There is a British base at about 67 degrees. David mentioned it. I think he would like to go down and visit there. We passed Vernadsky Station, the Ukrainian base early yesterday afternoon. The Lemair Channel and the Ukranian base are about the southern limits of the cruise ship itineraries and of most visiting yachts. David and I talked for a bit about the British Base. He thinks it is a base with about 120 men and women there. Most of the bases that we have encountered so far consist of only three or four small buildings and a staff of less than ten. These bases are not really scientific bases. They are more the bare minimum that a country has to have to maintain a claim on Antarctic land. Chile and Argentina both make claims for the same piece of rock here. The Antarctic Treaty Organization has put any land claims on hold for the duration of the treaty, so there is no affirmative action going on in terms of who owns what down here. Mineral exploration, and military usage have also been completely banned. It seems to me that the main activity of the small bases that we have seen so far is to sell souvenirs to the tourists that arrive on the cruise ships. This new British base though sounds like it is the real thing in terms of scientific exploration. Being outside the tourist path, David figures it would seldom receive visitors. Much less a visitor in a small powerboat. I get the gut feeling that once we cross the Antarctic Circle he is going to suggest that we go the last ninety miles and visit the base. If nothing else, I would hope we get invited in for a meal!
It has been nice to sit here in the cockpit uninterrupted and put a few words down on paper. I just heard Hal's watch alarm go off and hear him moving about. Time for me to crash...
3:00 AM.
I have been sleeping fitfully,. Quite frankly, I was cold all night. As I was boarding Polar Bound, I had asked David if I should bring the bedding from La Rose with me. He said he had a sleeping bag he could loan me, so I did not bring it with me. As I had first watch last night, I didn't give it a lot of thought about where the sleeping bag was when David went to bed. Hal came on watch immediately after me, and I did not have the heart to wake David up in the middle of his two hour sleep period, so I just lay down on the settee and pulled my jacket over me. When I laid down, I did realize it was a bit chilly, but did not think anything of it. It continued to get colder and colder as I tried to fall asleep. David had shut the stove down before he went to bed, but as the cabin was warm and the engine block was warm, the cabin did stay warm for an hour.. After the first hour, things began to get uncomfortably cold. I woke up several times in the night, with a cold back. I would pull my jacket back over me, and try and warm up. I can remember several times thinking how nice it is to crawl into the bunk aboard Jezebel, with it's mattress warmer....
David awoke me telling me it was my watch again. I was cold, tired and a little disoriented.. As the sky had brightened a lot since I went to bed, he suggested that we fire up the engine and motor off. We checked our position. We had drifted about two miles.. The motion of the boat had been quite gentle. He stayed up with me for an hour or so then told me he was going to crash.. As I had finished my one hour watch, he suggested that he awaken Hal to stand a watch, and I could keep Hal company for an hour. Hal awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed.. David had re lit the furnace, and the heat from the engine was working its way through the cabin sole. There was a glorious sunrise about 4:30 AM. The southern sky never did darken overnight. Although the sky was clear, we could not see any stars at all during the night, because the sky was just too bright. The first vestiges of sunlight lit up the ice cliffs on the islands NW of us, giving them an golden hue.... Absolutely gorgeous.... I think I should be able to use the reference of “an Antarctic sunrise” in the future. Very very unique in the world of sunrises.
9:00 AM
David woke me up and told me that 3 hours of sleep was all I was going to get. He and Hal had alternated watches to let me sleep. I got up and he had made some porridge. It has been many many years since I started my day with porridge. But the Brits do not put milk into porridge.. Instead, they pour a corn syrup on it and dig in... In reality, it was not bad.. Once I had that down my gullet, it was time to stand watch. We were through the nasty rocks and islands, and it was clear sailing due south 180 deg. We double checked our position and with the Antarctic Pilot book. The Antarctic Circle is actually at 66.33.00 degrees south. We were at 66.15.00 S. Another 17 miles to go. . David brought up the subject again of visiting Base Rakura. It is another 90 miles... He is mulling it over in his head..... David and Hal both left the wheelhouse and went below to crash. My instructions.... To wake them up before we crossed the 66.33.00 S latitude..
Optics..
As I wrote that last paragraph, I was sitting in the helm seat. The wheelhouse has warmed up nicely.... perhaps a little too warm. The chair is very comfortable with armrests. The diesel engine is chugging away below the floorboards, and the autopilot is holding us pretty steady at 180 degrees. The instruments are on and I occasionally glance up at them to affirm that we are on course, safe depth of water, and proper speed. Visibility is quite good, probably 15 miles. I have been able to see the peaks ahead of us since I came on watch. I type for a moment and then glance around at the instruments, and the scenery, check our course ahead of the boat for ice.. I just surprised myself.. On our starboard bow, about a quarter of a mile ahead is a huge iceberg.. Probably towering 200 feet above the water and 1000 feet long. Where did it come from? Something that big does not just materialize out of nowhere...What we see is not always exactly what is out there. From a distance of two miles, the iceberg appeared small, and blended into the shoreline glacier. It is only as we approach the iceberg and it begins to blot out our vision of the craggy peaks behind it, do we recognize it as an iceberg.. I must make my eyes do their work.....
Done Deal...
The rest of the morning seemed to drift by uneventfully. Beautiful vistas accompanied by the steady drone of the Gardner diesel pumping away down below. David got up on his own when we were at 66,25.00 degrees S. I woke Hal up at 66.30.00 degrees south. He immediately sat down with a felt pen and paper and made up our Antarctic greeting card. Quite cute actually... Apparently he took training in commercial art at some point in his life. As the moment approached we all tried our cameras on the GPS unit, to make sure we could get a picture of it without glare. Suddenly, we were there.
It seems that just as we turned north, the wind picked up from the north. We had a 20 knot headwind and in no time we were pounding into 4 foot seas. After all David had talked about Polar Bound being a round bottomed boat, and how it rolled a lot, I was quite surprised at the comfortable motion of the boat. Under autopilot, when punching into a head sea the autopilot never wandered more than two degrees either way of intended course.. When powering off the wind, it had been normal to see it wander ten degrees either way before the corrections it was making took place... I went below and crashed for a few hours. When I awoke we were still pounding into head seas. David had some one loaf bread mixes on board that he had picked up in England before he left. I brewed up a kit of it and let the bread rise..It must be pretty fast acting yeast, as the recipe called for it to rise for only half an hour. I broke it into roll size buns and put them in the oven. The oven temperature control did not work so we baked them at whatever temperature the oven was at. The oven thermostat said only 275, but they did turn out quite respectable. David brewed up some vegetable soup that went down very well with the buns. The rest of the afternoon slipped by with naps, reading and conversations. Early evening, we saw a light from a ship; As it approached we recognized it as a cruise ship, heading south. We surmised that they were doing the same thing we had just done.. crossing the Antarctic Circle then turning around.. I suspect they will pass us in the morning steaming north. David brewed up some pasta with sauce as I took the late evening watch...
February 6, 2010
We powered until about 1:00 AM. Up to that point we could see the bergy bits and growlers in the water. The sky is still light to the south, but the water is looking pretty dark against it. We decided to lay ahull again for a few hours in the darkest part of the night. Hal took the first watch tonight. David dug out the sleeping bag for me and I crashed immediately on the settee in the cockpit.
It is now 2:45 AM Local, 6:45 AM GMT. I have lost all connection to time now. As the sky has been light during the night since we started heading south, and the somewhat erratic sleep/watch schedule. Considering I usually have a very good handle on time of day, without the use of a clock or watch, I am concerned that I may have lost that skill. I am hoping it is only temporary. It is my turn for anchor watch. We are still laying ahull. I am sitting in the helm seat, looking out in the bay. I can make out land about a mile off our starboard side. Forward and off the port side I can count eight icebergs. I can;t make out any bergy bits or growlers I don't know if it is because there are none in sight or if it is just too dark to see them. The wind has died off to 5 knots from the north. We have drifted about a mile since we shut the engine off. I am surprised that laying ahull is so easy and comfortable. I just looked out the port window and I can see the lights of the cruise ship. They must be returning from their polar circle experience. We have been sitting here with no anchor light on, nor any nav lights. I should scout around to find the anchor light switch so the cruise ship can see us.. As Polar Bound is an aluminum hull, it does show up well on radar. I can remember seeing the blip on the radar screen of Polar Bound when I was doing a night watch aboard La Rose. I should go for a walk on deck....
My eyes must have been playing tricks on me. There is a dark spot on the horizon that could be the cruise ship, but there are no lights on it. They could be obscured behind an iceberg though. I did switch on the anchor light, but apparently it is not working. Sounds like a project for tomorrow. I also spotted two more icebergs that have drifted into sight. Either that or there is now more light to see them. The southern sky is orange coloured.. Sunset or sunrise?
I think I have almost seen enough of Antarctica. I had expected to see a lot more accessible shoreline for shore adventures. There is very little accessible shore line. All the valleys are full of ice cliffs which run the full width of the valley. Most of what land is exposed along the shore is either vertical or near vertical rock cliffs with no beach. As I was standing outside just now, I could hear the thunder of an ice wall calving. It ricocheted around here for several moments. Considering how often I have heard that thunder, I can honestly say that I am reluctant to stand on a narrow beach with a 500 foot ice wall above me.
I just looked to the south again. I can make out the lights of the cruise ship. It must have been behind an iceberg when I went outside. I feel better now, knowing that it was not my eyes and my mind playing tricks with me.....The ship is about 5 miles off. I will keep an eye on it and if need be, I will start the engine to get out of his way.
I was just talking about having seen enough of Antarctica. Yes, the scenery is unique and dynamic, but how many craggy peaks and snow filled valleys does one need to see before he has had enough. I do want to see the Adelai penguins and the Chinstrap penguin rookeries on Booth Island before I head back. I have no idea where La Rose is right now. We tried to raise them on the radio earlier in the day but they did not respond. I am sure we will hear from them on the sailors net in the morning. I think I may turn the VHF on and see if I can make contact with the cruise ship....No contact. As we have no lights on I don't know if he can make us out visually or whether we just show up as another iceberg blip on is radar. End of my watch. I just woke David up and he is stirring around. Further to enough of Antarctica. Yes, I have seen enough craggy peaks and glaciers.. both well into the thousands by now. David did leave the furnace on tonight so it is reasonably warm on board. But I still find myself yearning for a nice warm bed, a real cup of coffee in the morning, a hot shower and putting on clean clothes. I have rationed myself to one shower a week. Neither boats have water makers on board. David only carries 60 gallons of fresh water so showers here are out of the question. La Rose does pack almost 200 gallons, but with six guys on board, water still has to be rationed.. I remember when we were sitting in Ushuaia that I commented that where there were mountains and glaciers there would be creeks and rivers that we could use to replenish our fresh water supply. How wrong I was.. it appears that most of the melt water from the snow and glaciers just dribbles down to the ocean in the very porous gravel that constitutes the soil here. I have not seen a creek, river or waterfall since we got here.
David just wandered up to the wheelhouse. He is bagged. He suggested sleeping for another hour. As we were not drifting much and the wind was not blowing, and it was starting to get light, he felt we could all go to sleep. I suggested that we spark up the Gardner and make some miles. The seas are calm, we have enough light to travel now and I could stand a one or two hour watch while he caught some more shut eye. So we are off. Steering 065.... Now where was I? Oh yes.. I have had enough of Antarctica. Back to a quasi regular sleep pattern. On board La Rose, I sleep on the settee in the salon. Although that is the warmest room in the boat, it does come with some trade offs. I do not get to go to sleep until the last crew member goes to bed.. And I get to awaken when the first crew member gets up. This has led to some rather short nights of sleep whilst I was aboard La Rose. I am not really complaining, but I do think a bit of regular sleep would do wonders for me. The plus side of it all, is that we do seem to be able to squeeze in afternoon naps.......
The autopilot is not working well.. We are swinging through almost 15 degrees on either side of my 065 setting.. I don't want to hand steer, it is just too much work. Polar Bound does not track well, and hand steering calls for constant course adjustments.. I am going to be lazy and let the autopilot steer it's zig zag course. With everything good in life there is a trade off. I am tired and I think that crawling into a bunk right now would be the most satisfying thing that I could do. That is the down side.. The plus side is that I get to watch another Antarctic sunrise. I am looking forward to the few minutes where the sun has lifted enough above the horizon to shine on the mountain tops, but not yet shine on me... Right now, the SE sky has turned from orange to vivid pink. Set against the snow and rock it is pretty gorgeous. I think I will go outside and take a pic. Done deal. Nothing like a blast of zero degree air to wake one up. We are just passing an iceberg that is translucent blue. It looks like a tabular berg that has tipped over on it's side. I must be careful not to pass by too closely as these types of bergs often have underwater ledges protruding. I am finding it interesting how quickly we learn things. I have learned that if there is a big selection of growlers downwind and/or downstream of the iceberg, that the ice berg has probably grounded on a reef. As the winds and currents push it around, the underside is being chewn apart by the reef until the iceberg finally melts or drifts off. Considering many of these icebergs tower 300 feet above the water, it would be fair to assume that they extend 600 feet below the water. No wonder so many of them appear to be stationary. They are aground.. Right now, there are over 12 icebergs in view. Carry on this course until we reach 65.00.00 W and then I get to change course to 040. Woohoo.. a break from monotony.. turning a corner. We haven't seen any whales since yesterday afternoon. I wonder if they actually sleep during the night. I did see a seal yesterday though.. He was far off and sitting on an ice floe. Uh oh... bergy bit off the port bow. I will keep an eye on the autopilot to see if I will have to manually steer around it. When the autopilot wanders as much as it is right now, it is hard to estimate whether a bergy bit will actually be in our path or not.. Usually we have to wait until we are almost on top of the bergy bit before we can make the decision to hand steer or not.
Hal just got up... I think I will hand over the watch to him... Ooops.. he just disappeared below deck again.. Something I ate last night has given me the farts in a huge huge way.. I suspect the wheelhouse reeks. He is back.. He grabbed his camera and wants to take some sunrise pics, but he will stand a watch. Lots of bergy bits in the water right now. I think I can see the guilty grounded iceberg about a quarter mile off the port bow. The sunrise has turned a brilliant crimson colour.. Maybe I should go snap a pic. I would shoot the pic from through the wheelhouse window, but there is too much salt spray on them. Oops and too many bergy bits to leave the helm. I wish the autopilot would not wander so much. I wonder if there is a setting on it somewhere to set that up.. It was working flawlessly yesterday. Hal is back in the wheelhouse.. Time to shut this down, go on deck, snap a pic and then hit the bunk. It is 4:30 AM local time. 8:30 GMT for you time buffs. Hal has the helm. I just passed the course and watch information over to him. I will go shoot another sunrise pic. The high clouds in the northern sky have turned pink with the morning light. I suspect Hal will spend more time shooting sunrise pics than dodging bergy bits...I explained to Hal that something I ate was reacting with me and that is why the wheelhouse smelled like an outhouse. He said he was having the same issue. I suppose the good point on that is that we can both fart with a clear conscience now. Maybe I will go have a power dump and see if I can flush some of this evil out of me... Damn.. the head was cold. There is no heat in there and it backs onto the engine room so it is loud too.. A fella doesn't really want to spend any more time in there than necessary. Needless to say.. mission accomplished.. So now.... to sit and watch the sunrise? Or to crawl into the bunk? Hmmmmmm I think the warm bunk won...
February 7, 2010
David woke me up with a steaming hot bowl of porridge this morning. I must say that porridge certainly does stick to one's ribs. They have been powering along, all the time that I slept. The sun is out, there is no wind, and it is absolutely gorgeous out. As we power along, we regularly see flocks of penguins swimming and hopping out of the water. We stopped at an ice flow with a seal on it and peruse him for a while. Further along we run across a couple of humpback whales swimming along. One of them breaches. We all snap photos of it, but unless we are very lucky, we do not get the shot. It looks as though Hal does get the shot though. The rest of the afternoon is spent powering along taking in the majesty of the mother nature that surrounded us. We finally raised La Rose on the VHF. They were anchored at Booth Island, so we headed that way. We passed a Russian ship that apparently had been chartered by the National Geographic Society. Everybody came out on deck to see the odd site of a small power boat cruising past. I talked to David about the possibility of joining him on his trip to the Falkland Islands. He was amenable to the idea. He is hoping to arrive there between Feb 17 and 20. The big advantage of that is that it would allow me enough time to fly up to Santiago to catch my flight. When we arrived at La Rose, they were all enjoying an afternoon nap. A good wide bay with accessible shoreline, with a penguin rookery. Our first attempt at anchoring was a failure, so we had to reset the anchor. Eventually, the inflatable from La Rose came over and picked us up. Ian and I went for a hike on shore. John had come across the remains of a whale boat, so we wandered over and took a look at it. We watched a fur seal up on the rocks. We were within 5 feet of it. They are truly massive creatures. The whale boat wreck was a wooden boat, carvel built, about 20 feet long. It had been there for some time. We did see a pile of bones close to it. We could only surmise that the crew of the whale boat were marooned on the island for a while and had survived on seals. The penguin rookery had all three species of penguins. Mostly gentoo, but there were a few chinstrap and Adelie penguins mixed in. I found it interesting to see how the different species intermingled but did not dispute each other, nor interbreed. I sat down briefly with Niek and proposed to him that I jump ship to Polar Bound and accompany David to the Falklands. The benefit for me is that I could still make my February 23 flight from Santiago, as David expected to be in Stanley, between the 18th and 20th.
February 8, 2010
One more glorious sunny morning with no wind. Everybody took it pretty easy this morning. Hal and David went for a shore hike. The rest of us made busy on the boat, doing odd chores, talking, and generally nothing. When it came time to leave the anchorage, I elected to go with David aboard Polar Bound. We enjoyed stopping at an ice flow with a leopard seal, lots of penguins hopping and swimming around us, and a couple of minke whales cruising along. Our destination was Verdadsky Station. A Ukranian station down here. La Rose went down one side of the island and we went down the other. They ended up a little ahead of us and entered the channel to the station first. It is a narrow little channel coming into the station, and it opens up into several fingers that would break any seas. The station is definitely physically the biggest station we have come across. Lots of communication towers, and buildings. Once inside the harbour we see that there are 5 other boats already. La Rose circled around and did not see anything that looked like decent anchorage. We moved back to directly in front of the station and dropped anchor. Polar Bound's anchor held, but La Rose was not so successful. He tried several times to set his anchor, but each time he dragged. He decided to head back into one of the fingers and tie shore lines. We waited out in the bay until they called us on the VHF telling us that they were secure and we could tie up alongside. Niek explained to me that in my absence the crew had had a meeting about my possibly jumping ship. He explained that Hal had also wanted to jump ship, and that if one of us went, then it would only be fair that both of us went. That would leave La Rose two men short. There was also some feelings that if the La Rose expedition was good enough to leave Ushuaia, but not good enough to finish, that the noses of the remaining crew would be out of joint. I accepted thier point of view. I do have to remember that this Antarctic adventure is a winfalll for me and I do not want to create any hard feelings with anyone. I did sign up for the whole expedition and I will fulfill that commitment. We received a visit from a family aboard Hinyanin. Mother (Lawrence), father (Yves) and one child. Apparently they had three other children on board them. All the kids range in age from 8 to 13. Lots of chatter about the gossip amongst the cruisers down here. Isabelle Autissier, has a crew of five on board. Three of them are climbers. They are heading to Peter I Island, which is about 400 miles west of here. There is no anchorage there, but they are going to drop off the three climbers who are going to climb the peak there. Isabelle and the other two sailors are going to just sail around the island as the climbers ascend the peak. When they come back down, she will pick them up and head back to Ushuaia. Quite the climbing expedition. The ongoing plight of Persimon, Parity II, and Ada II were the topics of conversation. They stayed on board until we received the call that La Rose was securely tied off to the rocks. We then proceeded over to La Rose and tied up alongside. Time for a bit of relaxation and afternoon naps.. They boys aboard La Rose decided to head over to Vernadski Station and check out the reputed bar there. John and I stayed on board, not really wanting to spend the whole evening with loud drunken Ukrainians. Just as John finished preparing dinner the crew returned. Apparently free vodka at the bar and station brewed vodka available for purchase, at $60.00 USD per bottle. The crew ate dinner and for a change, everybody retired early.
February 9, 2010A little overcast today, but there are patches of blue sky. David had made arrangements with Sasha at Vernadsky Station, to pick up the key for the museum which is the old meteological station from the British days here. Lots of interesting artifacts, from the fifties and sixties of the five man crew that used to man the station. Coal stoves, basic bunk beds, typewriters, skis, polar clothing etc. One interesting tidbit was the coal log on the wall. 47 bags of coal in June of 1958 and only 17 bags of coal in January 1959. Niek, Louis and I went over for coffee on board Hinyanin. The children were doing their schoolwork. All spoke perfect English. Yves is an airline pilot. They had left France 18 months ago and were planning on heading to the Falklands and South Aftrica next. A pleasant visit was had by all. We returned to the boats, and the wind had picked up considerably. Just after we returned, the bow shoreline went slack and the loop around the rock it was tied to, slipped off the rock. Ian dashed over in the inflatable and re secured it as best he could.. As he was doing that one of the aft shorelines slipped off the rock it was attached to, and the boats started swinging towards shore. Both skippers started their engines and powered into the gusts as the bow line was re secured. We then another bow shoreline from Polar Bound to a new rock on shore.. The boys went across the bay and found a rock to tie a line to. It was secured to the port bow side of Polar Bound and everybody breathed a sigh of relief. I must say though that every time the wind gusts, all eyes are on the mooring lines.. As there are so few secure rocks to tie shorelines to, there is a lot of conversation about how Parity II carryies a portable generator, a small rock drill, and rock anchors with them. When you add up all the time, effort and energy that we have expended trying to tie around boulders and rocks, it becomes very evident that a proper rock anchor is much easier and more dependable... The sun is shining now, although we are seeing occasional gusts up to 30 knots.. Hopefully the rest of the afternoon will be mellow and without panic situations developing. The heater is still running below deck and everybody is drying out gloves and clothing. Sitting here in the cockpit behind the vinyl curtain it is almost downright hot.. I do know that if I go out and stand in the wind for five minutes though, that that bone chilling cold will find it's way through my clothing once again.
The rest of the afternoon seemed to disappear into nothingness. No major projects.. Yves and Lawrence from Hinyanin stopped over for a beer.. Then another couple, Mathew and Katlen from another French boat stopped in. Good conversation by all.... After they left, John brewed up some risotto. The crew headed off to a singing contest over at the Ukrainian bar again. David and I stayed on board La Rose for a coffee. He had been bothering me about teaching him how to make bread so we brewed up a batch of bread. I put cheese in it this time, and he thought we should add olives, so we did. Hopefully it turns out. Just as I finished cleaning up from the bread making, the boys returned from the bar. The sky is clear and one could see the stars in the middle and northern sky. The southern sky was still too light to see the stars. They took the time to point out to me the Southern Cross. The first time I have seen it. One of my objectives of the trip was to see the Southern Star, so I am satisfied at seeing it. A nip of liquer is going on below deck now. The boys in the bar apparently had a singing competition. The Ukrainians, the French, and the South Africans. Rumour has it that the French won, but nobody really wants to talk about them winning.February 10, 2010
Another sunny morning today. It is warm enough to be sitting out in the cockpit and write. There are some mares tails in the sky,. This could mean some weather on it's way. David and Polar Bound left this morning. He is heading north back up to Port Locroy tonight, then on to the Falklands. We have been cruising with him now for 15 days. It will be a little odd not having him around. At the beginning he appeared to be very stalwart, and stiff Brit, but as we got to know him a bit better, he does have a good sense of humour and many teases back and forth continued to break the ice with him. I think he thoroughly enjoyed the company of cruising with us. Just before he left, Isabel Autissier and her crew showed up and mooched some fuel for the outboard from David. I think everybody is looking forward to running into David again somewhere. It was with a bit of a heavy heart that I waved goodbye to David, as part of me really did want to go to the Falklands. We will miss him. Hal went over to Hinyanin to give the kids over there a brief lecture on wildlife photography. Yves came over to La Rose with his charts of South Africa, to pick up some local knowledge from the Afrikaaners. Mathew is coming over shortly to give Niek pointers on how to download UGRIB files with is Iridium phone. A bit later... It looks as if there are computer issues with receiving UGRIB on Niek's computer. It appears that most boats could use a computer guru on board these days..
We got the shorelines retrieved without incidence. I suppose it is a sign that the crew is getting to the point where they know what each one is doing and going to do. We left Verdansky Station and headed over to the Yaleur Islands for a reconaisance. We had bun sandwiches for lunch. We broke John's cardinal rule about never mixing ham and cheese on anything. Most of us felt good by having a ham and cheese sandwich on a fresh bun. From there over to Peterman Island. A nice little cove with room for only one boat to tie up. We did drop the anchor to initially hold the boat in position. The anchor setting procedure on board is still a bit of a gong show. Once the anchor was down, we set the shore lines. I must admit that there seems to be some good polish coming up on the shoreline detail. We decided to have an early dinner tonight. Ian will BBQ some meat, Hal will make up some coleslaw, and somehow I got roped into doing fried potatoes and onions to go with it. Niek suggested that if I wanted to swap positions with Steve from Persimon that I could do that. Persimon seems to be still going through some crisis. The German girl has now secured passage on a cruise ship headed for Ushuaia. The problem being that she has never had her passport stamped that she left Chile... Oh, the bureaucracy down here.....
February 11, 2010
It was nice and warm on board when we woke up this morning. Niek usually gets up quite early, and wanders into the salon. He finds it too warm for his liking so he usually opens the hatch and the drop boards to cool it off. By the time we get up the boat has cooled down and it is downright chilly to crawl out of bed. There is obviously some hope that he is trainable. Overcast and grey outside today. There has been a bit of a swell rolling in all night, as it is not a deep bay. Niek is continuing his battle with the forward head, and the rest of us head ashore for a shore walk. These low granite islands are one big penguin rookery. As there is lots of low sloping exposed rock they find it easy to get in and out of the water. Mostly Gentoo penguins but quite a few Adelai penguins mixed in with them. The Gentoo chicks are getting quite big. In many cases they are as big as the mother hen. It makes me wonder how one hen can continue to feed herself and two offspring the same size as her. When we first arrived in Antarctica a few short weeks ago, the chicks were less than half the size of the hen. They sure do grow a lot in a few weeks. The occasional chick is moulting it's chick feathers and developing real penguin feathers. They look rather scruffy while they are moulting. The Adelai chicks seem to be much further along in the moulting process than the Gentoo chicks. I believe the chicks are now at the teenage stage of their lives. It is common and somewhat humorous to see these full size chicks chasing the hen around trying to get the hen to feed them. I don't know if the mother is just plain tuckered out from her feeding chores or not, but I am sure that physically she is close to the end of her ability to feed her brood. Apparently it is pretty much a blood bath when the chicks are no longer being fed by the mother hens. By then they will have developed their real coat of protective feathers and down. At some point they wander down to the water and dive in, somehow knowing that the food source is in the water. This is when the seals congregate and gorge themselves on young penguins that do not know how to swim well, nor know the dangers of the seals. I don't know if we will be around long enough to witness this blood bath or not. I found a bunch of limpet shells on shore today. It looks like these will be the only souvenirs that I bring back from Antarctica. There is an elephant seal laying up on the rocks. She was there yesterday when we pulled in. I went over and took a look at her. Hal figures that she is moulting, and apparently when they moult they just hang out on rocks, out of the water until they develop their new coat of protective hair. It is about ten feet long and three feet across. It is a huge animal. The moulting hair gives it a rather sickly appearance. It doesn't seem to be bothered by the penguins, nor vice versa as the penguins walk back and forth, right in front of it. I did take some footage of the big penguin chicks bothering the mother hen. I hope it turns out.
Ongoing drama on the sailors net. Polar Bound is still heading north. Endeavour changed his mind about going to South Georgia as the winds were just downright too miserable. He has set course for Trisan. Persimon did drop one of his crew onto the cruise ship. He is now faced with sailing back across the Drake Passage to clear up visa issues with the Chilean and Argentine authorities. He did receive reassurance from people on the net that showing up back in port missing one crew member from his crew list was not a big issue, as crews changed boats frequently. A single handed sailor sailing out of South Georgia took a shit kicking last night. Apparently he did have a crew of two on board when he arrived in South Georgia, but due to some personality issues, they jumped ship there, so he elected to single hand onwards. He got caught with too much sail up when the wind started gusting to 40 knots, and then he claims he got hit by a rogue wave. At the time he was on the net, he said he was making 2 knots. He said he thought he was suffering from hypothermia, and had not gone out on deck this morning. He wasn't sure if he had any sails left on the boat at all, or if they had self destructed in the storm. He is not in a good situation at all.
Hinyana showed up and tied alongside. The kids are certainly boat wise. They knew just what to do, and how to do it. It is amazing to see these young children handling lines and fenders like professionals. It is school time for them right now, so they are below deck, “hitting the books”. Yves and Lawrence are quite strict about the kid's school time. The rest of the day passed pleasantly. The family came over from Hinyanin for a while. Lots of joking and teasing with the kids. They have spent so much time around adults, they are 100% comfortable joining in adult conversation. Yves and Laurence stayed for dinner and drinks. I made a call through to my mother and chatted for a bit. I called Sarah too, but only had the opportunity to leave a voice message.
February 12, 2010
The day started early with Niek announcing that yet another cruise ship had just pulled in, the Hanse Explorer. A fairly small cruise ship, perhaps 200 feet, but with only 8 passengers on board. When the inflatable from the Hanse Explorer dropped the passengers on shore, it then came over to La Rose. On board was the crew member who had deserted the boat in South Georgia. He had met Hinyanin in Ushuaia and wanted to come over to say hello. After he had deserted the sailboat, he secured passage on a cruise ship at a cost of $1900.00 US for the rest of the cruise and ending up back in Ushuaia. Ian who has been nominated as the procurement officer, buzzed out to the cruise ship in our inflatable and made a deal with the crew on the cruise ship to sell us some provisions. Three full filets of beef and a huge ten pound roast. 8 quarts of milk for Hinyanin and one chicken. I must admit that Ian seems to be slipping a bit, as this time we had to buy it. All that for $48.00 USD. We are getting the boat ready to head up to Hovgaard Island, six miles north. Hinyanin is going to head up there too.
A bit further on penguins. This morning we could see the full grown chicks chasing the mother hens for food. The more mature chicks who have lost nearly all their chick feathers chased the mother hen right down to the shore, where the mother dove into the ocean. The chicks would run down to the shoreline and stop just short of diving in themselves. I suspect we are only a day or two away from this year's chicks taking their first plunge. Let the feeding frenzy for the seals begin! I knew there was a reason why the mother hen was running from the hungry chicks. She is training them to chase her until they build the courage to take the plunge into the sea.
There is no wind and we powered along. The bonus of the day was a pair of humpback whales that seemed curious about the boat. Although they did not breach, they did surface very many times very close to the boats. We spent almost an hour sitting still as they surfaced around us. True magic. All the cameras were out so I am hoping we got some good pics. Apparentlly unbeknownst to me, the executive decision was made to go to Pleneau Island instead of Hovgaard Island. The two islands are right next door to each other but Pleneau Island offers more in the line of shore adventures. Hinyanin tied up to shore lines and La Rose anchored. In an hour we are going to raise anchor and go tie up alongside. A bit of debate went on over the VHF as to who was going to host dinner tonight. Laurence on Hinyanin won. She is making a casarole of some kind, and it looks as if Ian is going to have to work his magic with another apple pie. That is apparently all they want from our larder. And they did arrive. Another pleasant evening of conversation and chuckles.
February 13, 2010
We awoke to another glorious day. The sun was shining brightly, and there was not a breath of wind. Standing on the aft deck it must have been close to 20 degrees C. The weather certainly is better here in the Argentine Islands. Thank god for micro climates. John and Louis went for an early morning shore walk, the rest of us just hung around relaxing. The debate of the day seems to be “Do we stay here today or move on?”. Considering the apathy of the whole crew, and no one can really make up their mind, I think we may stay put. It is nice to have a day with no objectives. Not much new on the sailing net. Most boats are experiencing calm conditions. The single hander, being the the one exception. He claims to be seeing 40-50 knots of wind and is presently 105 miles from Stanley in the Falklands. It might be a day to do laundry... We have been messing with various programs, mostly MaxSea and C Map to find a program that will read the charts that we have pirated. I think I have given up, my screen is too small to operate the program. Hmmm what to do now.. I am feeling lazy....I found a book that is a history of the Pacific Ocean, simply titled, The Pacific. It seems to be moderately interesting and thick enough to consume my mind for the next few days.
Ian went for a shore walk and on the other side of the island he came across a big Zodiac off loading personel and a big bass guitar. A little bewildered by the sight, he went up and started talking to them. The ship “Ushuaia” had been chartered by two film companies. It had anchored in the south bay of Booth Island and had disembarked one of the film crews to Pleneau Island to do their shoot. No name had been chosen for the movie yet, but it is a story of a young married couple who travel to Antarctica to sort out their marital woes. The other film crew are strictly photographers. They have a cast of six “bushmen”, black folks from the Kalahari in Namibia. Somehow, they are piecing together a story about how the bushmen build a bamboo raft and are in Antarctica. Me thinks artistic licence is taking a big leap here, as bushmen live in deserts, and do not build rafts. We did get a close up of the raft.. It was about 10 x 10 and definitely made from bamboo. It must have been pre constructed before the ship left port.
The crew from Hinyanin came aboard for dinner again. This time it was two big filet mignon barbequed up by Ian. We did slice off a nice big juicy piece so we could have roast beef sandwiches tomorrow. Hinyanin is a very social boat and with the children, they have met pretty well every boat that has visited Antarctica this summer. We picked their brains for the number of boats they have seen. In total, 9 private pleasure yachts cruising down here this summer. 13 charter boats operating out of Ushuaia. And probably another dozen of the various cruise ships. There certainly are not many private folks down here. Good conversation, a bit of wine, good food, and we all crashed around midnight. I used the last of the booty flour from the cruise ship, and ended up with an ultra large batch of bread.
February 14, 2010
Valentines Day in Antarctica dawned pretty much like any other day down here. With an all male crew, no Valentines cards were passed around. Those with wives talked or sent text messages via the satellite phone to their respective spouses. We received a visit from Damian, an Argentine deck hand on the movie charter boat. He was just killing time burning around in the inflatable as the movie was shot. We hailed him over for a coffee, and chatted with him for a while. He comes from northern Argentina, close to the border of Paraguay. He has been working on the Ushuaia for five years, and been to Antarctica many times.. He still finds it quite cold here. After he took off, we pulled in the mooring lines to shore and slowly backed away from Hinyanin. Final farewells were made as we powered up and headed out of the bay. Yves and Laurence guided us out of the bay in their dinghy. There is a bit of susnhine, but the high cloud seems to be moving in. As we rounded Booth Island, the movie charter boat was also leaving. As they passed us, Niek hailed them on the VHF, and asked to speak to the bushmen. They spoke briefly in Afrikaans and then both vessels carried on. We watched a leopard seal next to the boat chase some penguins around but as far as we could see, he was unsuccessful. We are heading back to Paradise Bay, about 25 miles away. The master plan is to hang out there for a couple of days and then head back out to Melchior Island and from there, the homeward journey begins across the Drake Passage. While at the Chilean base there, Hal had been told of a couple of white penguins that were roosting there. We did not see them on our first visit, but we are hoping to see them this time around. Niek is a little concerned how his SARV2 seems to have voltage wandering problems. We will mess with it when we get to Paradise Bay. He is still thinking about leaving Antarctica on the 17th. It will be about a 500 mile voyage back to Puerto Toro. In reality that is about a 5 day trip. With any luck, we should arrive there on the 21st of February. If that is the case, I will jump ship there, catch a bus or taxi to Puerto Williams and then fly from Puerto Williams to Punta Arenas and from there on to Santiago, where I should be able to catch my flight home. That is, of course, if there are scheduled flights that match up in that 36 hour period. We have been watching the UGRIB files and the last few days have provided beautiful weather for the crossing of the Drake Passage. We have learned to not put a lot of emphasis on the 7 day forecast though. Today's 7 day forecast does not look so good. One of the issues here is that the first 250 miles we can expect mild SE winds. The nasty part of the Drake Passage is the last 150 miles. We can leave here with a good forecast, hoping that when we get to the northern section of the Drake Passage, that the gods are smiling on us. If they are not smiling on us, then we will have to prepare ourselves for a thrashing... My guess at the moment is that if it looks like a window of good weather will open in time for us to get all the way across the Drake Passage that Niek will elect to leave earlier yet. But if the window does not look good, then we may leave even later than the 17th, thus jeopardizing my effort to make my original connections back home. Time will tell.
It all means another two or three days of cruising before we leave. I am of mixed feelings on that. I have enjoyed the company of the crew immensely. Niek has commented many times that it would have been very difficult to put together such a pleasant crew. Everybody is very different, yet we all get along. There has not been so much as one cross word spoken between crew members. Of that, I am very relieved, especially after hearing stories from other boats and their disasterous crew stories. By the same token, I have seen enough rock, ice, penguins and seals. As the west coast of Canada is also a pristine cruising ground, I am perhaps not as totally enthralled as the rest of the crew that live in places where pristine cruising grounds do not exist. Lunch today was the said roast beef sandwiches. Yummy yummy... the crew certainly do enjoy the fresh bread every other day. They also have the decency to let me know that.
Friend or Foe
As we cruise along the icebergs, bergy bits, and ice floes are our friends. Today we have seen dozens of seals hauled out on the various pieces of ice floating around the channels. We dodge floes and bergs alike to manoeuvre in close to the seals. They seem oblivious to us. Most do not even move, although we are approaching them from downwind, I am sure they can smell us a mile away. And yet they just lay there. They must have an amazing coat of fur, and layer of blubber, so that they can lay directly on the ice for hours on end and be so oblivioius to the cold. And yet the ice itself can become our foe. When at anchor, they can drift down onto the boat and the anchor chain. They are so massive they can drag the bow of the boat underwater when they collide. There is a story of an iceberg drifting down on a cruising yacht here in Antarctica, that literally crushed the anchor. The poor yacht cut the anchor chain before the iceberg trammeled the bow down and attached a float to the line. After the berg passed they went back and retrieved the anchor, only to discover their prize anchor crushed beyond recognition. And when navigating at night the bergs, bergy bits and floes are our foes. Hitting a chunk of ice that massive at 6 knots with a 25 ton boat can only spell disaster for the boat. As we navigate through the brash ice of floes and bergy bits, it is impossible to miss all of them. Although we slow right down to a bare minimum crawl, when we do collide with a floe, it pushes the boat sideways significantly. Friend or foe?
As we approach Brown Station for the second time, in Paradise Bay we see a three masted square rigged sailing ship just to the south of it. We cannot resist going in for a closer look. The boat is Europa, a Dutch riveted steel hull square rigger. Judging by the age of the people on board that come to the rail of Europa to take a look at us, we guess it is a passenger or charter vessel. The Dutch flag is looking very tattered, and I don't think any military ship would fly such a beat up ensign. The crew swap a few words of Dutch to the onlookers, and we are off to anchor by Brown Base. It appears that Europa is also going to anchor in the vicinity of where we will anchor. We must get our procurement officer over there to beg for some rum.
Niek got on the VHF and asked permission of Europa to come over for a tour of the vessel. The skipper told us that once his passengers had disembarked for their shore adventure, that we would be welcome to come over. Once on board, we were greeted very cordially and given a glass of Dutch beer. The boat appeared to be in very good shape. A crew of 15, and capable of 40 passengers, although at present there were only 30 passengers. We toured the forepeak, galley, guest quarters, staff quarters and the bridge. Most of the crew were either Aussies or Dutch, and seemed to get along very well. The crew are on board for three months at a time. They do Antarctica in the southern summer and then head north to partake in tall ship events in northern winters. They always have paying guests on board. Surprisingly she is not a fast ship. 6 knots average under sail, 12 knots in ideal conditions of good wind and flat seas, and about 8 knots under power. After the tour we went back to La Rose for a feast of chicken that our fine procurement officer had snagged for us.
February 15, 2010
We were awoke at 4:00 AM by the sound of the anchor chain being dragged across the bottom. Yuppers, we were dragging anchor. Louis and Nick got up and just as they did, the anchor dug in and we stayed put. They stayed up for a while and then crashed briefly before the anchor started dragging again. At 6:00 AM they raised the anchor and we set off under genoa only, to a light SE wind of 5-10 knots. The rest of the crew stayed in the nice warm bunks. Around 8#0 we ran into some serious brash ice. It was impossible to sleep with the ice grinding along the side of the hull, so suddenly the whole crew was awake. The morning sailors net brought news of David aboard Polar Bound, still getting pounded by high S winds and big seas. He had come across a huge iceberg in the night that took him a half an hour to get around. He didn't get any sleep, but was going to go below soon to see if he could grab some shut eye.
We are heading to the Melchior Islands. Each island in this group is named after a letter in the Greek alphabet. We don't know much more about the islands than that. It is our jumping off point to cross the Drake Passage. Niek is now talking about leaving the Melchior Island group tomorrow, the 16th. This improves my chances of making my flight considerably. Winds in the Drake Passage are supposed to be from the SE tomorrow, and then changing to westerlies the day after. That all sounds good. I am kind of secretly happy that we are leaving a bit earlier. From the perspective of tired of the cold, and the ability to make my flight... The rest of the crew is a little reluctant to do so. John specifically has mentioned several times over the last few days that we still have another week to go before we start to head back. But once Niek has made up his mind that something is going to happen, then there is no changing it. The rest of the crew seem to be more ambivalent than anything. I think everyone has seen enough rock, ice, seals, and penguins to last them. There is not a hell of a lot more to do down here, other than witness new scenery and see more wildlife. Not that we will see more species, but just more of the same species that we have already seen. 30 miles to Melchior Islands. I should go see what is up.
We were gifted with a couple of humpback whales that put on a bit of a show for us. Always a glorious event. We pulled into the Melchior Islands into a snug little cove that appears to have good bottom, so we are going to lay here on anchor only. John, Ian and myself went for a little adventure in the inflatable. No penguins on the island but there were a mess of fur seals. When we rounded the west end of the island we spotted the Argentine base. We could not resist the temptation, so we headed off to inspect it. It had been deserted for some time. The two main buildings were boarded up and we did not force entry. One outbuilding was open so in we went. The lower floor was a tool shed with shovels, axe, picks, paint, cement mixer and a mess of spare wood. The second floor was arranged into five rooms. Two bedrooms, one bathroom, living room and galley. The galley had a propane stove in it. The corner of the living room had a small wood heater. One of the bedrooms had shelves built into it. The shelves were stocked with flour, wine, condiments, olive oil, and a variety of foods. Obviously as a refuge hut, one could live here for several months in reasonable comfort. I would imagine that there would be a generator in one of the buildings and a radio, so that if indeed it was used as a refuge hut, that one could communicate to the outside world. After we left the Argentine base, we decided to finish circumnavigate the island itself. None of us had looked at a chart before we left, but we knew, or at least thought we knew it was a small island. Ten miles later, and wondering if we would end up running out of fuel, we finally spotted La Rose sitting at anchor.
Neik announced when we got back that he wants to leave the Melchior Islands at 3:00 AM tomorrow morning. It is true then, we are leaving on the 16th. We checked on the GPS and it is 520 miles back to Puerto Toro. That is a full five days of travel if we manage to make 100 miles a day. The forecast is for winds from the SE at 15-20 knots, which is perfect. The five day forecast is for winds from the NW, so it may be a bit of a beat for the last day... I am happy...The crew crashed early for a change. I had a batch of bread on and I had just put it in the oven when they crashed, so I stayed up until it was done.
February 16, 2010
Well, we are off. Niek and Louis got up and we were underway at 4:00 PM. No wind at all and they powered out of the Melchior Islands. At 5:30 AM, they were clear of the islands and set the way point for Cape Horn. 510 miles distant. There was still no wind and the seas would be described at oily. I just rolled over in my bunk and enjoyed a couple of more hours sleep.
8:00 AM. I rolled out of the bunk and we were powering along. There was a bit of a swell rolling through, but the seas were still oily. Ian had got up at some point and hoisted the main and half the genoa. I brewed up coffee for the crew and we got to enjoy it as we rolled along at 6 knots. Slowly the wind filled in and we were spending more time at 7 knots than 6 knots. As it continued to build, we turned the engine off and we were still able to sail along in the 6 knot range. Wind from the W at 15 knots. Niek raised Polar Bound on the SSB, and he was doing fine. The wind had eased for him and the seas subsided a little. I talked with David for a few moments about making a superheater for his Dickenson stove out of brass. The wind blew out the furnace, so the cabin was full of diesel smoke. Yuck. Hal got up, feeling a little queasy. He wolfed down a bowl of cereal and went back to bed. No sign of any life in John yet today.
10:00 AM. The wind has picked up to 25 knots apparent. Another reef in the genoa. It is a beam reach and we are spending more time in the 7 knot range than anywhere. The cabin has cooled off now. Back to being cold most of the day. Yuck. The sky is overcast with low clouds, so I don't think that we will get any sunshine to warm us up. The good news is that we are definitely clocking the miles away. 493 miles to the Horn...My fingers are cold so I think I will think about putting some gloves on. I know it is going to warm up as we head north. I am anxious. With any luck and this wind holds, we should be at Cape Horn on Saturday.
2:00 PM We continue to put the miles behind us. Visibility has dropped down to a few hundred yards. We are still in iceberg alley, so there is a bit of tension on deck. We are trying to maintain two men on watch at all times. We regularly check the radar for icebergs, but we know full well that the radar will not pick up the bergy bits and growlers. Hitting a 100 ton bergy bit, or a 10 ton growler at 7+ knots would not bode well for La Rose.
9:00 PM. The gods have continued to look well upon us. We are holding course for Cape Horn, and still spending more time in the 7 knot range than anything else. Visibility is still poor, at less than 100 yards. This would barely give the helmsman time to react to avoid a bergy bit or a growler. The radar did pick up a target a mile and a half away, just off the starbroard bow. Ian sent out a Securite on the VHF and we could cut the tension in the air with a knife while we awaited a response. Was the target an iceberg or a ship? The range to the ship was decreasing, but the bearing was not changing. We were on a collision course. If there was no ship, the Securite would not be answered. If it was a ship, hopefully they had a radio watch on, and they would respond. Finally a response..... It was a ship, two days out of Ushuaia. They would alter course to avoid us. Although they passed within a half a mile of us we never did make visual contact with them. We watched happily as the radar target moved off the screen. Louis and Niek decided that the night time watches would be two man watches and would last 2 hours. Ian and I handed the watch over to Louis and John, and crawled into our bunks. It took a good hour to warm the hands and feet up enough to fall asleep.
February 17, 2010
1:00 AM. Niek woke me up to get me ready for our watch. Ian had been up for a few minutes and brewed up some hot chocolate. We didn't want to drink coffee, as it would just start to kick in when we finished our watch and were trying to get to sleep. There was definitely some concern on Niek's behalf about running into ice. He had slowed the boat down to 4 knots by reefing the genoa and spilling air off the main. It was pitch black outside. Even after one's eyes adjusted to the darkness, the horizon was barely discenrable. There was no way that we could alter the course of the boat to avoid an bergy bit, even if we did see it before we hit it. Ian and I spent most of the watch peering through the fog, hoping against hope that we would not encounter any ice.
3:00 AM. Our watch is over. We awakened Louis and John, who proceeded to get ready. It is always so hard to crawl out of a nice warm bunk into a cold damp boat to stand in the cold for two hours. Ian tried to light the furnace to provide some much needed heat, but it kept blowing itself out.. There would be no relief from the cold on this watch. Ian did have hot water ready for the new watch when they finally were vertical. That is another great courtesy... to get up for a watch to a warm cup of something..... It took me another hour to warm my hands and feet, once I crawled into the bunk.
800 AM. Daylight now.. The fog has lifted to the point where it would be considered low cloud. Cold and damp on board the boat. How I hate the thought of crawling out of the warm bunk..... Once daylight hit, the watch had changed from two man watches to one man watches. The previous watch had awoken Ian to stand a one hour watch before he woke me up for mine. I think it has warmed up a bit outside. It is still cold, but not as dastardly cold as Antarctica itself. The winds there blow off the ice plateau and are sub zero in temperature. I think the fog we encountered yesterday was winds from the South Pacific blowing over the Antarctic waters and condensing the water vapour to form fog. The ocean water temperature is still hovering around the 0 deg C range so we have not crossed the convergence zone yet. When the water temperature jumps 3 to 4 degrees, we know we will have crossed it. Hopefully the air will also warm up at that point. We beared off the wind a bit, to see if we could get the heater running. Niek did get it lit, and we slowly came back on course. We felt we would rather sail off course a few degrees, if it meant the heater would continue to burn. As we were doing so the wind did back a few degrees, and within an hour we had the heater running and we were on course. The wind has subsided a little. 10-12 knots, but more from the W than the NW that it had been blowing all night. The sailors net this morning, David gave us his synopsis of the weather from his Grib files. Winds from the W to SW today, and changing to SE tomorrow.. Sunday they would swing around to 30 knots from the NW.. With any luck, we would be across the Drake by the time the NW winds filled in. Persimon was still in Enterprise Bay. He had been hoping for a window of weather to sail back to Ushuaia. He probably should have left the same time we did, as if he leaves now, he will get hit by the NW wind on Sunday. David's lady friend talked to him for a few minutes on the radio. She had found her way to the Falklands and was waiting for him there. He was still 140 miles from the Falklands and would probably arrive there tomorrow sometime. I don't think he is anxious to see her. The cabin is nice and warm now.. I like it.. The wind has backed a little more and we are on course, on a broad reach, doing between 6 and 7 knots. Nap time? Or maybe time to do the dishes from the night?
Fear
All men know fear. They know it in the bottom of their hearts, but they must persevere onwards... Achieve the goal.... Testosterone keeps men from admitting fear, especially in the company of other men, especially at sea. There was fear in the stance.. fear in the voices.. fear in the eyes of the men on watch tonight. We were in the Southern Ocean, crossing the Drake Passage. A 516 mile crossing from the Melchior Islands to Cape Horn. Across what is known as one of the nastiest pieces of ocean in the world. An area of the planet that has been dreaded by mariners for centuries. An area of the ocean known for huge seas, high winds and ice.... We had been fortunate so far on this crossing. Winds from the NW at 25 knots, we were close hauled but making excellent time aboard La Rose. The final leg on our Antarctic adventure. The adventure had started poorly a month ago, with a dragging anchor, and being blown aground. Of having to cut the anchor chain and make a run for cover. We were hoping the final leg would end on a more positive note. 64 degrees south, and it has turned to fall in the southern hemisphere. We had spent most of the afternoon and evening enveloped in fog. Warm Pacific air encountering the cold southern Ocean water which was sitting at 0 deg C. We were only 120 miles from Antarctica. Our first day out, and good miles behind us. Our objective... to get as many miles as possible beyond Antarctica and the iceberg alley that surrounds it. We knew we could not get beyond the northern iceberg limit in one day, but the closer we were to the northern side of it, the safer we felt. As darkness set in we were humming along at 7+ knots. Conversation drifted to what would we do during the night.... Genuine icebergs (more than 5 meters out of the water would show up on radar). Bergy bits (1-5 meters out of the water) and growlers (smaller than bergy bits) would not show up. We would have to rely on our eyes for them. As an iceberg disintegrates it does not slowly melt away.. It “calves” into smaller and smaller pieces. It is these pieces, (bergy bits and growlers) that showed up as fear in the eyes men standing watch. A bergy bit likely weighs thousands of tons.. Growlers from hundreds of tons to just tons. Radar does not see them. The fog and moonless night kept them from the vision of the watch keepers.. We were flying blindly into a possible ice field, a mine field of frozen water... Hundreds of miles of icy ocean from any help, should we encounter the unthinkable... The strongly built La Rose , weighing in at 23 tons, and barrelling across the surface of the ocean at 7 + knots, would probably not fare well in hand to hand combat even with the smallest growler, let alone a healthy bergy bit.... The first watch had slowed the boat down to a more moderate 4 knots... Even at this speed running into something that weighed as much as 100 times as much La Rose and that was standing still, would be no laughing matter. The fear in the eyes, the fear in the stance of the watch was there for a reason.....It was disguised but it was there.. ....We are men.... We are at sea....
February 18, 2010
Another day at sea, and not a lot to report. Hal did a marathon watch last night and let me sleep through mine. I awoke at 8:00 and we were humming along at 6 knots. The usual coffee in the cockpit while the previous night was hashed over. My bread from last night turned out well, and I prepared the buns for baking. Only one bag of flour left so there is only one more batch of bread to go. We made 155 miles yesterday... Most of the day was spent reading, standing watch, and cockpit chatter with the person standing watch. The wind was backing around to the SE, so eventually we decided to use the whisker pole and run wing on wing. This allowed us to go back to our course of 320. Great fun surfing down the waves, although the helmsman has to pay 100% attention to what he is doing. Hal is feeling better today, but is still spending most of his day laying bed, and watching movies on his computer. He did stand a watch this afternoon, and currently holds the record for hitting 10.7 knots whilst surfing down a wave. I have a minor competition going on with Ian. If he can hit 12 knots, I will buy him drinks for a day. So far, he has only hit 10.2 knots.. I think I am safe... 164 miles to go to Cape Horn. The boys all want to go there, so there is not a hope in hell of distracting them from that mission. If conditions are calm, they want to land there in the inflatable and get their passports stamped. If it is rough, that will just be out of the question. There is no anchorage at the Horn itself, so one person must stay on board and just power around in circles whilst the others are ashore. If the wind holds, we will be there before dark tomorrow night. If not, it will be dark and we will just heave to for the night, and try to land there Saturday morning. If we do land on Saturday, then it looks like we might head for Puerto Toro Saturday night. If that is the case, I will jump ship there and try to make it overland to Puerto Williams on Sunday. Puerto Toro is only home to 7 families and no services. I will have to hope to coax someone into driving me to Puerto Williams, about 30 miles away. There are no flights from Puerto Williams to Punta Arenas on Sunday, so I may have to go onto Ushuaia from Puerto Williams. I am anxious about whether or not I will make Santiago for the 23rd. My flight from there to Toronto is at 10:23 AM. I will have to be at the check in counter by 8:00 AM, so I doubt I will be able to catch a flight from Punta Arenas that will put me in Santiago at that time of the morning. I will have to be in Santiago Monday night at the latest, which means that I should be in Punta Arenas Monday morning at the latest... This is going to be tight. Ian was threatening to do a BBQ out here in the Drake Passage again, but I think it is just a tad rough for it. We have been very fortunate in the weather we have had for this crossing so far. I hope it holds. The wind picked up a bit, so the BBQ was out. Stewed beef and rice for dinner.. It sure hit the spot... The autopilot went on strike again so we are hand steering. The wind backed a fair bit to the SE, so now we are running wing on wing. We set up the whisker pole to take some of the fear out of wing on wing. The competition continues with maximum speeds whilst surfing down a wave. I told Ian that I would buy him drinks for a day if he hit 12 knots... Damned if he didn't do it a couple of hours later. Not only did he do 12 knots, but three of us were watching the knotmeter when he did it, so there was no doubt. I told him he had to come to Canada to collect though... As we are hand steering we decided to do two man, two hour watches through the night. Ian and I took the 10:00-12:00 PM watch. He reached 13.5 knots at one time. My personal best was 13.2 knots. The miles are certainly burning away under the keel. When we finished up our watch there were only 120 miles to go...
February 19, 2010
The day started with standing a watch. Louis and Niek had the watch before us, and let us sleep an extra half an hour. At watch change, we had to gybe the main as the wind had veered to the SW again. We furled part of the genoa too, but did not take down the whisker pole. We were still attaining good speeds, but the boat was definitely a bit unruly in the bigger waves. We covered 100 miles in the last 12 hours. 180 miles in the last 24 hours. We are boogying..I took some short video clips of the boat in motion.. It is always exhilerating to be attaining these types of speeds in a sailboat. Maintaining those speeds at night is even more exhilerating. Couple that with the fact that we are doing it in the Southern Ocean and it was truly magical. I hope they turn out. Ian and I had consumed a couple cups of coffee on watch. The problem was that when we were finished out watch, I could not get to sleep.. I tried, but when the watch crew decided to take the whisker pole down, I went up on deck. We were down to 60 odd miles to the Horn. The morning sailors net showed Polar Bound safe and sound in the Falklands. Persimon left Antarctica yesterday and made 150 miles, so he had a good day. It looks like we will arrive at Cape Horn around 4:00 today. If the swell is not too bad, we will attempt to land there in the inflatable. If not, well, at this point there is no plan B. My first vote would be to carry on to Puerto Williams. Vote # 2 would be to carry on to Puerto Toro. Time will tell....
Land ho.... I was out in the outer cockpit and just happened to see a shape on the horizon.. Cape Horn is within sight. A small nub of a rock partially obscured by poor visibility. 31 miles to go... The talk turned to what after Cape Horn, and Niek volunteered that we were going to head to Puerto Williams to facilitate my leaving.. Yippee!! We discussed additional costs that the expedition had incurred... It looks like another $200.00 per head... Canada... here I come. I squared up with Niek.. No matter how I look at it, it was and incredible deal on an incredible adventure. We finally made it to Cape Horn ( Cabo Hornos) There is not much there.. A rather rugged mountain, with little vegetation. I must admit though that even the sparse vegetation that was there, sure looked lush. I never thought green could look so good. There is a knoll on the SE side of the island on which is perched the lighthouse and lighthouse keeper's quarters. There is a tiny cove down at the bottom of the knoll that one can land an inflatable and go ashore when it is calm. We went in close to shore by the cove but with the swell rolling in from the SE there was not a hope in hell of landing there. Louis had been there a few years back on a charter out of Ushuaia, and had gone ashore. He got his passport stamped and picked up a little cloth emblem to be sewn on to a jacket. He wore the jacket every day of the trip, and I wanted that momento too. But it was not to be... By this time it was 4:00 PM and Niek had decided he was going to get me to Puerto Williams on Saturday. I think the rest of the crew were perhaps a little “nose out of joint” about that. They would rather have spent a few more days cruising around Cape Horn and hoped for a calm day. Off we went, heading for Puerto Williams. There was a bit of naviigation hooplah, as we approached Paseo del Sur. The blue book from Georgio had a sketch of the passage, but it looked nothing like what the chart said. Lots of talk back and forth about which one was wrong and on which side of the island to pass. Eventually, we figured it out that Georgio was referring to a different pass. Once through the pass, the wind picked up and we were under main and stay sail only and making 9+ knots. Darkness moved in on us as we approached Navario Island. We kept getting hit by squall after squall, and it kept getting darker and darker and darker. Considering that there were no navigation lights nor aids to navigation enroute, we decided to head for Puerto Toro the night. Niek called the Chilean Armada on the VHF and asked if there was taxi service or any way to get me from Puerto Toro to Puerto Williams where I could catch a plane on Saturday. Through broken Spanish we picked up that there was no road between the two towns. We were a little confused as two guidebooks on board both said there was a road. I even had a road map that said there was a road. Eventually an English speaking woman came on for the Armada, and confirmed there was no road. Niek was convinced he would get me to Puerto Williams on Saturday, so he decided we were going to stop in Puerto Toro for only a few hours sleep until daylight. As it was 1:30 AM when we finally got the anchor down, everybody crashed immediately.
February 20, 2010
I suppose this is the last chapter of the La Rose Chronicle. The alarm went off at 4:30, and Niek and I got up. It was still pitch black outside so I told him to go back to bed for an hour. I stayed up, lit the furnace, made coffee, and did the dishes from the night before. Hal got up and we finished up the dishes. Niek and Louis got up around 5:30 and it was just starting to get light. A round of coffee for everyone then Hal and I raised the mainsail as Niek and Louis raised the anchor. It was still gusting with a bit of rain, so it was not a very pretty morning. Louis informed me that Puerto Williams was 5 hours away. Niek called the Armada again and asked what time the flight to Punta Arenas from Puerto Williams was and he was told it was at 11:00 AM. It was going to be tight to make it. We unfurled the genoa and Niek stayed under power so we could make full haste to Puerto Williams. Niek suggested that Hal who can speak reasonably good Spanish, call the Chilean Armada on the VHF and see if they could arrange a taxi to meet us at the dock. Surprisingly they did arrange it. You have to remember that Puerto Williams is a mere hamlet, so it is not like it is over run with taxis..... We made it to the dock at 9:30 AM, a little earlier than we had expected. I was thrilled that withing a few short hours, I would be on my way home... Final farewells, and kind wishes to everyone was quite heart warming. Ian and I, and Hal and I developed a fairly strong friendship, and I was surprised to see Ian choking up a little when we said farewell. I stayed in the parking lot, waiting for the taxi, and they wandered back to the boat, to put the dinghy in the water, so that if my taxi did not show up, they would ferry me over to the airport via inflatable.... An odd looking van came along with a flag flying from it, and I assumed it was the local version of a taxi, so I held up my arm and flagged him down. They stopped, and when I asked if they were a taxi, they said no, but where did I want to go. I said the airport, so they said jump in.. Off we were. It turns out that they are construction workers working at the airport on the renovation, so it was not out of their way. When we arrived at the airport, I realized how small the airport was.. The terminal was just one small building and looking in through the windows, it was a building under construction. After some broken Spanish/English conversations, they told me there was not a plane coming in until 5:00 PM.. I didn't believe them because the Chilean Armada had been asked three times and they all confirmed that there was a flight at 11:00 AM. Well, you guessed it.. The Armada was wrong and the construction workers were right. When I tried the doors to the terminal building, I found they were closed.. I had changed into my “border crossing” clothes. Shirt and slacks. I thought that even if I had to wait for an hour outside that I would be cold, so I started digging in my pack for a sweater and jacket. As I was doing so one of the construction workers opened the door for me, and told me I could wait inside.. Although “inside” was not heated, it was at least out of the wind.. I sauntered in, thanking him profusely as I did so. Inside there were new seats for waiting passengers that had not even had the protective plastic taken off them. I wandered around and did not see any airline offices or any ticket agents or any business for that matter.. Again he explained to me that there was not a plane until 5:00 PM and I insisted there was one at 11:00 AM. He went back to work and at 11:15, he came down again and asked if I smoked.. Over the smoke, I conveyed to him that I thought it odd that I could not buy a ticket at the airport. It then dawned on him, that I did not have a ticket. He proceeded to explain to me that it is a very small plane that comes in and that it only takes six or seven passengers. Then he got through to me that he had never seen anything but full. My heart was sinking when he also explained to me that I would have to buy a ticket in town (Puerto Williams), which was three miles away...He then went on to explain that the ferry to Punta Arenas had left this morning and was a once a week sailing. His next bit of good news was that my only option of getting off Isla Navarino and Puerto Williams was to charter a plane out of Ushuaia....My day was going downhill fast. I asked him if he was interested in making $10,000.00 Chilean Pesos ($20.00 USD) by taking me into town to see if I could even buy a ticket. It must have been a good offer, because he immediately agreed to it, and off we raced to town in his 1985 rust bucket of a Subaru. He took me into the airline's agents office which also doubled as a grocery store, and clothing store.. His first enquiry was met with frowns and looks of dismay as to whether or not there was a seat available. After a half an hour of back and forth between him and the counter person, it was established that indeed there was a seat available.. I jumped on it.. $100.00 USD.. Not a bad deal at all... So I paid him his little fee of $20.00 USD and then he became my chauffeur. He dropped me off at a restaurant for lunch and told me he would be back in an hour to pick me up.. Sounded ok to me, because I did not have any food with me, and there was nothing available at the airport. I had brought my computor with me and figured I should probably check the times on my flight home...I did not bring a paper copy of the ticket with me, but had just stored one in the computor... I had not really spent a lot of time thinking about my flight home because I had been pretty sure that my Antarctic expedition would have meant that I would have to forefiet that part of my ticket and buy an over the counter one way ticket. I knew I would get hammered on pricing, but felt the experience would have been worth it.. So when the Antarctic expedition wound down to a timetable that looked like it might accomodated my return ticket home, I liked the idea, but did not get overly excited about it because I knew it was going to be nip and tuck. Crossing the Drake Passage could take 5 or 6 days of if we were very very lucky, we might be able to hone it down to 3 ½ days, which is exactly what we did. I didn't want to count my chickens before they hatched so even after visiting Cabo Horno, I was not about to start building any expectations as I was still 60 miles from civilization and knew full well that there was a slim chance of making my flight. And the adventure continues...... So I sat down and ate my lunch.. I hung around nursing a beer, waiting for him to come back and pick me up. I did that for an hour or so, and then I figured he would be any minute so I went for a stroll outside. The sun was shining so I sat down on a park bench to just breath and enjoy the gorgeous views. Suddenly there is a tap on my shoulder and it is Hal from the boat. He had been up at the Internet cafe, chatting with his girlfriend when he spotted me on the bench. He was a little surprised at seeing me, so I recanted the adventure so far to him. We chatted for about ten minutes. He was hungry so I suggested going in to the restaurant where I had lunch and he could have a bite while I waited. Another half an hour later, and Hal had almost finished eating when my new “friend” walked through the door.. I did not see him drive up, so I had not been expecting him. He quickly explained to me that he had run out of gas in his car on his way to pick me up. He told me to follow him. As we walked across town to the one and only gas station, we talked about how he ;has spent his whole life in Puerto Williams He has never been to Ushsuaia. He had been to Punta Arenas once. When we got to the gas station, he reached behind a tree and pulled out a four liter milk jug that had obviously been used for gasoline before. This was not the first time he had run out of gas. Next we walked over to the building, but it was all locked up. Nobody in the little kiosk type building, and padlocks on each of the pump handles. We were euchered...We hung around for a half an hour.. I had nothing better to do, my plane didn't leave for another 7 hours. A friend of his drove by and they chatted for ten minutes. Then he told me to wait at the gas station and he would be back in ten minutes.. The big dope deal going down? Hmmm I wondered.. This was getting sketchy...In reality, he walked three blocks to the house of the gas station owner. The owner was not there but his wife said she would be down in a few minutes. She did arrive shortly, with three other women and 4 kids crowded into a small foreign car. With much squawking and giggling she managed to open up the gas bar, and turn the pumps on. Here we go, I thought...Only to discover that each pump handle was padlocked to the pump and that she did not have the key. Countless cell phone calls later and she finally tracked him down. Somehow the message was relayed to their daughter at home who was to bring down the spare keys. By the time the daughter showed up there were three vehicles waiting for gas. It must have been fairly commonplace as none of the drivers were upset. It was more of a social outing, leaning over the hoods of the cars, chewing the fat.. Eventually we got our little 4 liter milk jug filled up. Then the hike to where he had run out of gas. Coincidentally, it was just past the Club de Yates, where I had started my day in Puerto Williams. So off we go, the two mile walk to his car. Enroute we ran into Niek and Louis who are just heading into town for a walk They were pretty shocked to still see me as they had literally busted their butt to get me to the airport early enough to catch the supposed 11:00 flight. I explained to them my situation and they just walked away chuckling as they wished me luck on making my plane in Santiago... We walked the rest of the 2 miles to his car at the side of the road. I hadn't thought about how he was going to pour the gasoline out of the milk jug into the tank of his car. He surprised me when he pulled out of his trunk, an extra large plastic straw about ¾ of an inch diameter and stuck it into his tank. There was a wad of electrical tape wrapped around the middle of it, so it would not fall into his tank. He then very carefully poured the gasoline from the milk jug into the end of the straw. This was definitely not the first time he had done this. He didn't drip two drops in the whole escapade! My imagination was running wild with the scenarios that would develop when the car would not start. Needless to say, he had that down to a science too, as it started second try.....What does the next stage of this adventure hold for me?
