Voyage to Antarctica

Antarctica to visit the coldest the windiest the highest and the driest continent is to voice to another world to a land of rock and ice where nature is at her most savage wondrous and bizarre and where we are the outsiders who do not belong [Music] here shelves of floating ice the size of countries lie in the shadow of a volcano active for 19 million years Antarctica is a continent isolated by a savage sea and reaching it means a voyage of several days from a handful of places which are already at the ends of the inhabited world one of these is Hobart Tasmania and and article eyes 1,500 uninterrupted miles south of this headland at the mouth of the Derwent River the ship which was to carry us in safety and comfort across the desolate wastes of the Southern Ocean was the Bremen a purpose-built expedition ship of 7,000 tons which was no stranger to these waters [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] once clear of the land the voyage south took on a timelessness with the motion of the ship and the rhythm of the ocean always changing yet always unchanged we were escorted by that most magnificent of birds the wandering albatross the days were filled with lectures on every aspect of what we could expect to see and what had happened in the past [Music] we stopped enroute at Macquarie Island one of a handful of sub-antarctic Islands scattered across the southern ocean discovered in 1810 its population of wildlife was soon decimated by sealers looking first for fur and then for oil rendered down from whales elephant seals and even penguins the island is still plagued by cats and rabbits the descendants of those introduced was at its height in any landing a shore party first goes ahead to reconnoiter and establish a landing site the query is 21 miles long and 2 miles in width on average it rains snows or hails on 317 days out of the year a fleet of zodiacs was swiftly launched to take us ashore we were soon on the beach enjoying the unique experience of being surrounded by wildlife which showed only curiosity at our presence a query island is home to several penguin species including the Kings seen here the brightness of the Kings yellow is linked to diet a better diet means a more intense color so the females are attracted to the males whose plumage indicates a more successful hunter elephant seals lie around like blubber on the beach their lassitude giving no hint of their prowess underwater where they can drive to 4,000 feet hold their breath for two hours and slow their heart to one beat per minute these are royal penguins which breed in densely crowded and noisy rookeries with each nest just beyond pecking distance of its neighbor [Music] [Applause] [Music] king penguins like their cousins the larger Emperor's do not build nests but keep their eggs and after they hatch their chicks on their feet under a fold of skin [Applause] young male elephant seals practice play fighting to prepare them for adulthood when they will have to compete in earnest for breeding rights to the females a pair of Gentoo penguin shows indifference to one of the zodiacs being ready for the return journey to the ship under way once more we resumed our journey towards the frozen south enjoying Bremen's first-class amenities [Music] the radar picked up our first iceberg as we approached the convergence where the warmer waters from further north met those from the frigid south it was just a small Berg but this picture of an Arctic Berg provides a dramatic illustration of what lies hidden beneath the water the crossing of the Antarctic Circle was marked by a ceremony similar to the tradition practice when crossing the equator except of course for the snow [Applause] [Music] [Applause] shortly thereafter we made a stop at remote Scott Island discovered on Christmas Day 1902 its most prominent feature is the 200-foot hagit Spiller the sea was too rough to permit a landing but the ship's circumnavigated this tiny speck lost in the vastness of the Southern Ocean now in true Antarctic waters we pass through fields of floating ice [Music] meanwhile lectures continued an historian and Antarctic Explorer said Kirkby told us tales of the past and of what lay in store for us at our first landing on the continent at Cape Adare I only survived by pulling all of the dogs on the station into the tent with them singing there were seven men in the party and I had 75 dogs learn command conclude that with some ten and if you just stand quietly circuiting it would absolutely knock you out you I swear fly that there is nothing photographer on God's earth you can take away from Antarctica one hint of the feeling of it that you can by standing and feeling it so please do our first sight of Antarctica was the spectacular Admiralty mountains which were dominated by mount Minto at 13,500 feet the waters were littered with icebergs flows Burgie bits and brash Cape Adare discovered by James Ross in 1841 is the site of the largest a daily penguin colony in the world with 270,000 breeding pairs whose nesting sites extended high up to steep slopes the ship nudged its way through the ice shouldering aside the flows to the alarm of the load [Music] proceeded as usual by the shore party the landings were soon under way through mera kaam waters and sensational scenery [Applause] of the world never end of the world [Music] [Applause] [Music] once ashore we found ourselves surrounded by the sounds and smells of vast numbers of a daily penguins the adults were continuously harassed by the incessant demands of their young Cape Adare is the site of the first overwintering in 1899 by a party led by both Group Inc during which one man died and who is buried high up among the rocks the hut still survives and we were privileged to go inside being the first people to do so for two years one of the little legs that they were using they complained see finds that treasure and how they were able to delete that completely destroying the earth is quite surprising we continued south past Cape Adare through the ice strewn Ross Sea [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] we made our first landing on Ross Island at Kate Bird on its northern tip [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] the younger corralled into a crash for protection from the ever vigilant skewers who bring death from the skies [Music] a lone chick like this one is very vulnerable to attack unless protected by adult bird [Music] death in the form of leopard seals and killer whales also lies and weight beneath the water and there is a natural hesitation before taking the plunge until pressure from the back of the queue pushes the first in line over the edge if nothing untoward happens the rest soon follows suit ice floes and peter the zodiacs and had to be towed away [Music] Ross Island is a prominent and historically important feature of the Ross Sea it is dominated by Mount Erebus which at 12350 feet it's the world's most southerly volcano it has been active for 19 million years and in a 1985 eruption ejected car-sized rocks one kilometer into the sky our second landing on Ross Island was at Cape Evans the site of Scott's second Hut built in 1911 in the shadow of Mount Erebus it was from here that his ill-fated polar parties set out from which five members including Scott himself failed to return this place was later the scene of another lesser known drama when in 1915 ten members of Shackleton's Ross sea party were marooned here for nearly two years after their ship the Aurora with all their supplies on board was blown away in a blizzard despite being lured by two anchors and seven steel horses three of the marooned party subsequently died the interior of the Hat looks almost as if the ghosts of these long dead explorers had just stepped outside and would return at any minute [Music] a total of eight men left his Hut and never to return and there remain eerie reminders of their distant dramas here one of Aurora's anchor still lies buried in the volcanic sand and this skeleton of a dog has remained chained to its tether for 80 years the cross on wind vane Hill commemorates three of the deaths and stands lonely Sentinel over a bleak landscape [Music] we had been in perpetual daylight since we crossed the Antarctic Circle and late one evening we cruised along the edge of the ice which barred our way to McMurdo Sound and Hotpoint the sight of Scott's first Hut built in 1902 here we reach seventy seven point four degrees south latitude and enjoyed a magical evening in the company of a pod of killer whales [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Music] our next landing on Ross Island was just a few miles north at Cape Royds where we trudged across the far sites to Shackleton's Hut which was built in 1909 and from which Shackleton and his party set out to reach the South Pole by the time they had returned to this very Hut they had walked and hold supplies 1,700 miles only to turn back just 97 miles short of their goal because Shackleton realized that if they had continued they would reach the pole but would never be able to make it back alive David hare field of the New Zealand and Arctic Heritage Trust explained to us what steps are being taken to preserve the artifacts in this and others and so on but the Hat itself was found to be very cold New Zealanders including myself over 20 years ago slip and here occasionally before we had a refuge at on site and it was a damn cold place leave me though the German beer bottles they need treatment of course the visual fittings English character people would have had a people in the 50s who came here often sampling some of the foods those it was very rich of course today we celebrate their 40th anniversary it's nice so this is they're very famous hat was Ernest Shackleton do the war and wonderful things that you're familiar with the force from your lecturers and Paul and so forth on the ship so you're standing on three Howard ground here it's a really really privileged to you Cape Royds is a site of the most southerly a daily penguin colony on the shores of pony Lake we walked across the fast ice towards the Bremen anchored in backdoor bay with steam from Mount Erebus drifting in the frigid air the calm conditions continued as we circumnavigated the coast of ross island amid a fleet of strangely shaped floes [Music] we were on our way to visit the Ross Ice Shelf which to seaward presents a line of ice cliffs 600 miles long and averaging 80 feet high with an additional five hundred and sixty feet hidden beneath them [Music] we trust the Ross Sea to its Eastern Shore passing the Campbell Glacia tongue within sight of Antarctica's other active volcano Mount Melbourne are just under 9,000 feet [Music] we were on our way to visit the Italian base at Terra Nova Bay but to reach it the Bremen had to push her way through a maze of ice floes [Music] [Music] [Music] the base is only occupied during the summer months and practices a policy of zero pollution by processing and reusing all wastewater even for drinking [Music] despite being due for relaunch within the hour the zodiacs underwent the usual meticulous cleaning and inspection while the ship got underway [Music] the Bremen had once again to pick her way through the maze of flows before reaching open water [Music] once clear she headed towards the Campbell ice tongue which lined the horizon the zodiacs cruised alongside is floating glacier which extends ten miles out from the land [Music] as we headed north along the rugged coast the ice became ever thicker [Music] topside gene oil and pleura and stress engine long time the captain is taking off slowing down head of his on floor on the 45 when we have to love me and fourth England to lovely in Finland sitting on the boat running for our to the port side of the ship to look at to emperor penguin the future see to the production of genetically from town Emperor's can dive to 1600 feet and stay submerged for 20 minutes I sorted our plans to visit k-palette or foreign island so we continued north to Robertson Bay just beyond our first landing site with Cape Adare [Music] on route we were debriefed by our lecturers and what we had seen and what we might have missed he was a botanist who works on plants on top of Melbourne I don't know about you but when he told me there were plants on I literally just believing at first that he works on this these tiny little micro funghi that live in the soil and because man Norman is a active volcano the soil temperature up there and they said guys can supply that thing but it raises interesting questions about how these things even get there in the first place do they blog meaningless gender can't get there by birds because birds don't fly that in those sort of places so do they come on the wind and their remnants from when aunt Annika was a much warmer place all sorts of interesting questions arising from the fact that plants can grow at 3,000 meters in Antartica strong winds blowing dust and saw it out there and that also absorbs some of the radiation and increases the melting of ice your tongue although the snow layers is probably the true glacier ice has come down through the mountains of portal that's history roads crevasses and it's holes and it's kites and they only they get eaten out by the wind blowing into them one of the things you will have noticed there weren't many large kind of sound at the sea level and that's because we've got a glacier tongue that's very far south the amount of open water around that would only be there for maybe six to eight weeks maximum before it starts freezing up again so it's a very short period throughout the year when the waves can get there and under car and bring those professors into nicest RV archives if you saw that same Grecia tongue around say Mortimer Davis which is quite a few degrees north it would be full of 30 very large page and you see the beautiful blue colors that we could see part of in some of the ones higher up place your tongue itself not something else really that's still juveniles when we talk about birds juveniles is the first year any other some out of year are immature in any develops and obviously once it pretty pleased with juveniles and I had a little bit of down lift about six months old and it was a bit of a surprise to see the down because they really shouldn't be at sea swimming if they got any down it's quite possible that these birds haven't actually been in the water they may have been on that ice which is broken off from their colony that would be some of the tail end of the brooding something like they're still floating around waiting to lose it down then they can hit the water now ocean across these various for intercontinental process if this keeps going ultimately get the salty blob is on the sea floor and true oceanic floor as opposed to continents well this colleague of mine was down here in Nigeria one and within an hour that barometer dropped 13 of ours and they went from calm conditions to wieners of over a hundred and twenty knots and they were sort of up over against the mountain range of concealing the ship facing into the wind and was under full power trying to hold position and was having great difficulty was slowly in blowing back across the body they just take the two centers on boy before the way but really bad and as they were trying to secure one of the sailors got blown overboard luckily he fell honest to see lots of bright deflate and then I look up those blades were selecting around so much to actually slap into each other and helicopters were damaged and they just deployed audiologist up one of the license and they didn't have time to get me a ten point out so that funky blow away standardization can i huddle behind Suboxone it's no banks and things for about 12 hours and for this we need to blow itself out so consider yourself very lucky the way that we've we've encountered Saipan it's being tested the conditions at Cape Adare were very different from our first visit and plans for a second landing at this site had to be abandoned [Music] [Music] our visit to the continent of Antarctica had come to an end and we took our last look at the Admiralty Mountains as the Bremen turned her boughs north into an increasingly rough Southern Ocean where we were to encounter a series of spectacular icebergs [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] the weather deteriorated to a full force 12 gale with winds of 80 miles an hour and waves of 50 feet [Music] throughout the storm our albatross escorts reveled in the wild weather and conveyed a calming effect through their effortless flight [Music] we had planned to land on Campbell Island to visit albatross nesting sites but it was still too rough to affect a safe landing instead the Bremen entered perserverance Harbor to pick up a group of scientists as transportation to and from these remote islands is not easy to arrange wind gusts in excess of 35 knots occur 280 days per year on Campbell Island and gusts in excess of 50 knots on at least 100 days [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] instead we visited n2b Island whose rugged coast was in the days of sail the graveyard of many ships and their unfortunate cruise at last we were able to get close to the royal albatross whose prowess and flight had so impressed us as they swooped so effortlessly alongside the ship it is hard to gauge the size of these birds when they are sitting on a nest but their beaks are ten inches long and they have a wingspan of up to eleven feet albatross young stay at sea for up to six years after they leave the nest and the adult birds mate for life and live 60 to 70 years tracking devices show that they cover as much as seven thousand miles during the week they spend collecting food to bring back to their chick these islands are also the home of the rare yellow eyed penguins which are the sixth breed of penguins to feature in this video other birds on n2b include the shag and the red-crowned parakeet the island is also the home of the endangered hooker sea lions whose young males like to demonstrate their testosterone they'll be hanging around the outskirts of this role here [Music] the night before our arrival in Hobart was marked by a farewell party to the accompaniment of the musicians from Poland the serving of champagne [Music] captain ayah who is on his 80th trip to Antarctica gave us his farewell address even with the welcome speech which I mentioned we hope growing together as expedition fini and shortly after some days we made it together repose we all together with my crew members 60s to soul sample you are the best ambassador in the world for Antarctica as acting as just lying in front of your tour in front of your house in front of your country of about 18 billion Australian people about 1600 about plus 500 step-ups only visited until now this wise confident with peace and Sweden as a mineral ready one time I see presidents of other entities to go to Antarctica in fact for sure there might from several items would be much clearer when they saw this if you have a little piece of this end of the world of this paradise in your heart here on both sides to all the less things I believe is our subject feed we made together 12 Lennox buy more interested on safety don't take always they come up and try also with you too Reina eyes and see this country I hope you have done it the acting count is in your heart I like and love it all so badly I wish you safe [Applause] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] and so after 22 days and 5,000 794 nautical miles we arrived back in Hobart to be greeted by a choir of students from local school [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: FlemingYachts

Views: 184,395

Rating: 4.6507936 out of 5

Keywords: Antarctica, Ross Sea, Penguins, McQuarie Island, Albatross, Icebergs

Id: hqvrflac-yY

Length: 55min 27sec (3327 seconds)

Published: Tue Mar 13 2018