Adventure Sailing: Antarctic

Surviving the screaming 60s, showing his daughter her first iceberg and experiencing the harsh beauty of Antarctica during a five-month voyage, reports Tony Mowbray, are just some of the wonders of this amazing region.

Departing Australia in mid-October 2006, we sailed our Ocean 60 to Wellington in New Zealand, before heading for Cape Horn and up into Ushuaia, Argentina, arriving early December 2006. From there we headed south to the ice, undertaking two expeditions to the Antarctic lasting three weeks at a time.

On each Antarctic adventure, there were eight people on board, including my children, Holly and Jordan, on the first trip. Among the many highlights included my daughter Holly celebrating her birthday on 6 January 2007 by seeing her very first iceberg!

Ships log January 4, 2007, Deception Island, Antarctic.
Team Mowbray Update #35
Position 62 56 S, 60 41 W
Wind SW, 30-40 knots; Water Temp, 1.6 degrees; Air Temp, 1 degree

What an amazing thing to do: anchor your boat inside a volcano that last erupted in 1970! Not so bloody long ago! Since I last wrote, life has been full and interesting to say the least (not to mention VERY cold!)... the closing part of our Drake Passage crossing was beaut with a good following breeze and we managed to shut the motor down and get in some good sailing... as we closed the islands of the South Shetland group we were inundated by an incredible array of bird life ducking, weaving and diving around us, almost like a welcoming party saying, "Welcome to our home".

We closed in on Deception Island late on the evening of 2 January and motored through "Neptune's Bellows" (what a great name) at about 2.00am on the morning of the 3rd. The Bellows is the entrance (very narrow) to the waterway within. A small section of the rim of the crater collapsed allowing the ocean to flood in - imagine the rush of water back then! The caldera is about 5 miles in length from SE to NW and tucked up in the very NW corner is a tiny kidney-shaped inlet and that is where we are currently moored riding out a gale. When it blows down here, it blows! Because the atmosphere is so dense here 30 knots packs much more of a punch than 30 knots in the tro
Anchorages can be quite restricted here with not much room to swing plus the bottom can be of poor holding for an anchor so boats "tie in", that is, take mooring ropes ashore and tie them to whatever you can find. Initially, we just dropped anchor in Telefon Bay as there is good room to swing. However, the forecast came through for this gale so yesterday arvo we spent a couple of hours ferrying back and forwards to shore in the dinghy setting up shore lines and currently we are tied to two huge boulders, wrapped around each boulder is a 10mm thick galvanised cable and to each cable is connected about 90 metres (nearly a football field in length) of 20mm thick rope out to the stern of the boat. Our anchor is still deployed as well as about 40 metres of chain and all that is not extreme for anchoring down here! The whole island is a volcanic deposit of cinders, ash and rock spewed up from the depths of the earth over the years. Down low it is completely black and featureless. We have commented on its similarity to what we think a "moonscape" would be like. Up higher, the ridges are ice and snow-covered. Last night, it snowed quite heavily with the boat getting a good dusting of snow.

Our final approach to the island was a test for all on board as the wind increased and the temperature dropped. In the end, we were struggling along in headwinds and squalls of up to 40 knots and very, very cold in an eerie twilight that is neither day nor night probing our way into new waters trying to find an anchorage! One doesn't have time to think about one's credit card debt! Haven't seen an iceberg yet. South-west of us, about 60 miles lay the northern entrance of the Gerlache Straits where we want to get to, to really get among the ice, the bergs and the incredible scenery that we have all seen so many

Ships log 10 January 2007, anchored at Port Lockroy
Team Mowbray Update #36
Position 64 49 S, 63 29 W
Wind SW, 5 knots, Water Temp, 1.2 degrees, Air Temp, 6 degrees

Crewman Greg writes: We proceeded to the Chilean base at the entrance to Paradise Harbour. This was intended to be our stop for the night and we had been told it was a good spot to anchor. Two "bits" of ice, each the size of a netball court occupied the best spot. We tried for well over an hour to get the anchor to hold but it just wouldn't grab. The bottom is nothing more than rock, worn smooth by the ice activities of the last thousands of years. We gave up and headed off elsewhere searching for an anchorage - it was getting very late - we tried bay after bay for a spot to hide from the now bitterly cold wind and snow but in all cases the depth was either too great or there were precarious ice and snow overhanging shelves ready to avalanche down on an unsuspecting anchored yacht!

After more aborted attempts, including almost running aground, we finally dropped anchor and ran a stern line to shore at around 11pm. We were all very weary. We then took turns at anchor and ice watch for the rest of the night. Tony took the first stint and I took over from 2am to 4am. The tide was falling... had to watch the depth sounder as the bottom got closer to the rudder. This, however, was a small thing when compared with the effort required to fend off the ice as it flowed past powered by tide and wind. We devised a simple method of fending off big chunks of ice with the boat hook or for the really big pieces, the spinnaker pole worked well. Midway through my watch I took note of my circumstances and got a flash of realisation of the magnitude of this experience. Here I was, immersed in thin fog and falling snow, fending off a block of ice weighing several tons and just 20 metres away in clear, calm jet black Antarctic waters was a solitary whale blowing spume. I glanced over my shoulder in response to a roar to see thousands of tons of snow avalanching down a nearby slope - just an ordinary day in paradise really!

Tony writes: We finally escaped the clutches of Deception Island and the incredibly resilient south-west gale on the afternoon of 6 January. The intended one or two-night stay turned into four nights; one has to roll with the punches down here! Had a quick look at the deserted Whalers Bay buildings on the way back through Neptune's Bellows and out into open ocean again for the 100 mile sail to the northern end of the Gerlache Strait. The Gerlache is a sizeable waterway separating the Antarctic Peninsula and the offshore islands. The Gerlache Strait is a trap for calved icebergs and nature?s local playground. Remember how I have said, "I want my kids to see an iceberg"? Well, 6 January was my beautiful daughter Holly's 15th birthday and guess what one of her presents was? The sighting of her first iceberg! A bloody huge one at that! Then another, and another and another! Stunningly brilliant with their incredible refracted electric blue colours! How good can it get?

'Like clouds, you can identify shapes in some of them: a dinosaur, a crocodile, a seahorse, a steepled church, a duck. How long will one of those huge things take to melt down until it fits in your glass' We cruised on through the Gerlache and sighted our first whales of this area. Turned the motor off and drifted along at 3 knots. One befriends us and swims right beside us at exactly our speed just 15 metres away.

We arrived at Enterprise Island on the afternoon of 7th. The popular method of mooring here is to tie up beside the rusting hulk of an old whaling ship, aground in a small, deep, high-sided inlet on the eastern side. Talk about boxed in! On three sides, we were surrounded by vertical cliffs of ice rising 50 to 60 metres and horizontally they were just 40 metres away. The wreck is now home to nesting birds which swoop on us.

Throughout the 8th, we meandered though various waterways, checking out Cuverville Island and Danco Islands for possible future anchoring. The body of water holding these two islands is called Errera Channel and it was choked with ice floes which took a lot of nervous energy out of us as we negotiated them ever so slowly, at times with the engine out of gear just drifting slowly, foraging our path through ice. What about the sound? The exquisite tinkling of ice shards being washed up against each other: tinkle, tinkle, tinkle.

Yesterday morning we weighed anchor and slowly threaded our way out of Paradise through lots of ice and across the six-mile wide Gerlache Strait to Port Lockroy which is a delightful anchorage manned for just the summer. It is a popular haunt for the cruise ships with one being here when we arrived. When I finish typing this, I'm going to head to shore for a wander around on Antarctica, visit the station and return to the boat, sit in the cockpit and have a beer and admire the scenery.

Ships log 11 January 2007, Drake Passage, heading north from Antarctica
Team Mowbray Update #37
Position 64 42 S, 64 40 W, wind light; Water Temp, 1.3 degrees; Air Temp, 2 degrees

We're off! A few hours ago we launched ourself out into the unprotected waters of Antarctica as it is now time to cross the Drake Passage, arrive at Cape Horn (522 nautical miles away) and make our way to Puerto Williams and then on to Ushuaia. This morning we left Port Lockroy as scheduled and successfully made our way down the Lemaire Channel. We had to negotiate some fairly thick ice in the channel. It is quite narrow and it tends to create a bottleneck of frozen water that needs to be respected. Slipping the motor out of gear and drifting through the thicker stuff tends to work. Slowing the boat dramatically to almost become at one with the ice and just let the boat sort of wiggle and squirm its way through. As soon you pass through, the track of the boat fills in as if we were never there!

Ships log 16 January 2007, Puerto Williams, Tierra del Fuego.
Team Mowbray Update #38
Position 54 66 6 S, 67 37 48 W

We have successfully crossed the Drake Passage, rounded Cape Horn and made our way to the incredibly placid anchorage in the creek and tied up next to the Club Micalvi ready for a round or two of "Pisco Sours". I knew we had to keep the boat moving at speed so as to either avoid or minimise some expected rough stuff toward the end. In effect, I was trying to squeeze the boat in between two low pressure systems as they swept west to east so off we went. We all quickly dropped into our routine of watches: George and Ian, Keir and Greg, then Holly, Jordan and I on the third watch (good name that for a TV show).

We racked up 585 nautical miles in three days seven hours for an average speed of 7.4 knots for the crossing. As we approached the Horn on the night of the 14th, the front edge of the second weather system started to rear its ugly head. We could eventually see the flash of the lighthouse but by that stage we had some very big side on seas to work our way through. The wind increased almost incrementally; every hour it would ratchet up another notch. Eventually, it was up around 40 knots (80 km/h) and we didn't have much sail up I can assure you! Keir took the wheel for the final run in to the Horn with Greg backing him up in the cockpit. Keir "smoked" the boat off quite a few waves in the pitch black and I swear his eyes were the size of dinner plates as he "white knuckled" the steering wheel. We eventually got around the light and into relative calmer waters north of the Horn only to have the wind increase yet again until we had a steady 50 plus knots (100 km/h) and an ugly short, sharp sea. All in all it was a very testing night; watch systems went out the door. Eventually the sun came up and the wind stopped blowing as hard and the world became a better place!

The stretch up the Beagle Canal tested us again later in the day as the wind yet again rose to fever pitch and blew directly from where we wanted to go so back to work again, grinding out every mile until eventually we tied the lines at Puerto Williams. We were all totally buggered but it felt good!

Commitment is an Ocean 60, built in England in 1981. She is 60ft long, weighs 32 tonnes and strongly built of fibreglass. Bought in Adelaide in October 2005, she has been extensively refitted with new gear including engine, genset, plumbing, electrics, instruments, sails and rigging.

Join the next expedition
I will return there in October this year to ready Commitment for another five months of expedition work, heading back south through the canals and on to the southern tip of South America, including Cape Horn, Punta Arenas, Ushuaia and the Antarctic Peninsula. One trip will be dedicated to a parent/child theme. Ideally I'd like three pairs of people on board. On each Antarctic adventure there were eight people in total on board. Previous sailing experience is NOT needed!

Costs and logistics
Excluding the ice trip, the expedition legs vary in length from 7-22 days and the average price excluding airfares is around $6,000.
Flights: Qantas has connections to Santiago in Chile which is a one-hour flight on to Punto Montt. There are also flights via Buenos Aires in Argentina.

Expedition details including fees are at www.tonymowbray.com.au