Monday
Dec272010
Why you should think twice about going to Antarctica
A few days before I left for the Antarctic from Ushuaia, a video came across my twitter stream. I spread it out with my thoughts at the time.
Here's the video to check for yourself. It's a boat called the Clelia II getting tossed around in the Drake Passage on December 7th after it lost power when a wave came over and busted a window on the bridge and doused some of the equipment in sea water.
So the deal was that the ship lost it's main power, and probably it's stabilizers. I'm not too sure, I'm not a boat person. Anyways, you can see it looks like a bathtub toy, and I can imagine the ship smelled a little like something that rhymes with "tarf". The ship was sitting in dock in Ushuaia right across from the boat I was on, the MS Expedition. The company took the flag off the ship at the time (could you get worse press?), but we all took pictures anyways.
A trip to Antarctica isn't for the faint of heart, in 2007 a boat sank after hitting an iceberg, and the Clelia II (from the video above) had some propeller issues just last year. You can read about these on the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators (IAATO) website.
In my next post, I'll show you a few reasons why you SHOULD go to Antarctica. Honestly, it's amazing... even if the Drake Passage makes you hurl...
December 27, 2010
Reader Comments (5)
Fun! But using this video to base not going to Antarctica seems a bit like using the stranded cruise passengers as a reaon to not take a cruise...
Was your experience anyting like this?
You know, even after seeing this video I still want to go. I must be crazy! Can't wait for your pics. You never cease to amaze me!
@Aaron Naw the post is mostly in jest, though it looks like there is about one incident a year in the Antarctic... and you're essentially 2 days from civilization across some of the nastiest ocean in the world. A little different than a casual cruise off the Bahamas. I only chucked once on the Drake, but we really lucked out for the weather. Only 6m swells.
@Erica Yay! The pics and vids should start popping up in a few days when I settle back down for a bit :)
The scariest thing about the whole Antarctica thing to me is the guy on the boat that was filming was in a short sleeved shirt. OMG
I almost tarfed watching the video - unbelievable! I'm pretty sure their stabilizers were shot!