Antarctica East 2026

Jan 14: Seaday

Jen, you were right …the first royal to get the order of the red nose was the Duke of Edinburgh, and Sammy, I have no idea why it is so called but your suggestion that noses go red when cold, sounds good enough for me.

We made our way through the sea ice through the night and today we are on clear waters ( the Ross sea) heading to Ross Island, whose location is circled in red on the map

Today we learnt about how Antarctica is regulated.

The Antarctic treaty applies to the Antarctic circle which is 60 deg S. It was signed in 1959 and designates Antarctica as a natural reserve devoted to peace and science  Within the treaty system there are various conventions covering seals, the environment, living marine resource ( but not whales which are covered by the International Whaling Commission.) 

There are 58 states which are party to the treaty and each country’s territorial claims have been “frozen” (so they can’t claim sovereign rights). There have been some nuanced actions over  the years to prepare for claiming sovereign rights eg UK, Argentina and Chile all have overlapping claims over parts of the peninsula, so as part of national efforts to strengthen territorial claims, Argentina sent a 6-month pregnant woman its Esperenza  Base in 1978 and the first Antarctican – Emilio Marcus Palma  – was born.  Several other countries sent pregnant women to assert sovereignty, though such practices have since stopped due to the risks involved.Around 11 children have been born on the continent, with most being Argentine or Chilean.

Here’s some fun facts about the 5000 people who work in the 80 odd stations located on Antarctica:

There’s an annual rugby union game held. near the McMurdo Station, the largest U.S. base in Antarctica, and the nearby New Zealand  Scott base.  The primary teams are the McMurdo’s Mount Terror Rugby Club and the Scott Base Rugby Club. The kiwis usually win!

There’s an annual Winter International Film Festival of Antarctica (WIFFA open exclusively to those who spend the entire winter in Antarctica or in subantarctic areas.The festival was held for the first time in McMurdo & Scott Base in 2006 and 2007. The festival is for short movies, within 5 minutes of duration. The Australians at Casey station won the competition last year! 

In 1991, huskies were removed from the Antarctic to comply with the new environmental policies introduced with the Madrid Protocol. Advances in Antarctic mechanical transportation had already made them less useful as transport, but their psychological importance to expeditioners wasn’t so easily replaced

In 2018, a Russian scientist working in Antarctica faced attempted murder charges after allegedly stabbing a colleague for telling him the endings of books he wanted to read from the remote outpost’s library.!

As you can tell, we are receiving heaps of information. And we are also able to explore the ship, so yesterday we did a galley tour. Found the mysterious “chef’s table” which is only offered to very special VIPs.

We reach land tomorrow for our first expedition. Wanted to leave you with this cute video of Adelie penguins playing

And forgot to mention the pod of orcas that played near our ship this afternoon