The sudden changes in the weather pushed us away from the Cape Horn, yet it prompted a faster departure for the Antarctica Peninsula. Before entering the Southern Ocean, however, our ship Magellan Explorer had to brave across the Drake Passage, which bridges the waters of the Atlantic and Indian Oceans. Fueled by the uninterrupted circumference of the Earth, this relatively narrow body of water is infamous for its stormy weather and record high swells. Everyone onboard was bracing for a rocky sail.
With no land in sight, some of our fellow expedition members soon found themselves fighting the seasickness in their cabins. Barf bags, strategically tacked in everywhere around the ship, evaporated overnight. Yet, other passengers (especially a group of gregarious New Yorkers) never grew tired of socializing in the lounge and touring the usual time-sinks, such as the sauna and the gym room.
Between the gourmet meals, safety drills and adventure travel lectures, these two days of sailing would initially feel like “the time lost to transit”. Luckily for us, pelagic birdwatching served as a perfect outdoor entertainment and a way to connect to the physical world outside.
We would frequently trade the comfort of our cozy cabin for exhilarating moments of absolute solitude spent on the freezing-cold bench of the upper-most deck on the stern of the ship. Standing there under the continuous barrage of the ocean spray, we would follow the majestic Wandering albatrosses and solitary Giant Petrels cutting the salty air while masterly passing the ship on both sides.
Tiny Arctic Prions, with their wings colored in silver, blended in perfectly with the ocean glitter and remained elusive while I attempted to catch a glimpse of them in the view finder. Loose flocks of Cape Petrels, also called Pintado for their painted appearance, were elegantly running the waves before taking off as a swarm of black-and-white butterflies.
Very little else came to sight, until we reached the very first iceberg and the rocky outcrops of the Antarctic peninsula, covered with pink guano and crowded by countless Chinstrap and Gentoo Penguins nesting along the steep slopes of the islands.
The short Antarctic summer was in session…
