As mentioned in the prior post, December was the time for the rescheduled Covid canceled trip to Antarctica. I had flown down to Buenos Aires where I met Mary Ann and we spent a couple of days there looking around before flying down to Ushuaia on Saturday, 17 December. We had a couple of days in Ushuaia looking around before boarding our ship on the Monday afternoon.
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| Cruise Boats in Ushuaia |
We had a nice cabin with a small veranda on deck 6 (6 out of 7). We got settled in and then we had a safety briefing - how to recognize the alarm sounds, how to wear the life vest, where the muster station was, etc. In all there were about 120 passengers on board with a crew of around 40.
As we left the harbor in Ushuaia there were quite a few cruise boats. Antarctic cruises are a big business in Ushuaia now. There was a rather large Hurtigruten boat, the Fridtjof Nansen, a couple of other tour boats from National Geographic and Quest and then our boat, the Sea Venture. Also in the harbor was the Octopus, which was the late Paul Allen’s superyacht.
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| Leaving Ushuaia |
It was a pleasantly warm day as we sailed away from Ushuaia down the Beagle Channel with beautiful mountains on both sides of the boat. Being the relatively narrow Beagle Channel it was also quite calm. Mary Ann and I had placed our Scopolamine patches on our necks some hours before while we were still in Ushuaia. We were hoping for a calm crossing to Antarctica but if not we were relying on the patches to prevent any sea sickness.
Everyone had allegedly tested negative for Covid before we embarked so we were starting the trip Covid free. We would see how long that would last.
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| In the Beagle Channel |
It was night time and I was asleep when we entered the Drake. I was aware of the seas being a little rougher but I did not feel at all nauseous. Maybe the Scopolamine was working. The rocking of the boat also was quite pleasant while sleeping and I had a very good night's sleep.
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| Wandering Albatross |
For all of the next day we were heading across the Drake’s Passage. The weather was a little stormy and there was a definite swell. We were accompanied by several Albatrosses (the Wandering, the Black Browed and the Royal) and quite a few Giant Petrels. All of them are amazing flyers - they glide just above the water level with their long wingspan (up to 11 ft wingspan for the Wandering Albatross) and they hardly have to flap their wings at all. They spend most of their lives flying, only coming to land to breed and feed. What amazing birds; a wonder to behold.
The next day, Wednesday, we were still crossing the Drake. Still accompanied by the same albatrosses and petrels.
We were issued with boots and a different life vest for our trips off the boat in the Zodiacs. The boots were excellent - waterproof, warm and good to walk in. We had also signed up for kayaking so we were issued with our gear for that activity - a dry suit, rubber bootees, and rubber gloves. It was a lot of work to get into the dry suit but once in it was comfortable and would hopefully do the job of keeping me dry should I fall in.
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| South Shetland Islands |
That evening, Wednesday, we caught our first glimpse of land on the southern continent - the South Shetland Isles. We were lucky as the crossing was relatively mild with only moderate seas. The Drake’s Passage can be a nausea inducing ride in rough weather.
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| South Shetland Islands |
On the next morning (Thursday 22 December) we made our first landfall at President Head on Snow Island, one of the South Shetland Isles. We offloaded in groups. The groups were named after penguins and we were the Chinstrap group. Dressed in many layers and with our boots and anoraks on we made our way to the lower deck where we were scanned out of the ship, walked through a bath of disinfectant (so we didn’t carry any contaminants from the boat to the shore) and boarded a Zodiac.
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| Elephant Seals, Snow Island |
On Snow Island, there were quite a few Elephant Seals lying around in big groups on the beach. These are big animals and they grunt and groan a lot and they seemingly get aggressive with each other. We have them in California too but here on Snow Island we were able to get quite close to them.
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| Baby Elephant Seal |
One very young elephant seal was much more inquisitive than the rest and he/she took a liking to what we were doing there and to knocking down the poles that our guides had put out to make sure we didn’t go out of bounds.
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| Gentoo Penguin |
As far as I can see from the photos there was only one penguin, a Gentoo. He or she got a lot of attention as it was the first penguin we had all seen in the wild. There were also skuas flying about - probably looking for penguin eggs or chicks since that is about all they feed on.
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| Giant Petrels |
A little ways up from the shore in the rocks there were several giant petrels nesting. These are magnificent birds with a huge wingspan. They are part of the same tubenose family as the albatrosses and, as the name suggests, they have a tube extending part way down their bill.
After an hour or so wandering around on the beach, we boarded the boats again to return to the ship. On arrival on board our lower legs and boots were pressure washed to clean them and then we then stepped through a trough of disinfectant. That way no contaminants were brought back on board the ship.
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| Disinfecting after being onshore |
The boat then sailed south to Deception Island, one of the other South Shetland Islands. On the way we saw a pod of Orcas swimming not too far from the boat. They were quite impressive - around 8 or 9 of them traveling along near the surface of the water. Even with my limited camera equipment I was able to get reasonable photos.
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| Orcas |
Deception Island is a huge flooded caldera and there has been a lot of human activity there in the past - sealers initially, then whalers, then scientific researchers. After an eruption of the volcano in the 1960’s it has pretty much been left alone except for visiting Antarctic tourists.
Once inside the caldera we prepared to go kayaking in Telefon Bay. After all the effort of donning into our dry suits we were notified that it was too rough to go kayaking so we changed back. All good exercise.
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| Whaler's Bay, Deception Island |
Later in the day we did land on Deception Island at Whaler’s Bay. We went ashore by Zodiac again and hiked up the volcanic ash slopes for a nice overview of the bay. There were a few, perhaps only 2 or 3, chinstrap penguins around. Their chinstrap markings make them look kind of humorous, like they are smiling.
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| Chinstrap Penguin |
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| Landing at Whaler's Bay |
Back on board the ship we continued further south. We saw humpback whales blowing and showing their tails in the distance. We were encourage to take pictures of the whale tails as this is like the fingerprint of a whale. Each has a distinctive pattern of damage and imperfections that enable the whale to be tracked through time. The information is collated by a group known as Happywhale and if you submit pictures of tails they will try and identify it. On our trip we did spot an entirely new whale that was uploaded to their database.
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| Gerlache Strait |
The next morning was a beautiful blue sky day. Over the night we had traveled quite a ways south down the Gerlache Strait and were now off Goudier Island where there is a Post Office at Port Lockroy. This is a British Post Office that was once a whaling station and then in WWII some sort of military base before now becoming something of a tourist attraction. You normally can visit the post office and museum and post a card that is then sent by boat to the Falklands and then flown by the RAF to the UK for onward forwarding. All postcards cost 1US$ or 1 Pound Sterling no matter the destination. While the Post Office is British but the name Lockroy is from a Frenchman, the financier of the French Charcot expedition in 1904.
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| Port Lockroy Post Office |
Unfortunately we were prevented from going ashore as the weather was too rough to make a safe landing. That was a shame. We did however get to see our first large colony of penguins there. The snow around the Post Office is stained brown from the Gentoo penguin poop. The Union Jack flying above the cluster of cabins amongst the pure white snow and the brown poop of the penguin colony looked so inviting.
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| Lemaire Channel |
After leaving Port Lockroy we sailed north and experienced some breathtaking scenery in the Lemaire Channel. This was perhaps the most spectacular part of the entire cruise . The Lemaire Channel is relatively narrow and we had a wonderful view of the high mountains and glaciers on either side of the boat. What is more, it was a beautiful blue sky day.
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| Lemaire Channel |
We turned around in the Lemaire channel and went back up the Gerlache Strait to the Neumayer Channel where we were hoping to find calmer waters suitable for kayaking.
Before we kayaked we were treated to a barbeque dinner on the deck of the ship. It was quite an event with lots of great food and despite being in the open in Antarctica it wasn’t too cold.
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| The Seaventure in Recess Cove |
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| Kayaking |
After dinner we moored in Recess Cove and, in almost perfectly calm conditions, we went for our first kayak trip. Of course we had our dry suits on and we loaded into Zodiacs first before transferring to kayaks away from the ship. It was a little bit tricky to transfer into the kayak (all of them were doubles) but we managed to do it without any problems. The water was smooth and like a mirror and it was just a beautiful experience to glide out on the water among the icebergs and the stunning snow covered mountains.
After we got back on board we had to get ready for camping on the snow. We evacuated our bowels and bladders (I didn’t want to be going to the bathroom on the ice in the middle of the night) and got warmly dressed before boarding the Zodiacs for the shore. Once on shore we grabbed one of the dry bags full of camping gear and set about preparing our campsite.
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| Snow Camping |
The snow was not ideal. It was quite wet and heavy. We tamped down an area to sleep on by walking up and down on it and then spread out the groundsheet. On top of that we laid our sleeping pads and blew them up. I expected self inflating pads but no. Then came the sheet sleeping bag inside the down sleeping bag inside the waterproof bivvy bag. It was quite a procedure and it took quite a while to get everything sorted out.
Next there was the procedure of getting partially undressed and inserting oneself into the sleeping bag. The boots made a fine pillow and once I was zipped up inside I was quite warm. It was a beautiful evening - the sun was setting low in the sky, there were a few clouds around and the water was calm and mirror-like. They settled us all down around 10:00 pm and surprisingly I fell asleep.
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| Twilight Recess Cove |
I guess I woke up a few times in the night and peered out of the sleeping bag - it was always a beautiful twilight with calm waters and beautiful clouds and sky. I soon fell asleep again and had a surprisingly good night. I was oblivious of the penguins that were walking around part of the campsite during the night and the noise from the calving of the adjacent glaciers.
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| Twilight Recess Cove |
We were woken up around 5:00 am and we extricated ourselves from our sleeping bags and packed things up for the return to the boat.
This was now the 6th day on board the boat and it was Christmas Eve. With so much else going on I hardly gave a second thought to it being Christmas. Leaving our campsite at Recess Cove, we sailed a short distance north to Palaver Point. This location was so named because of the incessant noise of the penguin colony there. All the squabbling and calling among the penguins was indeed quite a palaver.
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| Chinstrap Penguin |
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| Chinstrap Penguin Colony |
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| Chinstrap Penguin Colony |
We landed ashore and climbed up the hill to the top where there was a wonderful view of the bay below us. The penguin colony was a chinstrap colony. On top of the hill there was a skua sitting on its nest in the rocks. It was so well camouflaged.
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| Spot the Skua |
In the afternoon we sailed further north to Brialmont Bay. On the way we passed an iceberg with a solitary Emperor Penguin standing on it (accompanied by a solitary chinstrap penguin). This location was well out of the Emperor Penguin’s normal range. Typically they are only found further to the south and we did not expect to see any on our trip. This poor soul was all alone and a long way from his or her fellow Emperors.
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| Emperor Penguin |
In the afternoon we were at Brialmont Bay and this is where, if we wanted to, we were going to do our Polar Plunge. I was a bit apprehensive about the whole affair. I am not the best at getting into cold water but I realized that I would only be there this one time so I had better make the best of it. I got changed and went down to the lower deck to investigate whether I had the courage.
We were kept waiting a long time and I was a little surprised that most of the people in the line were Asian females (Chinese or Taiwanese) and myself and a Taiwanese guy were the only males. After a long time spent clearing the ice away from the boat we were allowed to proceed. Two at a time, with belts around our waists attached to ropes to retrieve us if necessary, we were allowed out onto a Zodiac. We stood on the side of the Zodiac and jumped in. My recollection was that I spent a long time standing on the edge of the Zodiac while they sweat aside some ice that had floated by. Then finally I could jump and then before I knew it I was climbing out of the water. It was such a huge adrenalin rush that I didn’t really feel the cold at all. I probably wasn’t in for more than a few seconds but it felt wonderful.
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| My Polar Plunge |
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| My Polar Plunge |
Once I got out I was so invigorated that I got back in line for a second attempt. The ship’s doctor saw me in line for a second round and he checked my pulse before he would let me go again. The second time I had hoped to appreciate the experience more and perhaps do a couple of strokes but no, it was the same adrenalin rush and then it was all over. There is a lot of evidence that cold water swimming is good for you and all I can say is that I felt really good after doing it. I felt totally invigorated.
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| Kayaking off Melchior Island |
Over Christmas Eve night we sailed south again to the Melchior Islands. After breakfast we got ready for another kayak trip. The water was a little rougher this time. We paddled around the bay and then turned up an inlet that was more exposed to ocean swells from the Drake. It was more exciting but the guides were not so thrilled particularly when the Zodiac accompanying us developed engine problems and so was not really in a position to assist us. We turned back towards the calmer waters of the bay and the ship. On the way we passed by some Weddell Seals relaxing on the rocks in the sun.
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| Weddell Seals |
There was a bit of excitement as we got out of the kayaks to get onto the Zodiacs. We had just got in the Zodiac and two friends, Debbie and Jamie, were preparing to come alongside and get in too. There was a little miscommunication and they leaned over a little too far to grab the Zodiac and their kayak rolled over and dumped them both into the water. A bit of excitement but really everyone was pretty calm and they swam to the Zodiac and were hoisted aboard. It was exhilarating I am sure but the dry suits and life vests did their job and the only harm was to Jamie and Debbie’s pride.
For Christmas Day afternoon we sailed to Cuverville Island where we landed to look at the large penguin colony there. Cuverville is the largest breeding colony of gentoo penguins. They were noisy, they were smelly (you could smell them before we even got close to shore) but they were kind of cute, particularly when they were walking up their tracks from the sea shore to their rocky breeding grounds.
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| Gentoo Penguin Colony, Cuverville Is. |
There were quite a few skuas around too - these vicious birds do not feed in the ocean, they feed on penguin eggs and chicks. There were no chicks hatched yet but the ground was littered with broken penguin eggs. I even saw a skua steal an egg from a poor penguin. Much distress and cackling from the penguins but the skua was unperturbed as he dined on the egg just a couple of feet away.
Apparently there was a single Adelie penguin somewhere in the crowd but I never saw it.
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| Skua and Gentoo Penguin |
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| Skua vs Penguin |
In the evening we had our Christmas Dinner on board and then were entertained by a talent show by the ship’s crew. Dinners on the ship were actually very good. Always a four course meal with ample wine. All drinks at the bar were covered so there were often a lot of happy participants in the bar and often some fuzzy heads the next morning.
On Boxing Day morning we had sailed further north and were off D’Hainault Island, by Mikkelsen Harbor. We were scheduled to go kayaking so we dressed in our dry suits and assembled on the deck. Alas by then the weather was not cooperating and the swells were too high to kayak so it was back to the room to struggle out of our dry suits one last time.
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| Ready for Kayaking - Steve, Mary Ann, Alan |
Instead of kayaking we did get to go out in the Zodiacs. We drove around the ice floes off Mikkelsen Harbor. We did find one solitary Adelie penguin standing on an ice flow by him/herself. I had not positively identified an Adelie up until this time so it was nice to see one relatively close. The chinstraps are easy to identify with their black chinstrap line. The gentoos have a bright red bill and white bonnet while the Adelie has an all black head.
We also saw more humpback whales swimming along periodically showing their tales.
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| A solitary Adelie Penguin |
In the afternoon we were again planning a Zodiac cruise but the weather was again not cooperating and we had to cancel. That marked the end of our explorations into the Antarctic and we headed north again towards the Drake’s Passage. I was lucky enough to see a whale breach off the starboard side of the ship.
I applied a new scopolamine patch as a precaution because the seas were supposedly a little rougher for the return.
There were a few casualties with Covid on the trip. Certain rooms, including the one opposite our cabin, were allocated to Covid patients who were being somewhat isolated. If they were fit enough to get out they were allowed out for Zodiac cruises and shore landings. There was a special Covid Zodiac boat that was used for this after we had all left the boat. In all I believe there were 12 people who contracted Covid - one of them the ship's doctor.
By the next morning we were in the Drake and the boat was moving around more. I, thankfully, was feeling fine and I really enjoyed the motion of the ship when I was lying down. It made me sleep very well too.
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| Bridge Tour - Captain Ivo |
Around lunchtime we got a tour of the bridge. This was the first time we had been around many of the marine crew. Since it was vital that they didn’t catch Covid they were fairly well segregated from us passengers. Perhaps that is the way it is at all times, I don’t know. Anyway the bridge tour was quite interesting and Captain Ivo was very entertaining. The majority f the crew are, like the captain, Croatian.
There were several science programs going on during our voyage - citizen science programs. Such things as cloud observations, water clarity measurements, and bird counts. I participated in the bird count which involved counting the number and species of birds seen in a 30 minute period and reporting the numbers to a database at Cornell University, I believe. We did a count in the afternoon on our way across the Drake. There was not a lot of activity and as I recall all we saw was a few Giant Petrels quite a way off behind the boat.
In the evening we had a Filipino themed dinner. Most of the cooks and servers were Filipino.
Overnight the seas were quite rough and we had 4-5 meter swells. I found this helped with my sleeping and I was really relaxed and not at all nauseous. At breakfast we had our first sighting of land, the southern extent of Tierra del Fuego.
In the morning we had another bird count. As we were nearer to land there was a lot more activity. Literally hundreds of Sooty Shearwaters amongst the usual Albatrosses and Skuas.
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| Farewell to the crew |
As we sailed up the Beagle Channel we prepared to leave the ship. We turned in our kayaking gear and our boots and packed our bags.
Just before dinner time we docked in Ushuaia. We stayed aboard for dinner and then even though we were sleeping on the boat that night we went ashore to sample the nightlife of Ushuaia. We found a pretty lively gin bar - Jeremy Buttons’s Gin Bar and partook of a few beverages. Jeremy or Jemmy Button was one of the local Yamani people that were taken back to England on the HMS Beagle (on the first voyage of the Beagle before Darwin joined).
We had become good friends with Alan and Michelle from Sausalito and Mahesh from San Francisco. We vowed to get together after we got home. We will see how that goes.
The next morning, Thursday 29 December, we had breakfast on board and then said goodbye to everyone. It was kind of sad to leave all the folk who had shared this wonderful journey we had made.
It was a rainy day in Ushuaia so it was not very enticing to walk around town. We had a evening flight to Buenos Aires so we had a lot of time to kill. We went to the Prison Museum and looked around then killed some time with a mediocre lunch and then with little else to do on this rainy day we took a taxi to the airport for our 8:00 pm flight to Buenos Aires.
It was a long wait for our flight but eventually we took off. We arrived in BA around midnight and took a taxi to our hotel in the Palermo district. Even at midnight it was quite active in the Palermo neighborhood - lots of bars and restaurants still open. A beer in the hotel was all we could manage.
The next day we walked around the city and tried, unsuccessfully, to join a tour of the Teatro Colon and then went back to the hotel and got ready to go to the airport. Mary Ann left that evening for the USA and I stayed out by the airport in Ezeiza for my flight the next morning to Paraguay.
Here is the bird list:
Ushuaia:
Blue eyed cormorant
Upland Goose
Great grebe
Black Necked swan
Beagle Channel and Drakes Passage:
Black Browed Albatross
Wandering Albatross
Southern Giant Petrel
Sooty Shearwater
Antarctica:
Emperor Penguin
Gentoo Penguin
Strap Penguin
Wilson’s Storm Petrel
Faced Sheathbill
Antarctic Prion
Cape petrel
Southern Fulmar
White Chinned Petrel
Black Bellied Storm Petrel
Blue Petrel
Adelie Penguin
There are more photographs here.
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