Soul travel to the last wilderness on earth Day 3 –Part 5
The night before, the ship entered in the Drake Passage. The patch of the sea about which we were told from Day 1 and the kind of sea sickness it can cause. In fact the e-mails before we landed in Argentina had also mentioned about it and the ways to take precaution.
This was the day when we saw the first Iceberg. Like the first job, first walk, first kiss, first bite of food, first travel, this was very special. For most of us this was the first Iceberg we were going to see in our lives. A day before a contest was run asking to guess about the time we would be witnessing the first Iceberg and the excitement kept going high.
Before we could have witnessed this, the Drake Passage had affected most of us. Some of us were feeling uneasy, some of us were not able to eat, etc. Some had put ginger patches and some had taken precautionary medicines.
Next morning I was also not feeling okay. I just remembered an advice of a friend who had told me to face the reality. I decided to go out of the ship, on the deck and watch the Drake Passage. Feeling 45 Knots winds and seeing 8 meter waves coming over the ship brought some relief. Some fresh air and some check with reality worked. Open Ocean can be brutal yet we all just adapted the sail and with time accepted the ship as our home and the place to be safe in.
Drake Passage has a sad history. Many sailors lost their lives in this patch, mainly during 1800’s. We were lucky to be in a smooth sail, which was bumpy yet keeping us safe and alive.
Around 5:10 pm on 1st March 2018 (Argentina Time) we saw the first Iceberg on the voyage to Antarctica. It was grand to have that moment in life to see something I had read only in books and seen in movies. It was an ecstatic state to be in. A grand piece of ice could make us feel so small and tiny, what would the entire continent was going to make us feel? This thought only gave goosebumps. From then on, each moment came as a surprise to us, each moment was unexpected and each moment was beyond what mind could imagine.
An iceberg or ice mountain is a large piece of freshwater ice that has broken off a glacier or an ice shelf and is floating freely in open water. It may subsequently become frozen into pack ice (a form of sea ice).
After few hours, we were told crystal sound was to be experienced. The crystal clear world was right in front of us and we were sailing through.
This was the day to be well equipped with knowledge and know the dos and don’ts from the experts while we get on the zodiac the next day. The risk was to be increased. A zodiac is inflated light rubber boat which has capacity to carry 8 people.
We were told about the Clothing, things which we can carry while we land around the continent. How clean each equipment was supposed to be which we take out there. IAATO declaration was signed by each one of us, which tells us to abide by each dos and don’ts.
We were trilled and that night the Captain, Denis Rajda threw a cocktail party. We had a gala time and post dinner I moved to the front deck. It was a dark night. The sound of moving waves could be heard clearly. The wind was strong. When I went on the front deck I saw those high beamed light focusing on the way forward, coming from the top of the ship .The flag of Antarctica was clearly visible right at the front and the night was ending with an eager wait of the next day, for the next day we were to cross The Antarctic Circle. Yes, we did cross THE ANTARCTIC CIRCLE, first time ever on such an expedition the team crossed it. The delight of it, in the next post.
AUDIO VIDEO MESSAGE FROM ANTARCTICA
That time was pretty ecstatic since it was the first time we saw that big piece of ice, but now after going through the entire journey and getting to know about the ways the climate change is happening even in this farthest continent, it is alarming to immediately become zero wastage Human.
If being far from home ever gets you down, just be glad you aren’t also melting.
NASA scientists reported that, after drifting for nearly 20 years, the largest iceberg ever to break away from Antarctica’s Ross Ice Shelf is about to disappear forever.
Now floating northwest of the South Georgia islands near the tail of South America, the iceberg — named B-15 — has traveled more than 6,600 miles (10,000 kilometers) from the ice shelf and is veering dangerously close to the equator.
Satellite images taken from the International Space Station (ISS) on May 22 confirm that the remains of the iceberg are on a crash course with warm tropical waters, where growing pools of meltwater will soon “work [their] way through the iceberg like a set of knives,” NASA glaciologist Kelly Brunt said in a statement.
Read the latest news about Largest Iceberg of Antarctica here –
https://www.livescience.com/62759-largest-antarctic-iceberg-b15-is-melting.html
Stay tuned. Thanks for reading through.
Shruti
