Brown Bluff and the Antarctic Sound

Today we sailed all day until hrs 1700, when we arrived in Brown Bluff, Antarctic Sound on the northern part of the peninsula. on our way the weather cleared up so we could see land in the distance and eventually many tabular ice-sheets, which most are larger than skyscrapers...

We passed the Argentine base at Esperanza, meaning hope in spanish. this base is fully manned year round and they even have children there, which is quite unusual.

We landed at Brown bluff, which is a small outcrop of volcanic rocks, a moberg in icelandic or a tabular mountain, created by a sub-glacial eruption (volcano under a glacier) some time ago...

here there are 20 000 adelie penguins and some gentoo penguins. the landing went well, but it was -0.3 degrees in the water, a cold wind and around 0 in air temperature.

Now we are sailing across the strait and will make two landings tomorrow on the South Shetland islands and the we cross the Drake passage again...

Peterman Island and Port Lockroy

This morning i has been snowing, low fog and clouds but almost now wind. but it hasn´t been much of a scenery for our passengers to see today. we had a good landing at Peterman Island, where amazingly an other 100 000 Gentoo penguins and a few others roam around...

Now we are in the Lemaire channel north-bound to the old British base at Port Lockroy for some more Gentoo penguins  and some souvenir shopping...

The landing at Port Lockroy went well, the weather was calm and the sun was almost there. we were greeted by thousands of Gentoo-penguins and some of the girls at the station. This station is only manned for the four summer months and is run by the British Antarctic Heritage foundation, that is restoring old bases and huts from the British claims in Antarctica.

I spent my time at tha landing zone, helping more or less disabled cruise guest on and off our small boats.

Now we are sailing to the northern part of the peninsula, to Brown Bluff in the Antarctic Sound, where i hope we will have some good weather???

The landing will be in the evening, so most of the day will be sailing and i will take care of the reception for a few hours

Cuverville Island and Neko Harbour

Yeasterday we sailed to Cuverville island, which is a Gentoo penguin colony of around 100 000 small individuals. these fellows are not afraid of anything and are quite curious and will come close to you!

heavy drift ice started to tie up our operations in the end, but we all managed to get away from land. a big Leopard seal even visited us. i was trying to take pictures of jumping penguins in the water, but that is easier said than done...

After lunch we got stopped with heavy ice from going to a deserted Argentine base at Admiralte Brown and instead we went to Neko Harbour, (were we got stuck for 7 hrs last trip by ice), but this time there was almost no ice. we visited the Gentoo penguins here also around 100 000, from 2015 to 2230. then 8 members of our staff, Anna included slept in tents on land to try out a new project, while i stayed on the ship (Anna got my spot)

Trip two to Antarctica

on the 19th of November my father flew home and i met up with Anna which was joining me for the second trip. As a matter of fact i met her in a penguin store i passed on my way around in Ushuaia, which in fact is a beautifull situated tourist town.

we left Ushuaia the same evening and entered the Beagle Channel and later on we entered the Strait of Magellan. the fjords in the southern part of Chile look a lot like the fjords in Norway.

Arriving in Punta Arenas late in the evening the 20th we had to wait more than 2 horus for more than 10 customs officials to stamp our passports and go threw papers...go figure;0)

the next day i had to follow some of the passengers on a excursion, a hike, but these people try to cheat you all the time. it all started out really bad but ended up quite well. Anna was walking around in town in the mean-time. Anna and I met up at lunch whereafter we walked around in the city, that has the most craziest wirering of electricity i have ever seen, strangely enough the town hasn´t burned down...

we found Shackleton bar and stayed there a while, enjoying the atmosphere of this old place where Shackleton came asking for help when his men were stuck on Elephant island.

in the evening we tried to get something to eat and drink in town, but again the locals didn´t care about us so after 1 1/2 hrs we left the place without getting anything to eat. shame on them.

the ship left port in the early hrs of dawn and we had a landing at hrs 0530 at Magdalena Island, where 100 000 Magelanic penguins are spread all over...

Then we continued to Puerto Williams, an old chilean naval base on opposite to Ushuaia. here we had a good hike and spent some time in the jacuzzi at deck 7!

From Puerto Williams we went towards Cape Horn, but aborted a landing as we had between 25 and 32 m/sek winds and 7 m waves. so the course was turned towards Antarctica and here we are. 

the first day we had two landing at Deception Island, an old caldera (volcanic crater) that is still active, meaning the sea-floor is growing by 30 cm pr year and warm water flows around some places. the first landing was at Whalers Bay, an old whaling station and British base. some groups where walking over the mountain to a penguin colony, but got hammered by around 30 m/sek winds and snow and had some difficulties getting back. around half of the passengeres didn´t even get on shore. After lunch we went to Telefon Bay in the northern part of the Caldera where everyone got on land and around 14 people went for a swim. the water temp was -1 and we had a strong breeze...

Update

I have been a really bad bad boy, not updating my blog. I have enough with trying to update my facebook profile.

So far we had a really good trip. from the falklands we spent 2 days at sea to South Georgia, where we saw a lot of wildlife, raindeer (which the government wants to exterminate), fur seals (agressive), king penguins (colourfull) , walked the last part of Shackletons walk from Fortuna Bay over to the old whaling station at Stromness, visited the whalin station at Grytviken (english base now) and had two great days with good weather.

Thereafter we sailed to Drygalski fjord and then two more days to Elephant Island where Shackletons men stayed for 105 days. it is the most god forsaken place on this side of earth and must have been terrible...

After three days on the Antarctic Peninsula seen penguins and penguins and visiting the Polish base at Arctowski (South Shetland Islands) (old rubbish) we went over the Drake Passage and got hit by a storm that stirred around in my stomach. arriving in Ushuai on the 19th we walked a bit around and went to the best restaurant in Argentina, for some steaks, before my father flew bak to Buenos Aires and eventually home.

First day in the Falklands

Today we started very early...landing on the beach at hrs 0630 and the tourists at hrs 0700. thereby us guides got a head start getting to all the birds and penguins before everyone else;0)

this first landing site was West Point islands, there used to be a farm, but now the whole island is a nature reserve and there is one cozy couple staying there for 9 months a year. they invited us for tea and home made biscuits. we saw albatros and rockhopper penguins up close. it was all a very good day at this site, even though i wished i would have seen more of the landscape, as it was all covered in fog and low clouds spiced up by the occasional rain showers.

then we got on to the ship again, while eating lunch we sailed south to New Island on the SW corner of East Falklands. at this place 6 people live 6 months a year taking care of the island as a nature reserve. everyone was very friendly.

the weather was even worse, with more than occasional rain showers and more cool wind.

this place was infested by more albatros, rockhopper penguins and commorants.

after some hrs at this place we got on board the ship and set "sail" for Stanley, which was 190 nm away.

Daddys birthday

today my father had his 70 year birthday. we are still at sea and it is mostly foggy and cloudy weather. the temperature is around +12 degrees and this will be our last sea day before arriving the western part of the Falklands tomorrow.

my father got a birthday cake during the dinner and i did not have anything to do about it, as i was not even there, attending a meeting! all the servants was singing "happy birthday"

there are some birds around, but as i am not a biologist, they all look like sea-gulls to me;0)