Bored on board?!

After two days at sea, we are getting closer to Antarctica where we hope to land at Elephant Island. These two days in the southern ocean were anything but boring.

On Wednesday, passengers were able to enjoy six different lectures in English and German about (amongst others), Penguins, Marine wildlife and the polar ship Fram. In the afternoon, everyone was invited to come to the Observation Lounge to have a Recap of South Georgia with the entire Expedition Team. We quickly shared our impressions, demonstrated a few emergency procedures and showed the passengers what the guides carry with them in their backpacks. This includes radios, GPS equipment and chocolate! Some of our passengers were lucky enough to see whales. The first on this trip! We were also able to spot a big table iceberg on our way. Our amazing musician Myles enchanted the Observation Lounge with his music while we held a Fruit and Ice carving show, which was a great success. Our Team member and birder John found a diving petrel and showed it to some passengers before releasing it.

Picture by Tom Warmolts

On Thursday, our passengers were once again able to attend our lectures. In the same rooms we showed two movies during the evening about Shackleton and the giants of the seas: Whales. Something else the passengers were able to do was visit the Bridge. In groups they were allowed to come in the place to be. There where everything happens and everything is decided. Our captain and second officer welcomed the guests and showed them how the most important equipment works. It was very interesting for them to see how the sonar and radar tools help the crew to navigate through these hostile environments. After the presentation they were able to ask questions regarding the ship and its trips. In the afternoon, our expedition team members Therese and Mattias hosted a Quiz in the Observation Lounge on deck 7. Passengers were divided in groups and asked to answer a few random multiple-choice questions regarding the expedition, its destinations and the encountered wildlife. The winners were offered free drinks from the bar and received a nice certificate.

In the evening we had our first snow! Visibility was fairly low but this only added to the beauty of the moment. Sea days always hold surprises and it is a nice way to get a sense of the distance we are travelling. It makes our destinations feel much more special as this is the only way to get there.                                                                                                                                                                                                                  

Happy Hikers & Penguin Heaven!

This day started early for some of us. Short before 8 am the hikers went on land at Maiviken. The beach was – once more – packed with fur seals, but the shore team managed to keep a little passage “free” and 55 happy hikers set off to walk to Grytviken, a former whaling station on South Georgia. 

We walked steep uphill trough tussock grass, passed by the beautiful Crean Lake and up to the viewpoint. As the wind picked up together with a bit of snow, we proceeded after a short break down towards the church in Grytviken. 

As the hikers arrived, the other passengers came ashore as well and visited Shackleton`s & Frank Wild`s grave while walking towards the center of the settlement, looking for a good route between the fur seals and elephant seals which literally “plastered” the path to the museum. Two “local” guides from the place gave us a nice guided tour through the remainings from the station.

In the afternoon we headed for St. Andrews Bay – the biggest King penguin colony from South Georgia was breeding here, over 200`000 pairs! Can you imagine? Already from the boat we could see them and note the scent – penguin-smell was in the air! And for the first time, MS Fram made a landing at St. Andrews Bay. Thousands of elephant seals were lying around the beach area, mostly weaners but also some adults which lay close together while they are moulting. 

After passing two rivers and up green meadows we stood on the top of a hill and looked down to – Penguin Heaven! We hardly couldn`t believe what we saw, thousands and thousands of King penguins and their chicks were trumpeting and whistling! Unbelievable… 

We just sat, looked and enjoyed. It was hard to leave this amazing place in the evening, so much to see! The weaners (young elephant seals) at the landing site didn`t make our leave easy – they were very interested on the safety gear, cones and flags from the expedition team! But it was time to go, off to Antarctica, ready for new experiences, seals, penguins and whatever we might encounter on this beautiful voyage..

King Penguins and Fur Seals

Our second day on the unparalleled island of South Georgia took us to Fortuna Bay in the morning and Stømness in the afternoon. After visiting the second largest King Penguin colony in South Georgia yesterday (Salisbury Plain) one might have thought that the much smaller colony at Fortuna would be of little interest. Far from it! First only a handful of people were able to land at Salisbury Plain due to very bad swell on the beach. Second, the Fortuna Bay colony though small, is more accessible and allows closer study of these amazing birds. So, you guessed it, we had an fantastic time at Fortuna! Landing conditions were excellent with little swell and a light wind so we were all able to see the colony this time! Halfway through the morning, fog rolled in from the Southern Ocean and shrouded the hillsides around the bay with heavy fog. This caused the Shackleton hike over to Strømness to be cancelled.

Once we landed, we hiked towards the colony though a gauntlet of Antarctic Fur Seals. This is Fur Seal breeding season, and the beaches were chock full of large males, their females, and the totally cute young pups.

The males were much more interested in fighting off other males and protecting their females so it was relatively easy to find a safe route through the fur seal colony and up above .

Many adult King Penguins were back in the colony getting ready to lay or feeding their full-grown chicks, and a few were still moulting. A few chicks were already showing their adult plumage but it will be a while before most will be ready to go! There was a constant din over the colony caused by singing adults and whistling youngsters. The King Penguin has to be one of the most handsome of birds!

It started raining in the morning and continued for most of our afternoon landing at Strømness. Regular readers of the Fram blog will know that there is a derelict whaling station at Strømness, which provides a frequent backdrop to the local wildlife. 

Few penguins breed at Strømness but this is made up for by dense fur seal colony along the entire beach. There is constant activity in a fur seal colony with males chasing other males and females fighting with their partners, all the while the tiny young pups sit underneath all this activity “hoping” they don’t get trampled. They occasionally do but they are clearly tougher than they look and usually come out of it unscathed. (Your faithful blogger can't resist showing another image of a pup!)

Dotted here and there amongst the tussac and on the beach were Elephant Seals of various ages. Many were moulting as evidenced by the patches of dead skin and hair (Elephant Seals moult a layer of skin as well as their hair).

Most of us made a hike up the valley behind Strømness to a beautiful waterfall. This is the last part of the hike Shackleton and his men made from Fortuna.

Salisbury Plain

After a great visit on the Falkland Islands, we pointed
the bow of M/S Fram towards southeast and sailed 
across the North Scotia Ridge, passing Shag rocks 

on the way. In the morning, two days and 766 nautical
miles later, the majestic South Georgia revealed itself 
on our starboard side and our aim was the stunning 
Salisbury Plain, furthest in in the Bay of Isles. 
This morning carried calm water and a beautiful 

sunny sky. The beach was full of fur seals, fighting 
and chasing each other and the enormous king penguin 
colony, which is the second biggest in South Georgia
with more than 60,000 pairs, was there to greet us 

and it was all beautifully framed with the 1,000m high 
peaks of Mt. Ashley with her two glaciers Grace and Lucas.

It showed that it would be more than a challenge to get 
ashore this morning, due to the heavy swell from the 
South Atlantic, and after many attempts we 
decided on a Polar-Cirkel boat cruise instead.

We cruised along the beach and enjoyed the scenery from 
what Salisbury Plain had to offer. There was elephant seals,
fur seals, king penguins, brown skuas, giant petrels, 
wandering albatrosses, not to forget the playfulness of the 
penguins and fur seals in the water, which was very amusing 
as well.

                             In the evening we enjoyed a well-deserved
                             dinner, while the captain heaved anchor for 
                             our new adventures tomorrow.

Guest blog from our trainee Thomas

Two sea days are coming to an end. After leaving the Falklands Thursday afternoon, we had nothing but the southern Atlantic ahead of us until we reached South Georgia, except for the characteristic Shag Rocks shooting up from the ocean north-west of South Georgia. Right after Shag Rocks we were lucky enough to see our first iceberg, and a really big one too, a tabular iceberg that’s floated all the way from Antarctica to greet us. A majestic sight for first timers like myself, and I can’t wait for more of them!

Sea days do not involve a landing, which means we stay on the boat, but there are still lots of things to be done! After breakfast our passengers can attend lectures in geology explaining, among other things, how South Georgia ended up where it is today, and also why it looks like it does. Lectures in biology teaches about South Georgia’s amazing wildlife with millions of birds, penguins and seals, while the history lectures focuses on what has happened on South Georgia since after its first discovery in 1665, including the whaling, sealing and later science taking place on the islands the past 150 years.

After lunch there are possibilities for more lectures, or you can take a walk out on deck and listen to and watch the sea, and the occasional black browed albatross or giant petrel might fly by on stiff wings. The sea has been remarkable good taking into consideration where we are in the world, after all the first Dutch sailers who discovered South Georgia got blown off course at Cape Horn several hundred, even thousand nautical miles away, before ending up there. Now on the other hand the wind is in our backs, and there is just a smooth, gentle swell, perfectly suited for rocking you to sleep at night…

Preparing for South Georgia also includes an introduction to the special regulations for these islands as well as Antarctica, where extra caution is needed in order to keep these areas pristine and especially not bring any new species of any kind to the islands. In order to do so there is a so called IAATO briefing telling us how to behave and what not to do, as well as physically removing all dirt and soil on all our boots, and also vacuuming out any traces of seeds or soil you might have in your backpack or on your clothes. The guests clearly got the message and were vacuuming thoroughly through the things they were planning on bringing ashore the next days, it’s good to see that they are aware of the risks involved and that they respect the very special areas we are lucky enough to be able to visit.

And yeah, we managed to squeeze in a fashion show Friday night as well, not exactly Victoria Secrets, but our swimming suits seem quite popular anyway!

Hasta la vista, við sjáumst! 

Stanley and surrounding areas

Dear readers,

We arrived in Stanley at 08:00 AM on 04/12/2014 after two perfect landings at West Point and Carcass Island. Once again, we were lucky with the weather. With an air temperature of 8.2 C° and a wind speed of 8.4 m/s, we were in for another comfortable day with picture perfect light.

 

 

The passengers were able to take a shuttle bus every 30 minutes from the pier to the center of Stanley, where many visited the landmarks and did some shopping.

 

 

 

 

Most of them chose to join an excursion to witness and learn about the breathtaking nature surrounding Stanley. These were the activities the passengers could do:

–                    Scenic Air Tour:

Six of the passengers joined a 35 minutes flying excursion over Stanley in a twin engine Britten-Norman Islander aircraft. We were able to get unique views of Stanley and its surrounding areas and learn a lot about the town. We got a real taste of the mountainous terrain, wild landscapes and natural coastal beauty. During the flight we got to see places like Gypsy Cove, Cape Pembroke, the lighthouse,  Lady Elizabeth shipwreck, Kidney Cove, Port Louise, Mount Tumbledown, Longdon, Two sisters and Harriet, Stone Runs, Fitzroy Farm and Bluff Cove Lagoon.

–                    Bluff Cove Lagoon:

This beautiful privately-owned farm with a pristine white wilderness beach is home to over 3000 Gentoo Penguins, and a small growing colony of King Penguins. We were only able to reach the site by four-wheel drive vehicles on a very exciting (in a bumpy way) safari! We did this with small groups of 4 people per car.  On the way we saw some Belted Galloway cows with calves that were peacefully grazing the fields of the property. We were greeted by the rangers who quickly informed us about the site and took us to see a very rare Leucistic (partial albino) Gentoo penguin.

We were lucky enough to meet Hattie (one of the owners) in their Sea Cabbage café. Hattie proudly showed us her Felt creations made with wool from their own sheep. After tea/coffee/hot chocolate and over 15 sorts of home-made cookies and cakes with Diddle Dee, we were ready for the wild ride back to the ship.

Photo by: Tom Warmolts

 

Photo by: Tessa Van Drie

 

 Photo by: Tessa Van Drie

 

Photo by: Tom Warmolts

–                    Falkland Nature Walk:

Our Expedition Team member Rudolf took our passengers on an exciting walk through the nature of the Falkland's with the help of two local guides. The tour was a great success and the passengers were very pleased. The nature in this part of the world is outstanding and a treat to the camera lens. Peter, one of the guides, is a former passenger of Fram and liked this place so much that he applied for a job and now works here! The other guide's name is Tom. He has a locally famous farther who makes picture calendars and is married to the daughter of Laurain from Carcass Island, where we were yesterday. Only to prove how everyone knows each-other in the Falkland Islands!

–                    Bird watching excursion:

On this hike over the upland areas south of Stanley we saw many species of birds, some of which were well into the breeding cycle and had chicks. This included the Speckled Teals, Rufous-chested Dotterel, and Upland Geese. Overall, we saw over 20 species of birds, and for many of us, these were lifers- the first time we had ever seen them.

Photo by: Tom Warmolts

At 4 PM Fram left Stanley and started the journey to South Georgia. When we sailed out of the port, we were able to see a few colonies of (amongst others) Magellanic Penguins.