Antarctica – here we are!

Anja, our Expedition Leader, told us in the daily morning greeting that we had already crossed the Antarctic Convergence, meaning we had reached Antarctic waters! And close to midday we started to enter the Nelson Strait. On both sides of the ship we could see the first glaciers and peaks of the South Shetland Islands. And some humpback whales showed up!

After having been briefed about the IAATO Guidelines, having vacuum cleaned our backpacks and having picked up our life jackets we were all ready for our first landing.

It took place on Halfmoon Island, a tiny little island packed with wildlife. Chinstrap penguins, skuas, kelp gulls, young fur seals, giant petrels… and even some gentoo penguins.

The swell was quite remarkable and the Expedition Team did a great job to keep our polar circle boats in place for embarkation and disembarkation on the beach. Hard work for them, and quite impressive how they stood for 4 hours in the freezing water, sometimes up to the waist!

Now MV Fram has set sail again and we are heading for Deception Island where we will have a glimpse to the entrance of the caldera, called Neptune’s Bellow, later in the evening.

The adventure begins…



Black-browed albatross



Drake Passage!! Incredible, at present we in the middle of this legendary ocean crossing! At night, the movement of the vessel started to tell us that we were entering the open sea after smooth sailing through the Beagle Channel.





Light-mantled sooty albatross



However, wind and waves were not too bad today – a Beaufort 6 was a good start for getting our sea legs. The day was packed with interesting lectures and bird-watching from deck 7. Mighty wandering albatrosses – the largest flying birds with a wingspan of up to 3.6 m or 12 ft – are accompanying the FRAM on her way down south. But other bird species are seen (see photos), as the Southern Ocean is for sure a paradise for ornithologists!

In the morning many of us were also so lucky to watch a pod of pilot whales close by, this was another exciting moment for wildlife lovers!

This is a good start and we eagerly look forward to the next days and the new sights and sounds they will bring us.

 

Good-Bye and Welcome

It is always with mixed feelings that we arrive in Ushuaia after each trip. It means saying good-bye to familiar faces and seeing those people leave with which we have spent the last 12 days on board and with whom we shared many great experiences.

On the other hand it means welcoming a new group of passengers and starting yet another adventure. Not one trip is like the other, each single cruise is unique. Not only because the people change, but also because weather and light are never the same, the animal encounters are different each time and penguin chicks grow as the season goes by. So it is always exciting to start a new trip!

We are all looking forward to sail south once more and share our love for Antarctica with the new guests.

Welcome on board!

The last leg of the trip

As we started our return it was a bit bumpy, however it turned out to be a relaxing and smooth crossing. Passengers did other activities and attended lectures.

Since we could not accomplish our last landing due to bad weather conditions and we had some extra time on ours hands and the captain directed the vessel toward the famous landmark - Cape Horn. We had a very nice view of the Cape itself, the monument of the Albatross, and lighthouse, where a young couple lives year round. As we passed by the Horn there was a large mixed flock of many hundreds Sooty Shearwaters, Black-Browed Albatrosses, some Magellanic Penguins, and cormorants all seemed to fly and dive in unison following the same prey in the sea..

As the evening ended we had our traditional auction for charity and the Captains farewell dinner. Tomorrow we will wake up early in the morning in Ushuaia..

A Drake-day

No landing today, that sounds funny, but we are in the Drake Passage already and that means, now we have the time to think about the experiences we had during our days in Antarctica.

                                    

Of course the expedition staff offered several lectures and so we had the feeling being back at school or to the university again. Linda, our photographer gave again tips for making good photos.

But there was also enough time for relaxing.

Some liked the puzzles; some used the time have a look at the books of our well equipped library. Others liked only talking in the Observation Lounge with their new friends.

In the afternoon it was waffle time again. The fine and tasty smell filled the whole ship and made everybody hungry. A little walk on the outside decks, watching the birds, helped us to become hungry by dinner time. But good food belongs to successful holidays too.

Sailing in the storm

Our morning started with sunshine. During the night we reached the Antarctic Sound where we planned a landing in Brown Bluff. To reach this place we had to cruise between amazing tabular icebergs. The tabular icebergs are drifting with the main current and the wind from the Weddell Sea into the Sound. The scenery was so spectacular, that most passengers were standing in the bow or in the Observation Lounge. After a while the wind picked up and then we got a real storm, more than 35m per second. The sea-spray was flying over the ocean and against the sun you could see even rainbows in the sea-spray. With such a wind it was not possible to land in Brown Bluff and the Captain and our Expedition Leader made the decision to cruise with FRAM in the direction of the Weddell Sea. So we could watch the wonderful landscape and the tabular icebergs more intensively. Around lunchtime we saw Humpback Whales again. They showed their fluke very often, so that we got several possibilities to make good photos.

In the afternoon we enjoyed the lectures given by our experts from the expedition team. We always try to get as much information as possible.

In the evening we passed through the Nelson Strait into the Drake Passage. This was the moment to say good bye to Antarctica, although we wish to stay longer.

After dinner we met for a question round with our officers in the Observation Lounge and got the answers to all our open questions regarding the ship.

Shopping and Whaling in Antarctica

Our day started with a landing in Port Lockroy, the former British Station Base A. Today it is a museum with a souvenir shop that is maintained and operated by the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust. For most of us Port Lockroy was the last possibility to buy some Antarctic gifts for our family and friends at home. And here we could be sure, that our shopping was a good thing, because the profits from the sales at the Port Lockroy shop are used by the UKAHT to restore historical buildings in Antarctica. We were fortunate to see the profits at work by the construction crew as they installed a new roof on the building at Detaille Island, the former British Base W.

 

The afternoon we spent cruising in Wilhelmina Bay, looking for wildlife. And we were very fortunate. Directly at the entrance of the bay we saw our first humpback whales and little bit later we saw big pod of killer whales. The next there were two sleeping humpback whales, a mother and a calf. We passed by with MV FRAM very slowly, so that we could make nice pictures. But only some minutes later we had an unbelievable experience, which was the “Highlight of the day”. For nearly half an hour we could watch a female and male humpback whale swimming together very close to the FRAM. They were turning over, waving with their very long white flippers and also showing us their heads and their flukes. It was the best whale show you can imagine, better than all Walt Disney Films you can buy. It was hard for us to say good bye to our new friends, but we decided to let them alone and headed for our next destination in the Antarctic Sound.

After dinner we had the opportunity to learn to make different nautical knots. It looked very easy, when we watched the men from our deck department, but we were not sure, if we could do the knots this fast by ourselves.

The evening ended with the famous MV FRAM crew show. We will never forget all the different kind of talents they showed us. And we would like to say “thank you” to the crew that spent so much time to entertain us. 

Antarctica in snow

The morning started with snow. But the snow showers did not affect our first landing of the day. We were welcomed by the Ukrainian staff to their Station Vernadsky. We spent our time in the main building. First we were given a guided tour but then we had enough time to enjoy the famous bar. Several passengers tested the home-made Vodka. There is a special “lady offer”. If you donate your bra to the bar, you get a vodka drink for free. Unfortunately only one lady gave her bra away. The station members were a little bit sad – perhaps.

 

We spend our afternoon on Peterman Island. There was heavy cloud cover and most of the time we had continuous showers of rain or sleet or snow. But there is no bad weather, there is only bad clothing. We have been prepared very well for this weather with our rubber boots, rain pants and our blue waterproof jackets. So we enjoyed the landing even under these weather conditions. We spread like blue penguins over the island to see the Adelie Penguins with their nearly full grown chicks. We also saw Blue Eyed Shags and Gentoo penguins. The Gentoo chicks are quite small for this time of the year and as a result the Skuas were often attacking and eating the chicks. It is not nice to see how often the Skuas were successful, but that’s nature and Skuas have to eat too.

Most of us spent the evening relaxing in the Panorama Lounge. All these experiences made us tired and we went to bed, looking forward for another wonderful day.

Another Penguin Day

In the morning we reached the Fish Islands, a group of very tiny islands. Adelie Penguins were breeding all over. At ten o‘clock we started our landing on one of these small islands. It was a very special feeling to stand between all the Adelie Penguins. The chicks were standing in the Kindergarten and were protected by some adults. After the landing Anja, our Expedition leader, gave us the possibility for a short boat cruise between the icebergs and floating sea ice. Several Crab eater seals were resting on the ice and that gave us the possibility to watch at a very close distance. From the waterline we have been able to look directly into their eyes – a really an unforgettable experience.

In the afternoon FRAM headed north and we attended afternoon lectures. The weather has not been good and this time, we had wind and snow, so we had no good reason not to learn something new in one of the lectures.

In the evening we had our very, very well-known fashion show on board. Officers, crew, staff and even some passengers were the models. Our youngest model, Thieu Quang, 9 years old, came from Vietnam to participate. Everybody had a lot of fun and will never ever forget this special show.

CLEAR SAILING

Endless blue sky and bright sun appeared at 3AM and stayed with us throughout this perfect day.

Our morning landing was at Stonington Island. The island sits in an awesome setting of multi-colored rocks and high mountains and is flanked on one side by an immense active glacier front. While we were there this glacier calved on several occasions and the sound and the rolling waves were truly awesome. The term “awesome” is currently overused by the younger generation but the glacial action and the sounds of the glacier breaking apart and the power of the waves breaking as they approached the shore were truly awesome.

Tudor Morgan, Antarctic Heritage Trust, putting up new signboards

While on the Island we visited 2 abandoned but preserved bases. UK Base E and US East Base are within sight of each other. The US base was built and used from 1939 and closed in 1941. The UK base was built in 1945-46 and during that period one of the US base buildings was used to store seal carcasses that were used as dog food. Needless to say this storing of the seals in the bunkhouse did not sit well with Finn Ronne the US base commander when he returned to the site in 1947. Eventually the respective base commanders resolved these “grievances and other issues” and a substantial mapping and sampling program was carried out under the banner of civil cooperation.

Our day continued under clear skies and bright sun. After lunch we reached Horseshoe Island but our intended landing there had to be cancelled as the winds were too strong and the waves were too choppy.

A benefit of this cancellation is that this evening we are traversing the Gullet northbound under clear skies and with a beautiful sun angle.