They have reached the Antarctic Peninsula
Published on 07.01.2008 - General Info
After docking in Ushuaia on 18th December, the sloop Euronav Belgica carrying the members of Dixie Dansercoer's expedition has safely negotiated Drake Passage and has now reached the waters off the Antarctic Peninsula.
After two and a half months at sea, Dansercoer's party arrived without mishap in Ushuaia, the legendary jumping-off point for many Antarctic explorers. "The Antarctic Peninsula, the final goal of our voyage is not far away now," wrote Dixie Dansercoer in one of the reports posted on the expedition website. "Having said that, the members of the team still have to cross Drake Passage to get to their final destination and that part of our adventure will without doubt be the most dangerous so far..."
Drake Passage is the section of the southern Atlantic located between the most southerly tip of South America and the Antarctic. It is also one of the areas that experiences the worst marine weather conditions in the world. No wonder the sailors of yesteryear nicknamed this part of the world the roaring 40s and the furious 50s! The passage itself owes its name to the fearless 16th-century English explorer and naval captain, Francis Drake. The first ship to be mentioned crossing Drake Passage was the Eendracht under the command of captain Willem Schouten in 1616. This stretch of water, approximately 650 km across, is the shortest distance between the Antarctic and any continental land to the north. The imaginary border between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans is sometimes said to be the shortest distance between Cape Horn and Snow Island in the South Shetlands (260 km to the north of continental Antarctica). Others see the frontier as being on the meridian that passes through Cape Horn. Whichever one it is, both are encompassed in the vast ocean tracts of Drake Passage. There is no land in other parts of the world on the same latitude as Drake Passage, which enables the ocean current that flows round Antarctica to run freely, which is an understatement, because the flow of this current is about 600 times greater than the Amazon!
The ship cast off from South America on 22nd December on its adventure into far southern waters. Nine days later, after a weather stop at Puerto Williams, the crew sailed into the waters of the Antarctic Peninsula. Apart from a broken boom and persistent sea-sickness for virtually the whole crew, the crossing of this notoriously difficult area passed off without difficulty.
Since 1st January and in keeping with their main aim, the men have been landing on a succession of small islands (Brabant, Liège, etc.) off the Antarctic Peninsula to follow in the footsteps of the crew aboard the Belgica and Adrien de Gerlache, over a century ago now.
