North Scotia Sea

We left the beautiful Falkland Islands two days ago and have been sailing in the featureless Scotia Sea since then. The crossing to South Georgia from the Falklands can be miserable with winds and rough seas. However, our trip has been unusually comfortable- not flat calm but almost so.

With little wind, the petrels (sensu lato, including the albatrosses etc) were not so common but we had Giant Petrels and Cape Petrels with us virtually all the time.

Today we passed the Shag Rocks, a remote set of six closely packed islands in the middle of nowhere. They are covered in breeding shags or cormorants and are also home to Wandering Albatrosses. Just before, our ship photographer, Esther made a presentation on the incredible migration of Arctic Terns from the Arctic to the Antarctica (much like the Fram does every year!). While in China, she explained that she built an Arctic Tern kite under the instruction of a master kite builder. Later in the afternoon she flew the kite on the back deck of Fram.

The waters around the rocks are very productive- the rocks are actually the peaks of submarine mountains joined underwater to the western point of South Georgia. As the ocean currents pass by, the mountain obstructions create mixing and upwelling. This brings nutrients to the surface where the plants of the ocean can grow in the light (the euphotic zone). Approaching the rocks we saw our first Snow Petrels of the trip- a real highlight! These are incredible, all-white birds, which breed on cliffs surrounding Antarctica and even on slopes surrounded by icefields (nunataks). A very common sighting today were many groups of fur seals resting, playing and porpoising around us. 

So you see, even in the middle of the ocean we find many things to keep our interest.

The Capital!

After a wonderful day out on the “camp” we arrived this morning to the comparatively bustling metropolis, and Falklands capital, Stanley. OK, this is an exaggeration but over half the people living in these islands, live in Stanley and reports are that the impending oil industry is creating quite an economic boom.

Stanley "suburbs"

As we approached Stanley, some Commerson’s Dolphins approached the Fram to welcome us!

Commerson's Dolphins

Once docked our activities began with excursions to the town (history focus), a local nature walk, a birding tour, to Bluff Cove, and even a scenic air tour. Almost all on board took advantage of one of these great opportunities. After all, how often do you get to the Falkland Islands?!

This is spring in the southern hemisphere and the many blossoms and singing birds really told the tale of this most wonderful time of year. On the nature walk and birdwatching tour we saw several species of birds. For some we were afforded great, close views.

Speckled Teal

Silvery Grebe

Long-tailed Meadowlark male with food for his chicks

Many wildflowers were in bloom and the Balsam Bog was very green! This plant is very curious. It looks like a soft moss, but is in fact very hard to the touch. It's a member of the carrot family.

Balsam Bog- Bolax gummifera

The town tour focussed on the rich history of this place and included the war memorial, cathedral and museum.

At Bluff Cove, we were welcomed by the rangers who gave us an introductory talk about the site, including details of the local Gentoo and King Penguin colony. After the colony visit we were treated to a very British morning tea!

Teatime at Bluff Cove

King Penguin on the beach

After the morning excursions, most took advantage of the free time to explore Stanley before we sailed at 1600h. We now have two sea-days before we reach South Georgia!

Birds galore!

Your faithful blogger is a bird nut so today, with no apologies we are going to feature some birds we saw during our first landing in the Falkland Islands- New Island. And what better place to do this?! The Falkland Islands is “crawling” with birds and New Island is especially so. It is a nature sanctuary, and a variety of management practices are in place to bring the island back to its natural Falkland state. It will take a while but it will happen.

But first, a few details about our day. We were due to land at West Point Island in the northwest part of the Falklands, in the early afternoon. However, very strong winds would have prevented a landing so we detoured farther south to our "plan B" of New Island. Winds were still strong when we arrived but they were blowing off the land and a visit to this marvellous place was possible. Our target was a seabird colony which was a short hike across a narrow portion of the island. Some of us, however, made a hike up a nearby mountain before visiting the colony.

After 5 days at sea being on dry land is such a treat, especially when you can stretch your legs on a hike. And this was our first landing too so there was lots of excitement using our Polarcirkel boats.

For our mountain hikers shown here, the view from the top was truly spectacular!

Those hiking to the colony were treated with various species of birds along the way, and then the icing on the cake- breeding Rockhopper Penguins, King Shags and Black-browed Albatrosses. I hope these images give you a flavour of the place and in particular impress upon you how important for wildlife New Island is.

Rockhopper Penguin pair

Black-browed Albatross coming in for landing

King Shag

Rock Shag

Long-tailed Meadowlark

Ruddy-headed Geese

Crested Duck

Female Upland Goose

A pair of breeding Striated Caracaras

Dark-faced Ground-Tyrant feeding chicks

Water water everywhere

Perhaps these three words have been used as a title of a previous Fram blog post. No matter, the famous beginning of a stanza from Coleridge’s momentous poem “The Rime of the Ancient Mariner” really applied to us as we sailed with the Fram down the coast of eastern Argentina on the way to the Falkland Islands from Buenos Aires. Although we were not so far from the coast, the curvature of the Earth ensured that we had no view of land to the west, and the closest land to the east was Africa! To be totally at sea like this is very special and in a sense "unnatural". As land mammals, us humans would never have found ourselves as sea before the invention of boats. Nevertheless there is a wonderful sense of calm and contentment that comes over us when in sea- so long as the sea is calm and content as well! A beautiful sunrise certainly adds to this contentment!

Our pelagic way of life for the last few days was punctuated by an unexpected detour to the coastal city of Puerto Madryn. On the way in to the port, we sailed through the breeding grounds of the amazing Southern Right Whale, and we were lucky to have several visual encounters from a distance.

Once our business was concluded at the port (a very fast and efficient process thanks to local officials) we were off again to the Falkland Islands. Along the way we past through several concentrations of birds punctuated by periods of total inactivity. Occasionally a pod of dolphins rode the waves next to our ship but they were too fast for images to be made. We had more photographic success with the seabirds!

Our detour has put us a little late into the Falklands, and has heightened the anticipation of what we might experience these unique islands.

Fair winds!

This is an auspicious day because we start our Antarctic season, here in Buenos Aires, Argentina. This amazing city gets it’s name from early sailors when describing the good or fair winds blowing in the area, which allowed them to reach the coast (Buenos Aires in Spanish literally means “Good Airs”). The Fram has spent the last 18 days crossing the Atlantic Ocean from the Canary Islands to here.

So why is “BA” so amazing? Where do you start? Maybe with a superlative: it is the second biggest city in South America and that is saying something! With around 16 million people it is actually one of the largest cities in the world. Your faithful blogger comes from Canada and half the population of my country lives in this place, as does a little less than half the population of Argentina itself! You get a feeling of the size when you drive from one side to the other- a trip that can take easily over an hour even when the traffic is good. As with many Latin American cities there is a wide range of wealth amongst the people living here. Many move to BA from the countryside to get a job or better their life, but end up squatting in barrios or shanty towns like are to be found right next to the richer parts of the city.

Casa Rosada (Pink House). The Presidential Palace.

Buenos Aires is a city of trees, parks, birds, buildings, restaurants, steak, cars, people, Evita, shops, culture, coffee, matte…. you could go on! At this time of year the Jacaranda trees are in bloom with their amazing purple flowers (and no leaves at this time of year). The Jacaranda almost became the national tree of Argentina,  but the beautiful red Ceibo beat it out. Neighbouring Uruguay also has the Ceibo as it’s national tree, as you learned from our last blog entry.

Jacaranda in full bloom

Ceibo- we couldn't resist showing this beautiful flower again!

Our passengers boarded Fram in the middle of the afternoon and settled in quickly to life on board. The winds were blowing hard at the time and whipped up coastal seas nearby. Our departure from the harbour required mandatory help from two pilots, one for the harbour and one for the Rio de la Plate (River Plate). Here they are modelling our blue jackets. They were very proud of them.

Our two pilots for Buenos Aires and the Rio de la Plata

The Fram alongside in Buenos Aires

Boarding- Exciting times!!!

So we are off on our first adventure in the southern hemisphere for the 2014-15 season. No one can predict what we will see and experience. In a big way, this an important part of exhibition cruising. Next stop: the Falkland Islands in three days!