Displacement:
Melchior Islands 64°44’S 62°37’W to
Ushuaia 54°14’S 68°19’W
Duration:
62hrs. 5.30pm, 25.12.06. TO 7.30am, 28.12.06
Landings:
None
25.12.06.Evening
What lay ahead were 3 days of Drake Passage. We prayed for another Drake Lake but I had a lurking feeling that it’ll be a Drake Shake. We had had 4 days of magnificent weather and even with the pantheon of Hindu gods, our good luck could carry us only this far.
26 & 27.12.06. Sea, sickness and shots
Bravado typically follows alcohol and I did not escape this phenomenon. While Smita and Shalini smartly took the sea sickness pills, I was convinced of my invincibility against matters of balance (or the lack of it – that too in my ear!). Pay I did for this by throwing sick in the middle of the night and sleeping, clutching my stomach. I skipped dinner last night, had no heart for breakfast and was only able to get up and go down for lunch. A small nibble and we were again horizontal in our cabin.
Drake Passage was much worse on our way back. I got sick, Smita was horizontal most of the time, Shalini had to get a shot from Dr. Jo and Shankar saw the devil in the form of waves crashing over the ship’s bow (They had the front room and he could see water splashing onto the bow in big buckets as the ship not only rolled star to port, but also dipped wildly up and down). It was best to stay in your cabin or at most go down for one of Yar’s lectures. It was here that we saw meteorites; real ones! And one of them was older than our Solar System. It was weird holding it in our hands – something that predated not us, not our earth but the whole planetary system around us!
Then it was time to pack those layers and layers of woolens. It was tough work what with those bulky parkas, reams of paper and Port Lockroy shopping to fit in our already bursting bags. Partly by having Smita sit on the bag while I zipped it and partly by using the old roll ‘em up trick, we managed to pack everything neatly in 3 bags. Settle bills, pay the gratuities for the staff and we were ready for the farewell cocktails in the bar. Kirsten thanked her team and the captain, Rahul made a funny speech, I added in a bit for Rahul, we clicked lots of pictures and then got our certificates for kayaking, overnight camping and polar plunge. Sated, we returned to our cabins for our last night aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy.
28.12.06. Ushuaia
The popular image of farewells is teary and dramatic. Real life is much more mundane. Between, ensuring we had packed everything in, identifying our ‘checked-in’ bags, breakfast and holding on the gangway railing as we disembarked, there was little time for wistful glances at the ship, profound thoughts of what the trip meant and the meaning of it all. Then, suddenly everybody started saying that they had been among the best 36 people, that they had had the best time of their life, that the expedition staff was the most capable they had ever seen. Emotions cloud judgement or make what we want more important than what’s there. We said our thanks, our goodbyes, our ‘till we meet again’ and ‘keep in touch’ and then went our own ways. It was an unremarkable end to a remarkable journey and was better this way. What I want to stay in my memory is my first iceberg and not my last hug of Antarctica.
Melchior Islands 64°44’S 62°37’W to
Ushuaia 54°14’S 68°19’W
Duration:
62hrs. 5.30pm, 25.12.06. TO 7.30am, 28.12.06
Landings:
None
25.12.06.Evening
What lay ahead were 3 days of Drake Passage. We prayed for another Drake Lake but I had a lurking feeling that it’ll be a Drake Shake. We had had 4 days of magnificent weather and even with the pantheon of Hindu gods, our good luck could carry us only this far.
26 & 27.12.06. Sea, sickness and shots
Bravado typically follows alcohol and I did not escape this phenomenon. While Smita and Shalini smartly took the sea sickness pills, I was convinced of my invincibility against matters of balance (or the lack of it – that too in my ear!). Pay I did for this by throwing sick in the middle of the night and sleeping, clutching my stomach. I skipped dinner last night, had no heart for breakfast and was only able to get up and go down for lunch. A small nibble and we were again horizontal in our cabin.
Drake Passage was much worse on our way back. I got sick, Smita was horizontal most of the time, Shalini had to get a shot from Dr. Jo and Shankar saw the devil in the form of waves crashing over the ship’s bow (They had the front room and he could see water splashing onto the bow in big buckets as the ship not only rolled star to port, but also dipped wildly up and down). It was best to stay in your cabin or at most go down for one of Yar’s lectures. It was here that we saw meteorites; real ones! And one of them was older than our Solar System. It was weird holding it in our hands – something that predated not us, not our earth but the whole planetary system around us!
Then it was time to pack those layers and layers of woolens. It was tough work what with those bulky parkas, reams of paper and Port Lockroy shopping to fit in our already bursting bags. Partly by having Smita sit on the bag while I zipped it and partly by using the old roll ‘em up trick, we managed to pack everything neatly in 3 bags. Settle bills, pay the gratuities for the staff and we were ready for the farewell cocktails in the bar. Kirsten thanked her team and the captain, Rahul made a funny speech, I added in a bit for Rahul, we clicked lots of pictures and then got our certificates for kayaking, overnight camping and polar plunge. Sated, we returned to our cabins for our last night aboard the Akademik Shokalskiy.
28.12.06. Ushuaia
The popular image of farewells is teary and dramatic. Real life is much more mundane. Between, ensuring we had packed everything in, identifying our ‘checked-in’ bags, breakfast and holding on the gangway railing as we disembarked, there was little time for wistful glances at the ship, profound thoughts of what the trip meant and the meaning of it all. Then, suddenly everybody started saying that they had been among the best 36 people, that they had had the best time of their life, that the expedition staff was the most capable they had ever seen. Emotions cloud judgement or make what we want more important than what’s there. We said our thanks, our goodbyes, our ‘till we meet again’ and ‘keep in touch’ and then went our own ways. It was an unremarkable end to a remarkable journey and was better this way. What I want to stay in my memory is my first iceberg and not my last hug of Antarctica.
3 comments:
Great blog. I'm heading down to Antarctica on Jan 15 on the Antarctic Dream and its great to read about your experiences.
Hey Sumeet! Kept skimming your blog thru the day and take with me some of the soft snow of your memories. Feels
Overall can I just say "Cool Stuff" a la Austin...
Keep writing. I had fun reading.
Balaji
hi, if i had so much fun reading your blog, I can only imagine how it must have been to go thru all that... It sounds fab, the pics seem to be from another world, Envy you guys....
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