Cruising to the Antarctica

On a crystal clear morning among the icebergs with a piercing polar sun high in the cloudless sky, it is not difficult to see why mariners on the early whaling ships who visited Paradise Harbour in the heart of the Antarctica Peninsula chose the name.

Amid the isolate grandeur are minke whales blasting great columns of water into the air, seals bask lazily on floes while penguins, often in pairs or trios, hump and skim in search of food.

Vertical walls of glacial ice inch slowly to the sea, their form and shape gathered by the austral summer sunshine sometimes taking on a mild, almost hollow aqua blue colour.  High above are charcoal peaks of these peninsular mountains, dark and forbidding, frightening and awe-inspiring.

And then the silence. Even the hubbub of excited passengers and busy crew aboard the cruise liner Spirit of Adventure, the ship’s dawdling engines at anchor or the distant, incessant cacophony of the gentoo penguin rookery ashore cannot drown that silence; that sense of perfect calm. A serenity complemented by the clarity of the air, which is breath-taking.

Few would disagree that in the fortnight spent aboard this lovely ship, the moment when we circled Paradise in the inflatable Zodiac speedboats used for ship transfers, was a life-defining one.

At Waterboat Point, a Chilean naval station where reluctant conscripts were once sent but now the destination of its military crème de la crème, the gentoo population outnumbers humans by about 10,000 to one. Everywhere there are fluffy, grey-coated gentoo young being guarded from predators by anxious parents in the constant din, while others bring back krill from the icy water. The resulting mess gives the area a very distinctive smell and an orange-pink hue.

Predators, like spivs on street corners, hang around waiting to make their move. One second’s lapse of concentration and the skuas and sheathbills will take their meal. While we queued for our Zodiac back to ship, what appeared to be a momentary mix-up between parents saw their chick snatched by a skua and the distress it caused was not lost on the parents among us.

We sailed the 30 mile stretch of the Atlantic Sound, otherwise known – for good reason – as Iceberg Alley. The smaller, granite-hard growlers are to be avoided just as deftly as the enormous floating glacial islands that dropped into the sea years, perhaps decades, before. These are sometimes a mile or more long, but no less enchanting for the compact ice and light throw up some magnificent hues.

Paulet Island is an active volcano which is home to a truly vast colony of Adelie penguins and the usual assortment of opportunistic carrion-hunting birds and scavengers looking for a free take-away. According to Chris Wilson, the expedition’s resident ornithologist, the island is a birdwatcher’s paradise with nesting blue-eyed shags keeping out of harm’s way being of particular interest.

Beneath the soaring sheer slopes of the volcano lies a tarn with a toxic green pool of gunk, caused in no small part by the waste discharged by the 200,000 or more Adelie penguins and their fish and krill diet. There is a large area to discover and one has to be prepared for the sheer vastness of this natural wildlife phenomenon.

Port Lockroy – where one’s passport gets the stylish Antarctic stamp – is another popular tourist destination and is a tiny former British station which has been transformed into a museum on Goudier Island under the guidance of the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust. There is even a functioning Post Office and two post-mistresses Judith Black and Nikki Rickett, both aged 32, who found themselves in the most unlikely setting for the summer months. They are two of three female residents at Port Lockroy working for base commander Rick Atkinson.

Asked why he had ended up with three women to keep him company, Rick’s stock reply is: “I did the interviews!” These outings are typical as are the detailed briefings which precede them. There are daily talks and lectures about everything associated with Antarctica, its wildlife, geology and the history of the brave souls who ventured here in search of exploration and its associated derring-do.

Dr David Wilson and his brother, the expert birder Chris, are great nephews of the great polar adventurer Edward Wilson, who died with Captain Scott on his return form the South Pole in 1912. Dr Wilson delivered a fascinating insight to his great uncle with family pictures and rarely seen material drawn from family archives. The talks and lectures are optional but most are informative and well worth the effort.
Expedition by Zodiacs are ordered affairs. Each cabin number is given a departure time – these are rotated to be fair to all – and passengers are called to the lounge and given a group code before being lined up and allocated a boat. Meticulous boot cleaning prior to departing the destination and immediately after re-boarding Spirit of Adventure is designed to minimise the chances of contamination of one wildlife colony to another.

And expedition leader Dr Beau Riffenburgh is unapologetic for the apparent military precision of  what he calls his ‘operations’.
He says: “This is a very harsh, unforgiving environment. We have to minimise any risk of something going wrong yet give people the experience of visiting this place.”

Whilst this is very much a trip with an emphasis on the expeditionary side, it is aboard a well-appointed five star cruise liner, Spirit of Adventure, where evenings are wiled away with beautifully-crafted cuisine in both the main restaurant and the buffet. Terrific entertainment ranges from sing-songs, quiz night, big shows and impromptu musical evenings at the piano with cruise director Neil Horrocks.

There is a well-stocked library with books on every subject imaginable but a heavy emphasis on nature and travel, internet availability to send messages and pictures home and a number of activities – such as learning to paint in watercolours – are free to all passengers. Mobile phone signals are patchy at best but email seems the easiest way to get in touch with loved ones on such a long trip.

Spirit of Adventure is a small ship and is strictly limited to the number of passengers it can take into Antarctica – around 200 – and this, by necessity, creates an intimate and friendly atmosphere on board. It was obvious some lifelong friendships were being forged among complete strangers from unlikely backgrounds.

The cruise had started and ended in Buenos Aires and had enjoyed stops in the Falkland Islands, not least at Stanley where passengers would be advised to book a trip with Tony Smith for a tour of the battlefields left behind after the 1982 conflict. Tony’s incredible and detailed knowledge is drawn from the fact he lived through the short war of liberation and shared the lows and highs of invasion and freedom once more. There is no tourist trail or handy cafes or visitor centres - just Tony’s sturdy Land Rover and a willingness of participants to walk up hills.

Much of the scenes of battle have stayed the way they were left in May 1982, with the detritus of war scattered around Tumbledown mountain and evidence of the Argentine flight when the British military personnel closed in. There is something poignant about finding a young conscript’s army-issue sock or scarf lying where he left it when he took flight.

For the naturalists there are guided walks around the bay at Stanley with a chance to explore the flora and fauna of the islands, including Magellanic penguins. Be warned – this is a trek of over three miles and some may find it hard going. But for those who can, it is not to be missed.

Less than an hour’s drive from Stanley is Bluff Cove, part of Kevin Kilmartin’s 30,000 acre sheep and cattle farm, and home to more than 2,000 gentoo penguins. Visitors, under strictly controlled access, can get remarkably close to the gentoos and, particularly, their young.  Lunch at the nearby Sea Cabbage café offers fantastic home-cooked food which is almost worth the journey in itself.

We missed a couple of destinations towards the end of our Antarctic trip due to adverse weather – it can change suddenly in these parts – and which our ever-reassuring Captain Frank Allica described as making our crossing to Ushuaia, southern Argentina, a ‘bit bouncy.’ He wasn’t kidding but it detracted nothing from the experience or the sense of achievement at its end.

Our ship docked a night early at Ushuaia which offers limited nightlife but, curiously, two Irish bars and some decent restaurants where beef is top of the menu of choice. Then it was onto Buenos Aires, via internal flights, for a couple of days shopping and sight-seeing.

FACTFILE

Find out more about Spirit of Adventure cruises and book online at www.spiritofadventure.co.uk or call 0800 300432 for a brochure.
MV Spirit of Adventure offers discover cruises for over 21s. The ship carries a maximum of 352 passengers which enables her to call at many more of the smaller ports and desinations that other larger vessels cannot. Cruise enjoyment is enhanced by onboard facilities and activities as well excursion programmes designed to get passengers closer to the places they visit.

Forthcoming cruises; MV Spirit of Adventure, Voyage to the Far North, 14  nights from £1,396, departing July 2 2009. This cruise takes in the North Cape Plateau, the final frontier before the Artic Ocean, calling at Molde, Solvaer, Hammerfest, North Cape cruise, Honningsyag, Tromso, Geiranger, Bergen and Stavanger. Price includes: insurance and cancellations, all meals, entertainment, excursions at most ports of call

MV Spirit of Adventure, Dragons and Temples, 25 nights (two nights onboard aircraft) from £4,475 departing December 13 2009. Adventure into the Far East, with stops in India, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Malaysia, Indonesia and Borneo. Highlights include meeting orang-utans, Christmas day celebrations and seeing the Komodo dragons
For tourism in the Falkland Islands, go to www.visitorfalklands.com

Find details of Tony Smith’s tours at www.discoveryfalklands.com

CAPTAIN FRANK ALLICA
Spirit of Adventure Captain Frank Allica, 60, has spent much of his long career at sea in the Australian navy – which he joined in 1965 aged 17 - and owes his unusual surname to his Spanish grandfather, also a seafarer. The latter part of his life has been spent in the commercial sector, his latest appointment being on the Spirit of Adventure, and a job he clearly relishes.

One of his first postings was to engage with the Viet Cong in the Vietnam war. Not that he set foot in the country as his brief was to pound the coastline with 17,000 shells in a sustained three month period.

Much later, he would return to Vietnam on hoiliday. He met, by chance, an old Viet Cong fighter. Captain Allica recounted the story of firing thousands of shells into his new acquaintance’s country. To which the old Viet Cong replied: “You missed!”

STORES MANAGER HUGO FIGUEROA
Guatemalan Hugo, 47, is responsible for buying in and controlling the stock aboard. He operates his business from pokey office next to large stores of meat, fruit, vegetables and endless racks of wine cases. He must source meats and fish according to suitable pick-up points.  For example, UK fish may be collected at Montevideo. Most meat comes in from the US but lamb will be from New Zealand.

A happy-go-lucky married father, Hugo says: “It’s a good job and I like the life at sea.”

For tourism in the Falkland Islands, go to www.visitorfalklands.com
Find details of Tony Smith’s tours at www.discoveryfalklands.com

EXECUTIVE CHEF DIRK ROESSLER
Looking around the somewhat cramped but meticulously clean kitchen where the clanking of bowls, furious chopping, mincing and laughter is the backdrop to his working day, chef Dirk Roessler turns and says: “This is what I call my living room.” He has spent six years at sea and the last four with the British over-50s giant Saga which owns Spirit of Adevnture. German-born Dirk is on his fifth stint on Spirit of Adventure where, most of all, he says, he likes the freedom his job brings him.

He says: “Here I am free to as I want as a chef. That’s what |I enjoy very much but what you cook depends on what you can get. If someone asks why we don’t have kippers, I have to say that it’s because I can’t get them in South America.” On our stop in the Falkland he picked up tomatoes, egg plants, fresh cherries and new potatoes which were ordered in advance by email.

He has 29 kitchen staff and it is obvious from the activity that it is busy all the time. But the frenetic pace of the workforce means there has to order and organisation.

Dirk, 42, says: “We work an average of 10 hours a day but sometime we work a little slower. I have an excellent team here.” With just half a dozen vegetarians on board for this trip, he has the time to cook to their particular tastes but he concedes: “It can be a little more tricky to cook for vegans – you really have to use you imagination.

He lives in the Philipines these days where he has a daughter of 18 months, Lisa Maria, and another baby was on the way.

8 April 2009