ADVENTURE SAILING INTO THE ICE

Jeff Wrinch cruises into Antarctica and gets up close and personal with the humpback whales

- Jeff Wrinch

The sea bubbled as a humpback whale broke through the icy water. It was our last day in the Antarctic, and my lifelong dream of kayaking with whales was about to finally come true. My smile grew wider as I heard the unmistakable sound of a blow before being showered with droplets of water. The barnacle-covered head of a 20-foot calf was within five feet of my kayak. We had been paddling close to the Melchior Islands when we spotted the 40-foot mother and her two calves. We sat quietly, waiting and hoping these graceful mammals might come to us. Our colorful kayaks were certainly of interest. Time and again they would approach, dive just enough to glide underneath us; they were so close that we could almost touch them. Magical!

We had started our month-long charter from Ushuaia, the capital of Tierra del Fuego and the southernmost tip of South America. This was to be a family affair. My wife, Melanie, sons Tim and Olly and Tim’s girlfriend, Lucy were all part of Icebird’s nine-strong crew, along with our Australian skipper, Cath Hew, Spanish first mate, Alex Jara, the mountain guide, Phil Wickens and Victor, a Ukrainian hitchhiking to the Ukrainian Antarctic base.

When we arrived in the Argentinian city, the wind was blowing 40 knots through the marina; Tierra del Fuego’s nickname, ‘The End of the World’, certainly seemed apt. Cath explained that in the Drake Passage, the wind would be blowing 60 knots; we would have to wait 24 hours for the wind to moderate before heading into the Southern Ocean.