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Antarctica - Not For The Faint of Heart!

SeaSiq

By SeaSiq,
in Antarctica

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SeaSiq

SeaSiq

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Some interesting comments extacted from Emails I received from the DW now on Corinthian II:

 

Feb 12th - Falklands to South Georgia - Winds 50 Knots and expected to increase. Waves exceeding 30 feet. Seasickness meds and band working for me. 98 passengers on ship, at least 34 have been injured in the first 4 days, from bruises to sprains to broken bones. I have had no problems. Ship is great, other passengers are also. My suite is working out perfectly. Open bar. Lots of lectures. Good food.

 

Feb 15th - South Georgia - Went ashore via Zodiac this morning. Waves also high but not that much. My zodiac this morning only took 3 people - not the normal 8 to 10 - because when I got on, it got hit by a big wave and took on a lot of water. They were going to "abandon ship" and move us to another but decided that would be dangerous to try; so we went ashore full of water and no people. I got very wet. I got soaked and had to dry my boots with hair drier. Lots of wildlife. Overwhelping. Canon !D Mark III too heavy and danger of it gettting wet. Camera bag gets soaked to inside. Water pours out of my coat pockets.

 

Weather entire trip has been very rocky and now about 50% of people have ship board injuries. Don't know about land ones. Some people are falling there, too, and have gotten pretty hurt. I still feel no sea sickness but can't tell if it's me or if it's the meds. They were handing Dramamine out as "after dinner mints". LOL. Captain has also been very concerned about weather systems we've been hitting. Got almost no sea bird shots from ship since it hasn't been safe to be out on deck.

 

Aborted landing this afternoon. Half people are stuck. Two got dumped in Ocean getting into Zodiac. I was in last group and my gut told me not to even try. Waves high. So I was getting out of my gear when there was an announcement to save the dumped people. Soon after operation aborted.

 

This is not a "cruise", but a real expedition.

 

I am having a ball, but this is NOT a trip for the faint of heart!

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2serendip

2serendip

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Wow! thanks for sharing! We're going to Antarctica next December. I guess I and my DH really will buy those muck boots and waterproof pants that my TA has recommended. And I may get some sea sickness meds although I've never needed them in the past. Thank your DW for me for keeping us informed about her adventures.

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dileep

dileep

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Wow! thanks for sharing! We're going to Antarctica next December. I guess I and my DH really will buy those muck boots and waterproof pants that my TA has recommended. And I may get some sea sickness meds although I've never needed them in the past. Thank your DW for me for keeping us informed about her adventures.

 

We were given Wellington boots on the ship. The waterproof pants are a must. Watch for sales at REI, Eddie Bauer etc. Fleece pants and tops kept us warm!

 

We picked up a bottle of Meclizine at Costco for $4 for 100 pills and those worked fine for me. We only had one evening/night of rough seas and they had barf bags posted everywhere. Our Captain said that we had the calmest seas but the mpost snow/rain that he has een in a long time. We were lucky!

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PerfectlyPerth

PerfectlyPerth

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They were handing Dramamine out as "after dinner mints".

 

This is not a "cruise", but a real expedition.

 

I am having a ball, but this is NOT a trip for the faint of heart!

 

Love the dinner mints line !!

 

And all the rest is an exact description of why I am going ! I dont want some nice calm little cruise - can do that in Thailand any ole time.

 

But have to say - the description of all the water in the zodiac is leaning me toward buying one of these:

http://www.dicapack.com/new_eng/03_manual/sub02.html#can

If I can find one suitable for my camera!

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2serendip

2serendip

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Thanks for the great advice! I'm starting a list: muck boots/Wellingtons, sickness meds from Costco, waterproof pants, and goggles (from another thread) -- please let me know about any other great ideas you might have. I imagine we'll want some special gloves, too.

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dileep

dileep

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Thanks for the great advice! I'm starting a list: muck boots/Wellingtons, sickness meds from Costco, waterproof pants, and goggles (from another thread) -- please let me know about any other great ideas you might have. I imagine we'll want some special gloves, too.

 

We had very lightweight gloves that were very convenient for picture taking. I also had medium weight gloves that I kept in my parka just in case. The heavy gloves that we packed stayed in the suitcase.

 

The hotties in my shoes were good too. Check with your cruise line if they provide Wellies before you go out and buy some.

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SeaSiq

SeaSiq

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South Georgia Island - Couldn't make morning landing today - 45 knot winds. Hard to even stand up on deck. Overheard guides saying that this is "killing weather". Obviously this isn't the safest trip I've been on.

 

Did I mention that the day people fell in the ocean in the afternoon, the zodiac I got on in the morning had a big wave that came in and knocked me on the floor and filled the zodiac with water? They were going to abandon the zodiac but since there were only 3 people that had gotten on at that point, they went ashore with the water filled raft. So I was concerned about the afternoon worsening conditions. Today is even worse, but they may try to make another landing an hour from now. They're hunting for a little calmer seas - at least as calm as the day when the people fell in.

 

Luckily, yesterday was beautiful. Filled a 32 Gig card and got my T-shirts at the gift shop you mentioned. Walked back to the ship. Did you know that fur seals are very aggressive and carry a bacteria in their bite that goes septic with a resistance to antibiotics. I didn't until now. We have to be very careful when walking within feet of them. They charge you, amd we don't stay together as a group.

 

The officals on the island yesterday told me (in the evening at the bar on the ship - LOL) that South Georgia is the most dangerous place on this trip because there is no medical care, and you may not be able to be evacuated for over a day. They have to request a boat to come down from the Falklands for rescue; so it takes that time with the round trip for a rescue. One of the crew said someone died (a different trip) because they couldn't get medical evac care in time. The actual Antarctic is safer for getting rescued. I'm sure learning a lot this trip.

 

Hope nothing happens this afternoon... The people all want to get off, and the Captain hopes to try a landing somewhere if the swells are not over 35 knots... They definitely are going to try for this afternoon at Gold Harbor.

 

The captain is not new. He's been doing this run for 12 years and has a lot of other experience before that, but the conditions are some of the worst he has ever seen. Ice pellets this morning on deck really stung when they hit your face. Brutal wind. 40 degrees out but it feels like -10.

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dileep

dileep

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You will fill the crads faster if you are storing RAW files. DW was shooting jpeg abd Sony ARW simultaneously and often filled up 8 GB each day. I would not buy a 32 GB card. they are more expenseve than 4 x 8 GB and if you lose one card, you lose many more pictures!

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dileep

dileep

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This years cruises to Anartica all seem to have become the latest victims of the El Ninio effect...

 

We had calm seas most of the except for one morning in South Georgia and one afternoon in Antarctica. It was Drake Lake. But we had a lot of rain and snow flurries. We left on Jan 4 on the Minerva. We heard that 3 ships who were in South Georgia a couple of days behind us missed landings for 2 or 3 days.

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SeaSiq

SeaSiq

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Liz is a photographer first, a tourist second. For her to fill a 32GB card is nothing. She is carrying probably 200GB in cards, a laptop with a 160GB, two 500GB external drives, a Vosonic portable storage/viewer with 640GB and a colorspace storage/viewer with 320

GB. Remember she also has two Canon pro bodies,six lenses, a Panasonic super zoom and a Panasonic weatherproof. She shoot Raw plus JPG on the Canons. Video is an incidental, with the Panasonics. Her Pelican case weighed 42 pounds on departure and every pocket in her jacket was full of photo gear.

 

When I looked at the Oceanweather website, while the Corinthian II was en route from the Falklands to South Georgia, the wave pattern in that area looked like a giant whirlpool or a cyclone pattern, with very high waves toward the center. This pattern has since subsided. The weather in the South Atlantic can change quickly, bringing high winds and waves. At other times it can be calm and sunny.

 

The Corinthian II is now at the South Orkney Islands and the winds are down to 7 knots with waves of 10 feet or less. The next week in Antarctica looks a hell of a lot better.

 

BTW, I always thought that a cruise to Antarctica meant a beautiful, quiet place where it was you and a small group, your ship, and nature. Apparently, this may not be true. A look at the Marinetraffic.com web site showed 9 ships in the channel along the Antarctic Peninsula. Some of these ships showed as anchored within 1000 yards of each other. Maybe 400 to 500 people on shore at a time. Also, Holland America's Prinsendam was doing a "drive by".

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floridatravelersforlife

floridatravelersforlife

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Coincidently, we were on the Infinity doing a drive by last week (saw the Hanseatic in Paradise Bay). During the voyage, we encountered two extreme low pressure systems that gave us 70 knot gales and 30ft swells. Although there were no issues aboard, the Captain altered the itinerary and we eventually spent a sunny and sparkling day in Gerlach Straights. Really enjoyed the close up wildlife and stunning raw scenery.

 

The sea conditions were especially evil in the last two weeks, if you were in the wrong place at the wrong time.

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SeaSiq

SeaSiq

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From the Corinthian II - Feb 20th

 

Well, things have calmed down in the South Atlantic. Weather around the Antarctic Peninsula is sunny today. Yesterday, off Coronation Island we had what they called a "Code Blue". The tide changed while we were on shore in the morning and there were icebergs moving in that might have trapped the ship. The ship moved to another spot and we were able to continue the landing.

 

The fun continues.

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PerfectlyPerth

PerfectlyPerth

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You will fill the crads faster if you are storing RAW files. DW was shooting jpeg abd Sony ARW simultaneously and often filled up 8 GB each day. I would not buy a 32 GB card. they are more expenseve than 4 x 8 GB and if you lose one card, you lose many more pictures!

 

Very true re losing one card = losing lots/all photos.

 

I was looking at multiple x 8gb. I dont shoot RAW but the current camera has HD widescreen video as well so I will be wanting to make good use of it !!

 

Tested the video at a concert the other week with only a 2gb card. Fitted 16 2 minute video clips and 220 photos on the highest resolution. So that gives me a good idea of how many I would take on a single zodiac trip LOL !!!

 

Seasiq - thanks for further updates :) Sounds like the weather has calmed for them, but the code blue means more excitement!!! Definitely not a dull trip there !

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  • 5 months later...
skjtrav

skjtrav

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From the Corinthian II - Feb 20th

 

Well, things have calmed down in the South Atlantic. Weather around the Antarctic Peninsula is sunny today. Yesterday, off Coronation Island we had what they called a "Code Blue". The tide changed while we were on shore in the morning and there were icebergs moving in that might have trapped the ship. The ship moved to another spot and we were able to continue the landing.

 

The fun continues.

 

Was there more posts after this or a final cruise review? Or did you get swept out to sea in those awful conditions? I would love to hear about the rest of this trip! :)

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  • 5 weeks later...
scapel

scapel

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Yes they are great - this is them http://www.warmers.com/

 

Re tips - a past traveller suggested to me that I pack some lambswool boot sole liners. As well as nice padded comfort there is the additional warmth.

 

I took the recommendation of a previous traveler about the boot inserts and they worked very well and would also recommend them.

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