At latitude 54°48′ S, Ushuaia is the earth’s southernmost city and bills itself as the “end of the world”. (Port Williams in Chile is actually further south, but has a much smaller population and is classified as a town.) Ushuaia’s population initially was not Argentinian, but British. The city was founded in the 1800s by…
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Antarctica Cruise Ship Accidents
In Choose Your Cruise Operator Carefully, we discussed the risks inherent in an Antarctic cruise, and described the three deaths that had occurred in the course of two weeks near the start of the 2022-2023 cruise season. It turns out there was actually four deaths in that period. The situation has become serious enough that…
Drake Passage Northbound
The Drake Passage lived up to its reputation for big weather on our two-night passage back to Ushuaia from the Girlache Strait. We experienced 33-40 ft (10-12m) seas with winds blowing steadily 60 kts and gusting to 70. We didn’t, however, experience the dreaded “Drake Shake”. The National Geographic Endurance handled the conditions remarkably well,…
Girlache Strait
The Girlache Strait extends from the northern end of the Wilhelm Archipelago and separates the Palmer Archipelago from the Antarctic Peninsula. It was discovered in 1898 by Lt. Adrien de Gerlache, leader of the 1897-1899 Belgian Antarctic expedition. The crew included famed Norwegian polar explorer Roald Amundsen, who in 1911 was the first to reach…
Wilhelm Archipelago
The Wilhelm Archipelago lies north of the Antarctic Circle and is the most southern point on the majority of Antarctic Peninsula cruises. It also is one of the most popular destinations, particularly scenic Lemaire Channel between Booth Island and mainland Antarctica. The protected waterway often is wind-free, yielding near-perfect reflections of snow and ice in…
2023 Seattle Boat Show Presentation
Yesterday we gave a presentation at the Seattle Boat Show on our trip around the world. We described some of the techniques we used to make the trip more safe and comfortable for longer passages and at the dock, ranging from watch-keeping and fuel management to living on a 60Hz boat in 50Hz countries. And…
The Gullet
Christmas Day in Antarctica was a big day for wildlife sightings, including an Emperor Penguin, Chinstrap penguins, crabeater and Weddell seals, humpback whales and Orcas. We were lucky to see an Emperor Penguin, rare this time of year. After navigating into ice-filled Barlas Channel, we set out for a tour in the zodiacs and found…
Horseshoe Island
Antarctica is the only continent without a permanent native population. Instead, the year-round population of about 1,000 is made up mainly of visiting scientific researchers and support staff who live in roughly 50 permanent stations throughout the continent. A similar number of seasonal stations allows the summer population to reach 4,000. Forty-two countries operate research…
Pourquois Pas Island
Pourquois Pas Island, at the north edge of Marguerite Bay, was discovered by Jean-Baptiste Charcot. He led the 1908-1910 French Antarctic Expedition, and named the island after his ship. Charcot in turn is the namesake for the French expedition ship Le Commandant Charcot, the highest rated ice class vessel in the world, that we’ll be…
Stonington Island
Stonington Island in Marguerite Bay is the site of two early research stations. East Base, the oldest American Antarctic station, was built starting in 1939 but hasn’t been used since 1948. The British Base, Station E, was used for many historic survey missions in the 1940s and saw use until the mid 1970s. From Red…
