Prospect Point

At Prospect Point, the Falkland Islands Dependencies Service operated its Base J in the years 1957-1959. In this base, mostly topographic and geological research was carried out. Since, the station building has decayed and its remnants were finally removed in 2004 by the British Antarctic Survey. So today, only the fundaments remain. After a visit to this historic site, we went on a glacier walk. In rope teams lead by one guide, we ascended the glacier to a crevasse that was safe to approach. The crevasse was glooming blue and its walls were nicely decorated with icicles.

In the early afternoon, the Fram was sailing past the Argentine Islands, and several humpback whales greeted us along the way, waving with their tails.

As a special treat in the lecturing programme on board, one of our guests, the famous Brazilian Antarctic explorer Amyr  Klink, gave a report of his endeavors, among them rowing across the Atlantic Ocean and sailing around Antarctica. Fascinating to listen to a man with such exciting experiences!

As a further highlight of the day, some of the guests went out for a long ice cruise, both to the iceberg alley at Pléneau Island, and further through the Lemaire Channel. In the shallow waters around Pléneau, a lot of icebergs get stranded and stay. Their shapes and colors are just amazing. The wind picked up as the Polar Cirkle boats entered the Lemaire Channel, and the boat ride became a rather bumpy and very wet enterprise. Nevertheless it was an exciting and real Antarctic experience, and we got rewarded by three humpback whales that came really close. Seeing them from a small boat directly at the level of the water surface gives an even better impression of the huge body size of this majestic animals!

The Antarctic Circle

This morning at about 07:30 we crossed the Antarctic Circle.  How exotic and romantic does that sound? The Antarctic Circle!  Crossing the Antarctic Circle is the stuff of which documentaries and dreams are made.  It’s not something that one does one’s self is it?  You read about other people doing it but today we joined an elite group of explorers and adventurers.  We are now proud members of an exclusive club and we even have a certificate to prove it!!

At about 10:00 we started our landing at Detaille Island which was a British Base called Base W and was in operation from February 21st 1956 until March 31st 1959.  Recently the British Antarctic Heritage Trust has been doing some renovations to the interior and exterior of the main building.

We were fortunate to have blue skies once again this morning which presented ideal conditions for an Antarctic plunge.  49 people took the opportunity to go for a quick dip south of the circle.  After all, when will you ever again in your life have the chance to go for a swim... ahem, dip, so far south?  Probably never.

We wrapped up our landing at Detaille at 13:30 and headed further south in the hopes of being able to reach the Gullet.  At 15:00 it became apparent that the ice was too thick for us to make any more southerly progress.  It was decided that we should have a group photo on deck five to commemorate our crossing of the circle and our furthest point south.  It was only when we we were out on deck that we realized that we had a special visitor.  It was none other than HRH King Neptune.

 King Neptune was collecting payment for us crossing the Antarctic Circle.  Anyone willing to pay the sacrifice had icy water poured down the back of their neck.  The consolation was a shot of rum right after!  Surprisingly there was a lineup of eager (crazy!) people anxious to have ice water dumped on them.  Or was it the Rum they were after?  The last person to be baptized was Rochel from the crew.  Actually she wasn’t in line.  She got dragged over!

We then turned to the north in search of a suitable location to go for a cruise in the Polar Cirkel boats.  There was a magnificent ice berg very close to Detaille Island.  Truly this iceberg was a marvel.  It was worth launching the Polar Cirkel boats so that everyone could get a closer look.

Now it is 20:00 and we are making our way north once again.  Tomorrow’s plan is to attempt a landing at the Fish Islands.

Here we are again...

Travelling to remote places also means that sometimes we are out of touch with the outside world...It is only the ship, the activities, the scenery that take over life on board... We did not had the world best`s internet connection lately as we want to show you pictures as well but hope that we are able to update you now again! Sorry for the wait- and thanks for the patience! And now... enjoy

Lemaire Channel, Petermann Island and Vernadsky Station

There was hardly any time for breakfast this morning. Waking up in the scenic Neumeyer Channel we continued through the even narrower Lemaire Channel. A lot of ice floes lined our way, and the blue sky, steep mountains and glaciers were mirrored in the cold steel blue water.

We were headed for our morning landing at Petermann Island. The Gentoo penguin chicks there are already almost as big as their parents, and their fat bellies clearly demonstrated that they have been doing very well this year. The cliff at the northern edge of the colony is the place where the blue-eyed shags breed and their chicks are also notoriously hungry. Their parents were industrious going back and forth to the sea and on every return, greedy quarreling broke out between the three to four siblings in each nest.

A view point at the far end of Petermann Island further offered a splendid view of the surroundings, with the FRAM in front of snow-covered mountains on one side and a bay filled with icebergs of all shapes and shades of blue on the other side.

Humpback whales accompanied us on our way to our afternoon landing site, the Ukrainian research base Vernadsky. Still miraculously under blue skies we cruised through the narrow channels in between the Argentine Islands up to the base, where we were shown around the building by the resident researchers. The landing was rounded off by a visit to historic Wordie House, the old and abandoned British station building on the neighboring Winter Island. The hill behind Wordie House offered a fantastic 360° panoramic view of the ice-filled Argentine Islands archipelago, and even some breaching humpback whales!

An Emperor!!!

One of the reasons people come to Antarctica is to see and to experience ice and that was exactly what today was all about.  As we have mentioned several times in this blog, the Weddell Sea has largely been impassable for Expedition Cruise ships this season.  As we pass the zenith of summer, the extent of the ice is diminishing.  We could see on our satellite ice charts that at the very least, we would be able to experience giant tabular icebergs up close and we would be able to patrol the edge of the sea ice pack.

There was lots of blue sky and sunshine early this morning.  And as expected, there was lots of ice!  Instead of doing a landing today we opted to drop the Polar Cirkle boats and go cruising in the heavy sea ice and have a close up view of tabular bergs from sea level.  There is nothing quite like cruising through heavy ice in a small boat.  It is really a fun and thrilling experience.

We were also hoping to be able to find seals lounging on ice floes and as luck would have it we found several Crabeater Seals and two or three Weddell Seals.  Speaking of luck: a few people got to see a juvenile Emperor Penguin!!  The northernmost Emperor Colony is less than 100 kms from where we were cruising but it was still an incredible stroke of luck to see a lone juvenile Emperor Penguin on an ice floe!

We wrapped up the cruising around noon.  Many people said it was there favourite thing to do so far and if given the choice, they would love to do even more Polar Cirkle boat cruising!

The rest of the day was full speed ahead.  We had a lot of miles to cover in order to reach Peterman Island tomorrow morning.  As we headed south the skies quickly closed in, the sea picked up and it began to snow.  What a transformation from our fantastic weather this morning.

In the afternoon the Polhogda and Framheim lecture halls were full as we once again picked up with our lecture series.

At 21:45 we met in the observation Lounge for a fashion show of the merchandise in the onboard gift shop.  And who were the models?  None other than the entire Expedition Team and the officers of the ship!

Esperanza Station and Brown Bluff

The views out of the windows from the breakfast table were stunning: Over night, we had sailed into the Antarctic Sound, also called “Iceberg Alley”. Large grounded tabular icebergs lined our way into Hope Bay on the Southern side of the Sound. 

This is where the Argentine Esperanza Station is situated. A large leopard seal welcomed us at the beach, and in small groups, we were guided through the station. Actually, the station resembles a small town. Everything is there, a community center for social activities, a school, a church, a museum, all kinds of workshops and laboratories…

Brown Bluff, our afternoon landing site is situated nearby. The name comes from the brown volcanic deposits in the cliff that forms the picturesque background of one of the largest Adelie penguin colonies in Antarctica. The colony was teeming with half-grown penguin chicks. It was a great place for us to observe the behavior of the penguin chicks begging for food from the adults who returned from the sea with their fill of krill. Also a lot of stone thieves were lurking among the penguins. They were picking up pebbles from unattended nests to add them to their own nest.

The glacier moraine to the side of the colony was a great viewpoint to oversee the ice-filled bay, and we even accomplished guided tours on the nearby glacier with our experienced glacier guides.

After dinner we got a very special dessert. A pod of Orcas visited the ship and we enjoyed their company for more than half an hour. They slowly moved along the ice edge, and we could nicely see the hook-shaped dorsal fins of the females as well as the long sword-shape dorsals of the males.

Fog does not stop us!

As we made our way to the South Shetland Islands and the Great White Continent the excitement of making our first landing in Antarctica mounted.  Even the heavy fog that enveloped the ship all morning long did not quell our enthusiasm.  It may have been foggy but that did not cause us to lose any time.  We were due to make our first landing at Half Moon Island at 15:00!

The lecture series continued in the morning with talks on history, seals and penguins.  We certainly felt well prepared for Antarctica!

As we approached Nelson Strait, our entrance to the South Shetland Islands, the fog began to lift and we caught our first glimpses of land.

And than at 14:45 the Expedition Team boarded the first Polar Cirkle boats and went ashore to prepare the landing site.

The first passengers on shore were the hikers.  A lot of hikers.  78 people signed up  to join the two hour trek.  At 16:15 the hikers set off towards the Argentine Base Camara and continued on along the beach and up to a lofty 360˚ view of Moon Island, Livingston Island and the surrounding waters.

At the main landing site everyone was entertained by the boisterous colony of Chinstrap Penguins.  There was also a Crabeater Seal and Weddell Seal which just about everyone got the opportunity to visit and photograph.  Towards the end of the landing a couple of male Antarctic Fur Seals hauled out on the beach.  It was quite an impressive landing for our first moments in Antarctica.

Meanwhile the Captain decided that while we were all on shore it would be a good time to run some safety drills with the ship’s life boats and the “man over board” (MOB) boat.

At around 18:30 everyone was back on the ship.  We lifted anchor and set a course to take us towards Antarctic Sound and the Weddell Sea.

This was only day one of our landings.  There is an entire boat load of exciting adventures yet to come!

Drake Passage

We woke up to an overcast and calm day. A day of swings and roundabouts. With minimal swell and wave heights below 2m, nobody felt seasick on board and everybody was able to attend to the diverse lecture programme set up by the expedition team. On the other hand, some photo enthusiasts were more than a bit disappointed as under these conditions, albatross and other seabirds rarely fly. These birds need more wind to soar around on the seas. So apart from a couple of Hourglass dolphins that visited the ship, very few wildlife was spotted today.

The day was also used for preparations for our landings in Antarctica. A big vacuuming party was held in the corridors of deck 2 and 3, where everybody carefully cleaned their jackets, trousers and bags. One of the biggest threats to Antarctica’s wildlife is introduction of foreign life forms, being it seeds from plants back home or microorganisms that are attached to soil particles. With this extra care, we make sure that we keep Antarctica as unspoilt as it is now.

Ushuaia in the sun!

It was a heat wave in Ushuaia.  Shorts and a t-shirt were de rigueur.  Most often when warm air wafts through Ushuaia there is a sense that inclement weather lies lurking just beyond the craggy mountain tops.  But not today.  There were no fewer than eight ships in Ushuaia today.  The port was packed and everyone was strolling the main streets luxuriating in the warm sunshine.  And why not?  Let’s absorb those beneficial rays before heading down to the ice.  It’s going to be cold right? Well, maybe.  Certainly colder than Ushuaia was today but this is the warmest season I’ve seen on the Antarctic Peninsula in the past twenty years.  Is it global warming?  Possibly.  Is it natural weather  variation?  Probably.  But it gives one pause for thought.

The weather has also been kind to us crossing Drake Passage this summer.  The majority of our crossings have been accompanied by very little wind.   Having said that, several ships got slammed three days ago in a big storm in the Scotia Sea.  There is also much more ice further north in the Weddell and Scotia Seas this year and in addition there has been more fresh snow on the northeast side of the peninsula than normal.  What gives?  I don’t know, but for the most part the weather has been to our benefit.  The ice? Well, there was that massive detour we had to make on our trip from South Georgia to the Peninsula.  The northern boundary of the ice caused us to deviate our course by hundreds of miles.

These days we conduct our mandatory safety briefing before we leave the pier in Ushuaia.  Upon completion of the drill we cast off at 18:00.  There was a stiff breeze blowing but nothing that would ruffle Fram’s feathers.  It was a glorious evening to cruise the Beagle Channel.  At 21:00 we joined the Captain, the officers, the Expedition Team and some of the crew for the Captain’s welcome speech and a glass of champagne.  We were introduced to key members of the ship.

At around 23:00 we went from the sheltered confines of the Beagle to the rolling swell of the open Atlantic Ocean.  You can always tell.  The ship goes from little to no movement  at all, to a gentle roll like tonight, or to a “bounce and slam” on some other nights. 

Drake Passage- Part 2

Surrounded by fog, MV Fram continued its way to Cap Horn and then to Ushuaia. The educational program was on full speed and even a little choppy sea did not stop it.

From time to time the fog became less dense and we were able to spot a few birds, including Wander albatrosses, that glided majestically around the ship.

In the afternoon we were invited to join the Captains Farewell Cocktail, followed by an auction. In the auction, the MV Fram master navigation chart and Hurtigruten company flag were sold to raise money for four foundations that are involved in nature protection programs. Two of them are involved in bird conservation and two in preserving human heritage in Antarctica. This time the auction went really amazing. We collected 2320 US$ all together!

At 4 pm, greeted by Peale’s Dolphins, Fram arrived in the vicinity of Cape Horn. That’s final sign that our journey is coming in to an end. In few hours we’ll take Beagle Channel pilot on board and start the last leg to Ushuaia.