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21.02.2016: Day 9 - Godthul (Good Cove), St. Andrews Bay, Ocean Harbour (South Georgia)
Despite the late night, I was up before our wake up call and looked out of the port hole - blue sky and sunny! I told Kirsten and she dashed out to take photos as we sailed into Godthul Bay. We went for breakfast and heard that our landing would be delayed this morning because of elephant seals on the beach. The staff made a path for us through them and laid out red flags for us.
The wind was already around 40 knots (46 mph) and was due to increase to 55 knots (63 mph) but we were still able to make it for our walk on land. The divers wouldn't be able to go underwater though and were taken out on zodiac cruises around the bay or could go on land.
We got into the zodiacs and landed at 9-15am. Unfortunately, just as we swung our legs over the side of the zodiac, a wave hit the boat and we ended up getting our boots filled with sea water! Not good at all - we had a 6km walk ahead of us up a 300m high hill. I had at least a litre of water in each boot but decided that if I tried to take them off and wring out my socks it might make things worse. The water might provide an extra cushion and if I left things the way they were it would probably prevent blisters. The alternative was to return to the boat, try and get some more boots and probably miss the landing altogether.
So I squelched on land and followed the red flags up a steep slope through tussock grass. It was very muddy and slippery and the steps up were sometimes so high I had to use the tussock grass to pull myself up! At least the cold sea water in my boots soon warmed up.
Day 9: View of Godthul Bay - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
We climbed up an walked past Gentoo penguins and giant petrels. It was very windy and we got pushed and blown as we pushed our way up 300 m of ascent to get to the top. The view of the Plancius in the beautiful bay was wonderful.
The group had split so that those who didn't want to go all the way to the top could return to the beach. Despite wet feet we both went to the top. Coming down was not easy though, especially through the last muddy stretch through the tussock grass and back to the beach.
View from the top - 360° Panorama
(move mouse over panorama and click on the arrows)
It felt good to be able to get some exercise and do some walking. We're certainly putting on weight eating all these cooked meals!
When we got back to the ship we asked Catherine, one of the diving staff, if we could get another pair of boots each. She not only fetched them for us but delivered them to our cabin. What service! But then I had to empty my wet boots before handing them over for a dry pair. I turned them upside down in the shower and a waterfall came out!!!
Then everything had to be washed - socks, insoles that I'd taken from my hiking boots, feet, legs, and waterproofs. The ship had already set sail and we were late for lunch - lentil soup, meatballs and pasta but I decided to go for a salad and a banana for dessert.
The crew closed all outside doors of the ship because of high winds and swell. The spray was reaching up to deck three where our cabin and the restaurant is. We had to hold onto our bowls and glasses a few times during lunch!
When we got to St. Andrews Bay our landing was cancelled. It was not safe to get into the zodiacs from the ship. A pity because this is where the largest colony of King penguins are - 500,000 pairs! We couldn't even see them from the ship but we did see a wonderful rainbow and the crew opened up some doors so we could go out on deck for photos whilst we were there.
Instead we went for plan B which was back the way we had come to Ocean Harbour and try to land there. It was still very windy once we got into the harbour and it would be a 20 minute zodiac ride to get to land. We were split into two landing groups and we would be second.
At 5-15pm we queued up to go down the gangplank but it was extremely choppy and the zodiacs were rising and sinking so much it was difficult for the staff to hold them steady. Two people getting into our zodiac slipped and fell on their bums. Fortunately they fell into the zodiacs and not into the water! You had to time it right and wait for the right moment to get in. Fortunately for us we managed to get in without a problem and even managed to stay dry getting on land. Neither of us wanted to ask for yet another pair of boots!
We were given 1.5 hours on land and walked along the beach to see lots of fur seals and some elephant seals - some of which were very large. Ocean Harbour had been the site of a Norwegian whaling shore station from 1909 until 1920 and, although its buildings and fittings had been dismantled and removed to other stations, the evidence of its activities was all around: innumerable whale bones, an old steam locomotive, piles of left over coal, a few graves, and a three-masted iron ship (The Bayard) which had run aground in 1911, now a perfect haven for South Georgia blue-eyed shags.
There was a full moon rising and we even saw a blond fur seal. We queued up for the zodiac ride back to the ship and Carol was getting people into lines of 5 so we would be ready to board. One woman was standing in the middle of the two lines which confused Carol. Kirsten asked her which line she was in but then swapped to German. Her husband had a real go at Kirsten who was only trying to help and shouted in German at her - "That's it! We'll turn around and just stay on the island overnight if that's what you want!"
He was really nasty and there was no need for it. Not the type of people we want on board. Anyway, the upshot was that Kirsten was left behind for the next zodiac because the woman had mucked up the numbers!
Day 9: Landings at Godthul Bay (Good Cove) and Ocean Harbour (South Georgia)
We met up on board again, had a hot chocolate and I wrote the diary for the day. Evening meal was Graved lax (smoked salmon if you didn't know!), followed by roast beef with cauliflower and roast potatoes and chocolate cheesecake for dessert. Both of us got an extra from Daniela and Martin. We sat with Catriona and Jeff from England and enjoyed chatting to them but we had to finish our meals quickly as recap was announced for 9-30pm.
We glanced at the schedule for the next day on our way up for the recap and saw that our wake up call was at 5-15am! I joked with the French Canadians that we couldn't go to recap because we had to go straight to bed and even then we wouldn't get 8 hours sleep!!
We were told that they were going to try and fit a full day in before noon tomorrow, hence the early start. Plan A was to get to Cooper Bay to see one of the larger colonies of Macaroni penguins and Chinstraps plus Weddell seals. Plan B was Larsen Harbour. This would be followed by a cruise down Drygalski Fjord. By noon we would set sail for the South Sandwich Islands.
We retired to our cabin for showers and finally got to bed at 10-35pm - only 6 hours 40 minutes before our wake up call! Oh well - we're only doing this once!
22.02.2016: Day 10 - Drygalski Fjord (South Georgia) - en route to South Sandwich Islands.
We were given extra time to sleep and our wake up call didn't happen until 6-25am. The plan had been wake up call at 05.15, pastries in the lounge and a split landing and Zodiac cruise in Cooper Bay. Half the group for a walk to the Macaroni colony and half the group in the Zodiacs to cruise to a Chinstrap colony then swapping around.
But at 5 am the wind picked up to 30+ knots and it was foggy. So that meant the landing and the Zodiac cruise were off and Larsen Harbour had also been cancelled. By the time we got our wake up call we were already entering Drygalski Fjord and we went up onto the bridge to see impressive glaciers and 7 out of the 12 species of petrels that breed on the island. The ship cruised up to the end of the fjord for an hour and then turned around to sail back out.
It was very cold outside - only 5 degrees C, so we had to wrap up warm and then came inside for breakfast at 8am. By 8-30am we were already out into the open sea and the ship was rocking quite a bit. We had already seen two storms approaching on the weather website on the bridge. One was in Ushuaia with 50 knot winds and the other was ahead of us. In between there were "windows" where the winds were below 5 knots.
So it looked like the Captain was trying to get us to the South Sandwich Islands for one of those windows and hope that the bigger storm would pass to our north.
I did my room service job and brought cups of tea down to Kirsten in the cabin whilst she worked on the website and I went to a very good talk about penguins by Ali. I wrote copious notes for the diary but I'll just give a short summary here for those who are interested.
There are 17 species of penguins and we might be able to see 7 on this trip. We won't see the largest species Emperor (1.1 m high and can withstand temperatures down to minus 60°C and are the only penguins to spend the winter in the Antarctic) or the smallest Little Blue penguins (45cm). But we have already seen the second largest King penguins who have a different breeding cycle where eggs are laid every 15 months. So there is a real mix of all the stages of development on their colonies.
Macaroni penguins, who got their name from the plumed hats worn by Italian gentlemen, have only a short breeding period and nest in inaccessible areas mainly on South Georgia.
Gentoos are the third largest and breed on the Falklands but are spreading further south. They can't lay their eggs on snow so they wait for it to melt and build nests using pebbles and steal them from each others nests!
The largest colony of Chinstraps is in the South Sandwich Islands - 1.5 million breeding pairs. Adelie penguins have feathers on their beaks to protect them from the cold which makes them look as though they have short beaks. They are the most southerly breeding species and are the penguins of the ice.
Penguins can live 12 to 15 years, and the Gentoos, Kings and Emperors can live longer. In one square inch they have 100 feathers. They have a gland that can remove salt from sea water and they will also eat snow. Kings can dive down to 500 metres not even our divers can do that!
Lunch was minestrone soup, chicken curry with rice but no poppadums as it is too dangerous to use hot oil when the ship is rolling so much! One man's chair slid and then tipped backwards dumping him unceremoniously onto the floor!
Just before the first presentation of the afternoon I was dumped onto the floor when the swaying ship sent my seat cushions flying, with me on top of them! I had nothing to grab onto but at least I fell on top of the cushions!
The talk was by one of the passengers, Dr Michael Lang entitled "Bipolar Diving and Biodiversity" which gave the non divers a chance to learn more about the underwater world at both the North and South Poles. He does research dives in both those areas.
The Arctic region is populated and the average ice thickness is 1.5 miles. It is estimated that the Arctic will be ice free by 2040! The Antarctic is only populated by scientists and has an average ice thickness of 2.5 miles. Both areas are very dry.
Kirsten almost fell asleep so she went to lie down afterwards. I stayed for the second presentation about the history of South Georgia by Carol.
Then I thought I saw land ahead which couldn't possibly be true because we wouldn't be getting to the South Sandwich Islands until the following day. So I went up to the bridge and found out that it was a huge iceberg. Initial estimates were that it was 10 miles long!! Later it was corrected to 18 miles long! It was during dinner when we finally passed the end of it.
We had 4 to 6 metre swells and sometimes the ship tilted up to around a 30 degree angle. By now a lot of passengers were walking around with patches behind their ears to prevent sea sickness. As far as I know I don't get sea sick and Kirsten wanted to wait and see before using any patches or tablets.
Our recap was a super South Georgia recap about the geology, birds and underwater flora and fauna. Two birds had flown into the ships windows this morning but Jim and Ali were on hand to pick them up and let them fly off again. Unfortunately one used it's defence mechanism by spewing vomit towards Ali before they let it go!
Dinner was liver pate on Pumpernickel and sweet onion salad followed by honey glazed pork loin with warm potato salad and sauté cabbage for me and the vegetarian Parpadelle pasta with Arugula and cherry tomato for Kirsten. Unfortunately dessert was coconut Panna Cotta so I had a banana instead and Kirsten got my dessert for a change!
It took me an hour just to write my "paper" diary and I could only carry one hot drink at a time down to our cabin because of the high swells so at least I was getting some exercise going up and down two decks at a time!
23.02.2016: Day 11 - en route to South Sandwich Islands.
There was lots of rocking and rolling overnight and our deck was being lashed by waves and spray. We got up before our 7-45 am wake-up call and got totally flummoxed when Jim said it was 8-45am!! Our clocks told us he'd made a little mistake!
The morning lecture was by Christian about how glaciers are formed and how they behave. The talk was interrupted by the sound of the ship's horn and an announcement by Jim, telling us that we are passing Leskov Island, the first of the 11 islands making up the South Sandwich Islands. Even our Captain was very excited and saluted the island from the bridge!
Unfortunately it was very foggy with rain so there wasn't much to see. We have permits to land at three different islands - Candlemas, Saunders and Thule. Jim explained that these are the islands where it's easiest to land but no landing is easy here! It meant that we won't be going to Zavodovsky Island to see the 1.5 million Chinstrap penguin colony.
Lunch was cream of mushroom soup, spaghetti Carbonara and fruit salad and we were split into groups to vacuum our clothing again before and after lunch.
We had a meeting at 2pm where Jim outlined our plans and Tobias told us about the geology. The islands are volcanic and 8 out of 11 are classed as active! Carol gave us some of the history - they were originally called Sandwich land after the Earl of Sandwich. Ali told us about the wildlife we may encounter.
We put down anchor at Candlemas Island and tried to get the gangplank down but the swell was too high so it was aborted. We sailed around to the other side of the island and saw two humpback whales. We checked out another possible landing site but that was also aborted. So there will be no landings today.
The island is rimmed by rocky cliffs of lava flows with the occasional boulder beach tucked in between. On the slopes of Lucifer Hill, fumarolic areas were giving off steam, leaving the ground bleached and coloured in all kinds of yellow tones.
At recap Jim told us that tomorrow's weather was looking worse and we are currently sailing through uncharted waters! Amazing, that with all our technology today there are still areas that are not fully charted. But then not many ships come here! The Captain had sailed around 75% of the island before turning around and sailing back the same way because there were rocks and shallow depths whose exact location was unknown!
We were now heading towards Saunders Island which would take 4.5 to 5 hours and we would check out possible landings tomorrow. Kelvin told us about the huge iceberg we had seen yesterday. It is 18 miles long and was the size of one third of London! It is 30 metres high above the sea and 300 to 330 metres below the sea. He saw it last year and it broke off in the Weddell Sea so it's travelling quite slowly and has the really interesting name of B17 A. The presentation was really funny with some animated slides.
Jim took the microphone again to say he would speak to the Captain in the morning and let us know what the conditions are. One passenger suggested we forget these islands and head straight for the Antarctic. This didn't go down too well seeing as diving in the South Sandwich Islands was the whole reason that this trip was organised! Jim just said "We're staying!" And that was the end of the discussion.
Dinner was sun dried tomato risotto followed by Chimichuri rubbed rump steak with corn and bean casserole for me and wrapped trout fillet with vegetable and creamy potatoes for Kirsten with Tiramisu for dessert.
Story time was by Christian who told us about his time in the Arctic during the dark winter.
24.02.2016: Day 12 - Saunders Island (South Sandwich Islands)
We woke up to the rugged and stormy scenery of Saunders Island. Breakfast got disturbed by a breaching humpback whale which we saw through the restaurant windows. There were a few whales and one breached several times but it was impossible to catch on video.
Just as Carol was about to start her presentation about Ernest Shackleton we heard the announcement that there were Blue whales nearby. Everyone dashed outside and we saw three of them. Wow! This is the first time we have seen them and was one of the things on our wish-list for the trip. Yippee!
Maybe I shouldn't get you too excited because, unlike the humpback whales, there is not much to see. You just get shots of part of the long back with a small fin. At least we have seen some of these magnificent creatures - the largest animal in the world.
Lunch was tomato soup, followed by a South Sandwich sandwich - beef, salami, ham and cheese with tomato, and custard with berries for dessert.
Another passenger and famous photographer Amos Nachoum gave a talk showing us some amazing photos of wildlife. Then his presentation was cut short because another shout of "Whales" came over the PA system.
We dashed out again and this time we saw three Blue whales swimming together which is an extremely rare sight. Even Kelvin had never seen three whales of this biggest species together before. One of them had the typical colouration that gives these whales their name, while the two others were stained with yellow and brown; probably due to diatoms on their skin.
The captain manoeuvred the Plancius three times into the most sheltered bay of Saunders Island, constantly assessing the conditions. It finally became clear that a landing would not be feasible today, but the views of the shoreline, the storm beaches and the volcanic hills filled with wildlife were an amazing sight. We could all feel how rough and special the South Sandwich Islands really are. The whales also helped us forget that we couldn't land!
An episode of the BBC's "Frozen Planet" was shown at 5-15pm. At the daily recap Kelvin told us more about the amazing Blue whales and Jim gave us detailed plans for the next day. The weather conditions looked really promising for a landing at the South Sandwich Islands, and in order to maximize our day the wake-up call was scheduled for 4.45 am. By that time the guides would be already out scouting the conditions!
For dinner we had been invited to join Catriona and Jeff at their table. We didn't know that it was Catriona's birthday! Unfortunately when we got to their table there was only one seat left. We tried to fit another one in but it would be too cramped. So Kirsten went to sit with our German friends and I stayed at the birthday table.
Dinner was palm hearts (which I gave to Catriona as an impromptu birthday present!) followed by vegetable or lamb Korma. Dessert was chocolate mousse and a birthday cake for Catriona. Unfortunately the ship canted at a steep angle just as she was cutting the cake and her wine glass tipped over, spilling her wine into the cake! So we had Tipsy birthday cake which tasted really good!
Days 10-12: Drygalski Fjord. En route to South Sandwich Islands.
We didn't have much time after dinner because of the early wake up call and then we had difficulty getting to sleep. It was probably because it was Kirsten's birthday tomorrow and we knew that if we landed, getting in and out of the zodiac was going to be difficult. Jim had already asked people to make a responsible decision about whether they should land or not if they have any walking difficulties or have already experienced problems getting in and out of the zodiacs. The adrenaline kept us awake until 1am so we got less than 4 hours sleep!
