Past Challenge

#9 Antartica Penisula Sea Kayak

Participants: Graham Charles, Marcus Waters and Mark Jones

"We are nearly made it across without problems but a katabic sprang up and we were forced to turn and run with it."

Graham Charles:

Report Adventure Philosophy Antarctic Peninsula Sea Kayak Expedition

Graham flew to Buenos Aires on December 14, 2000 with our three kayaks and ensured the pre arranged transportation to Ushuaia from BA went according to plan. He set up base in Ushuaia and spent the time meeting skippers from various yachts which sail to the Antarctic and seeking information on landings, weather and ice conditions.

Marcus and Mark arrived in Ushuaia on Dec 24. We spent the next week sorting gear, going on training missions, testing gear and systems, communications, and pre packing food. We boarded the Sir Peter Blake's yacht Sea Master on Jan 6 2001. We left port on Jan 9 and sailed to the South Shetland Islands then to Hope Bay at the northern tip of the Peninsula. We disembarked the Sea Master on the eve of Jan 14. Jan 15 was spent packing boats and doing final gear checks and getting the boats expedition ready. It snowed heavily all day. At 5.00pm on Jan 15 we pushed out into the brash ice of Hope Bay becoming the first kayakers ever to do so and started our 35 day journey south to Adelaide Island.

Within the first three hours we had paddled into some typical NE weather. Poor visibility, snow, wind and moderate seas were our introduction to Antarctic paddling. We paddled until midnight and found a small alcove on Island. In freezing conditions with accumulating brash we cleared a tent site and crawled into bed wondering what we had really got ourselves into.

The moving brash field had us completely trapped the next day so we spent the day tent bound. The following day the wind had shifted round, the barometer was rising and the brash was thinning so we headed on.

The initial part of the peninsula was characterised by very few places to land. It was common to paddle more than 50km before finding a place to land. Some of these places took quite sometime to locate. Small niches in rocky islets were our places of choice as they seemed to be affected by brash less than large bays. The weather was often poor with a lot of snow, sleet and rain. We spent a lot of the first couple of weeks quite wet with dampness accumulating in all our clothing.

We all wore a merino wool layer next to the skin then Polar Fleece 100 garments layered. We all wore a 100 weight body suit without arms and a 100 weight jumper. These were fantastic even in the damp conditions the under layers would wick the moisture to the outer layer which was the only one needing drying. We would paddle all day in these clothes and by bedtime would have them all dry to sleep in or wear the next day. Polartec fabrics were definitely the fabric of choice for this sort of expedition.

We had a food cache laid for us on Sprightly Island nearly 200km along the Peninsula. We made it to this point in good time. With boats fully laden we had food and fuel for 26 days and the boats weighed around 80kg each.

Charcot Bay was our first 'big' crossing through an area known for katabatic winds. This was also a milestone as shortly after that we arrived in the main area that the tour boats use. This mid section of the peninsula is characterised by many smaller bays and islands sheltered from the main Gerlache Straits. Weather conditions were generally good with very little wind.

On Feb 3 we paddled through the Lemaire Channel and on to the Argentine Islands in absolutely still conditions. The Argentine Islands mark the furtherest point south most of the tour ships visit. After an aborted departure in strong headwinds and big seas which split a seam on one of the kayaks (requiring a fibreglass repair) from Vernadsky Station on Feb 8 we finally got away south on Feb 9. The southern section of the Peninsula has almost zero landings on the mainland and hopping between islands was the only way to find camping spots. Long paddling legs offshore (upto 25km) exposed us to real risk of katabatics and we were heading to islands with completely unknown potential for landings. In this manner we zig zagged our way south to Prospect Point 64 20W 66 00S. At this point we were well ahead of schedule and spent a couple of days enjoying the location and scenery. On Febraury 16 we continued south. At this point we were out of HF range from any of the bases further to the north and we didn't have HF freqs for the British Base at Rothera so had no contact with them.

We continued on from this point and paddled through the night in very cold conditions with ice building all night long on our clothes and kayaks. By morning we were coated in ice except our arms. The decks of the kayaks were completely encased in ice.

We had one last big fiord to cross. Lellamond Fiord is a huge fiord offering escape from huge masses of air off the plateau. We nearly made it across without problems but a katabatic sprang up and we were forced to turn and run with it. We managed to make it to the northern end of Adelaide Island. A pre arranged pick up by the ship Explorer ended our push south at 7.30pm on February 19.

35 days and 850km after leaving Hope Bay we climbed into a welcome shower.

The following two weeks was spent on the yacht Tooluka. It was chartered by a film team from American Adventure Productions. We spent two weeks reviewing our film footage and shooting other fill in scenes to make our documentary.

On March 2 we departed the Peninsula for Deception Island to wait for weather in the Drake Passage to clear. We left Deception on March 4 and sailed into a weakening storm. Nine days later and many trials and tribulations later we tacked into Ushuaia with 10hrs to spare before our flight left for NZ.