Antarctica: Sea Kayaking

When legendary explorer Sir Ernest Shackleton was seeking a crew for his expedition to Antarctica, he penned this advertisement:

“Men Wanted for Hazardous Journey: small wages, bitter cold, long months of complete darkness, constant danger, safe return doubtful. Honor and recognition in case of success.”

In our case, though the obstacles are less extreme, Explorers’ Corner seeks adventurers with the same intrepid spirit Shackleton did. For this journey of a true expeditionary nature, we want men and women with a zest for discovery, a passion for the wild and prior experience with cold-water paddling and winter camping. All participants must be flexible and have an attitude conducive to the challenges of expeditionary travel – the weather and seas of the Antarctic are notorious for their quick shifts and often hostile conditions.

Of course, our trips will be blessed with safer and more comfortable expedition equipment than Shackleton’s, but Antarctica remains a place where nature tests our judgment and at the same time rewards those bold enough to meet it on its own terms.

In the Antarctic summer of 1998, Explorers’ Corner senior guide and CEO, Olaf Malver, led a small group of select paddlers and adventure-travel journalists to Antarctica, to kayak and explore the polar waters from their base on board a Russian ice breaker expedition vessel. These hardy travelers had the experience of a lifetime on this voyage, the first-ever successful commercial sea kayaking trip to the South Georgia Archipelago and the Palmer Peninsula on the Antarctic Continent.

We learned two things from this amazing adventure: First, the Antarctic waters are some of the most spectacular seas on the planet, and despite their frigid conditions, replete with a stunning complement of wildlife. Secondly, these polar waters are best encountered from the seat of a kayak – there is simply no better means of experiencing their beauty and abundance up close.

Inspired by the grandiose scenery and array of wildlife that exceeds anything elsewhere in the polar realm, the group agreed that the ideal way to experience this last true wilderness on earth would be to go for a longer time and only a small expedition sailing boat, rather than a larger ship. The supreme Antarctic adventure would be well removed from civilization, away from the noise of engines and people. It would offer an immersion in this impossibly vast white landscape where the only sounds are the wind, the grating of bobbing ice chunks, the squawk of birds, and the drip of a paddle. This rare trip offers that change to explore pristine Antarctica from an intimate sea-level vantage point and ashore on foot.

Our specific destination is the Gerlache Strait/Lemaire Channel region on the west side of the Palmer Peninsula at approximately 65 degrees south. Here, high, ice-robed mountains tower over deep fjords as massive icebergs drift in an endless flotilla across the waters. These channels are relatively protected from the wilder waves of the “Screaming Sixties”, and we can expect to find some of the best kayaking conditions in the Antarctic. Our sailing expedition ship, the S/V Northanger, will depart from Ushuaia, at the bottom of Argentina, and head for Cape Horn. We’ll try our first paddling just past this infamous sailors’ beacon at the tip of the South American continent.

We then cross the notorious Drake Passage (expect some raucous sailing) and after 4 – 5 days, we reach the ice-free waters of the Antarctic Peninsula. Then, for the next two weeks, we paddle and camp along the peninsula, en route to the Paradise Bay area. Here, we will be picked up and returned by the larger and more modern expeditionary cruise ship, the Ocean Nova.

The exact itinerary will be determined by local ice conditions and available landings. We expect to paddle 8 - 14 miles each day in the Antarctic Peninsula waters, depending on weather and sea conditions. This is a challenging sea kayaking and sailing trip, where an expeditionary spirit and a flexible attitude are musts. You will be rewarded with a rare experience of one of the most remote and magnificent places on earth, the memories of which will enrich your soul permanently.

“If Antarctica were music, it would be Mozart. Art and it would be Michelangelo. Literature, and it would be Shakespeare. And yet it is something even greater; the only place on earth that is still as it should be. May we never tame it.” – Andrew Denton

Please call Olaf at our office, 1-877-677-9623, to inquire. Only for very experienced cold water kayakers and expeditioners.