Antarctica’s One Stop Shop

December 9, 2008

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I spent the afternoon at the small island of Pt. Lockroy, where I’ve been many times before. We stopped in a couple times last January, during our sea kayak exploration, and hung out on the beaches and its protected bay. When we left Antarctica late that month, we actually left our kayaks tied down to big rocks on the island; they were picked up in February by the “National Geographic Endeavour” and carried back to Spain; from there they were shipped in a container to the U.S. and now sit happily in my Hudson Valley backyard.

Rick Atkinson, a Scotsman who first came to Antarctica more than thirty years ago as a 21-year-old dog sled driver for the British Antarctic Survey, greeted us on the penguin-crowded stone beach. The black and red refuge hut on the hill behind is surrounded by Gentoos (and an oddly out of place pair of Adelie penguins). An overpowering whiff of guano fills my nostrils … Aaaaah, Antarctica! Like the station at Vernadsky, the hut is surrounded by still-deep snow.

British Historic Site, Port Lockroy

He’s been coming here for thirteen years and has done and overseen the renovations during that period that have turned the hut into a British historical site. Part museum, part souvenir shop, Pt. Lockroy is today a must-stop along the Peninsula both for its recreation of life and work here fifty years ago, and also to stock up on Antarctica books, t-shirts, stickers and stuffed penguins. It’s an admittedly odd thing to stumble upon here in this remote place. But Rick and his three assistants wear their work with a smile, greeting on average one tourist ship a day, often hosting more than three hundred people in and out of their tiny work/living space.

It was with Rick last January that we endured one thing we’d never expected in Antarctica: Horrific rains. We sat inside the hut then and watched the rain pour in buckets off the roof, soaking the penguin chicks still-covered in down. “That was the worst I’ve ever seen it,” he remembers. “But given that we’ve just experienced another very warm winter, I won’t be surprised if we see it again this year. Every year, it seems, there’s more and more rain at Lockroy.”

He and his team have been here a month and will stay until early March. Recording tools left on in the hut over-winter suggest the temperatures only dropped to -12, which for Antarctica, even inside the small, unheated cabin, suggests more warming.

We leave Rick some fresh water, baking soda and peppermint tea, assuming we’ll see him again during the next couple of weeks.

• Last evening, just after six p.m., in the southern end of the Gerlache Strait we spied the M/V Ushuaia moving southwards. She was side-by-side with and physically tied to the Chilean Navy ship, which had helped her get off the rocks earlier in the day. Our guess is that they are pumping as much of the fuel that they can out of the ship, to prevent any more leaking. The bigger question was where were they headed? Most likely to a calm bay nearby where damage can be assessed and, hopefully, repaired, before motoring back to South America. There is precedent for this; in 1979, the old “Explorer,” which we watched sink last November, wound up on the rocks, with a giant gash torn in its hull. It hid out near Cape Arctowski for a month, before it was sufficiently fixed and capable of being towed across the Drake Passage.

• Another small accident along the Peninsula last week has sent television host Bear Grylls limping back across the Drake as well. Apparently down here participating in some kind of land-based expedition – an “Ethanol Ventures trip, promoting alternative energies?” is what the press release says – he fell and injured his shoulder. The Discovery Channel, which airs his “Man vs. Wild” show, was quick to point out he wasn’t filming for them in Antarctica. He was lucky to hang onto his job last year when he was outed for sleeping in motels while pretending to sleep in snow caves, etc.