NOVA Online | Shackleton's Antarctic Odyssey | Crossing the Convergence (October 24, 1999)

Crossing the Convergence
October 24, 1999
By Kelly Tyler

Location: The Southern Ocean	Wind: 27 knots, NE
Latitude: 49 degrees 36' S	Air Temp: 41°F
Longitude: 42 degrees 32' W	Water Temp: 41°F

And now there came both mist and snow,
And it grew wondrous cold;
And ice, mast-high, came floating by,
As green as emerald.

—The Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Samuel Taylor Coleridge

We woke this morning to find the ship shrouded in a fine mist and a sharp chill in the air. Overnight, the water temperature dropped from 53°F to 41°F. It is the first sign that we have left the Atlantic behind and sailed into the realm of the Ancient Mariner, the great Southern Ocean.

The captain of the Shuleykin sighted the first iceberg today.

The Antarctic Convergence cannot be seen, but it is as formidable a boundary as a mountain range. During the austral spring, the glaciers of the Antarctic continent begin to melt, and a flow of nearly freezing waters flush northward to meet the warmer seas of the Atlantic. These deep, cold waters harbor an explosion of microscopic diatoms, which feed the tiny plankton called krill, which in turn foster an extraordinary proliferation of Antarctic wildlife. On cue, albatrosses and petrels wheel and dive around the ship to feed on the bounty. A small pod of minke whales makes a fleeting appearance. An hourglass dolphin, with distinctive black-and-white markings, cavorts alongside the ship for miles, occasionally breaching the surface in ecstatic leaps.

The undulating boundary of the Convergence is sometimes marked by cartographers, but in truth, it can't be fixed to the manmade conventions of latitude and longitude. You sense the Convergence rather than see it on a map; the first sign is a precipitous drop in air and water temperature, accompanied by the fog and mist produced by the blending of the cold waters of the Southern Ocean with the warmer seas of the Atlantic. It is a biological frontier. Farther north, the krill that are the basis of the Antarctic food web perish.

The melt of spring is also accompanied by the calving of great icebergs from the Antarctic glaciers. At noon, Captain Maslennikov spots the first iceberg on his radar. It is vast, startlingly white with streaks of cerulean gashing its surface. It's uncanny to read Shackleton's description of the Convergence, so close to our own experience:

"The northerly breeze had freshened during the night and had brought up a high following sea. The weather was hazy, and we passed two bergs, several growlers, and numerous lumps of ice...Bird life was plentiful."

A close-up of today's iceberg.

But here, our experience diverges. We have only sighted a single iceberg today, while Shackleton was threading his ship gingerly through a sea clotted with them. And he was alarmed: "The presence of so many bergs was ominous..."

The violent seas of yesterday have moderated, 15-foot swells compared with 20-foot waves. The "furious fifties" haven't been as treacherous as we expected. We were braced for another of what the ship's chef Steve Allen called a "27-plate" day, having lost that much china to the ship's lurching. We're all adjusted now, and getting adept at fielding flying objects and keeping dinner in front of us.

As evening falls, the temperature hovers just above freezing, and the water drops to 38°F. Fog envelops the ship. On the darkened bridge, Captain Maslennikov and three officers are on the watch, staring intently at radar screens and the mist swirling over the bow for icebergs ahead. A single glowing white beam cuts through the night ahead of the ship with an eerie glow, like the mythical St. Elmo's Fire. Only the metallic whine of the gyro compass breaks the silence. The unease of Antarctic explorer Frederick Cook entering the Convergence suddenly rings true: "The sea rolled under our stern in huge inky mountains, while the wind scraped the deck with an icy edge. It was a night of uncertainty, of anticipation, of discomfort—an experience which only those who have gone through the wilderness of an unknown sea can understand." It's a story oft told by sailors in these waters.

Days before her first sail in Antarctic waters, the James Caird replica has her sail hoisted.

South Georgia Island is less than a day's sail away. We have travelled 1,479 miles, but it is only the end of the first leg of our journey. We are truly sailing to the ends of the Earth; during our five days at sea, we haven't sighted a single ship. We reach Grytviken early tomorrow evening, the remote outpost where Shackleton's crew had their last encounter with civilization before their long odyssey began.

Kelly Tyler is Online Producer for NOVA.

Question of the Day

You hope to be the first explorer to cross the continent of Antarctica. Where does your trip start and end? What time of year will you travel?

Watch the next dispatch for a response from our guest commentator, renowned polar explorer Borge Ousland.

Previous Questions

Answer to October 23 Question of the Day:

Mapmakers in the 16th century didn't even know if Antarctica existed. But they had a name for it anyway. What was it?

In his map of 1531, Oronce Finé called it terra australis recenter invento sed nondum plene cognita, "the southern land newly discovered but not yet fully known," and later maps also named it terra australis incognita.

Sound of the Day

Gyroscopic compass on the bridge; its spinning counterbalances the movement of the ship
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Dispatches
Survival Training (October 19)
The James Caird Embarks (October 21, 1999)
The Roaring Forties (October 23, 1999)
Crossing the Convergence (October 24, 1999)
Arriving in South Georgia (October 27, 1999)
Grytviken (October 28, 1999)
Antarctic Kit: Dressing for Survival (October 31, 1999)
Stromness (November 1, 1999)
Kingdom of Blizzards (November 3, 1999)
King Haakon Bay (November 5, 1999)
The James Caird Sets Sail (November 8, 1999)
Glacier Traverse (November 10, 1999)
Elephant Island (November 11, 1999)
Erebus and Terror Gulf (November 12, 1999)
The Weddell Sea (November 15, 1999)
Visions of Endurance (November 18, 1999)
Return to Elephant Island (November 20, 1999)
Lost at Sea (November 21, 1999)
The End of the Quest (November 24, 1999)
Bound for South Georgia (April 7, 2000)
Return to King Haakon (April 10, 2000)
Farewell to Peggotty Camp (April 12, 2000)
Climbing South Georgia (April 13, 2000)
Stromness Revisited (April 15, 2000)
Reflections on Endurance (April 18, 2000)

Photos: (1-3) Kelly Tyler; (4) Rob Meyer.

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