02: The Drake Passage

At 9am the following morning they pulled up the gangway, tossed the lines, and pushed away from the dock: we were now officially on our way to Palmer Station! Very exciting stuff. The energy was high, we were all very excited to finally be underway (as they say), but there was also something somber in the air because this would be the final voyage to Antarctica for the Nathaniel B Palmer after 33 years of service with the National Science Foundation (DOGE, budget cuts, etc).

The sunset that first night knocked my socks off.

The crew on the NBP was super nice and chill and allowed us to roam pretty freely around the ship. We even got to hang out on the bridge! It was very cool to see the goings-on up and there, and they didn't mind us poking around and asking some questions and stuff.

Overall, the first night at sea was mellow with very calm seas as we passed through the Straight of Magellan. We watched movies in the lounge and some folks whipped up a little a game night.

The next morning... our first breakfast at sea!

The scopolamine patch was working wonders so far, I felt no motion sickness at all, but also at that point we were still well within the mellow zone: just out from the Straight of Magellan, going south along the coast of Tierra del Fuego. And, actually, we were intentionally going extra slow for a while because there was a pretty nasty storm rolling through out in the Drake Passage, and the captain was hoping to let the bulk of it pass by before we ventured forth. It was mellow day again – movies in the lounge, meals in the galley, Mario Kart, and occasionally stepping out on the deck to see what we could see: another glorious sunset!

Woke up the next morning to learn that the bulk of the storm had passed, and we were pushing off into the void! If you zoom in and look closely at the horizon in the following photo, you can see Le Maire Straight that we had recently passed through! I took that photo from the stern of the vessel, facing north, with the eastern extremity of the Argentine portion of Tierra del Fuego on the left and Isla de los Estados ("Staten Island") on the right. We were finally dipping our toes into the Drake Passage!

The next 48 hours were a bit of a blur. As the seas got heavier, the only real respite for me was lying down in my bunk, being horizontal, closing my eyes, and sensing the motion of the ship in my body as the pressure would rock back and forth from my head to my toes. It was hard sitting down at the galley and eating, it was hard being in the lounge watching movies, so I was just lying in bed sleeping something like 18+ hours a day. In between sleeps and naps and sleeps and naps, I would take walks out on the deck and get some wind in my whiskers. It was really fun standing out there, holding on, while the ship would ride up and down on 15 to 20-foot rollers.

It's hard to demonstrate the movement of the ship while being on the ship. The waves weren't crashing up and over the bow or anything, but the vertical travel from crest to trough was pretty intense. I tried to capture it with this next one: keep your eyes on the horizon (and wait until the end for a bit of sea spray)...

It's amazing to see how much water we could take on and still be all good! Wacky stuff. Can you believe that is how ships are supposed to work!?!?

We powered through for another night, watching movies, wandering around the ship, meandering to the galley for a snack or up to the bridge to look at maps and gauges and stuff.

On the morning of the 5th day at sea, exactly 4 days (96 hours!) after we departed Punta Arenas, we heard the calls echoing throughout the ship: LAND HO!! LAND HO!! LAND HO!!

As we continued past the South Shetland Islands, further into the inside passage, deeper into the Gerlache Straight, I saw my first lil baby berg!

And from there on it was very smooth sailing! The clouds opened up, and we had one of the most unreal and dramatic home stretches that I may have ever experienced. Spirits were high, and we knew we'd be arriving at Palmer Station by early evening.

As we continued along side Anvers Island, on the farther end of the Gerlache Straight, we got word that we'd be taking a bit of an exciting detour. As a celebratory gesture on the Nathaniel B Palmer's final voyage to Palmer Station, along with some perfect weather and ice conditions for the occasion, the captain decided to take us through the Neaumayer Channel!

And ooooh boy, the Neaumayer did not disappoint!

As we exited the Neumayer Channel and came around the corner, we caught our first glimpses of Palmer Station, nestled in there right at the foot of the Marr Ice Piedmont Glacier. It truly towers over the station in the background.

As we got closer, we could see some of the winter-over crew gathering out on the pier. Many of them were there as line-handlers to coordinate with the ship and help get us tied off. Some of our crew on the boat started to recognize actual faces and people on both sides started shouting names and screaming their hellos.

Overall, we had a very successful crossing of the Drake Passage, none of us much worse for wear, and the winter-overs even had a fire going for us when we arrived.

After 12 days of travel since I had left home, it was so exciting to have finally arrived at Palmer Station! It was actually a little bit hard to believe, but here we were and here we'd stay for many months to come.