ANTARCTICA
Antarctica is the fifth largest Continent and the Antarctic waters consist of three layers of water masses. They are the surface, warm deep, bottom waters. I plan to stay in the warm deep area for the dive. The whole continent is mainly covered in ice except for the coastal and mountain regions. The highest mountain is Vinson Massif which is 16,067 feet. Hopefully I shall see it. Antarctica is the coldest continent and February is the warmest month, if you consider that it is colder than our winters. The mean temperature is -15 F to -49 F degrees. The lowest outdoor temperature recorded was -129 degrees F in 1983. It is going to be more difficult to get to play on this continent than I expected. I hope it works out.
Being on a Russian vessel, Girgoriy Mikheev, is a tremendous experience. It is an underwater and wild life expedition consisting of divers, marine biologists, a couple of students, bird watchers, and divers from all over the world (New Zealand, Holland, Germany, England, Canada, France, Sweden, and the UnitedStates).
All the divers are rated above an instructor or dive master level. It was great to hang out with them. They take their diving very seriously. Perhaps the memory of the loss of two lives this year and two last year had something to do with it, but I don’t think so. This year a 20 year old was snorkeling and a leopard seal attacked her and pulled her under. That was two months before this trip. Then, in November another incident occurred with the leopard seals killing a man. They would not talk about it.
Last year, one guy got lost in a dive and another was blown away during 68 knot winds. Also, crossing the Drake Passage, Amos, a truly class underwater photographer sustained a gash on the head from a fall on the vessel and had to be medically evacuated out to Chile. He is back this year.
Watching the Wandering Albatross is a nice sight, it reminds me of me. They continuously fly and wander. They fly as much a 560 miles a day.
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