Antarctic voyage sets sail

The sounds and sights of a penguin colony can be overwhelming. Mission Antarctica

An international expedition has removed 1,000 tons of rubbish from a Russian research station in Antarctica.

One of the main sponsors of the project is Ernesto Bertarelli, chief executive of the Swiss biotechnology company, Serono.

swissinfo reporter Vincent Landon, travelled to Antarctica to witness the clean-up. In the third part of his Antarctic diary, the expedition yacht sets sail among the South Shetland Islands.

Part Three: The Voyage

King George Island, Antarctic Peninsula: Our first outing on the boat and in the bay, where we’re sailing, a giant glacier extends to the water’s edge. As we approach, a 30-metre wall of ice crashes into the sea.

The incident brings back memories for polar explorer Robert Swan, who in 1986, with a couple of companions, retraced Robert Scott’s epic journey to the South Pole. Their support vessel was crushed by pack ice and sunk in the Ross Sea.

“I’ll tell you when you’ve lost one ship in the Antarctic it makes your heart beat when you see a huge block of ice coming off,” says Robert, leader of Mission Antarctica.

The bay becomes a sea of icebergs. Just a few metres from the boat, a leopard seal emerges from the water and hauls itself onto a chunk of ice.

It was a leopard seal that attacked one of Robert’s companions – Gareth Wood from Canada – after their 1,400-kilometre trek to the pole.

Human lunch

“When we got back, he was walking across the sea ice and a leopard seal broke through the sea ice, got hold of his leg, bit right through his calf muscle and tried to pull him back into the ocean,” says Robert.

“If he hadn’t been wearing crampons on his other foot, if there weren’t two other people, who raced to come and beat the leopard seal off, he would have been history.”

On the boat, the days pass in sailing and shore visits, preparing meals, cleaning the boat. Conversation over and after dinner turns to legendary Antarctic exploits – rowing a boat across Drake’s passage or landing planes on the ice.

When we’re out on deck, a vaporous blow, twenty metres away, betrays the presence of a couple of humpback whales. They surge out of the water, two giant arches, before their flippers vanish for the final time.

There’s a code of conduct for when we go ashore. We’re not supposed to get closer than five metres to any of the animals. If birds are nesting and they take off, they expose their egg or chick to the elements or to predators like skuas.

Penguin chatter

As for seals, they should be approached from the landside as it’s inadvisable to walk between a seal and the water.

We climb down into the dinghy, start the motor and head for shore. When we finally land, the gurgle and chatter of thousands and thousands of penguins is overwhelming.

This season’s chicks are still covered in baby fur, which will moult before they go to sea. The young are fed by regurgitation. Guano bespattered rock – a garish pink – means the penguins have been eating krill.

On land they waddle clumsily, tripping over their feet but out in the water, in groups of three or four, graceful and sleek, they dip and dive repeatedly as they skim across the bay.

Next: Cleaning up the Russian base