February 17th, 2009

Immediately after my last posting, we boarded the MV Ushuaia. I was delighted to find out that I was sharing what can only be called a 'suite' with Geoff, the expedition leader and the founder of Students On Ice. Two rooms, a desk and our own shower and toilet! Not at all the spartan, closed quarters I was expecting.

MV Ushuaia is a research vessel and a multinational experience. It's a Russian ship, registered in Panama, crewed by Argentineans, hosting Canadians, with many others from all corners. That point was certainly brought home when the students and staff took part in emergency training and were herded by the crew into lifeboats -- crewmembers just kept using a language until one worked!

The food is excellent and the staff, hospitable. We're off to a good start.

Leaving the city of Ushuaia yesterday, we sailed eastward through the Beagle Channel -- and international waters. If you look closely at the map, you'll see that we had the mountains of hills of Chile on the south side, and Argentina on the north. It was smooth sailing until...

11pm local time last night: We made the turn south out of the channel and into the Drake Passage. I had been told to expect either the 'Drake Lake' (calm) or the 'Drake Shake' (NOT CALM). I didn't want to stay up long enough to find out.

8:00 am: I hadn't slept much last night, and neither had many others -- the old story that a heaving ship rocks you like a baby to sleep doesn't apply here. We got the Drake Shake.

Hardly any of the students showed up for breakfast, and Geoff announced over the boat's P.A. system that two lectures this morning were postponed. I felt fine (God bless the PATCH!) but I decided not to spoil it by doing something crazy like getting up and walking. I lay in bed, listened to the moans of the nauseated masses coming from down the hallway, and watching my backpacks slide from one end of the cabin all the way to the other. Geoff came back and recommended I stay put. "It's a war zone out there."

10:00 am. Having enough of this, I put down my book and stood up. At that moment, a large wave beat the starboard side. I fell back and cracked my head against the bed board. Back to bed.

11:00 am. Having enough of this, I put down my book and went to the bathroom. I was carefully hooking the heavy metal door back to the bathroom wall to ensure it didn't swing and catch my hand when, at that moment, another brute wave slammed the ship. I fell forward, catching myself by grabbing a hold on to the doorframe when the door swung forward. The doctor says I'll be fine. Back to bed.

12:00 pm. Having enough of this, I sat on the bed and dressed for lunch when another starboard rogue slammed us, causing me and my mattress to hit the ground and slide together to the other side of the cabin. The responding roll caused the mini-bar's door to swing open and throw cans of Coke on my head. Back to bed.

While the constant rolling and lurching takes its toll, it certainly brought us all a little closer together. Misery really does love company, but everyone seemed to be genuinely concerned about one another. Most everyone seems to be a little better now.

And it's all in keeping with crossing the most consistently violent ocean on the planet. It certainly serves as a (constant!) reminder of why the rough seas (and the rougher climate) makes Antarctica such a remote, unspoiled and special place.

When we could go back on the decks again, I stepped out with a camera to try and capture the sheer power of these seas for you, but it takes a much better photographer than me to do that.

We attended a lecture today on the variety of seabirds we're to encounter here -- the world's greatest in variety and in number. But a special mention was made of the albatross for all its size and grace.

Out on the deck later that day, one flew by me as it followed the boat, circling us with his effortless glide through the high winds and above the heavy seas. It was a beautiful sight.

Tomorrow, we see Antarctica.

Back to bed!

Monday, Feb. 16: So, we set out in 4 hours, and I am green with the anticipation of sea sickness. Not a good start.

Gravol is scoffed at in these parts. I'm equipped with the PATCH. Placed behind the ear, it's meant to secret some magical elixir into my system and stem off the nausea, but we've been warned that it's strong stuff, and people react to it differently. Well, there will soon only be one way to find out.

Now, the waters off of Newfoundland and Labrador are not to be trifled with either, and the Strait of Belle Isle and the Cabot Strait I know can be vicious. But I wasn't cocky coming into this expedition and, having walked out of Dr Eric Galbraith's lecture this morning, I am green with humility, as well.

Eric is a Halifax native and oceanographer at Princeton and he gave a fascinating lecture on what we're about to experience.

Firstly, he explained the Arctic is an ocean, covered by ice and snow, and surrounded by continents. Antarctica is a continent, covered by ice and snow, and surrounded by an ocean.

That ocean is the Southern Ocean - it has the world's strongest waves, biggest currents, and largest waves - by a long shot. In winter, the Southern Ocean south of India reaches an average wave height of 8m, or 30ft. The average in the Drake Passage now (the narrow gap between South America and the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula) is 3m.

The Antarctic Circumpolar Current is the world's mightiest, equal to 200 times the outflow of ALL the world's rivers. We will be passing through its narrowest passage. I'll leave it there.

This current also keeps warm water away, making it much colder than the Arctic and allowing huge ice sheets to form permanently there. (One of the scientific purposes of this expedition is to study the effects of climate change on this current).

The upside to Antarctica's violent oceanography (and meteorology) is that it has also completely kept humans away until 100 years ago - the only (relatively) untouched place in the world.

In a few hours, that's where we're headed. The students on board are tremendously excited, but equally so are the expedition leaders, some of whom have travelled this passage several times annually for 20 years and more. It's the excitement on their faces that really gives me a queasy stomach - how utterly foreign and magnificent must a place to be so inhospitable and yet grab such a hold on these people?

In two days we'll find out.

Sunday. Feb. 15: The flight from Toronto to Buenos Aires is 11 hours, and I slept for 8 of them, so no complaints here. Quite a shock to land from our Canadian winter into 30 degree heat. I had just enough time to check into my hotel and do some browsing around the city, before tucking into an Argentinean speciality -- beef! Perhaps the best steak I've ever had. A good night's rest and I'm back to the airport the next morning for the 3 hour flight to the world's southernmost city, Ushuaia.

Something I've learned about airports in Latin American countries is their elastic sense of time, especially when it comes to flight departure times. So I was only mildly anxious when I was still standing in the security line-up (after 90 minutes) at the time my flight was supposed to leave. What kept me entertained was watching the near mayhem that ensued when a herd of Australian and Chinese tourists attempted to bump the queue. A note to travellers - NEVER skip lines in Argentina!

Landing in Ushuaia was breathtaking. The runway is surrounded by the green ocean of the Beagle Canal. It's a long runway but it's STILL surrounded by mountains and ocean! Not much room for error or cross-wind. And our pilot handled it all very smoothly

Unquestionably, this place is the gateway to something otherworldly -- you can just sense it.

Tonight the Students on Ice team briefed us on the day ahead, and the beginning of our voyage tomorrow.

The 90 students from across Canada and around the world are brimming with enthusiasm and energy, but I'd better leave it at that -- a number of them are queued up behind me to use the hotel computer here, and I don't want that youthful energy directed at me!

Tomorrow, we sail to Antarctica.

Friday Feb. 13: Well, at least this time I don't have to pack a bullet-proof helmet ... For those who followed my blog when I travelled to Afghanistan, this trip to Antarctica should be decidedly different!

To backtrack -- some months ago, I was asked by my friend Geoff Green, the founder of Students on Ice, if I wanted to travel to Antarctica with him and a team of scientists and university students from across Canada and around the world. It was an amazing opportunity, impossible to pass up.

Students on Ice is an Ottawa-based educational organisation that brings students, educators and scientists together to both the North and South Pole regions to learn more about the planet and, particularly the effects of climate change. I knew that Justin Trudeau and Sophie Gregoire had traveled with him through the Arctic back in 2005, and had been raving about it since.

This trip, obviously, takes me in the opposite direction -- an 11-hour flight from Toronto to Buenos Aires, overnighting there before a 3 ½ flight to Ushuaia (it's on the southernmost tip of Argentina), another night's stay on land, and then the two-day sea voyage to the maritime edge of the South Pole. For the next two weeks, the ship is our base and our home.

So, here I'm staring blankly at a mound of clothes. I need sandals and sunscreen for Buenos Aires (where it's their summer), winter wear and trekking gear for the on-land Antarctic excursions, enough leisure clothes for the almost two weeks on the boat (with limited washing facilities, I'm sure), and, then, the part on the official list that I hadn't counted on -- waterproof gear for disembarking and embarking on the Zodiac boats.

It was with a heavy heart this morning that I had to admit to Jeff Hutcheson (the most scrupulous packer I have ever seen) that I had to check in a bag. He looked at me with utter disdain. I felt great shame, but there's no way around it.

I'm looking forward to sharing this experience with you over the next couple of weeks. To whet your appetite, enjoy this video that Jeff found for me -- search for "one lucky penguin" in Youtube. Frankly, I have no idea if it's even Antarctica, but it involves ice, people, a Zodiac, a pod of orca and one lucky penguin!

Check back for more blog entries over the next 2 weeks