On our way back to Ushuaia

November 25, 2022

This was the first of two days we would spend crossing the Drake Passage. The Drake is notorious for bad weather, but our bad weather wasn’t too bad. There were big waves but not too big, but even so the upper deck was closed due to the possibility you might be washed overboard. So we didn’t do much.

November 26, 2022

Last night we slept reasonably well, considering the ship’s tossing and turning. But we kept being woken up because the closet doors kept crashing open. We solved that problem by tying them closed.

In the afternoon there was a session where the crew members were presented, starting with the captain. The stage was extremely full, with some of the lower ranks just outside the door.

Our captain, introducing his crew

But that was only the senior crew members. The cooks, waiters, cleaners, Zodiac wranglers, and all of the other below-decks crew, we didn’t get to meet them.

This is our cabin steward, Nanta. He comes from Bali and has been doing this job for quite a while, on contracts which run for about six months. He always seems happy when we pass him in the corridor.

November 27, 2022

Early in the morning we passed Cape Horn on the way into Ushuaia, in fairly calm seas.

Docking in Ushuaia

We finished packing our bags and delivered them to the lobby area, lined up to collect our passports, and then we were ready to leave.

Outside the ship there were buses waiting to take us to various places in Ushuaia. Our flight wasn’t until the afternoon so our bus took us to the Las Lengas Hotel. We weren’t staying overnight there, but they allowed us to stay in the public areas. We hadn’t had wi-fi on the ship so we spent some time catching up with the internet.

We went out to get lunch and then took a taxi to the airport. There was nothing left except flying home, so our for-real Antarctica cruise was finished.

On the plane looking back at Ushuaia

South Shetland Islands

November 24, 2022

Having moved on from the Antarctic Peninsula to the South Shetland Islands, our first goal today was Half Moon Island. It was a small island with a population of Chinstrap Penguins. The plan was to cruise in Zodiacs and land on the island, but cruising was deemed unsafe by the recon team. So we landed in groups and walked around on the island.

There were a lot of chinstraps hanging about and walking about, often making their loud squawking call. Up to now we had only seen chinstraps floating by on ice floes, so we were happy to visit this colony. As well as the chinstraps there was one lone Macaroni Penguin. It has been there for at least five years and is locally known as “Kevin”. So far we had only seen Macaroni Penguins far up a cliff in South Georgia so we were happy to see Kevin as well.

Chinstrap Penguin brooding an egg

Kevin the Lonely Macaroni

Later in our walk around the island we saw a leopard seal swimming along the shore towards the penguin colony. Almost nobody had seen one of these animals yet so that was a good find.

Humpback whale diving

The plan for the afternoon was to land and cruise in Zodiacs at Deception Island, which is a volcano with a deep underwater caldera. It hasn’t erupted since 1969 so we felt reasonably safe. But the weather was worsening so the revised plan was for the ship to go into the caldera and cruise around. Soon we approached the island and the weather was still worsening. The revised revised plan was now for the ship to carry on straight past the island. Up on deck we were being pelted by ice pellets so we agreed that was a good plan.

Cámara Base (Argentina) on Half Moon Island

On the positive side, that was the only shore excursion which had been cancelled due to weather. And we would now be heading for the notorious Drake Passage and then to Ushuaia.

There had been an announcement earlier that we could send postcards from Antarctica. We could pay a small amount for the crew to send postcards when they docked in Port Lockroy, which is on the mainland of Antarctica. We didn’t know when that would be, but we’d sent postcards from the Falklands and South Georgia so why not Antarctica too?

After dinner there was an auction, to raise funds for charities who protected birds in South Georgia. It was quite amusing; we didn’t bid on anything but there was a small number of people who really liked bidding up the prices. For example the last bid for a bottle of Shackleton Whisky, which went for £60 at the museum gift shop in Grytviken, was $250!

Another day in the Antarctic Peninsula

November 23, 2022

Today we had two scheduled off-ship activities. In the morning we were at Orne Harbour, where two other cruise ships were already anchored. The recon team went off in their Zodiacs and were away for quite a long time.

Kelp Gull

The mountains around Orne Harbour were spectacular, many of them being spires of varying heights. Eventually the recon team came back with a plan, and they mentioned that the landing might be challenging. And it was sort of raining/snowing, so we decided to opt out and stay on the ship. But later people returned and said that the landing wasn’t that bad, and it had stopped raining, so we regretted that decision.

What shape do you think this is?

Our afternoon excursion was to Cuverville Island, where there was a large Gentoo Penguin colony. The National Geographic ship had been there this morning and now it would be our turn.

Bringing a pebble for the nest

There were 10,000 or so penguins on the island, and you could locate their breeding sites by the reddish-brown stains on the snow. Many of the penguins were lying down on the snow, but they weren’t nesting, they don’t do that until the snow disappears.

Antarctic Peninsula

November 21, 2022

This morning’s expedition was to Paulet Island, only 200 meters in diameter but home to a very large Adelie Penguin colony. It was a long process getting all of us onto and off of the island because it was quite windy and it was a surf landing. The surf landing, and climbing the rocky beach up to the colony, was very hard on Rosemary’s knee but finally she managed to get there.

The colony was estimated at 100,000 pairs and we couldn’t even see all of it. We walked around the flat area near the shore and could see that the colony extended up the slope and up the side of the mountain. Many of the birds were sitting on nests and some birds were bringing more stones to enlarge their mates’ nests. Other birds were just hanging out on the frozen lake, so maybe they were non-breeders. It was certainly much quieter than a King Penguin colony.

There was also an Antarctic Shag colony, presumably just along the coast a bit. They streamed over us carrying nesting materials in the form of grotty pieces of kelp. And on the shore near the landing site were a few Weddell Seals, a species we hadn’t seen before. Quite large seals, but not nearly as big as Elephant Seals of course.

Antarctic Shag

Weddell Seal

By the time we got back to the ship it was nearly lunch time and the ship started to steam towards the next destination. So we relaxed and did some laundry.

November 22, 2022

Breakfast was earlyish today, as we had a Zodiac cruise around Wilhelmina Bay (named after a Dutch queen). We headed out at 8:45 am for our trip; no landing today because there were no suitable place to land. The glaciers all ran down to the sea.

But there were things to see. There were a lot of Antarctic Terns and a couple of skuas for them to chase off. And then there was a lot of whaling history, including a shipwreck. A ship, the Gouvernoren, had been scuttled there after it and a huge quantity of whale oil had caught fire. We cruised around for a while searching for whales but we didn’t find any.

Shipwreck

While we had lunch the ship cruised south towards Andvord Bay. But all of a sudden the ship screeched to a halt. The whole entrance to the bay was all full of little bits of ice! Now, the ship is not an ice-breaker but it is “ice-strengthened”. So it can hit bits of ice as long as they are not too large and the ship is not moving too fast. The bridge crew considered the situation for quite a while and then proceeded very slowly through the ice field.

We eventually arrived at Neko Harbour about an hour late, but we set off on a Zodiac cruise anyway. No hope of a landing here as well. The cruise lasted an hour and a quarter and this time we saw humpback whales among the picturesque icebergs. We could see the gentoo colony in the distance, up on an ice slope, but even in the Zodiac we couldn’t approach it. And we were very lucky to see a Crabeater Seal snoozing on one of the icebergs, unseen by the other groups.

Crabeater Seal

When we returned to the ship the crew was setting up for a barbecue on the pool deck (where the kayaks and Zodiacs live). There was a huge amount of excellent food and we ate a lot of it.

Barbecue setup

Finally we get to Antarctica

November 20, 2022

This morning we continued southwards towards Antarctica, accompanied by a flock of Cape Petrels. There were not many other birds to be seen, but there were many icebergs.

Cape Petrel

Then after lunch we started to get closer to land. A couple of Antarctic Shags flew past the ship before quickly vanishing. After a while we could see land and then we turned into a rather narrow channel. This was the Antarctic Sound, which separates the Antarctic Peninsula from some nearby islands. We saw Antarctic Petrels here, another lifer for both of us. A very distinctive petrel.

Antarctic Petrel

We met two cruise ships coming the other way, but they had almost nobody out on deck. One of those cruise ships was the Seabourn Venture, which describes itself as “ultra-luxury” and to be fair its website does mention shore excursions like the ones we’ve being doing. Perhaps it doesn’t market itself to birders, though. That could explain the lack of people on the outer decks.

We were looking hard for penguins, and after a buffet dinner we kept looking. There were ice floes carrying Adelies from time to time, but no Emperors. Suddenly George called out two! But they had been swimming away behind the ship and nobody else saw them.

Adelie Penguins

The sun set slowly in the northwest as the ship cruised slowly and carefully through a field of small ice floes. Finally at nearly 10 pm we neared Snow Hill Island, where the Emperors’ rookery is located. And then somebody spotted two of them on a flat ice floe and called them out! They were distant black dots, true, but they were big black dots. Not Adelies. The ship inched closer and closer, finally inching to a stop right next to the two Emperor Penguins! Fantastic!

Emperor Penguins

There were others nearby but these two were the stars. The ship stayed there quite a while so that people could admire them. An announcement went out over the whole ship and people who had given up waiting streamed out to the outside decks. There was even a couple in bathrobes out there.

Finally there was an announcement asking everyone to leave the outside decks so that the people in COVID isolation could come out to see the Emperors. It was way after 10 pm, later than our usual shipboard bedtime, so we went to the cabin and crashed into bed.

Kudos to Rockjumper for chartering the ship and holding out over three years of misfortune, to Quark for getting the ship to Antarctica, and to Captain Hervé Parage and his crew for precision ship-driving!

On our way to Antarctica

November 18, 2022

We were now at sea and the weather became rougher. Rosemary was seasick and took Gravol last night and the combination of those two things made her feel queasy for most of the morning. She went down to see Dr Sandra for a different medication, which helped a bit. Paul also took Gravol “just in case” but he was unscathed by the rolling of the ship.

In the morning we went to presentations by Fabrice (the French ornithologist) and Federico (the Argentinian historian). They had co-written a children’s book “Tubby the Pig” which was about a real pig who was involved in an early 20th-century expedition. Later we bought a copy from the store and asked them both to sign it. We’ll give it to Rowan when he’s old enough to read books instead of tearing them apart.

In the afternoon it was still rainy and windy; Paul went out birding for half an hour but there were very few birds flying.

At dinner time icebergs started to show up and we could see them passing by, or actually the ship was passing them by. But tomorrow we expect to be passing the giant iceberg A-76A, which is about 135 kilometers long and 26 kilometers wide.

November 19, 2022

Today was all at sea, with no shore landings. Paul got up at 6 am to go out on deck, but there were almost no birds to see out there.

So in the morning we attended two presentations. Peter Kaestner talked about his life finding 9,750 species of birds; his strategy was to be employed at US consular offices in places with lots of birds. Unfortunately his laptop had to fight the ship’s audio-visual system and lost the battle. And Álvaro Jaramillo talked about finding the Pincoya Storm-Petrel and documenting it for science. This was based on his friends in Chile noticing some mysterious-looking Wilson’s Storm-Petrels, which eventually led to an article in the Auk describing them as a new species.

We were getting close to Iceberg A-76A and our captain made course as close as possible to it. For an hour or so there was only fog, though, so we went downstairs to lunch.

After lunch we went back to the upper deck, where there was still only fog and no iceberg. Then after a while the fog suddenly cleared and the iceberg appeared. From our vantage point it was just a featureless wall about 25 meters high and it went on forever. The ship spent most of the afternoon cruising along the iceberg, but no matter how much you thought “This is a monster iceberg” it was still sort of a letdown.

There were bergy bits and small ice floes from the iceberg, and some of them had Chinstrap Penguins riding on them. And suddenly there were lots of seabirds: 100 fulmars, 1000 prions, 15 Light-mantled Albatrosses. They were soon gone, leaving only the iceberg for the next four hours.

Tomorrow we will be heading for the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. An Emperor Penguin would be a good lifer for Rosemary and a good birthday lifer for Paul!

South Georgia, part 3

November 17, 2022

This morning’s expedition was to the King Penguin colony at St. Andrew’s Bay. We had already visited a wonderful penguin colony so we seriously debated whether a second colony would be worthwhile visiting. But we decided to go anyway. The weather was a bit iffy, but why stay on the ship and do nothing?

On the way to the penguin colony

After landing we walked along a track, trying to avoid wildlife, up to a small high point where we looked down on the main body of the colony. There were just penguins as far as the eye could see! Probably farther than that, actually. We were told that one estimate of the colony size was a quarter of a million birds. So yes, the trip was worthwhile.

The afternoon trip was to Gold Harbour. It was a spectacular location with jagged mountains and glaciers, quite the impressive background for the penguins and elephant seals on the beach. And the morning clouds had disappeared, leaving us with beautiful fine weather.

As our Zodiac approached the landing spot, there were a couple of elephant seals bickering nearby. The loser retreated into the sea and then reared up over our Zodiac, menacing us with bared teeth. We were quite startled, to put it mildly, but nobody had a camera ready. And luckily he decided to leave us alone.

Bertrab Glacier with penguins

White morph Southern Giant Petrel

The rest of the beach was full of fur seals and elephant seals, but it was much calmer and the penguins were very curious about us.

One lone Adelie Penguin

So that was all for South Georgia, and after dinner the ship headed south towards Antarctica. We were out on the deck because it was a good time and place to see pelagic birds leaving their daytime roosts. Most of the birds we saw were Antarctic Prions; we estimated 10,000 of them! This was a far cry from seeing one or two at a time passing the ship. And we finally managed to get our binoculars on our first Diving-Petrel, a South Georgia Diving-Petrel.

Blue Petrel

Many seabirds — how many can you ID?

South Georgia, part 2

November 16, 2022

Today was the “Shackleton Walk”, emulating the last part of Shackleton’s epic traverse of South Georgia and down into Stromness. The walkers had breakfast at 4:45 am and departed the ship at 5:30 am. The rest of us departed at 8:30 am and took Zodiacs into Stromness Harbour. From our landing point we could see the walkers just starting to zigzag down from the pass.

Early morning near Stromness

Just down the beach was the old whaling station. It was off-limits to us because of a variety of hazards, starting with asbestos. But we could walk on the beach and up the trail towards Shackleton Falls. The beach had the usual collection of sealions, and Paul walked up the trail a bit and found a South Georgia Pipit which was foraging around a small pond.

After this visit we took a Zodiac cruise around the coast to another ruined whaling station, at Leith Harbour. This one was in even worse condition.

David Attenborough stayed in this shack when he was filming in South Georgia

After lunch the plan was to land again and visit Grytviken. But before we could do that, the government biosecurity inspectors arrived to audit us. First they had to audit the ship’s procedures, which took a long time, and then they spot-checked some of the passengers as we departed. We had been trained to clean all of our outer clothing before going ashore but quite a few people got caught for things like dirt in coat pockets and were sent back for a do-over.

Antarctic Tern

Grytviken, unlike the other old whaling stations, had been rehabilitated and turned into an open-air museum. The church was open to the public and it looked capable of hosting church services. (Apparently it’s possible to get married in South Georgia.) Next to the church was the old ski jump; it’s possible to recognize it as a ski jump if you know what to look for but it isn’t really usable.

Grytviken church (the ski jump is to the right)

There is a small cemetery in Grytviken, and it’s where Shackleton was buried according to his wife’s request. We all gathered there and raised a glass to toast “The Boss”.

The post office was open, and we sent off postcards to grandson Rowan and ourselves. We also bought some souvenirs there. Next door was the museum, which had been renovated lately. It too had souvenirs for sale; one of them was “Shackleton Whisky”. The supplies for Shackleton’s Antarctic expedition included a whisky manufactured for the expedition by one of its commercial sponsors. The whisky available in the museum was manufactured by a modern firm, based on the recipe for the original. We bought two teacups depicting King Penguins and Paul bought a new “Falkland Islands” hat to replace a collection of disreputable birding hats.

South Georgia, part 1

November 15, 2022

In the early morning it was slightly raining and foggy as the ship cruised into Elsehul Bay at the north end of South Georgia. And breakfast was at 6:30 am, half an hour earlier than usual, so that we could get out for a Zodiac cruise around the bay. Getting dressed for the Zodiac was an ordeal, as it was cold and raining and we had to make sure we had all the right gear. And then waiting to board the Zodiac was also a long drawn-out process.

The crew hates Snowy Sheathbills. Their diet consists solely of penguin feces, and so their feces is very unpleasant to clean up.

But finally we were off, and we headed right over to the Macaroni Penguin colony. There are lots of colonies on the island, but not necessarily in places we would be visiting. At first we only saw a dozen macaronis climbing a steep slope, but then after we rounded a corner we could see the whole colony. Then our driver Hein heard a bird singing. Since the only songbird on the island is the South Georgia Pipit, that must be it. We could see it high in the sky doing its display flight.

Macaroni Penguins

The whole bay was full of wildlife all along the shore. Lots of fur seals and sea lions and a few elephant seals. Lots of Antarctic Terns and Grey-headed Albatrosses and other seabirds flying over. And finally a small colony of King Penguins. It was a very good cruise despite the rain and wind, and the weather could have been a lot worse.

Kelp Gulls

Elephant Seal

After lunch we went on an expedition to Salisbury Plain. We were in the last Zodiac group, but when we got to the shore the wait was worth it. The location was the home of maybe 50,000 penguins. They were all along the beach to start with, and on the flat area behind the beach, and up the hill behind the beach and probably over that hill as well. And there was a very large flat area extending to some distant mountains, looking like a Lord of the Rings scene only with penguins.

The penguins were all honking and braying. And there were some unfledged birds, looking like brown cartoon characters. They were peeping like chicks, begging their parents for food. (Unfortunately there was no penguin food to be had at this time of year so those birds would eventually starve.)

As we walked about, trying to avoid the columns of penguins which were bustling along, we reflected on what an astonishing sight it was. Nothing like anything we had experienced before, totally amazing.

Also on the beach, near the edge of the water, there was a string of fur seals. So far there were only males, sitting evenly spaced apart in haughty poses. Occasionally they would charge at each other, but only for practice apparently. Later in the year the females would arrive and then the fun would begin.

Evening in South Georgia

Not all the penguins are on the land: our cabin steward Nanta made this one for us

On our way to South Georgia

November 13, 2022

Today was the first of two days at sea en route to South Georgia, so no shore expeditions for a while. But people were still keen to see new seabirds so many people (not us) were out on deck by 5 am. At breakfast we met Tristan, who told us that an Atlantic Petrel had been seen. This was a Good Bird(TM), so we decided to go and see if it was still there.

There were two, following the ship. A good-looking bird. Then there were three and eventually Marcus estimated there were probably fifty. We checked out the prions, at least the ones close to the ship, to try and identify them as Antarctic (instead of Slender-billed) Prions.

Antarctic Petrel

There was a presentation about Seals of the Southern Ocean, which we missed part of, but we’ll have a lot of them to look forward to on South Georgia. Immediately following there was a Shackleton presentation, recapping some history which we were quite familiar with. We’ll have more about that to look forward to on South Georgia too.

Wandering Albatross

South Georgia is very strict about the biosecurity regulations, so we would have to go over our outdoor gear with a fine-tooth comb to make sure there are no seeds or other organic hitchhikers attached. Tomorrow we will get the formal training and will have to sign off that we participated.

November 14, 2022

Paul got up at about 6:15 am and went out to the back deck. Almost right away a guide called out “Snow Petrel!” A pretty bird, a lifer, it flew around the ship’s wake for a couple of minutes before leaving. Fortunately we saw quite a few following the ship later in the voyage so Rosemary didn’t miss out on it.

Snow Petrel

After breakfast much of the morning was taken up by biosecurity procedures, which are even more important in South Georgia then in the Falklands. Then later we arrived at Shag Rocks, a group of spires rising up out of the ocean in the middle of nowhere. The ship did a full loop around them so that we could see the hundreds of South Georgia Shags (lifer!) which were covering them with guano.

Shag Rocks

South Georgia Shags

After lunch we retired to our room to clean our outer clothing. Mostly this was Velcro on coats and trousers, but even the manufacturer logo on the soles of our boots was said to be a hotspot for problems. Today we passed the inspection, but the cleaning has to be done daily for our South Georgia landings.

There are no tiny seeds here any more

We found out that the day after tomorrow there’s going to be a “Shackleton Walk”, redoing the last part of Shackleton’s epic trek from Elephant Island to Stromness on South Georgia. Rosemary would very much like to do that but it’s 5.5 kilometers with 300 meters of elevation gain and loss. Too much for her bad knee so she reluctantly bowed out.