At sea

Even though we had no landings today, time flew quickly with bridge visits, lectures and conversations in the bar or observation lounge. And as it is Valentine`s Day today, we got the most colourful desserts and the decorations that are on our buffet were just wonderful!

Arctowski Station

Time to say good-bye to Antarctica for this voyage! This morning we performed our last landing before heading out into the Drake Passage. We visited Arctowski, a busy Polish research station. On the beaches nearby, many elephant seals were hauled out, and we got to see Chinstrap-, Adelie- and Gentoo penguins again.

The pictures of the day were taken by Margaret Byford and Helgard and Oliver Gimm.

Deception Island and Yankee Harbour

This morning we landed at Whalers Bay inside the crater of Deception Island, an active volcano. Landings at Deception Island always have a unique atmosphere, as steam rises from the beaches, and the water that accumulates in footprints close to the shoreline is so hot that you can hardly put your hand into it. We continued towards Greenwich Island where we arranged our afternoon landing at Yankee Harbour. Hundreds of newly fledged gentoo penguin chicks populated the beach, approaching us curiously. There is no other place in the world where you can have these intimate encounters with wild animals!

The pictures of the day were taken by Rosemary Hayward and Helgard and Oliver Gimm.

Fish Islands and Lemaire Channel

Beautiful sunshine woke us up early and straight after breakfast we started our landing at the Fish Islands, an archipelago in the Crystal Sound area. We saw lush Antarctic vegetation: 2 to 3 cm deep mossbeds and lichens, probably some hundreds of years old!
The island is also home to a small colony of Adelie penguins. In the evening we sailed through the magnificent Lemaire Channel, also called Kodak gap. In modern days of digital photography, it maybe should be renamed to Canon (Nikon, Olympus,…you name the brands) gap. Many gigabytes of pictures were taken of the steep walls on both sides of the narrow sound lit in the warm evening light!

The pictures of the day were taken by Margaret Byford (showing the winners of the southernmost pub quiz) and Helgard and Oliver Gimm.

The Gullet

We made it! We are the first Hurtigruten ship ever that passed through the Gullet, the sound between Adelaide Island and the Antarctic Peninsula! In beautiful weather, the FRAM slowly pushed its way through the ice-filled narrows. Many seals hauled out on the ice-floes and snow petrels encircled the ship. We actually progressed faster than we thought and so we had even time to start a spontaneous Polar Circle Boat cruise among the ice floes! What a great experience to get really close to Weddell-, Crabeater- and Fur seals!

The picture of the day was taken by Helgard and Oliver Gimm.

Horseshoe Island and Stonington Island

Today, we explored Marguerite Bay, way down South at the Antarctic Peninsula, where only very few ships get to every year. In the morning, we visited the British Base Y at Horseshoe Island. After dinner, we started our second landing at Stonington Island, where everybody got a long evening on shore. We got to see a fantastic sunset! However, this far South it doesn`t really get dark, and still at midnight, we observe orange clouds at the horizon.

Antarctic Circle and Detaille Island

This morning we were visited by Neptun himself when we crossed the Antarctic circle! He baptized everybody on board with a good dip of cold water and ice cubes and he wished us welcome to his kingdom! A refreshing experience, but Neptun also offered strong drinks to get us warm again. We were all granted the same status as halibut, mermaids and crabs, and isn`t that quite something?
After lunch we landed at Detaille Island and visited Base W of the British Antarctic Survey, which has been in use from 1956 to 1959. We topped this landing off with a Polar Circle Boat cruise in between the spectacular icebergs of all shapes and colours that filled the waters around the island.

The pictures of the day were taken by Lyn McNaught and Mariana von Dobeneck.

Cuverville Island and Almirante Brown

A busy day with two landings! At Cuverville Island, gentoo penguins are all over the beach. As a bonus, we also found a female elephant seal sound asleep in between the penguins. In the afternoon, we visited the Argentinean base Almirante Brown, where we set foot on the Antarctic continent for the first time during this voyage! We climbed up on the hill behind the base and marveled the view over Paradise Bay. It is good fun to slide down the hill on the bottom!

The pictures of the day were taken by Espen Sortland and Peter Byford

Half Moon Island

The morning started off with briefings and lectures, but around lunch, everybody on board became agitated: Land in sight! After a smooth ride over the Drake Passage we finally reached the South Shetland Islands! On our first landing in Antarctic waters we visited the Chinstrap Penguins at Half Moon Bay. The penguin chicks are already big and constantly hungry, and so the parents were busy shuttling between the sea and the colony to provide their offspring with food. The whole scenery was bathed in the warm light of the late afternoon sun and the crests of Livingstone Island in the background shed long shadows on the glaciers surrounding them. What a marvelous day!

The pictures of the day were taken by Helgard and Oliver Gimm

Drake Passage

Drake Lake instead of Drake Shake! The sea is calm and the sailing conditions are perfect! Time flies by quickly with an interesting lecture program and conversations. Albatross instead do rarely fly by – it is simply too little wind for them!

Ushuaia

Even the nicest trip has to end at some time! This morning we waved good-bye to our passengers that have accompanied the MV FRAM to the furthest South she has ever been!

In the afternoon, we welcomed our new 226 passengers, this time from 19 different countries. Many of them came home to “their” ship, on which they have traveled already some time before, either in the Arctic or in Antarcica. After having set sail heading into the Beagle Channel, Captain Steinar Hansen invited everybody into the observation lounge to welcome everybody on board. A new exciting voyage with the aim to reach Marguerite Bay has begun!

Kap Hoorn

Smooth sailing- and therefore we made such a good speed that we could make a detour to Kap Hoorn! Even though we could not land, it was very visible from the vessel. From the distance we even saw the monument of the albatross.
Tomorrow it is time to leave the vessel. We would like to thank all of our passengers for the good mood, enthusiasm and spirit! It was a true adventure tour and thank you very much for joining MV FRAM! We hope to see you back one day again!

Today`s picture is from Malcolm Beasley!

Drake Passage

What a luck again- and we make good speed over the Drake passage! The lecture halls are full and people have a chance to see the birds around the vessel. Finally there is some time to sort all the pictures taken during this incredible voyage. What did one do before digital pictures??

Today`s picture was taken again by: Franz Zeitlberger! Thank you very much!

Neko Harbor

For many staff members, Neko harbor is a favourite spot! It is situated in beautiful Andvord Bay, there are many active glaciars around so there is always plenty of ice and at least one of these huge icebergs you dream about. And finally we had the real Antarctic weather with snow fall! Otherwise nobody would have believed that we were in Antarctica for the last days! You can not come back home and only show pictures with sunshine! On the way north we passed Wilhelmina Bay and there are quite a few whales around us here in the Gerlache strait right now.

Franz Zeitlberger took todays picture!