After one false start the day before, we got on an early morning flight to the King George Island airstrip, located on a military base in the Shetland Islands.
We saw our first iceberg as we approached the runway; a short, unpaved, rocky strip of land. As our plane touched down, the staccato tick, tick, tick of stones hitting the belly of the plane filled the cabin. We taxied away from the runway, and exited the plane on to an icy, rocky section of the military base. We waited there for the second plane; the only other flight to depart Punta Arenas for Antarctica that day. The icy, biting wind nipped at our exposed skin. Our expedition leader told us to dress for polar weather, and now I understood why. Standing in the unprotected area, I questioned my decision to pack my fleece neck gaiter, rather than wear it. I pulled down my wool headband to fashion a makeshift gaiter to warm my nose and chin.
Once the second plane arrived, we were escorted through the military base. We made an interesting procession … we were traveling with a group of ninety-two passengers that were boarding a scientific expedition boat, and their attire ranged from jeans to skirts and leggings to proper polar gear. Trudging over the stones and through the mud, I was grateful for my hiking boots, fleece, and wool base layer.
We got our first glimpse of the Australis as we descended over the hill and down in to the harbor. She was dwarfed by the other behemoth ship (which was small in comparison to the cruise ships that frequent Antarctica). Not for the first time, I was grateful for our intrepid group of seven.
We met our captain, Ben, at the shore, and headed to the zodiac. On board, we met the other crew of the Australis… Kari (pronounced “kah-dee”), from Norway, who was our chef for the journey, and Simon, our first mate, from Australia. We gathered to talk about our course, which was originally planned to start at Deception Island, home to an abandoned whaling village. Because of our delay, we decided to instead head to Trinity Island, in Antarctica proper. (The Shetland Islands are considered sub-Antarctica.) So, we got our luggage, unpacked, had a delicious lunch, a safety briefing, and we were underway!
Our course took us through some extremely turbulent seas. I liked to think of it as our Drake Passage training voyage. I watched from the wheelhouse for a while, and the local petrels and skuas saw us off. We saw our first penguin colony, complete with a penguin highway. It was also our first chance for a whale sighting, and we saw two grey whales… the spouts of one, and a fantastic tail shot of the other. The seas eventually became rough enough to make standing difficult, and everyone retreated to their bunks.
Our cabins were low to the waterline, and my bunk had a porthole. I pressed my face against the glass, and watched in awe as the waves crashed in to the hull, periodically submerging my porthole in to the wild sea. What adventures await? I can’t wait to see them unfold …