Sea Kayaking in Antarctica 101

Sea kayaking 101 before the first excursion:

One of our kayaking guides, Sophie, going over the basics during our downtime through the Drake Passage.

Ewie & Stacey, our fearless leaders, explaining how not to roll in a sea kayak.

Ewie reviewing the basics on the deck before we reached our first landing site.  It was snowing and the swells made it difficult to stand up straight.  Honestly the fresh air was quite helpful while feeling a bit ill as we went through the Drake Passage.

Kayak mud room procedures:

The mud room is, in short, where you get ready for excursions.  You come with your layers on and any accessories (cameras, etc.) ready to go, and then you get into your gear and head out to the deck and get ready for gangway.  It is not easy to get into the gear.  The first day it took me about 30 min to get into my kayaking gear and ready for gangway.  By the end of the trip I had it down to about 10 min!  Either way, it's a difficult and stressful process and if you forget a step you may have to start all over!  I'm proud to say there was only one excursion when I forgot to put the spray skirt on before the PFD- i think that was the worst of it.


Listen well my friends- you can try, try, try as you will to look sexy and chic in antarctic kayaking gear but this is about as good as it gets:

Oh dear.  Here I am attempting to make the kayaking gear look sexy.  A yellow & black dry suit with grey/black booties, a black spray skirt & a yellow/black PFD.  On day 1 it took me about 30 min to get ready and by day 10 i had it down to about 10 min!  

There are several components to sea kayaking gear:

• Under layers (including the layers and layers and layers of performance wool long underwear that you must wear under the dry suit).
• The dry suit: an airtight, waterproof and semi-cold-proof suit that is the cold water equivalent to a wet suit.  It seals via 1 or 2 zippers depending on model and you must 'burp' it before heading out- there are rubber gaskets at the wrist and neck and before going out you must squeeze out all of the excess air through the neck gasket.  In short, you must hold you collar, squat, and perform strange motions to get all of the air out from between your body and the suit.
• The shoes/booties: Waterproof and durable kayaking shoes that fit over the footies of the kayak dry suit.  Make sure to get shoes that fit properly- better to be too large than too small.
• The spray skirt:  The neoprene skirt that you pull over yourself before putting on the PFD - this skirt is what you use to put a seal around the hole that you sit in while kayaking.  It forms a tight seal around the lip of the kayak cockpit and prevents water from entering the cockpit and cavity of the kayak.
• PFD: PFD stands for "Personal Flotation Device" and is basically your life jacket!  It is typically a vest that zips up and is tightened around your sides so that in the event you fall over, someone could pick you up by the back handle and hoist you onto a zodiac.  The PFD vest has pockets for  things like sunscreen, cameras, and of course the emergency whistle and distress light!
• Sunscreen and sunglasses- for me it was "glacier glasses"!
• Hats, scarves, hand/footwarmers, socks, etc. - The most valuable items I brought with me were the hand and foot warmers I purchased last minute.  When kayaking, you do not use gloves - you insert your hands into the gloves attached to the kayak paddle.  (Shocking I know!)  The hand warmers and foot warmers were life savers for the colder and longer excursions.  I put them between my 2 sock layers for added warmth.  I would actually recommend using the hand warmers for your toes instead of the actual toe warmers- the hand warmers stayed warmer longer and stayed at a higher temperature.  They don't have adhesive but if placed between your 2 wool sock layers they stayed all day!

How did we get in and out of the kayaks?
Typically, we would launch from the zodiacs so we'd get in and out of the kayaks with the help of our guides by moving from one moving small vessel to another.  It's not easy.

Here I am elegantly getting out of the kayak and back not the zodiac.

Look, I made it!

Let me conclude this post with a little preview of what all the gear looked like on the water:

Kayak dry suit, zip-vest PFD, wool neck gaiter (Buff), Fleece hat, fleece ear warmer, Julbo glacier glasses, GoPro with head strap, and 1 side braid poking out! #selfie