Antarctica
Antarctica is huge -- the US and Europe can both fit in this landmass. It is the coldest, windiest, highest continent -- 98% covered by ice. During our voyage we were able to capture a glimpse of this immense area.
Our voyage made it possible to partly understand how extreme but also pristine this place is. Excluding days in the Drake Passage, we were able to make 2-3 landings per day, encounter some of the hardship the early explorers adventured wintering at this very life hostile continent, at least during winter and away from the Ocean.
Using our video microscope, we also caught a glimpse of the amazing ecology, the small algae and diatoms, which feed the krill and later become the most important food chain in Antarctic waters.
Everybody seems to eat the poor krill, every penguin and whale. We also saw how penguins and seals later became victims or rather food for killer whales or leopard seals.
Everybody wants to see Antarctica’s tabular icebergs. We encountered some indescribable ice sculptures in colors from plain white to deep blue and many several times larger than our ship. Not even the best camera in the world can capture this. It has to be experienced in situ.
On this map made by our expedition leader, Tom Ritchie, and later sold at an auction before arrival to Ushuaia to support Oceanites, you can follow our adventure and how we even made progress into the fast ice and made it to the latitude S65.09 on the western side of the Peninsula.
Every year is different and, even if we now are passed the midsummer, the ice is far north to be early January. We tried to reach Peterman Island, but this was impossible. Maybe another thing which makes every voyage to the South so special, is how very extreme and unpredictable nature can be; always everything lives on the edge. On our comfortable ship, the Endeavour, we could make our way into and touch this hostile but beautiful continent.
Antarctica is huge -- the US and Europe can both fit in this landmass. It is the coldest, windiest, highest continent -- 98% covered by ice. During our voyage we were able to capture a glimpse of this immense area.
Our voyage made it possible to partly understand how extreme but also pristine this place is. Excluding days in the Drake Passage, we were able to make 2-3 landings per day, encounter some of the hardship the early explorers adventured wintering at this very life hostile continent, at least during winter and away from the Ocean.
Using our video microscope, we also caught a glimpse of the amazing ecology, the small algae and diatoms, which feed the krill and later become the most important food chain in Antarctic waters.
Everybody seems to eat the poor krill, every penguin and whale. We also saw how penguins and seals later became victims or rather food for killer whales or leopard seals.
Everybody wants to see Antarctica’s tabular icebergs. We encountered some indescribable ice sculptures in colors from plain white to deep blue and many several times larger than our ship. Not even the best camera in the world can capture this. It has to be experienced in situ.
On this map made by our expedition leader, Tom Ritchie, and later sold at an auction before arrival to Ushuaia to support Oceanites, you can follow our adventure and how we even made progress into the fast ice and made it to the latitude S65.09 on the western side of the Peninsula.
Every year is different and, even if we now are passed the midsummer, the ice is far north to be early January. We tried to reach Peterman Island, but this was impossible. Maybe another thing which makes every voyage to the South so special, is how very extreme and unpredictable nature can be; always everything lives on the edge. On our comfortable ship, the Endeavour, we could make our way into and touch this hostile but beautiful continent.
