By Dean Traiger MD, aka Doc-Dean
Indiana Jones went to exotic places to retrieve treasures and artifacts from ancient ruins. In this real life movie, I went on a treasure hunt to the bottom of the world. Preparation for the journey began long before we set foot in Antarctica. Coming from Florida, we were lacking the correct clothing so several months were spent researching different outfitters and choosing the correct extreme cold apparel...
...The Drake Passage has earned a place in history as having some of the roughest sea weather on the planet. The Drake Passage occurs where the fast flowing southern ocean waters are squeezed between the continental land masses of South America and Antarctica. Storms frequently whip the ocean into a dark grey turbulent, heaving mass of water, renowned for sinking many a ship. Satellite images show a cyclonic low of basically hurricane strength traveling through the Drake Passage on the average of once every three weeks...
...200,000 chinstrap penguins! The sights! The sounds! The smells!
Deception Island 62° 58.310 S / 060° 33.547 W
The approach to Deception Island is almost certainly the key to its name......few people equate swimming with Antarctica. The water was plenty warm right on the edge of the shore, but quickly cooled off as you wandered out into the bay...
...Suddenly one of the zodiac drivers spotted a pair of 45 ton humpback whales and off we sped on an intercept course for a closer inspection...
There were many adventures on this trip. I'll have a full account in the printed issue coming out soon!