The Last Landing

The high winds of yesterday blew right past us during the night. We awoke to blue skies and a light breeze blowing from the west. We had ideal conditions for our final landing of what has been a truly epic voyage.

Before 07:00 the Expedition Team was on shore and ready to receive the first eager passengers from the ship. Our last landing was a dry landing on a really nice slipway. The ambiance is hard to describe. Imagine Falklands/tropical: turquoise and azure waters and the odd very palm-looking tree scattered around the edges of green gorse bushes. Add in blue skies, 10˚C and a generally green landscape and voila, Falklands/tropical.

And anyone that thinks that penguins don’t belong to tropical landscapes doesn’t know anything about penguins. Just 30 metres from the slipway was a group of moulting Magellanic penguins. Almost every species indigenous or endemic to Carcass island was represented right at the landing site! Amazing!

The screeching, strident calls of no less than 20 young Striated Caracaras filled the air at the landing site. The young raptors seemed to be everywhere and were definitely attracted by the arrival of so many people.

Fearless Little dun-coloured Tussac Birds hopped right up to people on their ceaseless search for food. Cobbs Wrens flitted in and out of the gorse.  Upland Geese grazed higher up the track on the way to the settlement while Kelp Geese explored the intertidal zone. Fat Falkland Islands Flightless Steamer Ducks whistled and clucked at the waters edge. And throughout the morning, as unbelievable as it may seem, we had visitations from Commerson’s Dolphins right at the dock! They came singly, in pairs and even a group of six dolphins came right up to the slipway. They were at times a mere metre away! If that’s not a cool wildlife experience, I don’t know what is.

Lots of people chose to hike right on past the settlement where they gained a high vantage point looking out towards West Point Island. Sooner or later everyone paused for refreshments in the home of the McGill’s for a cup of tea and to sample some baked goods from an extraordinary spread of delectables laid out in the dining room. The scones were to die for!

Carcass was a bittersweet experience. On a long voyage like this it is always the same. Everyone is reluctant to leave. Everyone ekes out everything they can from the last landing. The Falkland Islands are extraordinary and everyone now has indelible cherished memories of Port Stanley and Carcass Island.

Now, once again we are at sea. It will be three days until we reach our final port of Buenos Aires.

In the afternoon we had a full program of lectures and documentary films. In the evening it was a real treat to be entertained by the crew in the Observation Lounge. After more than two weeks on Fram, everyone knows one another very well. It was like being entertained by your friends. Needless to say the Observation lounge was packed for a very fun show!

The winner is: The NATURE

It should have been a wonderful day with the Black- browed albatrosses and Rockhopper penguins, but the weather forced us into plan B and then to plan C and then we had to accept, that the nature is stronger than all our plans. The nature is always the winner, especially so far down in the South as we are.

The wind picked up already during the night and it was still blowing with a Beaufort 9 to 11 and it stayed like this during the whole day. Of course the Captain and our Expedition leader tried to find a landing place in more sheltered areas, but sometimes you have to accept, that there is no chance.

But we did not have the feeling that we lost a day. The wind, the clouds, the color of the sea and the waves changed very fast and we enjoyed this nature spectacle. As we had nearly only nice weather before we liked to see how fast the weather can change. Now we are able to tell our family and friends at home that we experienced a strong storm too, but of course we hope for better weather again tomorrow

During the day we had lectures, we watched the birds that loved the stormy weather and we were visited several times by smaller groups of dolphins. It was really not a boring day.

The day ended with a crew singing in the bar. It is always nice to see with how much enthusiasm the crew likes to entertain us. A big thank you to all of them.

Port Stanley

Fram cut through the narrows leading into Port Stanley at 07:30. We had had a bumpy ride during the night so it was no surprise that it was overcast and windy in the morning. As we pulled alongside the pier just on the edge of town there was a light rain falling. As always we have to wait for the vessel to be cleared by the customs agents, however this morning we experienced one of the fastest clearances issued ever!

There was a choice of three optional excursions available to enable people to explore Port Stanley and region in a fashion that best suited them. Indeed there was lots of time to do an excursion and then tour Stanley on your own as “all aboard” was not until 17:30.

When Fram stops at Port Stanley we always go to the same pier which is about a thirty minute walk from the centre of town. In order to facilitate the comings and goings from the ship, a free shuttle bus service was arranged which was available every thirty minutes.

Ah. The Falkland Islands. Breathe deep. There is a scent of spicy gorse and burning peat in the air. After a season of ice and snow it is a special feeling to arrive in a place where there is greenery, where there are birds singing and flowers blooming. True, it is the end of summer here, nevertheless it is much warmer than from whence we came on the Antarctic Peninsula and it is so good to walk on grass.

At 18:00 Fram departed the pier. As we cleared the narrows once again and entered more open water we immediately felt the effects of the continual high winds. The seas were between four and five metres and winds gusted over 40 knots. Hmmm. We all went to bed wondering what the morrow would bring.

Enjoying a calm sea

We need 2 days to reach Port Stanley, the capital of the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas. During the first day everybody was still talking about South Georgia, about all the wonderful landings we all had. But today on our second day at sea we are more and more looking forward to our next destination – the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas. What kind of experiences will wait there for us?

The lecture team helped us with their lecture collection to sort our expectations. Later on all English speaking passengers had the possibility to visit the bridge. It was very interesting to see the very modern equipment on the bridge.

In the afternoon it was time to send some greetings to our family and friends at home via our blog. It is so wonderful what we can do with the help of the modern technic. Could you imagine how unbelievable it would have been if Amundsen could have sent a picture into the world directly after he reached the South Pole?

Most passengers went to bed early as everybody wanted to be fit during our first day on the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas.

En Route to the Falkland Islands

It’s pretty much as good as we could’ve hoped for. We have a calm crossing from South Georgia to the Falkland Islands. We have one more day at sea before getting to Port Stanley but the weather is likely to hold over the next couple of days. True, the skies are grey but who cares when the seas are calm?

Everyone is still on cloud nine after our two days in the paradise of South Georgia. It is not the first time when we see people overwhelmed by South. It really can be hard to absorb. It really is an in-your-face nature experience. We all need these two sea days to regroup for the Falkland Islands.

Today we had a plethora of activities to help ready people for the Falklands experience. We started with bridge tours in the morning and had lecture scheduled throughout the day. Our photographer Simon met with people at “the fireplace” at noon which was followed by a photo-identification session with the expedition team. The purpose of the session was for people to get “mystery wildlife photos” identified. Not sure what that bird, or seal, or whatever, is in your photos? Just ask the Expedition Team.

At 16:30 we all enjoyed a talk in the Observation Lounge by our special guest lecturer, Dr. Martin Collins the director of South Georgia Fisheries.

In the evening at 21:45 once again we rendezvoused in the Observation Lounge this time for a recap and question and answer period on South Georgia with the Expedition Team.

One more day to relax at sea and then it’s the magic of the Falkland Islands!

In the Kingdom of the King

Our second day in South Georgia started very windy. But as soon as we entered Fortuna Bay, our first destination of the day, the wind calmed down and the sun came out. The weather could not have been better.  One boat group after the other reached the landing side and was greeted by a huge amount of young Fur seals and King Penguins. We started directly our walk to the King penguin colony. It was amazing; we cannot find a word for that what we have seen. We could watch King Penguins with an egg their feet, with small chicks, around six weeks old or even younger and nearly grown up chicks from the last season, changing their brown fluffy feathers against the adult feather dress.

69 passengers made their decision to go on the “Shackleton Hike” over a ridge to Strømness. All the other guests went over to this old whaling station with FRAM.

Everybody had the chance for a wonderful second landing before we had to say “good bye” to South Georgia.

 As we cannot really describe our experiences of this day, please look at the pictures.

Drygalski Fjord and Grytviken

Drygalski Fjord is on the southeast extremity of South Georgia.The fjord is 14 kilometers long and is lined with glaciers. As Fram headed deep into the fjord at 08:00, the skies were grey. At times intermittent snow squalls reduced the visibility to a mere 100 metres and sent many people seeking shelter in the Observation Lounge on deck seven. There was a hard core group that remained on deck all the way up to the head of the fjord. And lo and behold the skies brightened up. The snow squalls ceased and visibility improved to the point where we could see the spectacular terminus and Risting and Jenkins glaciers.

Eventually it was time to do a 180 and head back out beautiful Drygalski Fjord and into the Scotia Sea. Once we got into open water again the weather really cleared up and we enjoyed sunny skies as we cruised to Grytiviken.

In the afternoon we landed at the former former whaling station and the current site for some of the administration of South Georgia and surrounding waters. Some of the personnel from Grytviken came on board Fram at 14:30. After a short presentation in the Framheim hall we were cleared to go on shore at 15:00.

We landed just in front of the cemetery where Ernest Shackleton is buried. Scores of rambunctious fur seal pups lined the waters edge. They flipped and flopped in and out of the water. They would growl in a sort of timid aggressive fashion as they flippered their way up to smell your boot. Cutest damn things on earth. Antarctic Fur Seal pups. 

It seemed that most people went to pay their respects to Shackleton and then joined a tour of the whaling station escorted by two of the personnel from Grytviken. Everyone had a full three hours on shore which allowed plenty of time to visit the museum, the gift shop and even to wander out to the memorial at King Edward Point.

By 20:00 everyone was back on board. Soon we lifted anchor and headed in the direction of Fortuna Bay. It seemed that just about everyone had paid their respects at Shackleton’s grave. And just about everyone was looking forward to see Fortuna Bay, the beginning of the last leg of Shackleton’s epic journey from the Weddell Sea to Stromness.

At sea

A day specially made to be relaxed!

During this cruise we will have several days “only” at sea. Perhaps some passengers believed in the beginning that these could be to many or perhaps boring days. But latest now we recognized – we need these days. We need them to calm down after all the new experiences we have made during our landings at the Antarctic Peninsula. Everything was new for us. After each landing we came back on board full of so many new experiences that we had the problem to hold them all in our mind.

So it was no wonder that we could see passengers sitting in the lounges, in the cafeteria and next to our “fireplace” in front of the reception, writing their diaries, sorting pictures on their computer, find out with the help of the lectures what kind of bird they got on their photo. We have also artists on board who are even painting in nice aquarelles their personal diary.

Of course we had lectures and we needed a little bit of time to clean our clothes again for our landings in South Georgia also. We do not want to bring any aliens to the so called “Perl of Antarctica”.

The day ended with a question round with our Captain Rune Andreassen and the Hotel manager Kjell Carlson. A big thank you to both of them that they took their time to answer all our questions. Now we are ready for our next destination – South Georgia here we come.

The Scotia Sea

Slow and steady wins the race. That defines us right now as we ply our way across the Scotia Sea on our way to South Georgia. We’ve been making a steady thirteen knots all night and all day long, eating up mile after mile. And that’s the key to travelling at sea. 13 knots is 24.076 kms/hr or 14.960133 miles/hr. Not exactly a speed which gives flying bugs nightmares of windshield splatters. Not that there are a lot of insects winging their way over the southern oceans. Regardless, it is the unrelenting headway that eats up the miles and gets the job done when at sea.

We have excellent weather for the crossing. In the earlier morning we had heavy fog where visibility was reduced at times to 50 metres. By noon the fog had lifted but we were still accompanied by overcast skies. The good news was that we had a trailing sea taking us on the stern quarter imbuing a gentle roll to Fram all day long. This is about as comfortable as it gets at sea. The motion was just enough to remind you that you’re on a ship but not enough to cause you to spill your drink. A perfect motion for inducing a somnambulant restful state in everyone. That is precisely part of the enjoyment of these peaceful sea days. It’s a chance to rest after out grand adventures in Antarctica and recharge the batteries so we can hit the ground running we arrive in South Georgia.

As always on sea days we had a full lecture plan scheduled in the morning and in the afternoon, as well as several documentary films. 

Our course took us along the Hesperides Trough, a place in the middle of the Scotia Sea where the ocean floor rises abruptly from thousands of feet to several hundred feet.  This rapid change in depth creates an area of upwelling that promotes productivity throughout the oceanic food change with the ultimate result of an increase in numbers of whales and sea birds. We sighted several blows from large whales during the morning and early afternoon and the day was spectacular for sea birds. Our species list for sea birds for the day includes, Black-browed and Grey-headed Albatrosses, Northern and Southern Giant Petrels including a really beautiful white morph, Wilson’s and Black-bellied Storm Petrels, White-chinned Petrels, Cape Petrels, Sooty Shearwaters and Prions.

It is now 20:40 and the dark of night is quickly descending. Fram continues to rock gently to and fro. We will all sleep well tonight.