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2020 Antarctica, South Georgia & the Falkland Islands

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2020 Antarctica, South Georgia & the Falkland Islands Antarctica, South Georgia & The Falkland Islands January 4-25, 2020 ARGENTINA Saunders Island Salisbury Plain Prince Olav Harbour Steeple Jason Elsehul Bay Island Stromness Bay Grytviken Tierra Stanley del Fuego FALKLAND SOUTH Gold Harbour ISLANDS GEORGIA Drygalski Fjord SCOTIA SEA Elephant Ushuaia Island Half Moon King DRAKE Island GeorgeIsland PASSAGE Deception Island Brown Bluff Paulet Island LEMAIRE CHANNEL Pleneau Island Hughes Bay ANTARCTIC PENINSULA Sunday, January 5, 2020 Ushuaia, Argentina We migrated in from places near and far to gather in Ushuaia at the start of our Antarctic adventure. Perched on the hill above the city in our magnificent hotel, Arakur Ushuaia, we gathered for dinner to meet the expedition team and our fellow travelers. We have all made a thousand individual decisions that have gotten us all to this point. Tomorrow we sail toward adventure united. Onward. Monday, January 6 Ushuaia / Embark the Island Sky Morning touring took us out onto the Beagle Channel by catamaran for wildlife viewing en route to Tierra del Fuego National Park. Here we lunched and strolled paths, enjoying the beech forest environs. Late in the afternoon we boarded the Island Sky, our floating home for the next few weeks. Cruise Director Kelsey Simmons provided an orientation and Expedition Leader Dan Olsen introduced the Expedition Team, which between them have about 300 trips to the Antarctic spanning several decades. After the mandatory lifeboat drill we slipped our lines and sailed out into the Beagle Channel bound for the Falkland Islands. Tuesday, January 7 At Sea About 5 a.m. we passed out of the shelter of the Beagle Channel and the seas became quite lumpy, testing the sea legs of all. But it was a good day to lay low, and attend lectures and Zodiac briefings. There was plenty of fresh air to be had on deck as black-browed albatross, giant petrels, and a host of smaller birds soared around the ship. Keen eyes caught quick sightings of dolphins and whale blows. This evening, with Captain Jörgen Cardestig and his officers, we enjoyed pre-dinner cocktails and toasted to a safe voyage. Wednesday, January 8 Steeple Jason, Falkland Islands / Saunders Island After pushing through the head-high tussock grass, we saw 100,000+ nesting pairs of black-browed albatross stretching out along the coast as far as the eye could see. Rockhopper penguin adults and chicks stood between the albatross nests, adding to the kerfuffle. Gentoo and Magellanic penguins, striated caracaras, Magellanic oystercatchers, rock cormorants, and more rounded out the sights of Steeple Jason, which is both a highly desired stop in the Falklands and a landing rarely made due to high winds and rough seas. We enjoyed a spectacular morning ashore before heading to Saunders Island, for a little bit of everything wildlife-wise that wrapped up with a beach barbecue put on by the family of expedition team member, Russ Evans. The day’s capper came at sunset when we passed a pod of no fewer than six sei whales very close to the ship. Clearly, the highlights of this trip were not going to fit into a neat 9 to 5 schedule. Thursday, January 9 Stanley First thing in the morning the ship came alongside in Stanley, the only town in the Falklands. We took off to see the sights and enjoy the wildlife of this remote capital city. Upland geese and flightless steamer ducks cruised along the picturesque waterfront that was strewn with the hulks of decaying sailing ships from an era gone by. Spectacular columns of pink, purple, and yellow lupine adorned local gardens. A smattering of rain and hail punctuated the morning. We sailed mid-day with sooty shearwaters, gray-backed storm-petrels, and grand wandering albatross escorting us as we sailed out into open water bound for South Georgia. Friday & Saturday, January 10 & 11 At Sea Seas proved kind after leaving the Falklands, plus we were used to ship motions, so it was wonderful to get more time on deck enjoying the seabirds and fresh air. Monitoring the water temperature, we passed through a zone where within 24 hours the temperature dropped from 47°F to 40°F, a sign that we had passed the Antarctic Convergence or “Polar Front” and were now biologically in the Antarctic. The two days at sea gave us time to learn about South Georgia and its government’s dislike of hitchhikers in the form of introduced plants and critters. South Georgia just went through a multi-year and multi-million dollar rat eradication project, which has saved millions of birds. They are now taking on invasive plants. We all turned out for what would be the first of several biosecurity checks, complete with Hoovering our Velcro and scrubbing our boots. In the lecture program, T.H. Baughman shared the story of Sir Ernest Shackleton, for whom South Georgia would prove to be a significant place, both for his expeditions and in his death. We’d hear more about this charismatic and complicated man in the days to come. Sunday, January 12 Elsehul, South Georgia / Salisbury Plain / Prince Olav Harbour Early morning light streaming through the clouds greeted us at Elsehul, near the northwest tip of South Georgia. Before breakfast we had our Zodiacs in the water to cruise this small bay teeming with life. A raft of gray-headed and black-browed albatross floated near the ship, allowing us terrific views of these two species. Nearby, we found light-mantled sooty albatross on the nest. We could watch macaroni penguins with their flamboyant yellow head feathers—our fifth penguin species of the trip!—enter/ exit the water on a steep rocky outcropping. Elsewhere in the cove, fur seals roiled on the beaches along with elephant seals, and king and gentoo penguins. We returned from the cruise for breakfast as the ship relocated to Salisbury Plain, a colony of over 100,000 nesting pairs of king penguins. We finished out the day with a Zodiac cruise exploring Prince Olav Harbour, site of an old whaling station. As we cruised the coves of this little-visited part of the island, flocks of South Georgia pintails took flight ashore. Their presence in such numbers, along with frequent sightings of the South Georgia pipit, prove the success of the rat eradication program. Just a few short years ago, these two species were never seen in great numbers. Monday, January 13 Fortuna Bay / Shackleton Hike / Stromness / Grytviken While some visited a small king penguin colony in Fortuna Bay, others headed up into the mountains to cross over to the old whaling station of Stromness. This mountain trek followed the last 4-5 miles made by Sir Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley, and Tom Crean, who were forced to cross the island in May 1916 after making the 800-mile boat journey in the James Caird from Elephant Island. One always hopes for good weather in South Georgia, but this day was sunny and virtually windless. The ship relocated from Fortuna to Stromness to pick up the hikers before proceeding to Grytviken for the afternoon. Shackleton is buried in the old whalers’ cemetery there, so we paid him a visit to “toast the Boss” before exploring the former whaling station and museum. Tuesday, January 14 Gold Harbour / St. Andrews Bay / Drygalski Fjord When the first rays of the sun illuminated the king penguins at Gold Harbour, arising for the 3:30 a.m. wake up was so worth it. Awash with that warm buttery light, the golden feathers of their upper chests and heads glowed. We had gone ashore in Zodiacs in the semi darkness to land on the beach amid the trumpeting, whistling, bleating, belching, and burping of thousands of penguins, and fur and elephant seals. We spent the morning in this splendor, relocating after lunch for St. Andrews Bay, the largest king penguin colony in the world with well over 150,000 nesting pairs. We watched each other’s backs to stave off fur seal ambushes. These seals were hunted to near extinction in the 17th century, but their numbers have more than recovered; in fact, today their numbers prevent landing on many beaches that were fur seal-free as recently as 30 years ago. We finished off the day (and our time at South Georgia) cruising into the icy realm of Drygalski Fjord, near the southern tip of the island, with a few snow petrels—birds of the ice—to escort us. Wednesday & Thursday, January 15 & 16 At Sea We angled toward the South Orkneys before turning west to the chunk of ice and rock that is Elephant Island. Though the seas proved gentle, each modest roll provided some perspective on what Shackleton and team must have gone through in the James Caird sailing in the opposite direction and, luckily, unlike Shackleton, we did not encounter a 100- foot wave. Following our very full days on South Georgia, we enjoyed a more relaxed daily schedule. Bridge tours, lectures, deck walking, tea time, movies, and personal pursuits filled the days, as well as another biosecurity check to prevent us bringing seeds to the Antarctic. Southern fulmars joined the birds we had been seeing with regularity around the ship. After dinner we held an auction to raise funds for the South Georgia Heritage Trust. Geologist Tom Sharpe turned auctioneer in this fun evening of cutthroat bidding for items from key chains to books to artwork provided by the South Georgia folks. Together we raised over $11,000 that will go to habitat restoration efforts on the island, one of the biodiversity gems of this planet. Friday, January 17 Elephant Island, South Shetland Islands In the dim morning light we approached Point Wild on Elephant Island.
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