March 9, 2023 = Submarine diving 300 feet below Antartica waters off Melchior Island

Aboard one of the two Octantis’ submarines, afternoon of March 9, 2023, off Melchior Island in Antartica heading down to the bottom 300 feet below. The Viking submarines can dive to 1,200 feet, but operationally the depth to which they dive depends on the depth of the ocean. The subs dive straight to the bottom and then lurk around. That depth can be anything down to 1,200 feet.

Diving straight to the bottom makes sense since the Viking Octantis’ submariners do not know what is on the bottom in the Antarctic (think jagged scattered rocks) and they only have a rough idea of how deep the water is.

Moreover, no one has likely ever dived these waters before.

On the few days the Octantis was able to deploy its submarines the depth of the dives were 180 feet, 300 feet (my dive), 600 feet and a thousand feet. With the submarines only able to carry six passengers, and a pilot, and with the submarines having to be balanced with equal weights of the passengers on each side, and with each submarine dive taking roughly two hours (only an hour of which is under the water), only about 100 of the 350 passengers on the Antarctic leg were able to make submarine dives.

The dives in the Antarctic were the only dives the Octantis subs made on the 65 day voyage. Muddy waters in the Chilean fjords precluded dives there, and none of the Octantis’ toys are allowed to be deployed in United States waters.

So how did I manage to get on a dive? — and how did I manage to be offered a second dive? I went to guest services and sniveled, and, glory be! The next morning I was booked. I think it helped that I was going on the entire 65 day journey and was in one of the higher priced cabins.

One of the two submarines docked and secured in the hanger.

Once in the water, the pilot (shown standing), drives the sub away from the ship to the diving site. Then six passengers, each with a seat assigned by number, go out to the sub on a zodiac, and climb down into the sub one by one, in a specific order taking their numbered seats on each side of the submarine. The inside is cramped.

A surface boat shadows the submarine on the surface and while it is diving and remains in constant contact with the pilot driving the sub. Although there are two subs, only one sub at a time dives and the other is not deployed until the first sub is back on the surface and its passengers safely back on zodiacs and headed back to the ship.

Before being booked on a sub dive, all passengers wishing to go must view a ten minute briefing, and pass an agility test.

Entering and exiting the sub is a challenge. The zodiac that brought us out to the sub is in the foreground. Passengers must climb from the zodiac onto the black surfaces by gripping handles and then turn around and climb backwards down into the sub itself.

You think it looks easy? Well, my goodness … Think again.

The three passengers facing me on the other wide of the inside of the submarine. A small portion of the ladder we climbed down is visible of the left. The pilot navigates the submarine by sitting at the controls shown on the right and remains in contact with the surface ship. If the pilot does nothing for ten minutes, the sub automatically returns to the surface. If the pilot becomes incapacitated (WHAT?!), any passenger can press a green button on the console and the sub will return to the surface,

When I asked one of the young women who manned the Guest Services desk if she had ever done a submarine dive, she replied, “yes.” When I asked her if she would do it again, she replied, “oh, no.”

The pilot. He was as close to me as it looks in this picture. We spent 45 minutes 300 feet down on the bottom. The dive was about an hour. It took a total of about 15 minutes to go down and up.

What I saw — which was not much. The sub has high powered lights which lit things up outside. The dive was more like being in a diving bell. We did not wander around. We went straight down, sat on the bottom for 45 minutes, turned a little bit this way and that, and then returned to the surface. Because Viking doesn’t really know what is down there, it is wise to limit the wandering.

Melchior Island. We dove in the far waters on the other sides of the rock in the foreground. With so many passengers wanting to make submarine dives, and with the need to have good weather, only a limited number of dives could be made. That left many disappointed. Operating the subs was complicated. Even when the day began with subs diving, sometimes the dives had to be called off because winds came up and sea conditions became dangerous. Other times, as with the muddy waters in the Chilean fjords, there was no visibility, and so no point in diving.

In Milwaukee, as our voyage ended, Viking announced that starting June 1 the sub dives would no longer be free. The charge was going to be $500. That ought to cool interest in going diving on their subs, I’d guess.

Carol Anne and I have done submarine dives in Hawaii and in the Caribbean on much larger submarines.

She had no interest on going on a sub dive on the Octantis.