Passenger’s Journal

In the early afternoon on the 6th of February, with blue skies and sun, the Spirit of Sydney made a smooth departure from Ushuaia. We ran through several safety procedures as we sailed out of the port and were soon spotting penguins swimming alongside the boat. Once we had a watch schedule drawn up it was time to start taking turns at keeping watch in the cockpit, 3 hours on, 6 hours off.

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> On my first watch, feeling a bit queasy, I learned not to refer to the sails as the front, middle and big one. I learned how to use a winch and coil rope, but most importantly, I learned to always check to see if there was vomit on deck, before leaning over the side. Luckily, after just one Tang flavoured spew, I felt a lot better and was fine for the rest of the infamous Drake’s Passage. Others on the boat were not so lucky.
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> Our first few days of sailing were fairly smooth. On day 4, I was sitting in the saloon by myself, reading my book, when the wind and waves picked up and I made a quick retreat to my bunk. As I lay in bed, the bow of the boat would rise and then crash down and it felt as though the whole room was shaking. I watched as waves crashed and water rushed over the hatch in the ceiling. It was then that I decided to put on my headphones, listen to happy music and cover my face with my sleeping bag. I fell asleep leaning hard into my lee-sheet (the mesh sheet that stops you from rolling out of bed).
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> The next morning I was up at 7am for my watch and as I stepped out into the cockpit, the sun was shining brightly and to our right was Smith Island – a 2000m icy peak rising out of the ocean. It was my first sight of the big ice and it was absolutely stunning. Despite not having showered for 4 days, I was reluctant to leave the cockpit as I didn’t want to miss out on seeing anything. I was eventually convinced and enjoyed a lovely, hot shower before returning to the deck. Before long, we were sailing past gigantic icebergs and spotting humpback whales and penguins. I sat on deck and thought to myself “I’m in Antarctica” and felt incredibly lucky.
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> Natasha
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> Deception Island Days
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> After our first calm night anchored in telephone bay having enjoyed a delicious and plentiful barbecue on board to celebrate Shaza’s birthday, we wake up around 7 and head in to the volcanic shores of Deception island, the black ash giving extreme contrast to the pure white snow falling sideways through whirling winds and making our planned walk for the day quite an adventurous outing.
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> Climbing out of the Zodiac, glad to have our muck boots to keep our feet dry and warm, we watch our captain Darrel take off back to the boat to keep it safe and secure for the day, while Josh leads us along the black beach and up the first hill.  Most people don’t know this but Antarctica is actually the highest, driest and coolest continent on earth.
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> We eventually head back down to the beach taking a somewhat perilous route out of the mountains where the snow makes traction hard to come by, but once back down on the glacier fringed beaches everything is good.  Better than good really as we walk through the strangely red seaweed passing by aggressive fur seals and a small group of adorable Gentoo penguins.
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> As we walk the wind gets stronger and soon looking out to sea is difficult against the wet flakes of snow flying at us, but we press on towards our final destination, the Argentine Deception armada base at the end of the beach.  To get there we have to walk around a stunning inlet lake but are warmly welcomed in from the cold by the incredibly friendly Argentinean staff.  We deliver a bottle of wine and they show us around their lodgings which operates only during the summer here. it’s a wonderful chance to meet some interesting people and get some rare spanish practice in too.
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> The original plan was for Darrel to come pick us up at the base but as Josh and I head out to search for a place to do it, we see the wind is just too strong and so we’ll have to walk back the way we’ve come to more sheltered waters.  I can only imagine the day Darrel had sailing the boat alone.
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> As we walk back the wind and cold grow a little uncomfortable for most, but the scenery makes it worth it, the rough waters turning a crystal green and contrasting with the black sand and red seaweed incredibly well, there’s also even more fur seals about and even a lone Weddell seal making a bed on the beach.
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> As we crest the last mountain the wind all but blows us away, Mariana the smallest of our number in the most danger, but together we all make it down in one piece and eventually make it back to telephone bay and the safety of our boat.
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> The next morning is a whole new outing, as we wake up at 7 again, eating breakfast as the boat is sailed over to Whaler’s bay, home to the remnants of what was once a prominent whaling station.  We climb onto the zodiac and land on the beach to find Seals hidden out in the left over shelters from the whaling station and a group of gentoo penguins nestling into the snows at the base of the mountains.
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> We walk quickly along the beach up towards Neptune’s window, a huge depression in the cliffs which allows for nice views of the open ocean beyond, but instead of climbing up there we go up a valley following some spanish scientists.  Today our goal is more exciting then Neptune’s window, we’re in search of Bailey’s Head Rookery, home to around 100,000 Chinstrap penguins.
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> We climb up to the peaks of the snow dusted mountains fighting against strong winds as we cut across the top of this section of the island, Josh leading us with the help of some VHF radio’s and a handheld GPS device to make sure we stay on the right track.
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> We walk across huge swaths of land with incredible views of the coast and the pure blue seas below us dotted with what look like islands but are actually icebergs.  Eventually we crest a peak and come to the first of the penguins.  These little guys are beyond adorable and almost as soon as we arrive one of them picks up a rock and seems to bring it towards Tash, which is awesome.
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> As the rest of the group catches up to us we end up heading back down into a valley to escape the wind and thick scent of penguin poop which lingers in the air despite the strong wind.  There is 100,000 of them after all.
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> After a nice picnic we head back up into the black and white madness of countless penguins, slowly working our way down towards the beach which forms the penguins entry and exit point to the rookery.  Honestly none of us can believe these tiny little black and white birds climb so high into the hills everyday, especially considering how awkward they look hopping around land.  We also get the pleasure of seeing James pull out his penguin costume and attempt to infiltrate the tightly knit chinstrap society.  The bowtie on the costume and the size difference between him and a 2 foot penguin allow them to catch on and sadly no mother’s offer to give him some of their pre digested fish.
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> We eventually make it to the entry of the beach at Bailey’s head and i can honestly say it is one of the most impressive places I have ever had the luck of visiting.  Swarmed with chinstrap penguins, and dotted with aggressive fur seals we pick our way through the maze trying not to get to close to any of the seals, who growl at us all the time.  icebergs loom in the crystal blue waters beyond the beach.
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> Getting to the beach we watch the surf roll in and marvel at the penguins jumping in and out of the water like pods of dolphins, a constant flow of two way traffic in and out of the frigid waters to find enough fish for the countless chicks up in the hills.
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> We’ve walked slowly, so have to head back soon after arriving but the walk back is just as incredible as we say our goodbyes to the penguins, head back the way we’ve come across the mountains and finally make it back to whaler’s bay around 630.  There we run into a brazilian tv crew, here on another yacht to make a program about extreme sports in antartica and get to watch one of them kayak down one of the hills before dragging the zodiac back down the beach and returning to the boat where we enjoy an incredible mexican feast courtesy of Darrel in honour of Ulises’ birthday.  A truly incredible day in Antartica, and there’s so much more to come.  We’re all very excited.  Until next time.
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> Luke