Second Falkland-S Georgia-Antarctica trip

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Nov. 20 ushuaia
I'm in the cafe on the waterfront with a couple of cups of cafe con leche, fresh OJ and croissants, all the things we don't have on the ship. Lots of other staff here too, but I'm hiding away in the back with my cold - just caught myself dripping on the keyboard so I hope it doesn't go boom like the last one!). Orlova also in town, Susan EL, so I'll have to look her up on my way back. Last night was fun: had a couple of glasses of wine with Kim, Hannah and Sarah in the nice quiet crew mess while Richard got started with his final concert, then went up to be sociable and had a good time with my favourite pax and even danced a bit with my fan club (who all turned out to be small, 60-70 and very sweet, and kept passing me on to another of the club!). Up this morning at 5 (we docked at 4) to haul 50-odd boxes of parkas from the pier to the Penthouse, then did luggage, breakfast, tidied library and BB, meeting and we were off the ship by 9. Very efficient and such a difference when we get in early (though PS will have to pay extra port fees). Headed straight for the cafe and have been here since; we're having lunch here in half an hour, so I'll nip out after to do my shopping (toothpaste is all I can think of that I need).

Nov 21
Good morning from a rocky old sea. We turned the corner out of the Beagle last night about midnight and got hammered for a few hours until we got in between TDF and Staten Island. Now the 40 knot wind is right behind us and giving us an easy ride, very dramatic with big rollers and white spray blowing off the grey sea. We only have seventy-odd on board this time, including a familiar six from Chester (NS) and a guy with one arm who was on the Tromso-Longyearbyen trip when we hauled the schooner out of the ice - remember him? I just took his tea for his wife down from the lounge for him and he remembered meeting us. Lovely fellow. There are quite a few younger folks on, including a contingent of German Swiss and a South African photographer with a big shoulder cam. Uh oh, (memories of a zodiac trip around Monumental Island -Arctic - and a big wave…)

Nov 23
If you hear anything today about a ship sinking in Antarctica, it ain't us! The Explorer, which I have sailed on several times with Adventure Canada, apparently hit an iceberg (!!) after leaving Elephant Island, knocked a plate sized hole in the side, presumably below the waterline so an unseen underwater protrusion from the berg I suppose, and is now listing at about 45 degrees. All pax and crew have been safely evacuated to the Nordnorge, another ship which fortunately happenend to be close by (and whose sister ship, the Nordcap, ironically, was evacuated last year near the same area after hitting a reef). The fate of the little red ship - the ship which began polar expedition cruising in the 1960s - is not yet known, but there are very high winds forecast for where she is, at the top end of the Bransfield Strait, so it doesn't look good unless another ship can get to her quickly with a tow to shore.
Spare a thought for the crew and staff, who have lost much more than a couple of suitcases.

Nov. 24
This load of pax include a lot of Europeans, most of whom have still not caught on to how we need to do things on the zodiacs (perhaps because of their lack of English. I had one guy this morning who got on with this very expensive looking camera round his neck, no camera bag or backpack or even a sobey's bag, so I had to convince him to give it to someone else to stuff away before I left the gangway and hit the big spray going across the harbour to Stanley. Then didn't he get back on my boat for the return trip, tried
to stuff it under his lifejacket, which then wouldn't zip up, so I made him disembark and catch the next one once he got sorted out. I'm such a bully.
However, most of them turned up for my talk on sealers and whalers this afternoon and I had a bit of a discussion and some nice comments after, so they're all forgiven. Lovely piece of lamb for dinner, but skipped dessert as I needed to escape. Neo-Citran now, and sleep.

Nov. 25 and 26
The wind has picked up so we're getting a huge swell coming from the north from the last gale that we had in Stanley, and this new stuff
coming from behind, so the motion is quite confused.
The International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators has issued a press release concerning the sinking of the Explorer at
http://www.ipsnews.net/news.asp?idnews=40198
for those of you who are interested. This gives a good account of the possible consequences of this incident.

Just left the Shag Rocks and heading for NW tip of South Georgia. Zodiac cruise at Elsehul in the morning (we couldn't get ashore with pax there last time 'cos of the randy old fur seals and they'll be even worse this time) and then a try at a landing at Salisbury Plain in the afternoon, though it's wide open and we're supposed to get a bit of wind. We still have a lot of motion on the ship, with a big swell from the north and another from the west so swaying and rocking like a demented Jagger.
Another quiet day, with the IAATO briefing and biosecurity along with the highlights up til the Shag Rocks, so I did a bit of work, revised my next talk with some new photos, did a bit of bridge time and rested.
A bit of good news from IAATO indicates that the Explorer was carrying light fuel oil which will disperse quickly and easily and that the ship will be in 500 m of water a long way from land, so the environmental damage is expected to be minimal. We had a press release from IAATO from Nov 24 which indicates that the Explorer was carrying light fuel oil which will disperse quickly and easily and that the ship will be in 500 m of water a long way from land, so the environmental damage is expected to be minimal.

Nov. 28
We are just on the way out to reprise the Shackleton hike over the hills. Nice calm morning, high overcast, pretty colours. Small herd of reindeer near our landing beach. As one of the leaders and the only staff member who has done the walk, I am of course petrified that I'll head off the wrong way...Nice landing on Fortuna Bay last night - from 8-9.15, by which time it was dark. I never got off the beach as I was watching boats. Wonderful sleep last night - 10-6 without a twitch, so I'm all ready for the day's exertions. Six km hike before lunch then Grytviken and BBQ on deck.
Late - wow, that feels good! First time in more than a week that I haven't needed a nap after lunch! We landed this morning in Fortuna Bay on a beach full of fur seals, many of them females with tiny black pups and very protective males. Of our 75 passengers, 60 elected to do the Shackleton walk, which was great, and they all worked out well. I trudged on along the right route without any wrong turns. It climbs very steeply for the first km up a tussocky grass slope, complete with a small herd of reindeer and a nesting giant petrel, then we crossed a river and got onto the snowfield up to the top of the pass at an elevation of 300 m. From here we could see down into Stromness Bay and the whaling station and saw the Polar Star steaming into the bay. We had a bit of a snowslide down the other side, then I set off at a fast pace to get back to the boats as most of the rest of the staff who'd stayed on the ship were off for a hike and the other four on our hike were at the back of the pack. At the beach in Stromness we encountered more aggressive bull fur seals but managed to get the pax safely onto the ship and home. So, that was the hike, wonderful. Lots of compliments on my "good guiding" and my table even bought me a beer!
We're off to Grytviken now for the afternoon and evening including a BBQ on deck, with the entire population of South Georgia as invited guests, so a good day for everyone.


Nov 29
Good morning:
Last full day in South Georgia- We've just had a great landing at St. Andrews Bay with enough surf to keep things interesting, and clearing from overcast to sunny so beautiful views of the snow covered hills and glaciers. SAB has the largest colony of Kings - about 150,000 breeding pairs, at least one chick per pair and another 100,000 or so adults ashore to moult, all spread out over a 3 km long beach and muddy hinterland. A lovely river carves its way down through the colony, full of glacial melt water.
Along the beach there are also several thousand elephant seals, mostly males and pups, whose mums have headed off to sea after giving birth and mating again.
The fat fluffy brown King chicks are the heart of the colony, waiting these last few weeks to shed their down and have their beautiful figure and colour revealed below. They are larger than the parents now, having been born at the end of last summer, around February-March, and being fed all through the winter by the hard working parents. I had time between driving and later catching in the swell to walk up to the colony and took some of our flagged sticks up to a plateau where you can look down on the whole colony, spread across both sides of a tumbling river (followed by a trail of red coats - where's he going? let's follow him!). The braver chicks are standing with their feet in the icy water, but they can't immerse themselves until they've shed their down.
Other moulting adults are standing around in the river or on snow banks, where they will at least have something to drink/eat while they wait to shed their fluff and can go back to sea - no-one to feed them, poor things. There were probably a thousand or two elephant seals along the beach, too, mostly males and this year's young; it seems as though the mums have cut off access to the dairy bar, had enough sex, and have gone off to replenish the fat they've lost while weaning.
One gruesome sight attracted a lot of attention: a long dead elephant seal half in and half out of the river. A couple of giant petrels had their heads and necks buried deep inside the carcass and pulled out a tasty lump of fat or innards with a lovely sucking sound...
Then after lunch we landed at Gold Harbour, another king penguin colony in a beautiful setting surrounded by hills and glaciers and cliffs. Most pax went for a walk down the beach to see the colony then joined Florian on a hike up to the ridge to get within photo range of some nesting light mantled sooty albatrosses. As I was the only staff member ashore with waders I got stuck with handing the boats on shore while everyone else except the duty driver and Hannah went off up the hill. Not much fun, but a very scenic place in which to be stuck for four hours, and just a trickle of pax wanting to get back to the ship for their tea to keep us busy ccasionally. Great day for the pax, and that's what counts of course.
We'll be at anchor here until 5 a.m. as we only have 20-30 miles to go to Cooper Bay, so a pleasant night's sleep. I have to download all my pix - haven't done it this trip yet as I've spent so little time ashore and don't have much - Danny wants some selections from this first half of the trip for the photo CD by tomorrow afternoon. I think I have a talk tomorrow or the next morning, too, so better take a look at that.


Nov. 30
0445 and the engines just started so we're off to Cooper Bay on a beautiful morning - a bit of cloud but no wind and the sun will soon be up. Plan after Cooper is for a quick zodiac cruise at Larsen Harbour after lunch and off around Cape Disappointment towards Elephant Island by mid-afternoon.
Later: phew, that's that over. Four very hectic days on South Georgia, with at least two landings/cruises per day, some early mornings, a 6 km hike over a 1000' pass, catching zodiacs in surf up to my chest, and about 1,000,000 king penguins. After a second shower today I think I have finally got the smell of the lovely little creatures out of my hair, skin and nose, and sent all my clothes to the laundry.
We ended up the SG part of the trip with a morning at Cooper Bay, where this time I climbed a 100' hill to see the Macaroni penguin colony, but there wasa big crowd of pax at the best viewing points so I didn't get any decent shots with my little camera, so beat it back down to the beach and did zodiac cruises instead. One of my favourite places last trip was a little rocky islet where a bunch of Macaronis hang out and they were there again this time, so we sat in the tidal surge with my zodiac bow up on the rocks and photographed from a few metres - much better than up the hill. The macaronis have these long strands of orange feathers above their eyes, chunky builds, and a waddling shuffle - no doubt the boys must have seen many of them at their concerts! Then after an hour's steam we were at the mouth of Larsen Harbour, dropped anchor and did a final zodiac cruise though the placid waters of the fiord. My motor was having problems so every now and then it would run really rough at about 2 knots, but we got to some scenic places, did a group photo with a waterfall cascading past the bow where the pax were all sitting, and made it back to the ship. I had a nice nap for an hour, then got ready for my second talk, on early exploration in Antarctica, which seemed to go fine.
The fog has descended so visibility is down to a few hundred metres - imagine how it must have been in such conditions in a sailing
ship 100-200 years ago. We're off now to Elephant Island, but will be at sea for two full days first.

Dec 1
Good morning: five a.m. here on the Scotia Sea, still plodding our way southwest towards Elephant Island in a light swell with the sun trying desperately to break through the fog. We should be there by late afternoon tomorrow, thank goodness, and will be able to get off the ship for a zodiac cruise, at least. The fog is wearying - we did have a sunny break yesterday and two fin whales obligingly showed up and got people out on deck for a while.

I've got my photos from the first half of the trip all catalogued and a few sent to Pierre and Danny for the photo CD. I'll send a few
different or good ones from my coffee shop next week (ed note: which I will post asap!)

Dec 2
We are about 15 miles off Elephant Island, but can't see it yet because of all the rain, drizzle, low cloud and fog. We have a 20 knot breeze raising whitecaps and at the moment it doesn't look good even for a zodiac cruise, but perhaps by breakfast time it'll have calmed down. Then we're off back to sea again for another 24 hours for our first landing on the South Shetlands at Half Moon Island. Last night I went to the movies - a bonus programme in with the Branagh Shackleton movie: Antarctica: a Frozen History. Quite good, dealing with the Scott, Shackleton, Amundsen race for the Pole. Tonight we finish it with the more recent research programmes and the first crossing by Hillary and Fuchs.

Dec 3, just leaving Elephant Island
Great cruise at Elephant Island - nice big swell at the gangway and while crossing the bay but some sheltered places in close to shore where we could get the zodiacs tucked in and watch the thousands of chinstrap penguins, nesting pintados on the cliffs, a couple of Weddells hauled out on the rocks, and the Shackleton camp site on Point Wild, except that it's covered with snow and chinstraps so nothing of the hut to see (I think it's all eroded away anyway as the only time I ever got ashore there I could see no sign of it).
There is a statue erected to the memory of the captain of the Yelcho, the Chilean tug that came to collect Shackleton's men after their three months in this hell hole, but I suspect that it will not remain for much longer either. I was first off the ship, so led my little tail of boats around the bay on a good tour, ducked into a field of brash ice for a while to give them that experience, then unloaded with great difficulty at the gangway, where the swell had increased substantially. I got my boat back up the hook and then ran down to the gangway to give the AB a hand unloading a few more boats, which made a big difference, until Lito came in with his
boat and relieved me.

So that was exciting. We're now heading for another sighting of B15D, the 30 mile long tabular iceberg that broke off from the Ross Ice Shelf and is doing a circumnavigation of the continent, currently stuck fast to Clarence Island. It has just loomed out of the fog, so we're travelling down the west side of it to the end before we head off to the South Shetlands.

Dec. 4
After a bit of a toss coming across the mouth of the Bransfield Strait the ship settled down in the lee of King George Island and this morning the seas are pretty calm, wind less than 10 knots, but still overcast and cool as we approach Halfmoon Island. Last night I
watched the second half of Antarctica: the Frozen Continent, mostly dealing with Shackleton's great adventure, and American Admiral Byrd's career and a few dire predictions from the resident geologist on how we're all doomed when the ice cap melts and adds 320' of fresh water to the oceans - definitely have to haul our cottage up in the treetops like Swiss Family Robinson!

Last evening we had a pod of about 20 orcas come charging at the ship and right under it, with the big male at the back
of the pack and the youngsters leading the charge! Very choppy so no good photos I think, but just about everyone was out to see them. Then this morning just before breakfast we had two humpbacks dozing on the surface, they woke up and started to perform for us, under the ship, scratching their backs on the keel, lolling on the surface, blowing right beside us, a couple of flukes, then they were off to find another customer. Lovely. I'll definitely have a shot or two to send from Ushuaia on Sunday.

For a change, I have shore duty this morning on Halfmoon Island, and have to go plant flags for a walking route. The Argentinean base, Camera, is not yet open and John grabbed the good flagging route through the penguin colonies to the Weddells and shags, so I've no idea what I'm supposed to be be leading towards. The Argy supply ship apparently sunk, so none of their bases are open yet - too bad, as this one always has great coffee ready for us!

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Photos

New Point Island
Spring has arrived!

New Point Island
this way, ducklings

New Point Island
Shag

Fortuna Bay, S Georgia
in the footsteps of Shackleton

Fortuna Bay South Georgia
beginning the Shackleton walk

South Georgia
Group photo before the Walk

Shackleton Walk
Strung out in South Georgia

Stromness, South Georgia
Giant Petrel doing what he does best

Stromness beach, S Georgia
Fur seal

Grytviken, South Georgia
Shackleton grave

Grytviken
Gentoos learn about asbestos

St Andrews Bay, South Georgia
King penguins

SAB, S Georgia
Kings

SAB, S Georgia
Kings

SAB, S Georgia
King penguin chicks

Gold Harbour, S Georgia
King penguin chicks

Gold Harbour
Elephant seal...aaahh, that's good...

Larsen Harbour
cruise to waterfall

Macaroni penguins
on the rock