MV FRAM EXPEDITION BLOG

Monday, 27 October 2014

Birds and Whales we have seen

During our crossing south to Buenos Aires we have been lucky enough to see some wildlife. Especially next to St. Peter and St. Paul Archipelago and when we passed the Islands Fernando de Noronha we had many birds around the vessel. Later on, when we came nearer to the Brazilian coast we saw nearly day by day groups of Humpback Whales – Are they on the way south to Antarctica like us? Who will be there first? Who will be the winner of this long trip to the cold but fertile Antarctic waters? Will we ever get an answer to these questions? Perhaps not, but if you like you are welcome to chare our experiences; we hope you enjoy the pictures made by our board photographer, the expedition team and especially some of our guests.

And this is a more or less secret message to John: If I am not right with the birds - feel free to correct me - you are the Ornithologist! I will prepare you a coffee as a thank you as soon as you are back in Buenos Aires.

Masked booby, FriedaPhoto

Young masked booby, FriedaPhoto

Frigatebird, FriedaPhoto

Redfooted Booby(the white one), FriedaPhoto

Redfooted booby (the white one), FriedaPhoto

Redfooted booby (the brown one), Annika Ljungqvist Karneryd

Brown boobies

Brown booby

Young brown booby

It's not easy to start, Martin Overbuschmann

Brown booby, Martin Overbuschmann

Greyheaded albatros, Andre Eikermann

Cape Verde Shearwater

Hammerhead, Marcel Hostettler

Humpback whale, Martin Overbuschmann

Minke whale, Marcel Hostettler

Minke whale, Martin Overbuschmann

Humpback whale

big splash

Humpback whale

Saturday, 25 October 2014

Welcome to Salvador da Bahia – Welcome to the colourful Brazil

We reached Salvador da Bahia in the early morning hours of the 25^th of October. The sun was shining out of a clear blue sky and the temperatures reached already 30 degrees Celsius at 7:00h; you can also say it in a more simple way: it was hot, a very hot morning. Nevertheless passengers gathered on the bow on deck 5 when we passed the amazing skyline of Salvador, with 2.6 Million inhabitants the third largest city of Brazil.

Oil ships are common as the harbour has its importance in the oil industry

The southernmost tip of the Salvador peninsula

Salvador was founded in 1549 by the Brazilian Tomé de Sousa. The town has been for a long time the largest city of the southern hemisphere and Brazilian’s capital until 1763. (1763 -1960 Rio de Janeiro, since 1960 Brasilia) The fertile soils in the surroundings of Salvador have been the condition for the huge sugar cane plantations which set the starting point for the industrial importance of Salvador. The descendants of the African slaves, working on these plantations, dominate still the people living in Salvador. The whole town gives the visitor strong African impressions.

Salvador is located on a small peninsula that separates the Bahia de Todos os Santos (All Saints Bay) from the Atlantic. An escarpment, a long cliff, divides Salvador into the Cidade Alta, the Upper Town, and the Cidade Baixa, the Lower Town. An elevator connects these two sections since 1873.

View from Cidade Alta to the Mercator in Cidade Baixa

Our excursion of the day started at nine o’clock and was mainly focused on the historical centre of Salvador, a UNESCO World Heritage Centre. The centre is built in a Renaissance style, typical for the colonial time of Salvador. The whole city is mixture of Brazilian, European and African elements, an amazing and colourful cultural arrangement.

The historical center

In the São Francisco Chirch

Fresh Coconut milk tastes wonderful

Capoeira, a dance that has its origin in the African dance NiGolo

Ladies of the Afro-Brazilian religion Candomblé

Nothing is impossible with a helping hand

Wednesday, 22 October 2014

It’s not so easy to cross the line!

The captain is the number one on a ship, normally. Normally he has good plans also, but sometimes a good plan is not enough as he needs the permission to fulfill his plan too. The company, in our case HURTIGRUTEN, has to say yes to his plans, but sometimes even the company’s o.k. is not enough, sometimes the company’s authority is not sufficient. Then he has to go one instance higher.

After we left these very special St. Peter and St. Paul Rocks, in the middle of nowhere, but where the earth gave us this unique view on rocks made out of mantle materiel, the captain wanted to cross the Equator around 21:30h. That was his plan, but he needed the permission to do so, not from HURTIGRUTEN, he needed the permission directly from his ROYAL HIGHNESS NEPTUNE. It’s not difficult to ask for permission, but you can never be sure to get permission from a King, but we tried. The Captain asked everybody to come on the open deck for a special ceremony. After a short speech he sent a bottle with a list of all passengers and crew to King Neptune personal. Of course he did not use any bottle for this special post; he used one of our very famous FRAM Whisky bottles, so that the sender was quite clear for His Majesty Neptune.

God thanks, we got the permission very fast, but there was a “but”, like there is so often a “but” in our life: the permission came in compliance with a condition of a baptism of all those passengers and crew, they have not been baptized before.

So, look at the pictures again and you, wherever you are on this wonderful planet, you can see that our Captain’s plan came true; we crossed the Equator at 21:32h and baptized all passengers and crew that did not belong to Neptune’s kingdom at that time next morning.

Tuesday, 21 October 2014

Boring Sea days? – NOT AT ALL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Our sea days on board MS FRAM are fully packed with lots of different kind of activities. We cannot describe them all – Look at the pictures, they say more than words.