The Great Wall

The Drake continued to be calm, beautiful clear skies soon changes to fog as we approached the South Shetland Islands. Preparations for landing continued with the fitting of our muck boots and the mandatory IAATO briefings.

We first sighted land as we went through Nelson Strait and turned to the East towards King George Island, where we made our first landing of this trip at the Chinese Station Great Wall. One of our passengers has overwintered at Great Wall and was the first to land with the Expedition Team. His arrival to the station was warmly welcomed by his former colleagues. We all very much enjoyed seeing the reality of life in Great Wall Station after having seen and heard much about it at home. The cool wind and overcast skies did not dampen our spirits, and specially this, our first landing in Antarctica.

After finishing the landing the Captain turned Fram towards the south and we headed across the Bransfield Strait in preparation for our landings tomorrow. After diner the Expedition Team and Crew modeled the latest garments from the MV Fram shop in the (in)famous fashion show.

On our way south

 This is our first and only pure sea day on our way to the Antarctic.  We are really lucky with the weather, partly cloudy and a calm sea.

                                                                     

During the day it was several lectures and time to vacuum clean outdoor clothes and backpacks for organic material we don’t want to bring to Antarctic. Due to almost no wind we have seen very little birdlife today, maybe we will see more when we cross the convergence.

 

 Tomorrow after lunch we have scheduled our first landing at the Chinese research station Great Wall.

The southernmost city in the World.

Ushuaia  welcomed us with overcast although warm weather. After stroll through the town and purchasing first few souvenirs we embarked MV Fram. It’ll be our home for the journey to the land of penguins.

 When all embarkation formalities were completed we received our blue expedition jacket and then we were ready to explore our new cozy home.

Before we sailed away from the Ushuaia harbor we have to attend the mandatory emergency drill for passengers. Towards the end of the drill the last moorings  were cast off and MVFram set sail for calm waters of the Beagle Channel.

Reflecting on reflections

On this our last cruising day, we listened to numerous lectures from the expedition team from the early exploration and discovery of Antarctica, from the continents geological origin, from Cormorants and their significant impact on the world, from diving adaptations of sea mammals, and from cooking in Antarctica (with the very limited ingredients). Some thought provoking topics to take away with us on our long journeys home.

As we approached land the Captain bid us farewell in the observation lounge and this was followed by some hot bidding for our MV Fram charity auction. Proceeds from todays auction will go to the Antarctic Heritage Trust to keep up the good work that we witnessed first hand during this trip.

Land rapidly approached in the form of Cape Horn, the Captain took the ship close enough for us to see clearly the Albatross Monument as well as the hundreds of birds feeding in the sea and nesting in the cliffs.

 

Overnight we will pick up our pilot and travel up the Beagle Channel to our final destination and starting point: Ushuaia.

What an incredible voyage!!!! Words cannot describe, seeing is believing..... See you next time!!

Heading back over the Drake Lake

Today was the first of two sea days crossing the Drake passage. We are once again very lucky with the weather and the Drake Passage still looks like a lake, just as it did on our way down.

During the day it has been several different lectures. The Belgica expedition to Antarctica and wildlife’s adaption to deep diving and the cold environment in the Antarctic was the subject on some of them. Four groups got to visit the bridge and say hallo to the captain. The rest will get their chance tomorrow.  
Almost everybody is hoping for a smooth sea day tomorrow as well.

The pictures are some flashbacks from the journey we have been to.

                                                 

Sigh... Our Last Landing :^(

Cruising in the Errera Channel

It has been phenomenal.  Our adventure in Antarctica has exceeded all of our expectations and our last landing at Danco Island did not disappoint.  First of all, our good luck with the weather continued to hold as it was largely sunny all day with very little wind.

Danco Island and Gentoo Penguins

We were given an extra long time on shore here on Danco.  We were only doing one landing today so we had time to make it a long one.  No one complained.  We would've taken even more time on this beautiful ice-bound rock.  

Danco is the site of a large Gentoo Penguin colony and is situated in the middle of the beautiful Errera Channel.  Snow has been late in leaving this part of the peninsula this year with the result that some of the areas of the colony that would normally have content, nesting birds were abandoned.  In addition the entire colony on Danco was behind schedule.  It is likely that a high number of the chicks will not fledge in time.

On Danco it is possible to hike up to the top of the island where there is a terrific view of the Errera and Cuverville Island just to the north.  

Kayaking with Humpback Whales in Errera Channel

For most of the landing we could see three Humpback Whales lounging in the Channel.  They were often very close to the ship where people from both the ship and the shore had excellent views of the whales.

The lucky ones that chose to go kayaking, or on a Polar Cirkel Boat excursion had amazing views of the Humpbacks.

We waved goodbye to Danco at around 16:00 and enjoyed an amazing evening sailing across the Gerlache Strait and then on into the Bransfield to Drake Passage.

Later in the evening we were entertained in the observation lounge with an enthusiastic show put on by many of our talented crew members.

A beautiful day... it don’t get much better than this!!!

This morning we had our second Continental landing and our second day with a glorious weather. Blue skies and a Weddell Seal welcomed us at the sandy beach of Neko Harbour, where hundreds of Gentoo Penguins were going in and out of the water, sunbathing, or rushing up and down the steep hills that separate their colony from the sea.

Now that it is later in the season the penguin highways are deep channels in the snow slope, in some places as deep as the penguins themselves.

Those lucky enough to be kayaking or cruising enjoyed close encounters with a Humpback Whale, while the rest of us looked at it from a distance. The amazing icescape of the surrounding glacier tumbling into the sea captivated many of us whilst the penguins carried on regardless.

During lunch we crossed Gerlache Strait into the northern entrance of the Neumayer Channel, which is extremely scenic with Winke Island to one side and the Anvers Island to the other. The Captain slowed the ship to watch more Humpback Whales before reaching Port Lockroy in the early afternoon.

Port Lockroy, historic Site and Monument Nr. 61, is managed by the Antarctic Heritage Trust as a living museum and is manned by a team of 4 who welcomed us with opened arms. This season a BBC film team is also onsite filming a documentary entitled “Penguin Post Office”. Our arrival on the base was filmed. 

The museum captures life on the station in the 1950’s. The trust runs a small shop and post office to support the Antarctic Heritage Projects, including the conservation of other historic bases that we have seen during this incredible journey.

 Penguins and chicks were suffering from the heat that we highly appreciated. We heard the poor things pant and saw them spread out on the ground trying to loose some heat.

The chicks here seemed very clean and healthy. We witnessed some very touching interactions between adults and chicks.

The surrounding mountains were the playground for our snow shoe enthusiasts who started and finished their trek from Damoy Point, the same place where the camp for the night was set up later. We all enjoyed an incredible evening with stunning colours as the sun dipped very low in the sky.

Fish Island

 This morning we got surprised. We were scheduled to arrive at Fish Island around 12:00, but due to favorable ice conditions we were there already around 0900. 

Around the Island there were quite a lot of ice drifting with the current, but we were able to get to the landing sight. For the group who should go snowshoeing at Prospect Point things were a bit tricky. It was too much ice to get a shore so the snowshoeing was cancelled and the snowshoers did a normal landing instead, they will try again tomorrow! Things were a bit tricky for the kayakers as well. They had to breach through a bit of ice during their kayak trip.
Fish Island is a small island with several small colonies of Adelie penguins. We got really close and could see that many of the chicks were loosing their down and probably will be entering the ocean within short time.

After the landing at Fish we headed north breaching through ice. The scenery was absolutely amazing! We could see steep mountains and glaciers in the horizon. It was a beautiful light and thousands of ice flows, with seals on some of them, surrounded us on a completely calm ocean.  The day ended with a breathtaking sunset.

Tomorrow we have scheduled two landings; one at Neko Harbour and one at Port Lockroy, and a new group will get to experience an “Amundsen night” outside camping.

Southern Elephant Seals and Antarctic Fur Seals

Adelie Penguin Colony, Bongrain Point, Pourquoi Pas Island

This morning felt like a vacation on vacation as we got to sleep in just a tad.   Our landing at Bongrain Point on Pourquoi Pas Island didn’t start until 09:30.

It was snowing for a good part of the morning.  Not enough to give any ground cover but it certainly added to the Antarctic ambiance.

The landing sight was quite impressive.  Beautiful black and brown craggy cliffs rose up over a boulder strewn plain.  Adjacent to the plain was an impressive blue glacier.  Along the shoreline and at the base of the cliffs were several small Adelie Penguin colonies.  The large number of Skuas here seemed disproportionate to the small number of penguins.  It seemed likely that the Skuas were also predating on fish.  One had to be careful when crossing the plain not to wander too close to a nesting Skua.  If you’ve ever had a zealous guardian Skua fly at your face, you’ll know why.

Male Antarctic Fur Seal

There was one lone young male Antarctic Fur Seal which growled threateningly if anyone strayed too close. 

Southern Elephant Seals, Jenny Island

In the afternoon we landed on Jenny Island.  The attraction here were molting Southern Elephant Seals and a handful of young male Antarctic Fur seals.  Southern Elephant Seals have an annual catastrophic molt where they haul out in small groups and shed their skin and hair. This process takes three to five weeks. They leave the water for the duration of the molt as growing new skin and hair requires a rich blood supply right at the body’s surface.  This would then present them with a problem of heat loss in the water. 

Southern Elephant Seals, Jenny Island

Essentially they haul out at this time to prevent the heat loss.

The Southern Elephant Seals we saw today are at the extreme southern edge of their range.