Drake Passage

In 1578, Sir Francis Drake was blown by Northerly gales off the Magellan Strait into open waters South of Tierra del Fuego and discovered this as a passage from the Atlantic to the Pacific. Today it is named after him the Drake Passage and it reaches from Cape Horn towards the Antarctic Peninsula. Passing Cape Horn has the most hazardous reputation and with the development global trading routes, it is often referred to as the "sailor's graveyard". In good weather it can be very calm - and the sailors joke calling it the "Drake Lake". What amazed me is that there is no marine weather forecast available here. The only thing you get is a fax showing the isobars and a few temperatures. The rest you have to do yourself. I remember that when I studied in 1987 in the Meteorological Institute in Cologne University, this was already used as an exercise to show us students how weather forecasts were done in the past. Our depression (this is how low pressure fields are called scientifically) system moved North and then struck us with a number 10 storm just South of Cape Horn. That's then called the "Drake Shake" and when there are icebergs you call it "Drake Shake on the Rocks".

When passing the horn, Dave who was historian on board, took the PA system to recite the English translation of Sara Vial's poem that is beside an albatross statue on the Cape to remember the sailors who died here:

I, the albatross that awaits for you at the end of the world...

I, the forgotten soul of the sailors lost that crossed Cape Horn from all the seas of the world.

But die they did not

in the fierce waves,
for today towards eternity
in my wings they soar
in the last crevice
of the Antarctic winds

Sara Vial, Cape Horn 1992

Antarctica

When I made Antarctica the examination continent of my choice in 1988, it was because I did not have to bother with people. I only got interested in people later, but back then I preferred the simplicity of a seismogram. Of course studying Antarctica for a while like this, my perception became that all people must be explorers. And as the people I met on the streets around me in Cologne were not explorers, I concluded that there is something wrong with them. Only years later, I figured out that there was actually something wrong with me. In Werner Herzog's fascinating movie "Begegnungen am Ende der Welt" (Encounters at the End of the World), he visits Antarctica exactly to find out what people are there. An idea I would not have. In an interview by Herzog with a linguist who worked in a greenhouse on the Ross Ice Shelf (a place where you may not expect a linguist to find work), he put it in the way that it is a natural consequence that people with similay wavelength mingle in Antarctica: all those who do not have a grip on the planet, slide down and meet somewhere around the South Pole.

There are two feasible ways to travel to Antarctica: one is to fly in with a military plane from New Zealand to the Ross Ice Shelf, the other is to cross the Drake Passage by ship and enter from the "North". Of course what I call "North" now is not more North than any other coastal location of the continent, because the South Pole is just about in the middle - so in any direction you move away from the Pole, you move North. But the "North" I mean, is according to the convention to point the Antarctic Map upwards into the direction of 0 Degrees. As the Ross Ice Shelf requires more time and is less disverse in terms of landscape, the entrance over the Antarctic Peninsula is the better choice this time.

We boarded the Russian research vessel Akademik Ioffe on November 8th. The ship belongs to the Shirnov Institute of Oceanography in Kaliningrad and is built for the purpose of "silent listening".  It is a 117 meters, 6600 GRT ece strengthened vessel with two diesel engines at 7000 bhp and thrusters which manoeuvring in narrow and difficult conditions. It makes a maximum of 15 knots and has a cruizing speed of 13.5 knots. Water and fuel storage define an endurance of 60 days in polar waters. The major interest of the researchers using this ship is to observe underwater wildlife together with its sister ship the Akademik Sergey Vavilov. For this it is equipped with 15 kHz and 45 kHz echo-sounders, which have enormous antennas in the mud room. Russia is very famous for having a good overview on what is moving below the surface of the oceans and wildlife is for sure very interesting.

The first landing was on Half Moon Island on November 12th and there were a few things which became instantaneously clear. First of all, this is a beautiful place, which is so amazing that no photographer, no painter and not even a poet may capture it. Secondly, this season is early spring in Antarctica and one of the earliest expeditions of this kind which is made there. This means the ice makes it not easy to find landing sites for the Zodiacs and sudden changes in weather can pack in a landing point very fast and you have to take off from another place again. The wind can pick up fast too and even the temperatures are moderate minus degrees, the wind chill can be a bit biting. Not just for people, but also for the camera, the ice landscape is an exposure nightmare. The Aperture priority setting simply did not figure out what to do with the light and I had to take all pictures in full manual and overexpose all pictures by 1 to 2 stops. Penguins are cute little guys, but that's about it. On Half Moon Island they were Chinstrap Penguins ducking down in the snow storm. Only later, when I saw an old recipie of Penguin breast with peanut butter in the British station Port Lockroy, my interest in Penguins rose again. But there were other birds, which I found fascinating. One of them is the Albatros. I am sure this is done already, but if I would have to construct planes, I would study the Albatross very carefully. It is for me a miracle of efficiency how these birds can follow the ship for days in the roughest weather conditions with no landing. And it seems so effortless.

The journey went further South passing through Orleans Strait into more protected waters. Still the surge can be freightening in a Zodiac, specially when you consider that falling into the -2 Degree Celsius salt water only leaves minutes to survive. I was told that the life vests are here called "mark vests", because you don't survive anyway, but they make it easier to find the bodies. Just going around a rock, can mean that the wind picks up so strongly that you have to suddenly withdraw. In our case around once the Akademik Ioffe left its location to pick up a Zodiac. The visibility was so low, that the ship was just gone. Now, these Zodiacs are the best boats in the world and have a 60 horsepower engine. So we were safe at all time, with radio connection to the bridge and an experienced expedition leader coordinating the move. But how must people like Shakelton and his crew have felt in their wooden nutshells? I found it still memorable to sit on a "rubber duck" in Antarctic waters, bouncing on the waves, and no ship in sight. 

A breathtaking experience was when the Captain closed the bridge and prepared the ship to enter an island. Of course a ship can not enter an island I thought. But in this case it was "Deception Island", which looks like an island, but is a collapsed caldera which can be entered by a narrow opening. Inside the caldera are the remains of a whaling station and on shore there are hot springs. I was not aware of the extend of the whaling industry and how large was actually the dependency on whale oil which was used in oil lamps. In the long Antarctic hours I wanted to read Moby Dick again, but found that I did not have it on my Kindle. For a moment I thought of using my Iridium Satellite phone as a model and to download the book. This would have been the first copy of Moby Dick which would have reached Antarctica via space. And probably it would have also been the most expensive copy, so I dismissed the idea and downloaded it when back in terrestrial network coverage.

So far all landings were on islands North the Antarctic Peninsula. Then on November 16th I set my foot the first time on the Antarctic continent. I wanted to make it a memorable moment and before stepping out of the Zodiac I thought: "A big step for me, but a small step for mankind". It took me 25 years from the University textbook to finally come out here and have a look. And this time I only landed where the old explorers actually started their journeys, nearly a century ago. Antarctica is often called the earth's last wilderness. I remember as a student I was upset that no resource exploration is allowed here under the Antarctic Treaty. This meant no jobs down here. Back then I thought: "What's so special about these dull and boring penguins?"

Today I am grateful that Antarctica's beauty and fragile ecosystem has been protected. And I hope the world's hunger for resources does not change this. Well, not sure whether I am getting more wise or just old. This time I have no more 25 years to come back.

The beginning of this journey is "The End of the World"

What calls itself the end of the world, is the beginning of a journey to the seventh continent. Ushuaia is the world's most Southern urban settlement, which has an Indian history before it was a jail for re-offenders and dangerous prisoners. Today it is a friendly and quiet little place having an existence between the port, a national park and a little airport. The main street is full of souvenir and outdoor gear shops, which are well priced because this is a tax free zone. In the port a bunch of lazy guys hang around which have the monopoly of any work done here and at the gate you have to get off and see the customs from time to time to justify that they get a salary. What is striking is that when you look at the landscape, it looks like the Swiss Alps meet the seaside. When I saw this it was absolutely clear that what ever comes South of here, must be as bizarre as landing on the moon.

Currently Out of Office

I am currenly out of the office. As I am roughly following the red arrows on the map above, please allow longer time for responding e-mails due to potential lack of sufficient infrastructure. Please also allow infrequent updates of this website, if at all. Later though, most likely at the beginning of the next year, I am happy to condense field book notes in some blog posts and also upload some photos. If you like you can subscribe to the RSS Feeds and you will not miss it when I am back to Cyberspace. I will try to feed the Microblog from time to time, which you also find in the left column or you can link to Twitter, which is the system via which I feed this section remotely. I hope you excuse, that I have pulled the contact form on this website into the "members only" section, as I will not be able to respond to website requests. If you have a login to this website, you will see emergency contact data and satellite communication features. I wish all you on the Northen hemisphere a good autumn and those on the Southern hemisphere a nice spring time. Some of you I might meet on the way. So far, take care and all the best.

"Mad, bad and dangerous to know" by Sir Ranulph Fiennes

This week I was teaching in the operations module of the Tongji-Mannheim Executive MBA Programme in Shanghai. The days were packed full with lectues and discussions with a really great class, which I enjoyed very much. But in the evenings, I had time to finish Ranulph Fiennes' book Mad, bad and dangerous to know. The title of this book is a direct quote from what his future father in law told his daughter about her future husband. It was meant as a warning. But Fiennes biography is not only a Romeo and Juliette story between him and his first wife Ginny, who died of stomach cancer mid aged (I remember The Guardian titled: "Sir Ranulph starts the most lonely journey of his life"). But his book is an autobiographic record of sombody's life who is called "the greatest explorer alife" by sombody who must know: Wilfried Thesinger.

Fiennes' biography starts very average: Eton boy, commander in the SAS, fighting the Arabs as member of the special forces and secret service, following the footsteps of his father (who was killed two months before his birth by a German mine). Nothing special, which would hint at an outstanding bio, but his quite rebellious personality. But he breaks out early of the conventions and his book and gives an exciting account of all his expeditions - out of which "Transglobe" is the most amazing one. In this he and his team members followed the zero lagitude around the world, crossing both poles. Literally they were doing the journeys of Livingstone, Scott, Amundsen and Franklin on one go. He also ran 7 marathons in a row, climbed around in the Himalaya and was chasing and killing German war criminals, which was published in his book The Secret Hunters. "Mad, bad and dangerous to know" is a required reading for any young traveler and a good one for the older ones. It is very well written and an easy reading: completly "non scientific" though, and much less observing than Thesinger's Arabian Sands for example. But you can feel the spirit of the man who cut off his frozen digits with a Black & Decker powertool. For me personally, the book was a little bit too much about Sir Ranulph himself, because I would have been also intersted to learn more about the technical aspects of his travels. But of course, when you read an autobiography this is what it is about. And I enjoyed to read how intelligence turned into wisdom over the years. Of course it is the wisdom of Sir Ranulph. I also enjoyed how openly he describes the struggles how to get his expeditions funded - and in some cases just how to make a living. In a world where people do not see money as a resource, but as a purpose, it is refreshing to see it the other way round. Nobody crosses Antarctica for money I guess. I will read more of Sir Ranulph Fiennes, whom Prince Charles calls "marvellous but mad". And this will fill quite a few evenings to come with perfect bedtime stories.