Antarctic rescue defies all odds

PUNTA ARENAS, Chile — A rare calm in Antarctic seas and the swift response by a passing ship helped save all aboard a Canadian cruise liner that struck an iceberg in the night and sank off Antarctica, rescued passengers and experienced sailors said Saturday.

The MS Explorer, a Canadian-operated cruiser built in 1969 as a pioneer among rugged go-anywhere tourist ships that plied waters from the Amazon to the Arctic and Antarctic circles, struck ice Friday, took on water and dipped beneath the waves more than 15 hours later.

All 154 passengers and crew spent hours bobbing in life rafts on chilly seas before a Norwegian cruise ship plucked them up shivering but safe and took them to two military bases on King George Island for flights out.

A Chilean air force plane flew the first 77 survivors to the South American mainland Saturday from the island 660 miles south of here. The rest were to be flown out today.

Those passengers reportedly include a Davis County, Utah, woman, Lisa Paisola, and her aunt, Kay Van Horne of Denver. In a computer blog maintained by one of Paisola's brothers, he said his sister and aunt were doing OK.

"In order to pass the time, the passengers simply imagined that they were on a whale-watching expedition. They saw lots of penguins!" Robert Paisola wrote. "After all ... this was an adventure tour.

"We were told that there was a Danish couple who decided to get engaged while on the lifeboat. What better place, and what a story! Oh, and the couple stated that they were going to go someplace SUNNY for their honeymoon."

American Ely Chang of Urban, Calif.. was among the first to get out of a Chilean Hercules C-130 in Punta Arenas, clutching his life jacket like a precious souvenir and reminder of anxious hours spent adrift.

"It was very cold, but I'm so happy because we all survived this and everyone's all right. Now I'm going home," he said.

Capt. Arnvid Hansen, whose cruise ship Nordnorge rescued the castaways, said Explorer's distress call came hours before dawn and he steamed 4 1/2 hours "full ahead" to the rescue before weather could close in.

"We have to work together with the forces of nature, not against them," Hansen said.

He said blinding sleet, fog, high winds and treacherous seas are common in Antarctica, Earth's windiest continent, even in the October-to-April "summer" when cruise ships flock to the area by the dozens.