Today we had our first sight of land at noon, catching glimpse of towering Smith Island off to starboard. Not long after we sighted Snow Island directly ahead. The plan is to sail through Boyd Strait between the two, then off to the east to anchor in Deception Island. Deception is ideally suited for this purpose with a perfectly sheltered harbour, as well as being interesting in its own right with an old whaling station and huge penguin colonies.
Land comes as a most welcome sight after four full days on the ‘Drake Lake’. Touted as one of the wildest parts of the ocean in the world, for us it has been a slow slog. Our skipper Darrel says this one of the longest Drake passages he has ever done. The cause is calm weather, flat seas, and not enough wind from not quite the right direction. The result is 5 knots when we are burning through diesel and 3-5 knots when the wind permits sail without use of the motor. When you consider that the trip to Deception is around 500 nautical miles from Ushuaia, you can see why it has taken us so long to get here.
Aside from the excitement of seeing land for the first time in five days, we have also been spotting more and more icebergs. Although it is heartening to see clear signs of the great white continent, it is also a sight to make one nervous. These great hunks of ice can spell doom to a big boat, and for little vessel like ours it could be the end of our trip, or worse. As we enter the Boyd Strait we will be keenly looking out for ‘bergs’, ‘bergy bits’ and the cutely named but dangerous ‘growlers’ which make this place their home.
We had some attractive birdlife yesterday. The mottled Cape Petrel has been our company for the last couple of days and continues to flit around the yacht intermittently. We were also lucky enough to see a pair of light-mantled sooty albatrosses yesterday. Getting a clear photo of these magnificent seabirds can be difficult but we enjoy their company immensely.
As we come into the South Shetland Islands and then onto the Antarctic Peninsula proper, we expect to see significant penguin and seal life. Orcas, whales and leopard seals are all real possibilities as well.
An optimistic view would have us anchored at Deception Island by midnight tonight. Certainly those who have watch shifts scheduled for late in the night hope so, perhaps finding a first full night’s sleep since we have entered 2018. We hope for favourable wind, clear skies and occasional flat seas for our first kayak expeditions – is that too much to ask for?
