By Arina Khotimsky
If you noticed a certain teacher’s absence in room C310 the week after April break, you weren’t wrong. In fact, the vacancy was that of Dr. Ryan, one of Westborough High School’s most-admired teachers.
Dr. Ryan has been an avid traveler for the past 5 years. In his own words, “I started [travelling] and then just decided that I needed to continue it.” His most recent trip was to the southernmost continent in the world: Antarctica.
The opportunity came about from a citizen science program on Zooniverse.org. By tagging penguins on photographs taken by scientists in Antarctica, participants could be entered into a contest to visit the same sites where the photographs were taken. The contest went on for a month, and participants could earn one entry per day. Throughout this time, not only did Dr. Ryan tag the photos, but his background in wildlife biology let him do extra to help the scientists with their research. Ironically, he found out that he was going to one of the coldest places on Earth while on vacation in the warm waters of Hawaii.
However, the avid traveler ran into trouble before setting foot in Antarctica. The initial expedition was scheduled for November, on the week following Thanksgiving break; however, having initially flown down to Buenos Aires, Argentina with his wife, the eager explorers found out that the expedition ship had struck an iceberg. Although no one was hurt, worry for the ship being damaged cancelled the trip and the participants had to fly home. The expedition was rescheduled for February and Dr. Ryan got another chance to visit the continent. This time, the voyage went much smoother.
The entire trip took just over two weeks, with 6 days spent touring Antarctica. After flying to South America, the expedition set off from Ushuaia, Argentina, located on the southern-most tip of the continent. They set off on the Ocean Diamond, the small cruise ship that would be the home of 189 passengers for the remainder of the voyage. The ship was extremely comfortable, with Dr. Ryan stating matter of factly that “it was the second best hotel I’ve ever been in in my life.”
To get to Antarctica, the ship had to traverse the Drake Passage, the shortest passage from Antarctica to any other continent. The voyage took one and a half days and encountered no storms. With the weather being quite calm, the waves were only three meters tall.
After over 24 hours at sea, the passengers were informed by the captain that they were approaching their long-awaited destination. They hurried to the observation deck, eager to catch their first glimpse of Antarctica. Speaking of the experience of finally spotting the penguin-populated land, Dr. Ryan says, “Of course you’re struck by how beautiful it is the first time you see it. It truly is gorgeous.”
The ship stayed for several days in Antarctica, sailing along the coast to reach different sites of the exquisite continent. To travel back and forth, black rubber rafts, called zodiacs, would carry groups of people between the cruise ship and the landmass. Dr. Ryan and the rest of the passengers participated in ten of these zodiac trips, cruising along Antarctica’s many bays to admire the diverse sealife. Throughout the trip, they encountered–what Dr. Ryan estimates to be–10,000 penguins, 400 seals, a few dozen whales, and many birds. The zodiacs would also land on beaches to let the explorers walk among penguin colonies and hike around steep cliffs.
The most unusual thing that the explorers witnessed was something that can be found right here in Massachusetts: whales. The adventurers were aboard the zodiacs when they were lucky enough to spot a group of humpbacks breaching and fin slapping in the water, drifting 20 feet away from the massive mammals. Dr. Ryan was told that this is unusual for that area and time of year, thus making the site quite amazing. To make it even better, the passengers aboard Dr. Ryan’s zodiac included a film crew from Al Jazeera TV, an Arabic TV channel. A travel correspondent from Al Jazeera was working on a tv program, and after befriending Dr. Ryan and his wife, interviewed them for the project.
But the fascinating experiences were not limited to outdoor exploration. Each day after the explorers returned to the ship, experts on a plethora of different topics conducted engaging presentations about the things the people had seen that day. Experts ranged from ornithologists teaching how to identify birds, climatologists talking about global warming, political scientists presenting about Antarctic treaties, to photography experts lecturing on how to take the best photographs. An example of such a presentation was the topic of whaling in Antarctica. After visiting a century old whale skeleton at Port Lockroy, historians presented about the history of whaling in Antarctica and about the whale bones that the travellers got to see.
The trip was also entertaining as much as educational. On board, the crew would conduct competitions to create quite the memorable trip for all the passengers. Contests included guessing the time and day of seeing the first iceberg, and even an Antarctic-themed hat contest. Although Dr. Ryan does not quite remember how the winner managed to create her title-holding headdress, he recalls that it resembled seals sitting atop an ice flow, and was “quite entertaining to go along with.”
But some activities were, literally, quite a bit more shocking than just relaxing aboard the ship. While visiting Neko Harbor, the Ocean Diamond’s passengers were invited to get quite a bit closer to sea level than they had been at throughout the trip. For those brave enough to do so, a photographer would be waiting at the bottom to capture the epic moment. But when Dr. Ryan and his wife jumped into the freezing water, he admits, “I was a little overly excited.” Jumping a bit too far, he blocked his wife in the photograph. As a result, when they resurfaced, cold and shivering, they were told they had to jump again.
With all of these memorable experiences, it must be extremely hard to choose a favorite memory. But being the wildlife biologist that he is, Dr. Ryan states without hesitation, “I have always loved birds. And I am now quite proud of the fact that I can identify three different kinds of albatrosses.” In total, Dr. Ryan encountered 15 new bird species that he had never seen before throughout the trip, including three species of penguins.
Leaving Antarctica, Dr. Ryan was “very disappointed to be leaving at the time we were.” Unfortunately, the ship had to depart early due to threatening weather in the Drake Passage. The travelers had experienced nice weather throughout the trip, with little precipitation and average temperatures of zero degrees celsius–warmer than some days we had back here in Massachusetts! But crossing back, the 400 foot-long cruise ship encountered a storm. The rocking of the ship on the 12-14 meter waves caused dishes to go crashing off of tables, and the passengers could not walk without being thrown against the walls of the hallways. Thankfully, Dr. Ryan and his wife experienced no sickness.
Despite this minor hiccup on the two day journey back to South America, Dr. Ryan remembers the trip fondly. “It was just probably the most pristine and gorgeous environment that I’ve ever been in,” he says, “I would go back in a heartbeat.”
