Chapter 4 : Setting Sail

I had three route options to start my journey to Antarctica. South Africa was the easiest and cheapest option from India but the ships sailing from there were very few. Ships sailing from New Zealand ended up taking way too long and majority of the time was spent on sailing rather than being close to the continent. South American continent was closest to Antarctica and that meant least sailing time and more time to explore the continent. Reaching South America from India is an expedition in itself crossing over multiple continents!  I chose South America for the thrill of crossing multiple continents and also because I wanted more time on Antarctica continent. Majority ships sailed from Ushuaia in Argentina or from Punta Arenas in Chile. I picked  a Norwegian cruise liner that would sail from Ushuaia on a 13 day expedition to Antarctica.

The port city of Ushuaia is home to Fierra Del Frugo national park in the Andes. It is a serene spot and the perfect start to appreciating how nature works on balance and how humans work on misbalancing it.  My ship M/s Midnatsol was a medium size vessel with around 450 passengers setting sail. As we set sail to a setting sun across the Beagel Channel, I realized how big this was for me. My two years of planning, all the hard work to get here finally started sinking in. Nothing in life can give you more confidence and a bigger high than being able to vision something for yourself and then see it come alive.

We had a very able team of expedition experts on board who kept telling us about the Polar environment and the seas that we were sailing. My learning within the first few hours of sailing the Beagle channel was very interesting. Beagle Channel was named after the ship HMS Beagle which in its second voyage in the Channel carried Charles Darwin. Charles Darwin was then a 22 year old graduate who hoped to see the tropics before becoming a Priest. During the sailing and landing process of this voyage, he made a major find of gigantic fossils of extinct mammals. He undertook detailed research on plants and animals which made him realize that the life forms on Earth did not evolve separately but instead descended over time from common ancestors, and thus was born the Theory of Evolution. Who knew I would one day be sailing the same route which was once undertaken by Mr. Darwin!

While I was digesting this piece of information there was an announcement on board about Captain's Dinner. This is a protocol in cruises where the Captain welcomes all passengers on board and introduces the crew members. As I settled down with my welcome drink, the table started shaking and was declared useless for keeping anything. Just when I was getting nervous about a ship malfunction, a rather amused and happy tone announced on the loudspeaker “ Welcome to the roughest sea in the world!”