From 27 November 2002 to 1 February 2003 the Russian icebreaker Kapitan Khlebnikov made a 66-day circumnavigation of the Antarctic. Starting at Port Lyttelton, New Zealand, the ship's 15,500-mile route took her westward around the continent. On board were 64 passengers, 60 crew, and 24 staff representing 22 nationalities. The average ticket price for the full circumnavigation was close to $48,000. Remarkably, about 90% of the passengers had made polar voyages before. In fact, 11 had been on the same vessel's first circumnavigation during the 1996-97 austral summer.
Since the early 1990s, several Russian nuclear- and diesel-powered icebreakers have been employed for expedition cruises in the polar regions, including trips to the North Pole. Quark Expeditions of Darien, Connecticut, pioneered the business and still is the major operator.
The Kapitan Khlebnikov's 2002-3 circumnavigation was the 11th since Royal Navy Captain James Cook's first such voyage in 1773-75. With his vessels HMS Resolution and HMS Adventure, it took Cook two austral summers to complete the voyage. He never saw land because of heavy concentrations of sea ice. In 1820, nearly a half-century later, Captain Thaddeus Von Bellingshausen of the Russian Imperial Navy made the first sighting of the Antarctic continent. His ship, the Vostok, made the second circumnavigation.
It was not until the austral summer of 1930-31 that the Norwegian whaling vessel Norvegia made it, on the fourth circumnavigation of the continent, entirely in one voyage. The first U.S. ship to do it was the USCG Polar Star (WAGB-10) in 198283. Only two ships have made the voyage twice: the British research ship Discovery II and the Kapitan Khlebnikov.
Activity in the Antarctic has long since passed from the age of exploration and the heroic era to the present "institutional era." The primary activity on the continent today is scientific research at 45 stations operated by 18 nations. The major business activity, however, is tourism. Slightly more than 100,000 tourists have visited this continent; in 2002, about 15,000 visited. Expeditions on board icebreakers are a very small part of this activity. While about 20 ships carry tourists during the season, usually only one is an icebreaker.
The 2002-3 Kapitan Khlebnikov circumnavigation was divided into two parts. Twenty-five passengers who did not want to make the entire voyage disembarked at Deception Island, a flooded active volcano caldera about 600 miles south of the tip of Argentina, two-thirds of the way through the trip. A smaller Russian ship, Professor Multanovskiy, came down from Ushuaia, Argentina, with 54 people for the Kapitan Khlebnikov and returned north with the 25 who had disembarked.
During the circumnavigation, the ship operated many times well inside the Antarctic Circle, at one point coming within 720 miles of the South Pole. Along the way, passengers got full exposure to all the weather moods the Antarctic can offer, from sparkling sunny days to blizzards with wind gusts of 100 knots. Every imaginable type of ice was encountered. The Kapitan Khlebnikov even got stuck a few times for several hours until the wind and tide changed to release ice pressure on the ship.
In the East Antarctic (often called "the Far Side") landings were made either by use of the ship's two Russian Mi-2 helicopters or by mooring alongside in the fast sea ice. With only about 4% of the continent's coastline ice free, the ice berths often were miles offshore. Most landings were to visit penguin colonies—especially Emperors, the biggest of the 17 species of penguins. To avoid stressing the birds, helicopters landed a mile or more away from the colonies. Then the passengers walked across the sea ice to get to them.
The Kapitan Khlebnikov also undertook important support functions. The size and health of penguin colonies were reported, several people were transported between scientific stations, depth soundings were taken in areas where no soundings had been taken before, weather and ice conditions were reported, and it was even confirmed that some reported islands did not exist. In addition, the Italian supply ship Italica was broken out of the ice in the Ross Sea area after she had become beset and requested help.
It was indeed a unique way to circumnavigate the world.
Dr. Walsh was a member of the expedition staff and lecturer on board the Kapitan Khlebnikov during this voyage.