On the ship’s navigation table, two nautical charts are laid out. They both show we are passing through waters that haven’t been surveyed. Our captain maintains a safe course using depth soundings. He’s been to the Antarctic many times before, yet has never sailed this particular channel.

Oncoming dusk makes it harder to see, then the heavy snow starts. I struggle to see the approaching icebergs as the large flakes fill the bridge windows. We can rely on the radar to clearly show the floating impediments that loom ahead. Orange blotches, the program’s choice for icebergs, fill the screen.One gigantic orange mass emanates from the screen. Three kilometers separate us from the behemoth. You need to visit this site to learn about great antarctica tours.

At one kilometer, the captain quickly gives a hushed command.With a flick of the wheel, the helmsman steers the ship away from the danger. A tabular iceberg shows itself through the fog and snow. This is a unique type of berg found only in the southern ocean. These bergs resemble the American plains; they have very flat, wide tops and the sides are straight. They can be over one hundred feet tall.

Antarctica has amazed me again. Hopefully we will reach the Antarctic Circle in this polar class cruise vessel. We’ve mapped a route that will bring us past some of this world’s least hospitable and least inhabited areas. Antarctica was first seen in 1820. It took another 79 years before someone wintered over there. The first explorers searched in vain for the southern pole many dying, scientists soon followed their journeys. Now you don’t have to be an independently-wealthy individual to travel to Antarctica. For about the same cost of visiting a Caribbean island, you can see Antarctica.

Some say the continent looks like a manta ray with a curving tail. Between the very tip of the tail and the very tip of South America sits five hundred miles of water. This is the Drake Passage, and some extremely rough seas are found here. Reaching Antarctica by passing through this area, which has also been called the ‘Slobbering Jaws of Hell’, is difficult, but worthwhile. One caring passenger reminds us to stow our gear carefully and then make sure our cabin portholes are latched well. Learn about adventure antarctica tours.

Leaving Ushuaia, in Argentina, we went through the Beagle Channel. Then we hit open waters. For two days we saw no land. We were tossed mightily by rough seas that whole time. Gusting winds blew the whole time, and reached near gale force. Like bullets, ocean spray shot past my fourth deck window as numerous waves crashed over the ship’s bow.Though it usually depended on how seasick you felt, you could see swells that were between fifteen and forty feet.

After two days of sailing from South America, we got to the Southern Ocean. A coastal archipelago was my first view the next morning. Though still not smooth, the waters seemed to be a bit sedated by the land mass. Super tall mountains wore wispy clouds at their peaks. The ridges stuck through the smooth glaciers at sharp angles. The ice goes right into the water in huge frozen slabs. They are crackled and bumpy, not smooth like the glaciers. The exceedingly tall mountains look as though they stick straight up from the ocean.

The trip to the continent is similar, according to one passenger, to the labor of childbirth. Antarctica?s stats show it to be the windiest, highest, driest and coldest continent of all seven found on our planet. Getting the same amount of precipitation as Death Valley does each year makes it quite dry. Yet, Antarctica holds seventy percent of the world?s fresh water. This land is not owned, has no indigenous human groups, or animals that stay year round on it.

This area of extreme weather makes planning difficult. Sailing routes and shore landings depend on that day’s weather. Even though the guides had warned us to be prepared for waiting, our first scheduled landfall became a reality.We’ve been assigned groups and told to meet on deck. On our turn, my group of ten climbs into an inflatable boat.We quickly ride across the quarter mile of water. And then, with one simple step, I am in the small group of humans who has ever touched Antarctic ice.

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