Right Whale Bay and Rosita Harbour

Our first iceberg.

South Georgia Island

King penguins

A Weddell seal

King penguins and elephant seals

A creche of year old King penguin chicks.

A young female fur seal.

Love elephant seal style.

Surveying the water for leopard seals.

There was one swimming around our Zodiacs, checking us out.

A leopard seal with penguin it killed (from a video I took).

Thrashing it around to remove the head.

 A sealion bull waiting for his dates at Rosita Harbour.

One of our kayaks. Some people paid extra to do this activity.

Thursday, October 31^st.

Overnight the crew spent some time decorating the ship for Hallowe’en.

We have arrived at the island of South Georgia. We could see it outside our portal. The three of us went up on deck to watch as we approached Right Whale Bay. We saw our first iceberg! Again, the conditions are apparently unbelievable, calm with little wind and some sun. The temperature was about 2 or 3. Using the lens I could see penguins and elephant seals on shore from the ship.

John and I and the rest of the Rockhoppers were the second group out today and were shuttled to the beach. There we were given a short briefing about where to go and what to watch out for: male elephant seals and male fur seals, which are aggressive as it is breeding season. I stood for a while taking photos along the beach before hiking up the beach and following the markers to a viewpoint up on a small tussock covered hill. From there you could get an overview of the whole area and the colonies along the whole beach. What an incredible place! It is full of life!

Then I went back to the beach to watch the King penguins and elephant seals up close. The noise of the elephants from their vocalizations and passing wind were well evident. Jonathan asked if any of us wanted to go out for a little tour on a Zodiac. John and I went and boy am I glad we did! Our driver Bismarck promised us a leopard seal and we saw two! John (the guide) who was in another Zodiac, showed us where one was and we sat and watched. It came up and looked at both Zodiacs and swam under them and kept peaking up at us to see what we were. Very curious. John told us there was another killing a penguin nearby, so Bismarck took us there. As we pulled up we could see the seal ‘playing’ with the penguin for a while before it was sure it was dead and then thrashing it about on the surface to rip its head off. Brutal to see but also amazing. We watched for a bit longer as the seal dismembered the penguin to remove its spine to make it easier to eat. There were a number of birds around trying to get pieces. Then we headed back to the ship, where we washed our boots thoroughly before heading to the room to download photos and have a pee! We cannot urinate on shore, so we either have to dehydrate ourselves a bit or return to the ship.

Another excellent lunch of fish, chicken schnitzel and Moroccan tagine. While we were eating the captain relocated our boat to Rosito Harbour.

The Rockhopper group were first to disembark and John and I were in the first Zodiac. We were met by John who gave us a brief update. There is little wild life here at the moment, a few elephant seals, several bull fur seals, birds and two King penguins. So, we went for a short walk along the beach in the fine mist. However, about an hour later it began to rain and we decided to go back. There were four of us in the Zodiac and the leader took us on a short exploration, but unlike this morning there was little to see other than a few shags (cormorants) and lots of kelp. So, we went back to the ship. What a difference from this morning, and honestly by comparison it was disappointing, but hey… it would be hard to top this morning!

While we were waiting for the Zodiac, John regaled us with some horror stories of things gone wrong on previous journeys over the last twenty years. Stories of people being attacked by fur seal bulls, or an elephant seal bull that grabbed a guy and shook him around violently ripping off part of his hamstring. He had to be airlifted by the Chilean air force at his own expense as apparently insurance wouldn’t cover it. Taking a voyage to these remote locations is inherently dangerous and if something goes really wrong and someone gets severely injured it possible that the ship would have to turn around and abandon the trip. We are expected to make eight landings on South Georgia over four days, but John told us that one time they were only able to make one landing! And that was in rough conditions. So, we are indeed lucky!

Dinner was a barbeque, which they had hoped to have on deck, but because of the rain, we ate in the Dining Room. Lots of variety of meat and fixings.

John, Bruce and I had a quiet evening in our room where I shared my collection of funny t-shirts and Wicked Vans sayings.

Sailing Towards South Georgia

 This was conducted on our deck - 2.

 John's clothes get checked.

 Brian vacuums a coat.

 Boots are rinsed in disinfectant.

 And then you sign your name to end the process.

The document we all had to sign, stating that we were 'clean'.

Wednesday, October 30^th.

Last night we set the clocks ahead an hour as we have sailed eastward into another time zone. Today was another beautiful calm, clear morning with balmy temperatures.

First item on the agenda was a compulsory tourism information documentary produced for the South Georgia government. The film informed us all about the island’s natural and human history and how the latter as affected the former. Humans have either accidentally or on purpose brought invasive plants and animals to this fragile ecosystem. The worst of these was the introduction of rats and mice which ate the eggs and chicks of the ground nesting birds. The Antarctic environment is inhospitable, unpredictable and potentially dangerous. We were told that male fur seals and elephant seals are incredibly dangerous and to stay well clear. This film was Followed by a biosecurity briefing about our landings on the island. This is a process of checking the ship (with a rat sniffing dog) and our boots and clothes so that we do not bring any seeds or soil to the island. Every time we leave the ship we have to step into a disinfectant solution. We also learned about the IAATO, which stands for the: International Association of Antarctica Tour Operators. This is a self-regulating industry that is governed by this Association. Susan is a member of the board.

Antarctica has been governed internationally since 1959. In 1991 IAATO was adopted to promote safe and environmentally sustainable tourism. Biosecurity is critical: no organic material or seeds are to be brought or taken.

Then we were all called down by room to have all of the outwear we intend to wear on the island checked for any seeds, germs, soil or anything that could threaten the islands environment or species.

This was followed by lunch.

Next up was part two of Marcelo’s lecture on penguins in which I learned:

King penguins don’t make nests. They lay one egg which the male incubates for 54 days

Chick rearing takes over 300 days. The chicks gather in groups which is referred to as ‘creche’ behaviour. I have always been led to believe that males and females mated for life, but apparently not, the ‘divorce’ rate is very high, up to 73% because they can’t find last year’s partner in the big noisy colonies. The chicks are left on their own all winter and fast all that time. The King and Emperor penguins (which we will not see as they are elsewhere in Antarctica) look very similar, but the Emperor is a little larger and has an open ‘collar’ while the King has tight a ‘collar’.

They stay near fresh water stream for water but also to help them self-regulate. Their lifespan is unknown as no one has yet studied them for that long.

Emperor Penguins are the largest and were featured in the March of the Penguins. They are only found in Antarctica, where there are thought to be 238000 pairs. Here the divorce rate 85%. They lay one egg, and chick rearing takes 150 days. There are 10% more females, so females fight for the males. Males do all the incubation and lose up to 45% of mass and again their lifespan is unknown.

Magellanic Penguins are similar to African, Humbolt and Galapagos penguins. They lay 2 eggs and they have a high-fidelity rate of 90%.

Threats to penguin’s conservation:

Over exploitation of marine species

Interaction with fisheries

Pollution and oil spills

Industrial development

Invasive alien species – in particular rats

Unregulated tourism

Hunting and guano collection, some places kill and eat penguins other places use penguins and dolphins are bait for crab nets

Climate change

Next up after a short break was lecture by Keith on the topic:

‘Glaciers, Ice Caps, Sea Ice and most things that have to do with ice…’

(As usual he poked fun at the mammal and bird presenters, saying that ice and rock are more interesting).

Why are glaciers and global ice important?

Ice allows us to understand our planet and its climate over time. The hydrological cycle is a closed loop, the amount of water never changes. It doesn’t change mass, just energy by adding or subtracting heat. Glaciers are a wonderful archive of our global history. Glaciers are impacted snow, compressed by the weight above and are gradually pulled down by gravity, hence they ‘flow’. Sea ice is water that freezes. Ice ages were a positive feedback loop, more and more water deposited on the land, reflect more heat and make it colder so more and more snow falls and builds and the glaciers grow.

Ice Volumes:

97% of water in the oceans

3% is fresh water, 97% is in ice or glaciers

If Antarctica melts: Sea Level Rise: 58.3 m

If Greenland sheet melts: Sea Level Rise: 7.36 m

Glacier and Ice Caps melt: Sea Level Rise: 0.41 m

If the Sea Ice all melts: Sea Level Rise: 0.0 m because it already displaces its weight

We will visit the West Antarctica shelf. And most importantly, the polar ice drives the complexity of our global temperatures and thereby pressure and then winds. In short it drives our climate worldwide.

There was a short concert of original music in the lounge by Blaize followed by the recap and the briefing for tomorrow, which promises to be a very interesting and exciting day.

For dinner I had an ostrich steak while sitting beside and talking to a high court judge from Johannesburg. He and his wife would like to leave South Africa but because of his privileged position and connection to the country they cannot. I talked to him about the attempted robberies of tourist transport leaving the airport or hotels and he confirmed that is a regular occurrence.

After dinner we listened to a lecture from Scobie about his 40 years of working in South Georgia. He started at 20 in 1971 and overwintered for 4 years in the seventies. He related many entertaining stories about his experiences, including meeting Lord Shackelton who had come to visit his father’s grave when he was 60. Scobie’s job was to make sure the graveyard was well kept and presentable for the visit. Unfortunately, elephant seals trashed it the night before. When Scobie saw the damage he quickly set about mending the fence and then thought he needed to paint it white to match the rest. As he was painting it someone tapped him on the shoulder and said ‘you’re working hard’. He turned and there was Lord Shackelton talking to him!

We all turned in early as we are getting ready and excited for tomorrow!

At Sea on the Southern Ocean

 The beautiful Cape Petrel, above and...

 below.

And the Giant Southern Petrel, one of the main predators of the south. 

 Looking up from our deck to the main deck and ...

from the third down to ours.

Tuesday, October 29^th.

I had breakfast this morning with John and Bruce, and a Canadian woman (Karen Fulton) who went to Cameron, Willowdale and Northview! I taught at Cameron and went to Northview. We threw a few names back and forth but no connection yet. (Later in the day we found two names she knew: Don Lazaro and the Argyles – she lived on Gwendolen!).

What a difference a day makes! The last two days were beautiful and sunny when we were on the Falkland Islands and today as we sailed away it was raining. Lucky us! However, our guides keep telling us that the seas are remaining calm and flat, although there is still definitely a swell.

Today was a day of being in school and learning. We had four lectures!

Lecture 1 Seals of the Southern Ocean by John.

Pinnipeds Lecture (part 1)

There are three families of Pinnipeds or seals: True Seals, Eared Seals and Walrus (which do not live in the southern hemisphere). They were land mammals that evolved and made their way back to the sea to exploit the food sources there.

Eared seals have ear flaps, can walk around on all fours because they have a pelvic girdle adaptation that allows them to rotate their rear flippers to behave more like back legs. They use their front flippers for propulsion and their genitalia and scrotum are external. Our lecturer John with his typical sense of humour said that you do not want to mess with an animal that can crawl across their rocky environment with their scrotum dragging on the ground – they are tough!

True seals are more slug-like and drag their back ends. They have no ear flap, use their rear flippers for propulsion and the genitalia are internal.

We will be arriving in South Georgia during the breeding season. The much larger males arrive at the beaches first, fight to establish territories and await the arrival of the females. The females give birth first and then come into oestrus which attracts the males.

When the females arrive on the beach, the goal of the males is to keep the females on their bit of beach, breed with as many as possible and to keep all other males out of their patch.

Interesting information: In terms of the human invasion of the polar regions, sealers came first (hunting seals for fur), whalers much later (for blubber and oils) and explorers still later (for claiming lands). Fur seals were hunted to near extinction but luckily survived in small colonies in remote areas. Today they have rebounded to pre-sealing days because whales have been decimated by whalers and there is much less competition for their main source of food: krill.

He talked about the South American sealion, which we will see in the Beagle Channel by Ushuaia; the Antarctica Fur Seal of South Georgia, with its fox-like nose and the Southern Elephant Seal, which is a true seal. He said it smells better dead than alive, and is a gigantic gas producing animal.

Seals demonstrate sexual dimorphism as the males are much larger than the females. Dimorphism can be observed by size, colour, etc.

The second part of this lecture will continue with the other seals we hope to see: Weddel, crabeaters, and leopard seals.

Lecture 2 ‘Penguins, What Else?’ By Marcelo Flores

Marcelo loves penguins and loves to poke fun at the other crew experts who talk about mammals or birds. The staff all have their own expertise and like to rib each other about things like a ‘little brown bird’ which Jonathan used to describe the southern most song bird, a bird that Marcelo loves and which almost went extinct do to rat predation.

He talked about Gentoo, Chinstrap, Rockhopper and King penguins. He pointed out different characteristics of all penguin species. Penguins are black and white for camouflage and thermal regulation. They are waterproof and suffer through a catastrophic moult once a year where they lose all of their waterproof feathers and cannot swim, which takes a lot of energy from them. Sometimes the older ones don’t survive the moult. Both male and female penguins have a clocaca, and it is when the two meet that sperm is transmitted to the female. Male penguins brood first while the female returns to the sea to feed and recover her energy. Emperor penguin males brood the whole time (think March of the Penguins) because the female has to go too far to reach the sea. Penguins eat fish, krill, cephalopods (squid, octopus), and crustaceans, different species eat different foods. Their beaks can give a hint as to what they eat. They demonstrate sexual dimorphism but only because the male is slightly larger than the female and it is only during mating can you tell which is which. Most species have one egg or chick because of the amount of energy needed to produce the egg and then raise the chick. Gentoo chicks chase their parent for food. Some species practise ‘creche’ behaviour: the chicks group together to keep warm and safe while parents are feeding. Sometimes they are protected by a couple of adults like a penguin daycare. A group of penguins in the water is called a ‘raft’ and a group on land is called a ‘waddle’.

Adelie and Emperor penguins are strictly Antarctic species. Gentoo, and Chinstrap live both in Antarctica and other southern islands.

Climate change affects chicks because they are covered with down for warmth but, as they are not waterproofed when they get soaked by rain (not snow) and then the weather gets cold they freeze to death.

Skuas and petrels predate penguins sometimes invasive foxes or rats. Rats are an invasive species introduced by European ships. They eat eggs and attack chicks.

Lecture 3 Cetaceans of the Southern Ocean by Hella.

Hella told us there are about 80 different species of whales and dolphins. She talked about the two main types of whales: baleen and toothed whales. Baleen whales (blue, humpback, fin,) are filter feeders and generally swallow huge amounts of water and they express the water and swallow the krill and fish that were in it. Toothed whales (sperm, orcas and the dolphins) are hunters and catch their prey using echolocation and their teeth.

Lecture 4 Scientist in Residence Brent, Science on the G Expedition.

Brent has been a scientist for 40 years. He outlined the problems of doing research in the southern oceans: the remoteness, the expense of getting there and establishing a base. GAdventures and the company he works for have formed a partnership. He has been allowed to piggyback onto our tourism trip so that he can do some research in the southern ocean thereby giving his company a cheaper way of reaching the area. He is doing counts of individuals in a colony, and studying vocal patterns of individuals to ascertain if they can be differentiated that way.

We also learned about icebergs calving off Antarctic ice shelves. The shelves are the leading edges of glaciers that are forced down and out over the ice by the weight of the ice and snow above and by gravity, until the action of the sea and their weight snap them off. In 2017 a 4000 sq km berg broke off. The enormity of that is unfathomable and as 7/8 of an iceberg is below the surface we cannot see the true size. And because it is so deep in the ocean it floats with the deep sea currents, not necessarily with the surface or wind currents.

At happy hour, I bought the lads a beer and we listened as Jonathan and John gave us updates about today and tomorrow. They answered one question about the international makeup of the people on board:

Stats:

Average age of passengers: 60 and climbing as we had a number of birthdays on board.

Oldest 88 Youngest 22

40 Brits, 36 Yanks, 10 Canadians

27 nationalities in total including crew and then the most populous is Philipinos with 47.

Then we drank Bruce’s bottle of red wine that he bought in Stanley. At dinner John, Bruce and I were joined by a German couple and a couple from Brighton in England. The man was interested in music and we had a good chat about English music, prog and punk.

Tonight, they played the second half of ‘Shackelton’ with Kenneth Branagh. I tried to watch this but gave up as it was Hollywood, romantized, clap trap. It looked fake, the actors made ridiculous speeches and dialogue and most importantly, the men were totally underdressed and seemingly not suffering from the effects of the elements. Rubbish.

Back to the room to do something useful, like update the blog. Then off to bed. As I was lying there I realized I had not got outside once today!

Tumbledown Mt, and Stanley, Falkland Islands

Hiking the scrub hills of East Falkland Island.

The memorial atop Tumbledown Moutain.

All of the hikers. Can you find John and I?

A street in Stanley.

The publican of the Victory Pub.

More views of Stanley.

Bunkering at a huge oil tanker, to be fueled for our voyage.

Monday, October 28^th.

‘Good morning all, we are arriving at the narrows of East Falkland, the temperature is a balmy 4 degrees under a clear blue sky with winds about 15 knots.’ This was part of Jonathan’s morning wakeup call. He made similar announcements every operational day (day we get off the ship).

After an early breakfast John and I and forty others did a dry landing (walking off the gangway rather than Zodiacs) in the port of Stanley. We boarded a coach and were shuttled to the starting point for the Mt William and Tumbledown hike that John signed us up for. The area was bleak, barren and brown, as spring is just starting and nothing is yet green. Still there were very stunning vistas of the quartzite rock formations. We were walking over peat bogs and climbing a hill to Mt William, through a valley and then up again to Tumbledown Mountain where the wind almost blew us back down. There is a memorial there to the Welsh Guards who died here when the attacked this spot during the Falklands War. We all posed for a photo there.

After the three hour walk we took the bus back to the ship to change out of our bog boots and into running shoes to explore the town. John and I missed the shuttle and walked for a half hour along the ‘Narrows’ shore into town to the Victory Pub where we met a number of passengers and crew from our ship. We had a couple of pints of locally brewed Iron Lady lager (named after Margaret Thatcher) and fish and chips. I sat and talked to Scobie the mechanic on our ship who takes care of the Yamaha motors on the thirteen Zodiacs on board.

John got playing darts with a local guy while Bruce and I went for a wander. We went to the Pod Gift Shop and talked to the female proprietor for a bit but bought nothing. Then we visited the Falkland Island Museum which is dedicated to the history of the islands and the 74-day Falkland Islands War.

Next we walked to the Globe Tavern for a pint of ‘Doom Bar’ beer from Cornwall. This bar was very quiet so Bruce and I walked back to the Victory for another pint. This time we had the lighter Falkland brewery beer Rockhopper. I spent a while talking to the owner, Alley. He told me he bought the bar in 1984 just after the war. He loves it here and is very thankful to the British soldiers.

I had not seen John for a while and Bruce was taking the shuttle back to the ship, so I decided to walk back to wear off a bit of the beer. I walked along a different street through town back to the ship thinking about how lucky I was to be where I am, where I am going to and doing what I want to do. Lucky me.

Dinner was a buffet style tonight with lots of selections.

John, Bruce and I headed up to the Polar Bear Bar for a last drink and listened to the crew band butchering and screeching through standard numbers. The last straw was Satisfaction.

John and I played darts with Rachael and Alice, we lost. Trying throwing darts on a rolling ship!

I also talked to Susan, the overall manager of the staff of the Expedition about GP (my guide in South Africa) and Bruce Poon Tip (the founder of GAdventures) and the company. As we were in the bar our captain sailed our ship out to a big tanker where we ‘bunkered’, refuelling to make sure we have enough fuel to get to our destination and back again. In the process our ship pulled in our stabilizers and the ship definitely rolled more until refuelling was completed. We had a rocky nights sleep.

West Point and Saunders Island

Land Ho!

Disembarking by Zodiac.

West Point, West Falkland Island

Black Browed Albatross and ...

Rockhopper Penguins

The farm house.

Upland Geese and family. The male is white.

Gentoo Penguins

Gentoo on an egg.

Magellanic Penguins 'holding hands' out of the sea.

and a King Penguin and year old chick.

Sunday, October 27^th.

The three of us got up early to see LAND! After three days of sailing we have reached the islands of West Falklands. We stayed on the deck for a while enjoying the view and then headed off for an early breakfast.

Today is our first day of exploring. It is a beautiful sunny day with calm seas and a light breeze. We were briefed on the PA about the order of disembarkation. We are divided into four penguin groups: Adelie, Chin-Strap, Gentoo and Rockhopper and we will be transported by Zodiac in that order. John and I are in Rockhopper and Bruce in Gentoo. We waited our turn to be called to the mudroom where we kitted up in waterproofs, bog boots, red parka and lifejacket. Loading in the Zodiacs was easy because of the calm waters and we drove to the pier of West Point Island. The pier is in a sheltered bay with beautiful yellow gorse bushes.

We had a half hour gentle hike up and over the peninsula to the other side where we walked through tussock grass to see two colonies of black brow albatross and rockhopper penguins. Amazing to stand about three metres away and watch them. Some were preening, others courting. I watched a male rockhopper taking small gifts of pebbles and mud to the female for nest building. We also witnessed squabbles over territory between penguins, or between albatross and penguins, as they are jammed in quite closely.

After about an hour we walked back to the pier and the small farm house where Alan and Jackie and their golden lab Bossun live. Jackie had prepared a large assortment of delicious baked sweets for us to go along with tea or coffee and we sat outside in the sunshine enjoying them.

Then we relaxed for a bit as the Zodiacs were reloaded one by one and we returned to the ship for lunch. While we were eating the ship set sail for our second West Falkland destination. Bruce and I went up to the top deck in just a fleece as it was very comfortable and sunny. We have been told by the crew that today the weather was exceptional and to illustrate that they told us that two years ago it was so terrible that they were not able to land at all. We saw the endemic little black and white Commerson’s dolphins as the swam rapidly towards our ship and then disappeared under the bow.

We anchored just offshore of Saunders Island, which is another of the coastal islands of West Falkland Island. We were shuttled off the ship again by Zodiac but the water was much rougher and the swells made it a bit tricky getting into the boats. We made a beach landing and had to walk through the shallow water to shore where we immediately saw a few Gentoo penguins and a few gulls and oystercatchers. We hiked to the right of the large Gentoo colony as they were laying on eggs and up and over a small hill to another rockhopper colony on a steep hill overlooking a gorgeous white sand beach. We sat and watched the penguins, cormorants and circling albatross and skua. After a while we walked back down the hill to see the Magellanic penguins and Gentoos on the beach. They were very comical as they walked in single file along the shore. You can almost see the confusion in their behaviour as they approach us. It is almost as if they are saying ‘they weren’t here before’ or ‘are they friendly?’ or ‘how do we get around them?’ It was fun watching them swim in the shallows. Then it was time to head back. That was when I noticed a couple of King penguins with their huge year-old brown chicks which seemed to be wearing a full fur winter coat. I videoed one following its parent and begging for food.

Back at the original landing spot John and I watched the shorebirds and waited for our turn to take a Zodiac back. We were not in a hurry so we were last.

Back on board we had a beer during happy hour while listening to the recap and the briefing about tomorrow’s excursion to East Falkland Island and the town of Stanley and then a debrief about our amazing day.

Dinner was scallops and shrimp, after which we retired to the Polar Bear Bar for a gin and tonic nightcap.

Today was like the first trip to the Galapagos or the Serengeti, just incredible! Four species of penguins in one day: Rockhoppers, Gentoo, Magellanic and King.