After Christmas, we continued our sailing along the Antarctic Peninsula and the beautiful weather continued. We had a good band on board for a fun New Year’s Eve, and we had the opportunity for a real “Polar Plunge.” I normally do dumb things for this blog, but I took Debra’s health warning and passed on the icy dive. Scott however, was goaded into representing us (included in the video below).
Cape Horn, tip of South America
We came back up north to drop off those who could only come for the holidays. The Drake Passage was so unusually calm, that we were able to stop at Cape Horn, the Southernmost point of the Americas and tour the Chilean station there.
Filly’s tee at Ushuaia National CC
Then back to Ushuaia, Argentina, where we said goodbye to Scott and good friends Doug and Colleen boarded for the more serious expedition to Antarctica, South Georgia and the Falkland Islands. We played golf a the Ushuaia Golf Club, that bills itself as the “Southest Course in the World.” It’s actually also a horse farm – Debra had a problem on the seventh hole as a mare and her foal were resting on the women’s tee. Then we headed back to the Antarctic, after another calm Drake Passage crossing – a bit disappointing for Debra and me as we’d hoped to see waves crashing over the bow.
Friends Doug and Colleen
The weather in Antarctica was again spectacular and we signed up for a number of kayaking outings to enjoy the vistas. With the beautiful scenery, a trip through “iceberg alley” and sunsets that last for hours, I couldn’t stop taking pictures. I spent hours cutting photos down to less than 1,000. I’m sorry to subject you to the 20 or so included below, but I just can’t manage to delete them further. What I can’t seem to project, is the sense of scale. The mountains soar 9,000 feet from the sea, and the tabular icebergs we sailed right next too are 100-250 feet tall!
But before continuing, your geography question for the day:
List the 7 continents in order of size. Hint: In the winter, the ice of Antarctica makes it 2x larger than it really is – just rank the continents by land mass. Another hint: you won’t get this right.
Some of my favorite photos (click to enlarge and scroll through):
Antarctica, even without ice is huge – bigger than Australia and Europe. Even bigger than the continental U.S. and Mexico combined! I sure didn’t know that. We also had an outstanding geologist on board who explained the amazing data we’re able to gather from this area. At its maximum, the ice here is almost 3 miles deep and millions of years old! By drilling and taking core samples, modern equipment has been able to determine temperatures and air quality back 800,000 years so far. We are now able to assess the compressed air bubbles with such precision, that they can detect when we added lead to gasoline for cars (1924)!
Global warming? Yes, we’re in a hot cycle that has repeated about every 100,000 years in the last 400,000 years. And as sun people, Debra and I prefer that to being in an ice age. While temperatures are at about the same level as the last 4 hot cycles, the CO2 level is dramatically higher than prior peaks. So is our current global warming a natural cycle? Yes. Is human activity raising CO2 levels and likely to influence global warming further? Probably.
Will the humans survive? Most likely – we’ve demonstrated amazing adaptability over the centuries – it’s all of the other species that are at risk. But weather, political systems, agriculture, water availability may create a new form of chaos (and our land-based home on the CT shore may go under). So the question for this and subsequent generations is, why NOT try to moderate our global impact?
A 7 minute video of the trip (not the same as prior)
D & D Adventures 
