Dive Report: Antarctica
The plan: I’m going to fly to Ushuaia, Argentina at the southern tip of South America. There I will board a small expedition vessel, the MV Polar Pioneer, and travel 2 days crossing the Drake Passage from South America to Antarctica with the group Aurora Expeditions. For the next several days the boat will travel through the Antarctic Peninsula, stopping for outings to see penguins and seals, glaciers, icebergs and research stations. I will join a smaller group of divers from Waterproof Expeditions aboard the boat, going for daily dives. When finished, the boat will take us back across the Drake Passage dropping us off in Puerto Williams, Chile and then a charter flight to Punta Arenas Chile where we will catch a plane home.
Some scenes from my trip.
The dream: I am swimming through crystal clear ice-cold waters, but my drysuit keeps me warm. I slowly circle a giant iceberg, awed by the 90 percent of an iceberg that most us will never see. Curious penguins enter the water and play with me, leaving trails of bubbles behind them as they swim away. Moments later, a leopard seal approaches and then is gone. In the distance I can hear humpback whales calling to each other. Later, after the dive, I go for a hike up a glacier and upon returning to the ship, relax with drinks at the ship’s bar.
How to do it? Waterproof Expeditions offers cruises to Antarctica with polar scuba diving as an option (also available: polar snorkeling or kayaking). The sailing and nature watching part of the trip is handled by Aurora Expeditions, with Waterproof bringing along guides for diving, snorkeling and kayaking. Depending on the length of the cruise and what sort of cabin you get, the cruise can be modestly spendy or just downright expensive. It should be noted that at least a few travelers on our boat just headed to Ushuaia and booked themselves a last minute cabin at some pretty hefty discounts. For polar diving, Waterproof Expeditions insists that you have at least 20 dry suit dives under your belt, your own drysuit, 2 cold water regulators and all the other gear you’d need for diving other than a tank and weights. Since most of my diving had been in warmer waters, I made some trips in the months prior to experience cold water diving in Iceland, Alaska, Canada and New York.
The ride down: My first crossing of the Drake Passage was a challenge. There were gale force winds and waves of 30 feet+ that rocked the boat for 36 hours. Taking a shower with one hand gripping a railing and the water dancing around in a 90 degree arc was quite a workout. Nearly everyone on the boat was seasick to some degree despite generous use of anti-seasick medication. Only two passengers were not sick. One of them was me. The other one was a gentleman from Texas who joined me in the bar for a drink where we watched our cocktails slosh back and forth with the motion of the seas outside.
Sickness bags helpfully staged along all the hallways were deployed in the Drake Passage.
Upon Arrival: Once we got to the Antarctic Peninsula, the skies cleared and the waters calmed. Antarctica is breathtakingly beautiful. Giant icebergs float past. Rocky snow covered crags with glaciers making their way to the sea make up much of the Antarctic Peninsula. Along the way we stop at research stations, abandoned whaling stations, penguin colonies and other points of interest. Onboard there are mealtimes with other passengers, lectures, drinks at the bar, wildlife spotting and quite a lot of just standing at the bow of the ship taking in the splendor of it all and being happy.
You could stand on deck and stare for hours at the scenery.
The diving: My dream of diving in Antarctica didn’t quite measure up to the reality, but it was still an unforgettable experience. Diving around an iceberg is a sight to behold. A smallish iceberg extends deep below the surface and the sunbeams and ice combine for a spectacular effect, not entirely unlike swimming through Superman’s Fortress of Solitude.
I was surprised at how generally poor the visibility was. In my past experience, in Canada, Iceland and Alaska, cold waters were clear waters because there is not much growing in them. But Antarctica in the summertime experiences great blooms of algae, plankton and krill. I don’t know if it was our particular dive locations, global warming or just par for the course - but in most of the dives visibility ranged from murky to almost complete blackout. If there were penguins and seals in the water, I sadly didn’t see any of them. I didn’t see any fish either. The wildlife I did see underwater was largely sea urchins, starfish and anemones. More on that later.
Average water temperatures in the dive sites were between -1 and +2 Celsius. On the zodiacs there is no effective way to warm up after a dive so all dives were “one and done”. After about 30 minutes underwater in these temperatures, even with a good dry suit you begin to get chilled to the core. Post-dive I would get back on board, take a hot shower and spend at least an hour in bed warming up before I stopped shivering. Unfortunately, due to my thawing after my first dive I skipped out on the Polar Plunge where about half of the ship’s passengers jumped into the freezing seas in nothing but a bathing suit or undies. I regret this decision. It looked fun and I felt a little embarrassed that there was an octogenarian grandmother who took the leap whilst I cuddled myself in a fetal position under my covers.
Diving at the bottom of the world.
Most surprising thing I learned: Starfish when they are feeling frisky, really go at it. Starfish fucking is close up, intimate, erotic… maybe even pornographic. I mean look at them… they’re shameless!
Is it just me? Tell me it’s not just me.
Worth it? Seeing Antarctica, walking around the penguin colonies and slipping past fields of icebergs in zodiacs were well worth the price of the trip . The diving itself was more psychologically rewarding than anything else. I’d think to myself “this is me, diving in Antarctica” and chuckle. It still brings a smile to my face thinking about it. Yes, I would do it again.
Scary? People who get seasick may find the voyage through the Drake Passage rather rough. Once in the Antarctic Peninsula, though, waters were calm and there wasn’t anything scarier than a brisk wind to deal with.
