Karen & Justine's Homeward Bound journey to Antarctica 2018

Karen & Justine’s
Homeward Bound journey
   to Antarctica 2018

Ushuaia Pre-voyage

We have all just spent three days in Ushuaia
looking deep within ourselves! This really
requires focused thinking at a level that is
not always comfortable but is so very
necessary to progress towards a better self.
From the very beginning, our opening dinner,     Photo credit: Oli Sansom
it was obvious that we, as a group, have so
much positive energy and so much
connection. Within minutes of meeting
someone we were having really rich and
meaningful conversations.
Touching base with people we feel like we
already know so well but have never met in
person. This is us with our NZ comrades. We
have spent a lot of skype time together over
the last year. It is strange to 'meet' someone
you already know.

Day 1

We are on the ship! This summer has seen
rough conditions on the Drake Passage but we
were blessed with calm seas. Some people
suffered from the rocking motion so it was a day
off from content today.
Our ship, the Ushuaia, is tiny compared to many
others that come through these waters. But we
stand looking out across the endless expanse of
blue and consider those who first explored this
chilly part of the world. We can’t decide it they
were heroic or crazy?
While travelling up the Beagle Channel, before
heading out into the open water, the ships
doctor STRONGLY encouraged us to "take her
pill". She knew the best medication to take to
prevent sea sickness and she was a little bit
scary so we all took her pill!

Day 2

We could tell we were nearing closer to land
because the occasional penguin was spotted,
small pieces of ice bobbed past us and the
waves calmed. Our expedition leader, the
famous Greg Mortimer who has been to
Antarctica 80+ times, informed us that we were
heading between two islands and all we could
see was a wall of fog! Finally, finally, finally a
dark shadow loomed ahead the odd squawk of
a penguin could be heard.
We were among the South Shetland Islands at
Half Moon Bay, right at the tip of the Antarctic
peninsula. The energy and excitement were
palpable as we all donned our gazillion layers of
warm clothing. Before we knew it we were in
the zodiacs, which was quickly followed by the
crunch of stone underfoot. The beauty in what
lay before us was incredible. For many of us, we
simply stood for a few minutes to take it all in.

Day 3

Our ship anchored in Potters Bay which is
small and consists of many multi-story
glaciers (which are sadly retreating at a rapid
rate). We visited the Argentinian Carlini base
with its backdrop of a huge rocky outcrop
called the three brothers (tres hermanos).
The staff graciously invited us into their
world of shipping container style huts and
patiently answered a barrage of questions.
Today’s HB session was deep and insightful.
We learnt the art of coaching. What makes a
good coach is someone who can listen and
coax information out of a person in a way
that they can get to the core of the problem
and encourage the ‘coachee’ to devise their
own solutions and ways of moving forward.

Day 4

This morning we had a quick trip ashore to
the Chinese research base ‘the Great Wall’
which is on the continent. We were not able
to enter any buildings but could explore their
monuments and take some photos.
This afternoon we had a learning session on
emotional agility, but, it quickly became a
session on resilience and persistence. We
started the session only to be interrupted by
humpback whales out the window. As the
excitement passed, we all headed back to
our seats to refocus. Then the ship started to
roll and lurch to the point somebody fell off
their chair. Then we entered into an Antarctic
blizzard. And just when we all felt we
couldn’t be any more interrupted, the
captain took us closely past a huge iceberg!

Day 5

The beauty and stillness of the Weddell Sea
in morning sunlight is an experience that will
stay with us for many years to come. Some
are tiny and some are bigger than the ship.
We had a shore landing onto a small volcanic
island called Paulet Island. Over summer this
is home to 100,000 Adelie penguins. Since
our visit timed with the end of summer there
were only a couple of hundred left. But, the
smell of 100,000 penguins lingered! Holy
moly – the smell! Now we understand why
mother nature put the penguin colonies at
the bottom of the planet.

Day 6

Last night we motored through choppy seas
from dinner until breakfast so we travelled a
fair way down the western side of the
peninsula. The rough passage was worth it
because we found ourselves in a beautiful,
stunning and emotionally moving place -
Portal Point. Standing at the top of the hill
we had 360 degree view
We continued the Symposium @ Sea, where
each Homeward Bound participant gets
three minutes and three slides to describe
themselves and their work. It was so great to
hear more about everyone, what they do
and what motivates them to stay in the STEM
profession. We also learned more about
Antarctic marine life through another science
lecture and had a session on peer coaching.
This is such a valuable skill to learn.

Day 7

This morning we stopped at Danco Island.
This is home to a crazy amount of Gentoo
penguins and fortunately there were many
pairs still raising their chicks so they had not
yet headed north for the winter.
We had the pleasure and disgust of watching
parents feed their chicks. It was revolting.
They actually gag and you can sometimes see
the regurgitated krill coming out of the
throat before the chick gobbles it all up. Yes
it’s all normal, and yes its nature. But, nature
can be revolting sometimes. Once the parent
has finished feeding the chick they then run
away so the chick stops hassling them. And
those awkward little critters can move!

Day 8

Today we visited the U.S. Palmer Station.
Alarmingly, there is a glacier behind this
station that has receded so much in recent
years that there are new islands popping out
of the glacier that were previously hidden.
One island is nicknamed pie because it was
discovered in March 2014. 3.14 – get it?! It’s
a nerd joke.
Following on from this, we all had to contain
our energy and settle into more Homeward
Bound learning. We worked on our personal
strategy map. For this task, we chose the
values that we think are most important and
from there determined aspirations that we
hope to achieve in the area of relationships,
self and work.

Day 9

Last night we watched an interview that
Fabian (Homeward Bound co-founder)
conducted with Jane Goodall. She speaks
very gently and calmly but what she has
done with her life leads us to believe that
underneath the surface is a fierce and
determined woman. We had another
empowering session on gender equality
today which has filled the room with energy.

Justine was feeling a little out of sorts in the
evening and planned on going to bed early.
However, at the end of dinner - “Orcas at the
bow” was announced over the loudspeaker.
How could she say no? It turned out to be a
really beautiful evening of orcas, humpbacks,
beautiful snowy mountains and a rising
moon. Antarctica is so good for the soul.
Better than sleep...

Day 10

Today we reached the mid-way point of the
expedition. We started the day by visiting
Port Lockroy – the most visited place in
Antarctica. Port Lockroy was previously a
British base and is now a museum and post
office operated by the United Kingdom
Antarctic Heritage Trust.
In the evening, we had a fancy dress party.
Justine dressed up as a mad scientist whilst
Karen dressed as a bag of jellybeans. By the
end of the night, there were jellybeans
everywhere, in people’s tops, in their pants –
it was hilarious!

Day 11

Today was supposed to be a day off, perhaps
to recover from the party the night before.
For many people it still ended up being a day
of trying to catch up on creating their
strategy maps, writing blogs or doing other
work. We had two landings today – in the
morning at Peterman Island (which Karen
decided not to do so that she could catch up
on some washing!) and in the afternoon at
Pleneau Island. The latter landing was rather
cold with a wind chill of -12⁰C, so we only
stayed out for about an hour.

Day 12

Today was the day that shall forever be
referred to by TeamHB2018 as ‘Rotheragate’.
The channel to Rothera was blocked by ice,
and to get there we would have to go out
into open sea. Unfortunately, some
participants were suffering from substantial
seasickness. Participants undertook a blind
vote – 72 yes to 6 no. It was decided that we
would not go to Rothera – we all go or none
of us go. It was a real mess of emotion all
around. However, as it turned out, many of
us went through a real leadership learning
experience during the process.

Day 13

This morning we had a trip out in the zodiacs
at Hanusse Bay in Crystal Sound. It ended up
being an epic trip out, zooming around
amongst the ice chasing a pod of orcas. At
one point, we had a group about 20 meters
away from us. It was a fabulous experience.
After all the anxiety of the previous day, new
data emerged which changed everything.
The weather had shifted and Marguerite Bay
was clear of ice – we could go to Rothera!

Day 14

Having travelled all the way down the west
coast of Adelaide Island overnight, we
arrived at Horseshoe Island where there was
an old abandoned British research station,
which is preserved just as it was when it was
left, complete with marmite, steak and
kidney pies and strawberry blancmange
powder. This landing is where we created a
video for International Women’s Day.

Day 15

An early start this morning to visit Rothera
station (the British base). The residents took
the whole morning to give us an in-depth site
tour, explaining to us about the research they
were undertaking and what life was like on
an Antarctic base. They only accept two
tourist vessels per year and the other vessel
didn’t get through because of ice – so they
seemed pretty happy to see us.
In the afternoon we had many science group
presentations on issues such as water quality
and marine pollution.

Day 16

Yesterday afternoon the Captain decided he
wanted to try and negotiate his way back up
through the ice in the channel that had
blocked us a couple of days previous. We
were all out on the deck next to the bridge
watching him try to pick his way through.
We had to stop in amongst the ice overnight,
and then continued the journey this
morning. It took 6 hours to go 5 miles but
we did finally break through.

Day 17

A slower pace to start this morning. We
spent much of the morning working on our
strategy map and our 100-day action plan
(just like the U.S president has to do!).
In the afternoon we landed at Neko Harbour,
our last stop on the Antarctic Peninsula. On
our landing, we watched as a glacier came
apart and a huge amount of ice and snow
avalanched down the mountain. It was here
that we had our largest snowfall of the trip.

Day 18

Today was International women’s day and we
spent some of it on Deception Island, the
caldera of an active volcano. To get there, we
sailed through Neptune’s Gate and it was like
looking into Mordor. The rock was volcanic
and the beaches black. There was even
steam coming off the water because the
seabed was warm.
We landed at Whalers Bay, where there is
the remnants of a whaling operating with
huge vats where the whale oil was stored.

Day 19

Properly on our way home now, we spent all
of today on the Drake Passage. We had a
Nobel laureate on board the ship – Susan
Scott – who was involved in the discovery of
gravitational waves. This morning she gave a
talk about physicists, the theory of general
relativity and how gravitation waves were
detected using LIGO (the Laser
Interferometer Gravitational-Wave
Observatory).
One of the other talks today was from Greg
Mortimer about ice movements in then
about a perilous journey he took to
Antarctica in the 80’s in a 20M yacht – which
now resides in Kettering, Tasmania.

Day 20

Today we passed by the southern tip of the
Americas – Cape Horn (or as it will forever
affectionately be known ‘Gay Porn’ – how it
sounded when pronounced by French
participant Valerie Sage).
Much of the day was spent on organising
projects that will be worked on by the 2018
participants on our return to normal life –
everything from the HB website to
fundraising tools, to gender equity work.

Day 21

An early start to this morning as we had to
disembark from the ship straight after          MV Ushuaia
breakfast. It was a sad moment, saying
goodbye to the staff and to the ship. The
expedition was finally over.
In the evening we had our final dinner, where
certificates of participation were presented,
everyone was thanked, and there was much
dancing. And then, just like that, it was all
over…
Or rather, the leadership journey was just
beginning…

Thank you for your support