Day 1 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: departing from #Ushuaia and sailing east along the Beagle Channel.
-
Day 10 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa (continued): visit to the historic Port Lockroy base, established in 1944 and now maintained by @UKAntarcticHeritageTrust
#BusmansHolidayDay 11 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: landing on Danco Island, the location of former British Base O, occupied 1956-1959, demolished and removed 2004.
#BusmansHoliday -
Day 11 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: landing on Danco Island, the location of former British Base O, occupied 1956-1959, demolished and removed 2004.
#BusmansHolidayDay 11 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa (continued): Gentoo #penguins on Danco Island.
#BusmansHoliday -
Day 11 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa (continued): Gentoo #penguins on Danco Island.
#BusmansHolidayDay 11 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa (continued): our final landing, at Orne Harbour on the mainland of the Peninsula. We climbed up a snow slope to a narrow ridge on which there was a chinstrap #penguin rookery. It was amazing to see how high up and how exposed the locations are where some chinstraps choose to raise their chicks. It was also impressive to watch them climbing icy slopes on which even experienced climbers would feel uncomfortable without an ice axe and crampons.
#BusmansHoliday -
Day 11 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa (continued): our final landing, at Orne Harbour on the mainland of the Peninsula. We climbed up a snow slope to a narrow ridge on which there was a chinstrap #penguin rookery. It was amazing to see how high up and how exposed the locations are where some chinstraps choose to raise their chicks. It was also impressive to watch them climbing icy slopes on which even experienced climbers would feel uncomfortable without an ice axe and crampons.
#BusmansHolidayA short video clip of chinstrap penguins and chicks in the rookery on the crest of the ridge. Sound on to hear their calls.
-
A short video clip of chinstrap penguins and chicks in the rookery on the crest of the ridge. Sound on to hear their calls.
Days 12-14 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: sailng back north across Drake Passage.
1. Unfurling the staysails.
2. Members of voyage crew at the helm shortly before dawn.
3. A full set of five square sails on the foremast, together with a staysail attached to the forward side the mast.
4. A majestic rainbow compensates for unpleasant conditions after a squall had passed by.
#BusmansHoliday -
Days 12-14 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: sailng back north across Drake Passage.
1. Unfurling the staysails.
2. Members of voyage crew at the helm shortly before dawn.
3. A full set of five square sails on the foremast, together with a staysail attached to the forward side the mast.
4. A majestic rainbow compensates for unpleasant conditions after a squall had passed by.
#BusmansHolidayDay 15 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: riding the waves across Drake Passage with Bark Europa in full sail, viewed from near the wheelhouse.
-
Day 15 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: riding the waves across Drake Passage with Bark Europa in full sail, viewed from near the wheelhouse.
@PoLaRobs
Nice! But is it safe? Lots of things have happened in the last 200 years, like Climate Change and big, smelly ships that will run straight through you. Also, are you equipped with GPS? -
Day 15 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: riding the waves across Drake Passage with Bark Europa in full sail, viewed from near the wheelhouse.
@PoLaRobs What a fantastic trip! Thank you for all the photos and commentary
-
@PoLaRobs
Nice! But is it safe? Lots of things have happened in the last 200 years, like Climate Change and big, smelly ships that will run straight through you. Also, are you equipped with GPS?@adrianmorales That's one of the reasons a watchkeeping rota is operated with two lookouts on decks 24/7. Also, yes, the navigating officers use GPS, and there must have been more than 100 GPS receivers on board if you count all the phones and watches. The GPS function on a smartphone is one thing that works even when you don't have any mobile signal.
-
@adrianmorales That's one of the reasons a watchkeeping rota is operated with two lookouts on decks 24/7. Also, yes, the navigating officers use GPS, and there must have been more than 100 GPS receivers on board if you count all the phones and watches. The GPS function on a smartphone is one thing that works even when you don't have any mobile signal.
@PoLaRobs Well, you be careful out there. The sea's a feisty mistress.
-
Day 15 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: riding the waves across Drake Passage with Bark Europa in full sail, viewed from near the wheelhouse.
Day 16 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: several members of the voyage crew were keen to see Cape Horn on our way back to Ushuaia. The Captain agreed, but warned us that we would pass the Cape in the early hours of the morning. Hence all we could see was the dark shape of hills against a cloudy sky and the flashing lights of two lighthouses (see short video clip in post below).
-
Day 16 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: several members of the voyage crew were keen to see Cape Horn on our way back to Ushuaia. The Captain agreed, but warned us that we would pass the Cape in the early hours of the morning. Hence all we could see was the dark shape of hills against a cloudy sky and the flashing lights of two lighthouses (see short video clip in post below).
Night time video clip looking towards Cape Horn in which lights from two lighthouses can be seen flashing intermittently.
-
Night time video clip looking towards Cape Horn in which lights from two lighthouses can be seen flashing intermittently.
I'd seen Cape Horn once before, from above on a flight 12 years ago on the British Antarctic Survey Dash7 aircraft, going from Punta Arenas, #Chile to Rothera Research Station on the #Antarctic Peninsula.
-
Day 15 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: riding the waves across Drake Passage with Bark Europa in full sail, viewed from near the wheelhouse.
@PoLaRobs What a wonderful adventure!
-
@PoLaRobs
Nice! But is it safe? Lots of things have happened in the last 200 years, like Climate Change and big, smelly ships that will run straight through you. Also, are you equipped with GPS?@adrianmorales @PoLaRobs further to all the GPS's, it broadcasts it's position to other ships (AIS, i.e. can lookup IMO 8951932 on marinetraffic or vesselfinder and see where this boat is), and the wheelhouse has the basic set of modern safety electronics (chart plotter, echo sounder, radar).
Collisions can and do still happen, but this one is not much better or worse off than any others.
-
I'd seen Cape Horn once before, from above on a flight 12 years ago on the British Antarctic Survey Dash7 aircraft, going from Punta Arenas, #Chile to Rothera Research Station on the #Antarctic Peninsula.
Day 17, the final day, of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: returning along the Beagle Channel to Ushuaia, from where we had set out. There I was able to pay my respects to the bust of Adrien De Gerlache, who led the Belgica expedition of 1897-1899 on which much of the area we had visited was first charted. Like Bark Europa, the Belgica was a three-masted bark, but a little smaller. The Belgica also called at Ushuaia in the last few days of 1897 before heading to Antarctica. Finally, I joined many of the other voyage crew in the Patagonia bar to reminisce on our shared adventure.
-
The stand-out sights of this small boat excursion were a number of Weddell seals resting on some of the bergy bits.
@PoLaRobs Awww, I visited a seal sanctuary yesterday, and those chonki bois are just so amazing!!
(Not Weddel seals, just common and grey) -
A lot of melting was taking place when we visited Stony Point. Of course, this was summer in Antarctica, so some melting was expected. However, temperatures on this day and through January as a whole were 1 to 2°C above the recent average, which itself is a couple of degrees warmer than in the mid-20th century. Later this day the dry air temperature recorded on Bark Europa in neighbouring Andvord Bay was 3.8°C. Average 21st century January temperature at the US Palmer Station on Anvers Island is 2.7°C.
@PoLaRobs I wonder how you feel about the theory of my former colleague Gene Domack (perhaps not his theory, but he was the first to share it with me) that increased meal from Antarctica will increase sea ice cover by freshening the surface waters around the peninsula and effectively raising ice's melting point.
-
Day 10 of my voyage to the #Antarctic Peninsula on the #tallship #BarkEuropa: landing on Jougla Point, a location formerly used by Whalers and literally a stone's throw away from the island where the former British base of Port Lockroy is located.
#BusmansHoliday@PoLaRobs third shot especially poignant
-
@PoLaRobs I wonder how you feel about the theory of my former colleague Gene Domack (perhaps not his theory, but he was the first to share it with me) that increased meal from Antarctica will increase sea ice cover by freshening the surface waters around the peninsula and effectively raising ice's melting point.
@Brad_Rosenheim I think that theory has been the basis of several high profile papers. If there was any truth in it then sea ice extent west of the Peninsula and in the southern Bellingshausen Sea should have been increasing over the past few decades. In reality there has been a steady decline in sea-ice extent in these areas through the period of the satellite record, even while extent was steady or slightly increasing in other sectors up to 10 years ago.
