Antarctica in the pack ice

I am travelling again, this time down to Antarctica, the white continent. This is the third time that I am sailing down and like the first time, I am very excited. This is a place that it absolutely tremendous. One cannot imagine the vastness if one hasn’t been there.

Most of the Antarctic cruises sail from Ushuaia, Argentina. It is just a short trip of a god day or two at sea and one is there. I am going down from the Australia/New Zealand side. We are talking of a 6 day trip to get to the ice, with one stop at Macquarie Island. I have already written about Macquarie in an older post when I did some Sub Antarctic Cruises

I am on my favourite Cruise Line, Orion Expedition Cruises. We have 99 guests on board and 79 crew and will be on the way for 18 days. We have just reached half way and are in the middle of the pack ice, a short way from the continent. We have spent the past nearly 2 days trying to find a way through it and finally, I think, we have found a way. It won’t leave us much time at the continent, but we are happy to get through. The ice this year is extremely difficult. There is just too much ice.

We had some really rough sea after leaving Hobart, on the beautiful Island of Tasmania. After getting a bit of sunburn during loading, already the following day it was really cold and windy. But now, there is very little wind and the sea is completely flat while we work our way through the ice.

We see the occasional penguins, even Emperor Penguins and seals, but otherwise it is just ice. It is amazing to be outside, nicely wrapped in warm clothes and see the ice floating past; it has a serenity and is very humbling.

Just some useless info about Antarctica:

It is the Earth southernmost continent, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle.

98% of the continent is covered with the Antarctic ice sheet, a sheet that is on average at least 1600 Meters thick (more than one mile)

The continent has 90 % of the world’s ice which means 70 % of the world’s fresh water.

If all the ice would melt, the sea level would rice by 60 meters.

Antarctica is considered a desert, it is the coldest, driest and windiest continent.

There is no permanent human population, but there are anywhere from 1000 to 5000 people living on the different research stations

So what are we doing here the whole day? Cooking!!!!!! I have a great team here and we cook some really amazing food. Check out my other Blogs with the recipes, that is the food we serve here on board.