Cool. I’m hoping to visit in 2021 for the eclipse.
Fun! I would have turned around and gone back immediately if I’d had the option. It was deeply absorbing.
May I ask, did you do it through Lindblad/National Geographic? If not, it sounds like a very similar group. I’ve got several family connections (father and uncle both work on ships as doctors, cousin has worked as a steward), and last week I got to go on a trip via Lindblad to Baja.
One of the most interesting parts of the trip was afterwards, hanging out in a bar with one of the staff, and learning about this part:
According to this staff member, AIUI, it’s not the military who provides medivac: there’s only one guy on earth who will medivac from Antarctica, and it’s a private aircraft and a really dangerous job, and because of that his fee is in the neighborhood of $50,000 for a medivac, and he won’t take off until the money is in his account, no matter how urgent your need.
Also, the medical form is apparently very important: there’s a not-insignificant number of people who believe it’d be romantic to die in Antarctica or who decide that this trip will be a lovely capstone to a long, long life and don’t tell a spouse about, say, a stage 4 cancer diagnosis.
Screening for people trying to sneak onto the ship despite a complete lack of suitability is key, because when someone dies aboard a ship, it’s not only a bummer for everyone else on board (especially the occasionally unsuspecting spouse), it’s a huge headache for the company, which needs to deal with the local police and to arrange the shipment of remains between countries. So they take great pains to make sure that the health forms are legit.
Seriously interesting beer conversation :).
What crimes have you thought about committing? I’m assuming things are very lax when it comes to government and law enforcement.
Did you get to go to the Falklands and South Georgia?
Heh–I just realized my uncle may’ve been your ship doc, if I was right; he was there in Antarctica last week.
did you do it through Lindblad/National Geographic?
Hurtigruten. Thanks for your spy work about medical evacuation. I’ve always heard “Chilean military,” but perhaps the gentleman you heard about contracts with them for this exciting gig. We saw another Hurtigruten ship (with whom we seem to have exchanged crew for a few days or several times over a few days’ encounters), a French vessel, and some yachts, but no one else. I gather that they try to time it so ships don’t see much of each other.
**What crimes have you thought about committing? I’m assuming things are very lax when it comes to government and law enforcement. **
I’m pretty sure I didn’t commit any crimes, but it wasn’t high on my agenda. Antarctica is divvied into territories that are administered by countries like Argentina and Great Britain, so presumably their laws apply. There’s also an Antarctic treaty that governs things like what to do with waste and various consortia concerned with how to treat wildlife.
**Did you get to go to the Falklands and South Georgia? **
Sadly not. I was in Port Stanley last year and I’d really like to go to the Falklands for a week or two with a good wildlife guide. South Georgia remains very tempting. Probably at some point I’ll try to find an excursion that goes to both.
What do they do with all the human waste?
Pack it out in most cases. The ship I was on uses bacteria to break it down to concentrated sludge and water. The water is returned to the sea, while the sludge is stored. I’ve had friends working on research vessels that have brought in supplies and packed out waste for bases. Port Lockroy has only 4 staff (from November through March only) and has a dispensation to discharge some human waste at sea. I’m not sure of the specifics.
A question asked of me elsewhere:
**Did you come back feeling well? Were you able to get the nutrition/comfort/exercise/rest that you needed or do you need some rebuilding after compromising on such? **
Yes, other than a black eye (courtesy of a bump while retrieving my ipod in the increasingly narrow seat areas of Delta’s fleet), I came back with no cold, no strained muscles, at the same weight, and in shape enough to substitute as the instructor for 2 hours of Zumba the day after my return.
The ship had a reasonable breakfast buffet in the European/Scandinavian style, with plentiful breads, preserves, butters, fruit, sliced meat, fish bits, raw and cooked vegetables, eggs, breakfast meats, pancakes or waffles, and other treats including capers and caviar with the lox most mornings. No cream cheese for the lox, which annoyed one of my Jewish dining companions. Lunch buffet had similar variety with more hot dishes. Dinner alternated between buffet and fixed menus. Fish and reindeer were plentiful–indeed, we joked that Santa wouldn’t be able to fly his sleigh because we’d eaten Dasher through Blitzen.
The ship has a very small exercise room, which I didn’t use because a treadmill on the high seas isn’t my idea of a non-nauseating activity. I averaged a shade under 4 miles a day (6.3 km for those of you in the rest of the world) walking around the deck or during our hikes and station visits on land. I did sign up to snowshoe once, and kayak once. Maintaining balance on a pitching deck and in Zodiacs is a good core workout, and I did my stretches somewhat less frequently than I ought.
My small cabin was sufficiently spacious because I wasn’t sharing it, so the second bed was in its couch configuration. The mattress and pillows were fine. The soaps provided were more or less natural, with no parabens or other potential carcinogens (though since they were birch-based, they would have set off my birch-allergic bride). The head had floor heating, which was both toasty after excursions or birding from deck and useful for drying clothes quickly. I used a Sea to Summit 20L fold-up Kitchen Sink and a multi-clip hanger for laundry.
I’ve had dizziness and vertigo since surgery in 2015, probably from anesthesia. Now instead of being quite so motion sick as I’ve been all my life, I’m a bit motionless sick, and I do better on a ship most of the time. I took Bonine (Meclizine) one day during a hurricane in the Drake Passage, but I am starting to do better without it, so I didn’t use it the rest of the trip. I was pretty much on ship or in a Zodiac except for a few 60-90 minute excursions for 15 days, so I’m still having more than normal vertigo, which usually passes after a few weeks on land.
Thanks for the thread and all the photos.
Things you might have missed during your visit. (or not allowed to talk about)
Ancient castles
The pyramids
There might be giants (or that might be in Constantinople)
Military bases where the Nazis made their last stand
The miles of tunnels dug by the U.S. government
The wall at the edge of our flat Earth
Birds that fly underwater wearing tuxedos (that one might be a hoax)
Shhhhhh!
In all seriousness, is this a whoosh?
All fascinating stories about Antarctica that some claim are being covered up by the government, science and common sense.
Except the one with the birds that we have nice photographic evidence of up thread.
What great photos!
Thank you! I’ve had this camera for a few years but traveling with my lovely wife (who tends to be our photographer) or cancer treatment kept me from seriously exploring it. I’m very happy with the native color and shutter. We’re going through my couple of thousand photos from this trip (slowed by a shift in computers, but improved by HDMI to the television over the holiday) and I’m pleased with how many of the distant shots are crisp.
Well done susan! How was the reindeer?
I enjoyed it. With lingonberries, of course. I’ve had reindeer a few times in Finland and Norway, and I like it better than venison, which I also like. There really was a lot of it on this cruise–reindeer steak, reindeer carpaccio, reindeer soup…
How was the trip across Drake Passage? Articles I’ve read about traveling to Antarctica suggest it can be a bit rough.
Hurricane-force winds on the way down. A 4-vomit trip, though I dragged myself upright to see wandering albatross off the stern. Somewhat calmer in the more southerly portion near the peninsula. On the way back, relatively calm–only a 3-vomit trip.
I was in the Drake last December (traveling from Buenos Aires to Valparaiso) and it was “Drake Lake”-glassy calm, so I wanted more typical conditions this time, and got them.