In 2003, long time friend Thom wanted to do something adventurous to jointly celebrate our fiftieth birthday. He suggested a trip to Antarctica, and I readily agreed. We found an Australian adventure company, Peregrine, that leased a former USSR spy and polar research vessel. Since the disintegration of the USSR in 1991 Russia needed hard currency and repurposed the ship. It accommodated only about 75 guests and the ship's crew was entirely Russian. There were polar scientists giving lectures each night, kayak guides, the daughter of famed Antarctic photographer Frank Hurley, from the Shackleton Expedition, and an artist in residence to paint the scenery.
Our itinerary was to fly southeast across the North American continent from Seattle to Miami and take a longer flight south of the equator to Buenos Aries. Thom and I spent several days in this Latin American city with a European feel. Then south again along the east coast of Argentina to the southern most city in the world, Ushuaia, capital of Terra del Fuego. The city is known as the historic and current departure port for exploration of the southern continent. When we boarded our ship we headed east out the Beagle Channel of Darwin fame before heading south for a two-day crossing of the infamous Drake Passage, known for the Furious Fifties (latitude) winds, directly to the Antarctic Circle at 66.56 degrees south. After, we cruised back north through the various mountains, islands and channels of the peninsula, stopping at many sites of historic exploration, wildlife colonies, and kayak destinations.
Our trip was before Antarctica became a major tourist destination of large vessels plying the peninsula with first class gourmet service and sanitized experience. The summer season of 2002 - 2003 there were a total of only 13,263 visitors to the peninsula with 10,271 that actually left their ship to set foot on the snow covered land. By the 2024 - 2025 summer season the number of visitors to Antarctica had jumped almost eight fold to 124,000 visitors and 80,000 getting off the ship.
Besides our intimate vessel and frequent lectures while crossing the Drake, they also provided the opportunity for kayaking among ice bergs and sea life in the bays and channels, and an overnight camp on shore under the midnight sun.
Upon my return I gave a PowerPoint presentation of our trip to employees at our firm, Callison. Over a decade later in 2016, Robin and I went to the Galápagos Islands on the equator, where Darwin sailed after transiting the Beagle Channel, and developed his theory on The Origin of Species. On return I mentioned to a professor of biology at UW, and fellow board member at The Center for Wooden Boats, that I thought the equatorial islands were similar to the Antarctica peninsula. She could not see the forest for the trees, but was curious. I modified my Callison presentation to include an Epilogue comparing the two.
This post is different than all my others because the technology can't imbed the PPT directly into the blog. Instead, below is a link to a pdf of the presentation stored on Microsoft Onedrive. (You don't need an account to view.) Be patient after clicking the link as it takes about a minute to load. Then just scroll through each slide. While there are more images than usual, there is comparatively very little written material besides this introduction. Stick with it because I think you’ll find it insightful, informative, and visually interesting. If you have difficulties opening let me know.
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