Log
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The 14.00 talk from Tim Laman is on "The Making of a National Geographic Story."
It was an interesting how-to session on wildlife photography, what the magazine is typically looking for and how he broke into the business, as merely a "biologist with a camera."
Back to the observation lounge afterwards to continue on the log, as the queue for the early teatime snacks at 15.00 is far too long.
The sea is heaving again anyway, so the pitch and roll are at full force and not very comfortable.
Just picked up a hot chocolate from the Chart Room to tide me over.
Dinner this night is a predictably horrific pitching affair and uncomfortable to stay for very long.
Saturday 5 March – At Sea Another brilliant day. Not only bright sunshine, but smooth seas, in this a known treacherous part of the southern ocean. Yesterday, we learned that only 10 years prior, the former ship was hit by a 110 foot high rogue wave, blowing out windows and disabling the bridge. So the fact that we can sail along with the waves barely reaching 1 meter marks is truly amazing. Set back the clocks an hour last night, (to align with Falklands/Tierra del Fuego time), so seems like plenty of extra time this morning. Began to sort out things for packing and leaving the boat in 4 days time, putting away all the winter gear that will no longer be needed now in the balmy 45 degree temperatures of the Falklands, and later on, off the boat in high summer in Argentina. A morning lecture presentation by Karen Copeland in the lounge, on the history, flora and fauna of the Falklands, with some outline of what to expect from the three landings planned over the next two days. Interesting to learn that parts of the two main islands, east and west, have been variously settled/claimed by Nova Scotians, French, Americans, Spanish, English and Argentineans over the years.
Spent the rest of the day catching up with this log and preparing photos/video for posting upon return.
Skipped lunch as the shear quantum of food is really overwhelming me.
However, I did manage to resurface for afternoon tea time steak sandwiches and red wine on the sun deck on the back of the boat!
Warm sunny afternoon with Tonna & Gerry, Gina & Mike.
Dropped off my "best shots" photos to the photo team for the South Georgia slideshow; a very long line of people contributing this time. Then, back to the log for a little while.
Skipped Time Severin's talk and video this afternoon on "The Search for Moby Dick;" just more of the same – building a historic era boat and re-enacting some marginally interesting voyage.
About 6.00PM, a PA call went out to announce the arrival of a killer whale of the port bow.
Went up to the bridge to check it out, where most of the ships' passengers were already gathered. Saw a few sightings of the dorsal fins and a few blows, but it was obvious that this whale was not interested in us and kept trying to get away from our ship, despite the captain’s efforts to chase and/or out-maneuver it. (Not like the whales the day before, that were curious and playful with our ship and surfaced numerous times, obviously showing off to us).
Dinner with Tonna & Gerry, Mike & Gina, and Grace Lee.
After dinner I went out on deck for a bit to check out the stars, but it was far too cloudy and couldn't see anything. Also, all the ship's lights were on, so there was a lot of distracting glare. In retrospect, it would have been better to try to see the stars when we were in South Georgia, as all ship's lights were always off at night there, so as not to attract wandering sea birds. As I recall however, it was pretty cloudy most of the time there though.
Sunday 6 March - Falklands We were moored in the open sea, outside the harbour at Stanley for the night, so early this morning the ship pulled into the harbour proper and docked at the floating dock outside of town. Usual breakfast of oatmeal, 2 sausages, rock melon, a little bit of scrambled eggs and orange juice. At 9.00AM joined the morning bus tour for "Highlights of the Falklands" and Stanley, the capital. The chirpy local tour guide was hard pressed to fill the 2 hours with interesting local sights! Highlights were his semi-amusing anecdotes about the local administration, quirks and idiosyncrasies of the locals. We visited a peat bog, and learned how peat is cut in yards, rickled, stacked, transported and eventually burnt, (more like “smoldered”), traditionally in local homes for heat and cooking. Ideally, each piece is about 6 inches cubed, whilst smaller bits are called nobbins. Stopped at a tall "world distances" signpost, with distances in miles and km noted for many small and large locales. Murmansk seemed to be the farthest at 17,000+ miles.
Domestic airstrip, public works department, water treatment plant and community centre all rounded out the view of the Falklands' “urban” life.
Really a "hugely small" place when you take it all in!
Stopped by the museum which was small but fairly dense and full of random memorabilia. Large section on the role of the islands in the various wars, I, II, and 1982.
Reading the background literature and noticing details from a few exhibits, it would seem that the Falklands had a bit of a shady industry in the past. In the late 1800's and early 1900's it would seem that many ships, in transit to other places, arrived “too damaged to be repaired,” (some from trips around Cape Horn), and hence were “relieved” of their cargo and scuttled or sold on afterwards. Seems like it was a real racket!
An extra couple of hours walking around town to explore the few windswept streets.
An Anglican brick church, (cathedral?), nothing special, but several pastors inside trying to "work" the periodic visitors and convince them why funds were needed, etc.
Outside an interesting "whalebone arch" in a small public garden – a bit like the tusk archways in Mombasa, Kenya.
I patronized several of the many, many gift shops lining the main street along the seaside; most full to the brim with tacky stuffed penguins, etc.
Stumbled across the Victory Pub at noon, and stopped in for a pint and fish & chips lunch. Ran into a couple of other shipmates in the typical dark wood, rowdy English pub setting. A great sign out front advertised the pub as a "Husband Creche;" entreating wives to leave their husbands in good care here, leaving the wives free to endlessly patronize the gift shops!
Shuttle bus back to the ship afterwards, just in time to catch the bus to the afternoon hike.
The Afternoon hike turned into more of a cross country trek.
Advertised as "easy," it was actually many, many miles and some significant elevation gain near the tops of two peaks scaled over the course of the afternoon.
"Mount Tumbledown" was the target, a historic location during the 1982 war with Argentina. Unfortunately, I unwittingly trekked to the top of Mount William as well; a casualty of following the “fast group” of trekkers! Incredibly windy, no matter where you turned, this day felt like a real workout.
Prior to dinner we had the South Georgia slide show, (a collection of everyone's images from the trip, both nature and people). A good mix of images, not quite as striking as the first one on Antarctica though. Plenty of oohs and aahs all around.
Evening dinner with the Hoovers and Sally Beaudette at the round corner booth. Lively conversation; very enjoyable. After dinner was the photo critique session. Everyone submitted an image which was displayed and critiqued for all to hear in the lounge. Gave some good insights as to what are typically considered "good" and "poor" images.
Monday 7 March - Falklands This morning we completed our nighttime transit around the north side of the Falklands and landed at Carcass island, a private, family owned island, but much of which is now dedicated to a semi-nature reserve. Apparently, they do raise some cattle and sheep here as well, though I didn't see any. Took the short beach side hike today instead of the long one, along the tussock grassed coast to search for Magellanic penguins. Only one sorry specimen, but did see quite a few ducks and other sea birds. A tremendous morning “Tea spread” was laid out in the family house for us. About 15 different varieties of tea cakes, with more coming out as each wave of hikers returned. Really unexpected hospitality. Walked back towards the zodiac landing along the coast afterwards and discovered a group of 15 or so Magellanic penguins on the rocks. At the dock, a group of the "world's smallest" dolphins periodically porpoised out of the water around the dock and playfully kept pace with the zodiacs on the way back to the ship. The underwater footage of them, that we saw later that evening, was spectacular.
Had a light lunch up top in the Observation Lounge again; a great place to enjoy the sunny afternoon sailing to New Island in the remote far north west.
Cruising by beautiful desolate rocky scenery. Low lying spits of rock, almost merging with the horizon of the sea, backed by rolling hills of light green and rock on the distant islands beyond. Tons of sea birds everywhere; earlier there were dolphins following the zodiacs and the ship itself after we heaved anchor and moved out. In one particular spot, in the middle of the sea, miles from anyway, a flotilla of hundreds of sea gulls were just rolling along in a dense pack on top of the sea, about 50 feet square.
We continued to encounter colonies like this, time after time, all along the way. Ducks and imperial cormorants as well. Some of them took flight and coasted along on the currents with us, next to the upper decks of the ship.
Our last stop in the Falklands at New Island was spectacular for the abundance of bird life. We zodiaced ashore next to a decaying hulk of a shipwreck, partway beached and slowly rusting away.
A short 15 minute hike to the other side of the island yielded a partially protected cove, with steeply descending rocky cliffs. Thousands of rockhopper penguins were nesting here, interspersed with shags and black browed albatrosses as well.
Further along, at the very edge where a sheer cliff dropped off to the sea, hundreds of feet below, an albatross “landing strip” occupied the windswept promontory of this cliff and served as both a take-off and landing area for huge black browed albatrosses. They were taking advantage of the gusty winds in this unique spot, that assisted them in gaining rapid flight.
All around this area were clumpy nests with huge chicks noisily sitting and squawking, their fluffy down blowing around in the air like burst cattails! Every so often, a lone rockhopper penguin would lay claim to a small patch of ground, unnoticed and undisturbed by the albatrosses.
Great photo and video opportunities here; we spent many hours just hanging out and waiting for various actions to take place, until just before sunset and our return to the ship.
Evening dinner at the big long table, and despite the captain’s usual insistence to pull out, heave anchor, and start making headway towards Ushuaia immediately during dinner, there was no strong pitching action going on tonight. Woo Hoo!
After dinner, we viewed a preview of the trip video, prepared by the on-board videographer Josh. It seems a bit formulaic, and very serious, but is probably worth it just for the underwater shots alone.
The dive and submersible footage that we have seen during a few evening presentations over the course of the trip is truly spectacular. All the more so, for being literally, right under our feet, the whole time!
Tuesday 8 March – At Sea Not much going on today. Making our way back to Ushuaia. Some land's come into sight around breakfast time, but apparently they are just some little mentioned outlying islands (rocks), and not the mainland. Breakfast with Doug Horst, Maureen Phillips and Harriet. Entertaining group. Skipped the morning presentation of Russel's, (Tim Laman's 10 year old son), Galapagos photos. Needed to download the final photos and finish up this log. Caught Patrik's, (Hotel Manager), presentation on "Where does it Come From and Where does it Go." Nice to understand the workings of the ship a bit better, particularly how they process water for such a long voyage. Though the mystery of where they actually store all the immense quantities of food required for this 21 days of cruising still remains just that!
Had lunch up in the Observation lounge, catching the last few glimpses of open sea. Photo break-out sessions after lunch with specialist Mike Nolan again. Too short, but able to provide a little bit more of useful hands on info. I spent the remainder of the afternoon up in the Observation lounge, last chance to enjoy this wonderful bright day-lit space. The ship picked up the Argentine Pilot at the Pilot's station in Tierra del Fuego about 5.00PM, to guide us into and through the Beagle Channel on final approach to Ushuaia, where we arrived around 7.00PM.
A rambunctious “Captain's treat” cocktail hour ensued, with plenty of champagne and lots of lively discourse. A well lubricated final dinner followed, great conversation with table mates: Warren Rubin, founder of Workbench furniture; his son-in-law Piet de Klerk, the soon to be Netherlands ambassador to Jordan; and Mitch Leon and his wife, (also investors in a furniture company in Santa Fe).
Continued the evening over many, many drinks with Mike & Theresa, and newly met Ferdinando & Loraine Macri. Others went into to town to check out the local bars there, but after so many days on the ship, it just didn’t feel right to “abandon it” on this, our last night.
Kept a vigil at the bar in the lounge with Ferdinando and Derek Manson, long into the early morning, even after everyone else had left. We continued to enjoy the benefits of the “Captain’s treat,” and Marek the Polish bartender stood steadfastly at the ready all night long!
Last overnight on the boat; made it to bed sometime after 2.00AM, though still well and truly plastered when I had to get up at 5.00AM to commence packing for departure, (which I had unfortunately neglected to do the day before!). The call for picking up luggage came at 6.30AM! Not ready and with a broken bag zipper at the last minute, I was starting off the day in a very discombobulated state!
Wednesday 9 March - Ushuaia VERY early morning wake up call, breakfast, and "de-boating" exercise to get us off the ship, so staff can prepare for the next "re-positioning" trip departing that same evening. Buses took us to the Maritime Museum for a brief tour, then early lunch at a disappointing package tourist restaurant: "My Patagonia," before dropping at the airport for departure. I had to re-collect my spare bag of summer clothes that I'd left at the hotel and drop back my rental boots at Jumping Ushuaia! Thankfully, the hotel was conveniently right across the street from the Maritime Museum. Felt miserable and sick most of this day, a victim of the previous all night session! Didn’t help that the flight departing Ushuaia for Buenos Aires was a few hours late; though able to meet u p with Sam and Sandi and meet Mark & Nancy Silverman, whom I had not had the opportunity to speak with previously. Uneventful flight to BA, and a few days there, reveling in the beautiful summer weather was a nice way to end the trip.
Epilogue – My Reflections on the Trip Though long, there was been relatively little free time over the entire course of the trip. Daily morning and afternoon excursions, (often up to four hours each at a stretch), and the necessary cold weather, wetness, and photographic preparations before and after each, took up the greater part of each day. Any remaining time was filled with the constant task of downloading/ backing up photos/video, attending the many lectures, presentations, evening recaps, and the constant voluminous three meals a day! Each day provided so much intense stimulus, I often felt incredibly “overloaded” by the end of it. Very tiring to deal with, and to keep track of, day in and day out for such a long period of time. I found it difficult to get into the routine at the start of the trip, and increasingly hard to "change gears" between the various portions of the expedition.
Coping with life during the sea days feels distinctively different from the on shore landings activity days.
A bit lonely and boring at times, even though there was plenty to do; the social interaction with tripmates did not yield the spontaneous memorable encounters and experiences that I've enjoyed on other extended expeditionary trips in Africa. I've come to the conclusion that this type of trip is one that is best done with family and/or a few close friends.
On the other hand, only during the few days at sea, in between Tierra del Fuego, Antarctica, South Georgia and The Falklands, has there been some respite from the constant activity, yielding only a few moments to reflect on the experiences and encounters of the previous days.
Though even during this time, (and not much time really, given that tail winds and weather have been so favorable), there's really not much downtime left, given the tasks of keeping up this log, sorting photos, and additional lectures and presentations to attend.
The three weeks have just flown by. Though the start of the trip seems a very long time ago, the intervening period and the flurry of activity and variety of destinations encountered seems a bit of a blur.
Leaving the boat at the end of the trip, I came to the realization that I was experiencing something akin to “Stockholm Syndrome.”
Having had everything planned out in almost militaristic fashion for the last three weeks, and with always the same small place to return to - it was oddly comforting and hard to leave. How will I function without the daily schedule to tell me what to do? . . .
A return to the uncertainly of real life!
I hope that this log and the story that my photos, (over 6,000!), and videos can tell, will portray the experience in as striking a fashion as the trip's landscape & nature encounters have impressed upon me.