This YouTube vlog by Nate and Kara Buchanan documents their departure from Antarctica and the 95-hour journey back to the United States. The video captures wildlife encounters (elephant seals and penguins), a visit to Deception Island (an active flooded volcano with ~49°C hot water and historical whaling ruins), a rough crossing of the Drake Passage (they reported experiencing a gale force 9 storm), and the multi-leg flight sequence through Ushuaia, Buenos Aires, Miami, and Washington/Nashville. The footage was filmed Feb 28, 2020; the creators note COVID-19 developments afterwards and that they self-quarantined in Singapore.
Questions this video answers
February 28, 2020.
95 hours.
49 degrees Celsius.
Last erupted in 1969; typically erupts every ~40 years.
Gale force 9 on the Beaufort Scale (winds up to ~50 miles per hour; seas reported up to 20–30 ft).
Chapters
It's a long story, but for now we have a 10 hour flight to Miami and we'll explain when we get there.
We're Karen Bay. After traveling to a hundred countries, we set out on a quest to visit our seventh continent. A little over a week ago, we stepped foot in Antarctica for the first time and the experience has been every bit as incredible as we hoped it would be.
Somehow this incredible trip is already coming to a close, which means that it is our last morning waking up with views of the Antarctic continent.
We are going to spend the day exploring the South Shetland Islands and then this evening we will start the long journey back to South America across the Drake Passage.
This is the worst part of any day is being fully dressed and waiting to get off the ship. Reminds me of being a kid and you used to get dressed up to go out in the snow and then have to wait on all of your siblings.
Our first stop of the morning is at a place called Walker Bay and we're here to see these guys.
Oh, my gosh.
That is nuts.
Those are elephant seals and they are the largest seals in the world.
They look like a giant pile of.
Rocks, a very fat, blubbery, jiggly pile of rocks. They're called elephant seals because the males, after they get to be between 8 and 12 years old, they start to get this growth on their nose that almost looks like an elephant's trunk.
They are so massive. Oh, one's on the move.
No, just readjusting his body. Their nostrils are cracking me up like you can't even see that they exist until they go to breed and then when they do, they're like the size of baseballs.
And they eat squid. And so that's why there are so many penguins on this little island, that they live in harmony.
Do penguins eat squid?
No, the seals eat squid.
Oh, you mean the seals don't eat the penguins?
The seals don't eat the penguins. They're friends.
It took almost an hour, but we finally got some action.
Even when they're just laying there, they're so funny. They almost have like fingers on the end of their flippers and they just scratch themselves.
These might be my favorite animals on the trip.
We have just stepped foot on land in Antarctica for the last time. But this is a pretty epic last stop. It is called Deception island. And what makes this place so crazy is that we are actually standing on the rim of an active volcano. And what's even crazier is that our boat is parked in the middle of the crater right now.
So if you look at Deception island from a bird's eye view, you can see it's round and one of the small sides has collapsed. And so what's happened is this is an active volcano crater that has been flooded by the ocean.
This is so cool. The last time it erupted was 1969 and it typically erupts every 40 years. So we are a bit overdue, which adds a little excitement to today's excursion.
It's like a never ending fog machine.
So the water in this hole, it's 49 degrees Celsius. That's what it is.
The water coming from the ground at the beach is so hot that it is cooking the krill, which are these little shrimpy like things that the whales eat. Normally they're kind of see through, but they're white like a shrimp you would order at a restaurant. This is where we should have done the bowler plunge.
So Deception island was used as a whaling station in the early 1900s and people actually lived on this island up until 19 till the last big eruption. And at that point most of the infrastructure on the island was destroyed and it was just left here to rot. And it's essentially turned into an open air museum.
So we just climbed halfway of the crater and it is so much bigger than it looked from the beach. All of the water that you see is inside of the crater. There's our ship for scale and it just keeps going.
We've officially left Antarctica. We are watching the South Shetland Islands disappear into the distance. The swells are already picking up as we've entered the Drake Passage and Now we have 48 hours to south America.
Goodbye, Antarctica.
Can't believe it's already over.
Can't believe we actually were here.
It went by so fast, but at the same time it kind of felt like Antarctica was our new home.
Wow.
We're a little over 24 hours into crossing the Drake Passage and it is quite a bit rougher than it was on the way here. The winds have picked up, the swells are bigger and every once in a while there's a big wave that'll crash over the front of the boat. I've come up here to the sixth floor. This is really the only place on the boat where you kind of have some shelter for the wind while you're outside.
I feel like it doesn't really look like much in the camera, but the boat is really rocking and we've heard it's only supposed to get worse. So we're making as fast as time as possible to hopefully seek shelter. In the Beagle Channel.
So the storm did get a little crazy last night. Let me show you what our room looks like this. This morning we did put most of the pillows down here to stop the cabinets from banging so we could actually get some sleep. But everything else that you see on the floor flew off the shelves. This coffee cup, actually everything should still stay on the floor. All of these papers, this came from up there. This door broke completely off the hinges. And then over here in the bathroom, still snow wobbling. This is what's left of the vanity kit. This was supposed to go here.
I don't think either one of us really slept but neither one of us got seasick either, so that's a win. The weather outside is still pretty.
Believe it or not. This is nothing compared compared to what we experienced last night. They have a way of measuring storms in the ocean and it's called the Beaufort Scale. And last night we experienced a gale force nine which means winds up to 50 miles an hour and seas that could have reached 20 or 30ft. I was so tempted to get out of bed last night and pick up the camera and show you the craziness. But at the same time I was trying to go back to sleep as quickly as I could because I was so scared of getting seasick. What a crazy night.
Goodbye. Goodbye.
Thanks for asking.
After a relatively smooth sail through the Beagle Channel last night, we made it back to Ushuaia where the crew threw Kara a little birthday party.
This is nuts.
Don't blow away.
And this morning we said goodbye to the ship that we have called home for the last two weeks and made our way to the airport to continue our long journey home.
But first we have a three hour flight to Buenos Aires.
May have your function please.
Good afternoon ladies and gentlemen.
You will descend from the forward exit only from the war. Mobile phones may be used in all boats. On behalf of my drone we have made it to Buenos Aires, but unfortunately this is the smaller domestic airport and the international airport that we're flying out of is an hour across the town.
Rush hour in Buenos Aires is no joke. Two hours later we have made it to the international airport.
It's a long story. For now we're on a 10 hour flight to Miami and we'll explain when we get there.
It is 7:30am in Miami. I feel like last night ended a little dramatically. It all felt like a really big deal in the moment. But long story short, we thought we were going to be on a standby flight that we didn't end up Getting on. And we literally got on the last flight out of the airport going to the US Using points.
It was a very emotionally draining evening.
It was a roller coaster of emotions. But it worked out.
We're here. Now about this mask. You may have noticed that I haven't been around much since we left Antarctica. And that is because, unfortunately, I came down with this awful cold the last few days. I was coughing a lot. So when we got to the airport last night, I decided to pick one of these up for multiple reasons. The first one being I didn't want to spread my germs to anyone else. The second one being it made me very aware of my hands touching my face, which I think I have a really bad habit of doing. And considering the headlines right now, I didn't want to make anything worse than it already was. I felt like a lot of people were staring at me because I was wearing it. But we've been to a lot of cultures where this is a very normal thing to wear on a travel day, so just thought I would embrace it. Hey, y'.
All.
Just so you know, this video was filmed on February 28, 2020. Since then, COVID 19 has escalated in the US and and around the world. And a lot has changed. At the time, concern of the general public outside of Asia regarding the coronavirus was very minimal. There was not a shortage of masks in hospitals. And we have learned that wearing one especially improperly can sometimes do more harm than good. Unless you're already sick, which I was. We are now self quarantining in Singapore indefinitely. And I don't think we or anyone else should be traveling right now. Okay, back to the vlogmas.
Now we have a short flight to dc.
Hey, when I do, turn off that seatbelt sign please. If you are seated.
Once again, thank you.
Have a good day.
So I have a confession to make. I have managed to travel to 100 countries in all seven continents without ever since stepping foot in my country's capital. So I'm staring out the window right now, looking at the Washington Monument for the very first time.
We're so close. At some point, we're going to do a better job at exploring the US fun fact, it is as cold in Washington D.C. as it was when we left Antarctica. But we're dressed slightly differently.
One last flight to Nashville.
Remain seated with your seatbelt fastened and keep the aisle clear of all personal belongings until we'll park at the gate and the captain turns on the fastest. So we were calculating on the plane and I'm pretty sure. It's been 95 hours since we left Antarctica, and we have finally made it.
Home after a sleepless night on the Drake Passage and pretty much getting no sleep on our overnight flight last night.
We are both white now we have 36 hours to rest, leave our cold clothes at home, pick up our bathing suits, and then we'll be back here at the airport, start the next adventure to a much warmer place.
We made it. I love that this video started with elephant tails.
And my heart will draw.
On and on.
I love you more so very much.
And we got. We got to take over Red coast for the first time because the walls are blocking the wind and the sun is out and it's just creating a heat box.
But, like, I wasn't supposed to walk through there.
We now have 36 hours to rest. Dump our clothes. Dump our coal clothes. Sam.
