Diving in Antarctica
20 January 2015 | Petermann Island
Conrad
After spending two nights in a tent on the glacier to climb Mt. Martin and then Mt. Cloos we returned to the boat and embarked to nearby Petermann Island where we anchored at Circumcision Bay.
A colony of Penguins and calm conditions brought up the idea of diving, although the visibility was not great (approximately 4 meters), so Phillip and Conrad got into their 5-7mm thick wetsuits and took the plunge into the icy waters taking along a pole to fend off Leopard Seals, should they show up.
Several Penguins were sighted under water as they shot past at high speed. The seafloor was mostly rocky with sandy sections in between from which short bits of seaweed grew. Small seashells and krill were abundant in the waters. We approached an iceberg and dived down to about 8 meters depth to explore the underside.
After roughly 25 minutes the cold became unbearable and we swam back to the boat as quickly as possible. After pealing of the wetsuits we took a ‘’long’’ hot shower to thaw our frozen extremities.
As the name of the bay suggests: we lost something (fear of the cold), but the experience will last a lifetime.