At the navigation table, two nautical charts wait. They both showed these were waters that had yet to be surveyed.

The captain relies on a heading of depth soundings. This is a new channel, one he’s never sailed; although he’s safely traveled the Antarctic innumerable times before.

Snow falls heavy on the ship and dusk sets in about us. Our visibility is greatly reduced. I struggle to see the approaching icebergs as the large flakes fill the bridge windows.

We luckily have radar, which shows us a safe route to follow. The prescription cialis online screen shows the icebergs in frigid orange.

Ahead, we can see a super-sized orange glob, filling the screen. The ice is only three kilometers from us.

The captain quietly issues a command at the one kilometer mark. The ship changes direction with the adept handling of the helmsman.

Fog and snow cloud our vision, but we see a spooky sight; the tabular iceberg, which can only be seen in the southern ocean, appears. Sporting straight sides that rise rapidly into the air, this berg is over one hundred feet tall. The top is very flat and very wide.

The sheer size found me dumbstruck, as only Antarctica was capable of doing. We are heading to the Antarctic Circle in our polar class cruise vessel. Having passed many unsettled and unoccupied areas of the planet, we are nearly there.

It took 79 years after Antarctica was found for someone to winter on the continent. Explorers wanted to find the southern pole, and soon perished.

They paved the way for scientists. Coming to Antarctica used to be something Kamagra Gold only rich people could do. Now, because the price of travel has fallen so much, you can cruise there for about the same amount of money as you could travel in the Caribbean.

Antarctica looks a little bit like a manta ray with a curved tail. The manta ray’s tail is separated from South America by 500 miles of ocean.

Rough seas fill this space, which is known as the Drake Passage. Reaching Antarctica by passing through this area, which has also been called the Slobbering Jaws of Hell, is difficult, but worthwhile.

Upon the advice of one of the matronly passengers, we all stowed everything and made sure our cabin porthole latches were secure before we went to bed.

After leaving Ushuaia in Argentina, we traveled through the smooth waters of the Beagle Channel and into the open ocean. We continued on for two days in very turbulent waters.

Winds that could have registered as gale force blew for the whole two days. As waves crashed over the ship’s bow, spray bulleted past my fourth deck window. Seeing swells of fifteen to forty feet in size did nothing to quell our seasickness.

Two days out from South America brought us into the Southern Ocean. The next morning, I could see a coastal archipelago.

The water was calmer. Clouds dressed mile-high mountain peaks. Dark, angular mountains speared through the smooth, white glaciers.

The ice reaching the sea, is chopped and cracked. It is full of fissures and falls into the water in frozen slabs. It looks like a huge mountain range has been plopped into the middle of the ocean.

Another passenger commented that the trip to get to Antarctica was like the labor of childbirth. Like a naughty kid, Antarctica is the coldest, windiest, highest and driest of all the earth’s continents.

Holding seventy percent of the planet’s fresh water 100 mg viagra in reserve, Antarctica gets the same amount of yearly precipitation as Death Valley. No animals stay all year long on Antarctica and there is no indigenous human population. No one even owns the land.

We have to rely upon the weather to plan where to sail or when and where to land on shore in this inclement area. Our guides have advised us that we’ll need to be flexible, but our initial shore landing comes as scheduled.

Our assigned groups meet on deck. My name is called and I climb into the inflatable boat with 9 others.

We cross a mere quarter mile of water before running into land. And then, with one simple step, I am in the small group of humans who has ever touched Antarctic ice.

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Category: Recreation and Leisure
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