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.

Our last day in Antarctica

The morning started again with sunshine and blue sky. Around 8 am we reached the Argentinean Station Esperanza in Hope Bay at the northeastern tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.  

The bay got its name during the Swedish Antarctic Expedition of 1901 – 04 when three members of this expedition had to overwinter here. The historical stone hut out of this time still exists next to the station and is really a must for historic interested passengers. All passengers were guided around by someone from the station. We experienced a very warm welcome and we enjoyed the time at the landing side. The station is mainly a military base but we got in contact with Scientifics too. We visited the Adelie penguin colony first and got later on a good overview about the life in such a big station. We had even the possibility to buy souvenirs again. 

On our way back to the ship we recognized that this would be our last landing in Antarctica. So we had to say good bye to our last Antarctic penguins. Even we will see other penguins as soon as we will reach South Georgia it was difficult to let this wonderful wilderness behind us especially under this wonderful weather conditions. Some of us made already at this moment the decision to come back at any time. 

We sailed out of Hope bay into the Antarctic Sound during lunch time. The Sound is very famous for its breathtaking and impressive tabular icebergs we had not seen before. Especially under this amazing weather conditions this afternoon will never be forgotten. 

During dinner we had a last highlight of the day. A group of Orcas showed up directly next to MV Fram and started a race with the ship. We can be so happy with all the whales we have seen during our trip until now. Later in the evening we met our expedition team in the observation lounge for a question and answer round. It has been just the right end of an unbelievable first part of our trip so far in the South.

The Seasons Change

I’m Canadian and as everyone knows, Canada is a land of four seasons.  In Canada it’s easy to tell the spring from the summer, the summer from the fall, the fall from the winter. However Antarctica seems more like a land of two seasons. Summer or winter. For the past three weeks you can see and feel the change of the season. Summer is over and old man winter is knockin’ at the door.

We are experiencing at least 8 hours of darkness every day now. It’s colder. You can feel the tenacious grip of winter in the air.  A day of warm sunshine is now a welcome respite from the more constant days of damp grey. Everywhere you look you see the foreshadowing of winter. For the most part, the chicks of all the sea birds in Antarctica have lost their down and are now fully feathered. The chicks from Gulls, Terns and Skuas are either flying or about to take their first flights. The Antarctic Shags are the same except their young are also taking their first plunges in the ocean. The Adelie penguins have already returned to the sea and the Chinstrap and Gentoos are soon to follow.

In Canada we see a change from summer to fall in the autumn leaves. On the Antarctic Peninsula the autumn colour might be represented by the pink and green snow algae. Certainly at the end of February the algae is at it’s greatest extent showing up in places like Peterman Island in big swaths of bright pink and green on top of the snow.

We landed on Petermann at about 09:30. The Expedition Team took a pool as to how many Adelies would be left on the island.  By the end of the landing we had counted seven. Drat! I was off by three. Still, there were lots of Gentoos roaming around. The Gentoo chicks at this stage are loads of fun to watch often approaching to within a metre or less. It is my guess that it is hunger driving their curiosity.

By 10:00 snow was falling steadily and the wind began to pick up.  At times there was a mixture of snowflakes and ice pellets but after a while large heavy flakes floated down. Soon the bright areas of pink and green snow algae were covered by a light blanket of snow. And just like that, Old Man Winter splashed a bucket of white over the bright colours of autumn. Everyone got a full hour on shore which was enough time to see the Blue-eyed Shags on the south end of the island and to wander over for a look at Iceberg Alley towards the north end.

By 13:00 we wrapped up the landing and headed into the Lemaire Channel, quite probably the most famous Channel in all of Antarctica. We couldn’t see the tops of the mountains with the low cloud cover, but it was still really great to cruise through the scenic channel.

Around 17:00 we encountered several groups of Humpback whales in the Gerlache Strait. We had time on our schedule to stop to do a little whale watching, and what incredible whale watching it was! We had feeding Humpbacks quite close to the ship yet once again!  We focused o na small group of three whales. It was our guess that it was a female with a large calf and an escort.  Time after time the whales lunged to the surface with their mouths agape. At times we could look down their throats!  We could see their plates of balleen and their ventral pouches fully expanded. The whales were feeding on krill which was evidenced by a large red cloud left behind when one of the Humpbacks defecated!! We stayed and watched the whales for about thirty minutes but then it was time for us to move on.

Tomorrow would be our last landing in Antarctica and then it will be time for us to begin our northward migration to South Georgia, the Falklands and Buenos Aires.

Summer is over.

Antarctica in the sun

During the night we were heading southward to our next destination, Neko Harbor, in Andvord Bay, the southern end of the wonderful and very impressive Errera Channel. This should be our continental landing during our trip and we all were looking forward to it. During the night our lovely Lady MV FRAM had to struggle with a lot of ice and strong winds so that we reached Neko Harbor with a delay of two hours. But the morning started than directly with a beautiful sunrise and just before we reached Neko Harbor we could watch many Mink and Humpback whales. So there was no reason to be unlucky about the delay.

The morning in Neko harbor was brilliant. The sun was shining so strong that even 8 passengers went for swimming before they went back on board. A Weddell sea that was lying directly next to the landing site has been the first photo object. 

She was very lazy and stayed on the beach until the last passenger had taken his picture.  Neko harbor is famous for its Gentoo penguin colony and we had the Gentoos all over the place. It is the end of the season and so the chicks are running around in the colony, hoping to find the parents to get more food. Plenty adults started already their own malting, feathers were flying all over the place.

Most passengers climbed up a little ridge behind the penguin colony. The spectacular view we got from the hill over Andvord Bay will be unforgettable.

Back on board we sailed through the Neumayer Channel to our next destination – Port Lockroy, a former British Station. Today it is a museum and souvenir shop run by the British Antarctic Heritage Trust. As the museum is a post office also we used the possibility to send postcards to our friends and family at home.

In the later afternoon the sun said good bye to us. The wind was picking up a bit and after the landing all passengers have been happy to be back onboard to enjoy the evening in the panorama lounge with a nice drink and an interesting talk with new friends. 

But we had 14 guests that had other plans for the evening and even the night. 14 campers left the ship after dinner to arrange their camping side in Damoy Point, just next to Port Lockroy. They built up their tents with the help of the expedition team and then they could feel free, perhaps a bit like the really great explorers. This special night, we named it “Amundsen Night”, will be an experience nobody will forget, that´s for sure