unstoppable-wanderlust-blog

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Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 28, 2024 - Kayaking with whales

The morning started with calm waters and only very minor swells so I decided to be brave and jump into the kayaks for the morning paddle.  The bay was active with lots of humpbacks already so we were hoping to hang out with some.  As soon as we got on the water, we saw them in the distance and there was a pair just logging in the water so we floated along side them for 30-45 min.  It was truly magical - at one point we were only 40-50m away.  When the wind started to pick up, we paddled back to the boat - it was a wavy ride back with a bit of a workout and I think we were all thankful to be back on board without another polar dip.  

The afternoon we spent at Mikkelsen Harbour - by then the wind had picked up and we were in a bit of a snowstorm but it was our last outing in Antarctica so we had to go brave it and get out there.  Visiting the penguins and seals during a snowstorm was the perfect ending to this magical trip - thick snow falling around the wildlife - just so spectacular.  I think most of us cried a little bit on that outing - there is something about Antarctica that changes your inner soul and it is like leaving a beloved friend behind knowing you will likely never see them again.  

During our debrief they said we had set a record.  This is the first and only expedition where they have done all the landings that they had planned on!  And as we head into the Drake, well we are going to sneak in right between two storm systems and sailing most of the way through very mild waters!!!  Our luck is holding out!  We were told, however, that if we meet anyone coming on the ship in town (since we were giant red parkas that give us away), we need to tell them how horrible the drake was because the weather for these poor souls looks rough coming back down.  

We ended the night listening to the onboard musicians while watching the sunset (which we haven’t seen in 3 weeks!) and behind us the snow covered mountains glowing from the setting sun - our last views of Antarctica. 

Thanks for joining me on this journey!  It has been fun doing these updates and sharing all the experiences here and hopefully allowing others to experience a bit of this magical Antarctic and sub Antarctic world.  There will be lots more photos and videos when I am back, but for now I am signing off and setting sails across the Drake and just soaking in every last moment I can.

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 27, 2024 - Today you could die because of Tsunamis or falling into crevices

We awoke from our Antarctica camping at 5:30 am to start packing and were ready to be picked up by 6am.  I was lucky I was able to avoid the toilet with a view - although some went at 1:30am and had quite the view of humpbacks slowly swimming in the bay (24 hour daylight here so nice lighting all the time).  We were greeted on the ship by the staff with delicious hot chocolate and made our way to the breakfast buffet because a full day was planned.  

Our day started at Neko Harbour which has an amazing lookout that our leader said was the best view of the universe and worth the hike up.  The day was blue blue skies and no wind!  Apparently they have never had better conditions here.  We were strictly warned the night before about the risks of this place.  We are walking on packed snow/ice that is currently under bright bright sun and heat and pieces are constantly cracking and avalanching down.  There is a huge ice shelf as we come into the beach and this ice shelf in the years in the past have had huge calvings causing massive tsunamis.  They are very cautious and well aware of the risks as some of our guides have had it happen. As we pull onto the beach we are told that if they say run, we are to run off the zodiacs up the beach and if they say duck, we are to duck into the bottom of the zodiac and hold on for dear life.  We were also warned that we are not allowed to stop on the beach - once we arrive we are to promptly get off the beach and onto the snow were we are save from the water.  We pulled in and of course as soon as we arrived we heard a giant crack - I am pretty sure we had the fastest clearing of that zodiac.  We were also warned that we need to stay on the one path and not stray.  There are crevices developing all the time and people that have strayed have fallen into these and not survived.  The path is a one way path - that we use for 120 people to go up and down, so at times you have two lane traffic and we do an awkward dance trying to skirt around each other with the least amount of leaving the path.  Half way up I met up with one of my new friends and convinced her to come along with me to the top.  We made our way up the human highway very very slowly.  Occ you would sink into snow up to your knees, which you would have to fill in afterwards because we don’t want any penguins to fall into our holes and get stuck.  Once we made it up there we were so enthralled.  The view was breathtaking - gorgeous blue waters in the bay surrounded by white, snow covered mountains and ice and a blue sky with some whispy clouds.  This photo will get printed as a large canvas. Heading back down was turning into a slip and slide with the melting snow and all the footprints on the same path but we made it down to the penguin colony and snapped many more photos of penguins with snowy mountains behind them.   Now one thing I cannot capture for you all is the smell of penguin colonies - and let me tell you it is not pretty.  It hits you hard when the wind blows the right direction.

As we made it back to the zodiac, the same safety applies as before.  We wait on the snow, a zodiac comes in and all 10 quickly board and the zodiac zooms away.  Except, our guide took the leisurely cruise along the shoreline telling us all the horror stories of the past event he witnessed where he was hit by the tsunami on the beach and washed ashore.  (This is the same guide that was telling us the horror polar dip stories…). I was recording the entire time so this will make for a fun video in the future.  Luckily there was no calvings and all passengers stayed on the path and we survived beautiful Neko Harbour.

In the afternoon we sailed through another small channel and got our perfect blue skies as we sailed through heading to Cuverville Island.  Here we saw a large Gentoo penguin colony, did another hike to get up to the view of the bay filled with icebergs and then had a great zodiac ride  between the icebergs to find the leopard seal lounging on one piece of ice.  She was a beauty!!!  An estimated 600kg.  The photos do not explain how huge this animal was.  Thankfully her belly was full so she just gave us side eye as we did a couple of spins around her private iceberg.  

The energy on board the boat was at an all time high.  Today was such a perfect day.  We were informed that tomorrow (our last day in Antarctica) appears to once again have perfect weather with low winds.  Then a joke was made about wait till we tell you tomorrow about the Drake.   I have a feeling we are going to experience the Drake Shake on the way home - we must be out of luck by now.  

So here we are - tomorrow will be our last day in Antarctica.  I can’t believe it is already coming to an end.  It will certainly be bitter sweet.  Tomorrow we head to Portal Point and Mikkelsen Harbour before tackling the Drake head on.  Drake update will come tomorrow after dinner once we have had our briefings and get to see the weather forecast!

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 26, 2024: Polar Plunge with Killer Whales

Our day started out with a trip to Port Charcot.  We were awoken early so we could witness the famous passage through the Lemaire Channel - google a Timelapse video of this passage and find a blue sky one - it is truly spectacular and one of the main reasons I wanted to visit Antarctica.  We hit the Lemaire Channel with fog, some ice pellets but a lot of enthusiasm.  A true Antarctic day they called it.  What we have been having is not typical apparently.  We were troopers and stood outside in the rain and fog and ooed and awed at the little bits of mountain we would glimpse here and there between the fog.  

That morning we stopped at Port Charcot and had a hike up a good sized hill to see a penguin colony with lots of little babies.  I stood up there for quite a while - bundled up to protect from the wind and the ice pellets and took as many pictures as possible, even though the front of the lens kept getting rain spots on it.  I hiked back down and stood at the bottom watching penguins go up and down penguin highways.  They travel so far and unlike our little red human highways we make when we do the hikes, they keep going with very limited rest - unless that is if we get too close and they look at us not sure what to make of us.

After Port Charcot we raised anchor to sail to Petermann Island, however, a medical emergency call came through from Port Lockroy - one of the research stations down here.  - Also the post office which unfortunately is closed due to bird flu so no Antarctica postcards :( As per marine law, all boats in the area have to respond and since we travel with a doctor, they reached out but could not get through.  So instead of sailing to Petermann Island, we headed north again towards the research station which was expected to take about 2 hours.  

At about the 1 hour mark, they finally got a hold of them and another vessel was going to beat us there by 45 min so we were off the hook.  As we did another 180 and headed back south, we came across his amazing pod of orcas!  They estimate around 40-50 of them were surrounding the boat including one humpback whale.  They do not think the orcas were hunting the humpback, but the humpback was putting on quite the display of fin and tail slapping as well as rolling - likely to tell the orcas off.  We spent 45 min out on the deck in the freezing weather just taking videos and photos of the orcas and the humpback.  It was crazy how many orcas we saw! 

 

By then it was too late to make an afternoon landing and they had heard from some of the other vessels heading south that they could not reach the Island due to ice.  So they decided that it would be a great time to do the Polar Plunge!!  At this point we had huddled inside, sipping on some amazing hot chocolate, excitedly chattering about how cool the orcas were and how cold we were and how will we survive camping.  When they announced the polar plunge we all stood there in shock - we are going to get colder?  Then head out camping??  

Excitement was palpable on board with everyone trying to decide if they are really going to do the polar plunge.  The one guide told us all the horror stories about the rare events when peoples hearts stopped and the 3 doctors (passengers) on board all chimed in - 2/3 also said not a good idea and they were not jumping, while the 3rd was going to join us in the madness.  The announcement was made and deck 2 (which was my deck) was to come to the mudroom (where we dock the zodiacs) if we wanted to jump.  All others were encouraged to watch us make poor decisions from deck 5.  The music was blaring, hot towels and the sauna was ready, and the atmosphere was a combination of excitement and nerves.  We had so many people that they jumped out of both sides of the ship.  A belt goes around your waist so they can drag you back on board and you are ready to go.  There were about 3 in front of me and they were all smiling as they came back (mixed with some swearing) so I figured it’s not that bad.  As I am standing there waiting for my turn, I am looking out in the distance and see some more killers whales swim by.  I asked the crew - is this safe if they are out there????  Well no one has gotten eaten yet so swim quickly back to the platform.  Ummmm… ok.  Sounds reasonable right??

I climbed down the platform and with a wooohooo I jumped into the Antarctic waters - 0 degrees on top, -1 below.  I don’t even remember it being that cold but wow the instant salt on your lips was crazy.  It seemed to take forever to surface but I managed to swim back to the platform and scrambled not so gracefully (at this point limbs are starting to go numb) into the platform while they pull us back on board!  We all huddled together in the sauna to reheat and every time someone new came in, we all cheered.  After a hot shower and some blow drying of our hair, we headed to an early dinner before heading out for the night to camp in Antarctica!  An experience sure to leave us cold.  

Camping was spectacular.  We climbed up this big snow covered hill and set up our tents - they have to be elevated because we are surrounded by melting ice and you can hear the ice crack and sometimes even see some calvings.  Small calvings are fine, we do not want to see any large calvings as they will cause tsunami waves in the tight enclosed bays (more on this on a later story about today…).  The ice cracking sounds like wicked thunder in the distance.  We had one seal hang around the bay, a few whales come and go in the night, and 3 penguins that greeted us on arrival and seemed happy to see us go in the morning.  The weather was perfect with low wind and I was actually quite toasty sleeping on Antarctica - but the snow/ice made it quite lumpy.  

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 25, 2024 - Kayaking by an active volcano

We arrived at Deception Island this morning at 7am and entered the narrow opening to get into the middle bay to drop anchor at Whalers Bay.  This is an active volcano area, with the last eruption having occurred in 1967.  The area smells of sulphur and you can see the steam coming off certain areas of the beach.  The beach was covered in ash and cinder.  A few penguins and seals were hanging around the beach.  We were lucky enough to get out on our kayaks and explore the shores that way, while others hiked to the ridge to have an amazing view.  

We then spent the rest of the day sailing as far south as we can.  

It was snowing quite a bit tonight, so I made a snow angel on the ship.

Tomorrow morning we arrive at Lemaire Channel.  This is one of the most scenic channels in Antarctica, unfortunately the weather is not going to be on our side.  Hopefully it is not fully cloudy/foggy and we will be able to see a bit.  Then it is off to Port Charcot & Petermann Island before perhaps our night camping on Antarctica (guaranteed to be cold!).

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Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 24, 2024 - What happens when you find a Krill swarm?

Today we sailed to Elephant Island - where Shackleton and his men found land after being stranded in ice for many months.  It was very foggy which added to the mood.  We had glimpses of blue skies between the fog as we were once again in the eye of a storm.  The eye of the storm came at the perfect time as it gave a short window to do some limited zodiac explore, but the ice prevented getting too close and the fog prevented a good view of the mountains.  As we sailed towards the edges of the storm, we came across this swarm of krill - the patch of ocean was darker than the other areas and there was whales EVERYWHERE!  And I mean everywhere - as you scan the horizon, you easily saw 10 blows at once in one area and many many more all around.  They took us into the middle of the krill swarm and as we stood on the bow of the ship, you could hear the whales blow and come up all around us.  We couldn’t figure out where to look because they were everywhere!  Mostly fin whales and humpback whales, but also penguins, seals and many seabirds scavenging for leftovers.  We circled for around 45 min just taking it all in.  Our expedition leader has never come across anything this big and this was only the second krill swarm that they have seen in the past 20 years.  They estimated that we likely saw anywhere between 50-100 whales.  Everyone was on a high as we sailed into the edge of the storm.  By the afternoon the waves were at 4-5m and our drake rough scale (as per our leader) was 2/10. I took my Gravol and napped between lectures.  This evening we had our camping debrief - the hope is for the night of Jan 26th!  They guaranteed that we would be cold!

Tomorrow we set sail towards Deception Island which is actually an active volcano.  Hopefully no activity tomorrow morning!  Weather looks good for us at Deception Island.  Then in the afternoon and evening we sail as far south as we can before slowly working our way back up along Antarctica.   4 more days here before we head through the Drake - I have a feeling that all our good luck may catch up with us in the Drake passage in 5 days…

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Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 23, 2024: Iceberg ahead!

Another two sea days - the first was filled with more lectures and catching up on sleep while today has been an amazing once in a lifetime opportunity!  We found A23a - the world’s largest iceberg!  And let me tell you it is massive.  We have been sailing beside it for the past 3 hours and it just keeps going!  They say it is 3 times the size of New York!  How many iceberg photos are considered too many????  It is impossible to capture the size of this iceberg unless you have a satellite!  We even did a group photo on the bow of the boat with the giant iceberg behind us!  The waters have been calm today and the sun is shining highlighting this massive iceberg making it pop with light blues from the water.  It is hard to imagine that 7/8 of this iceberg is underwater!  We have also crossed the 60th parallel and now are officially in Antarctica!   Insert iceberg photos below....

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Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 21, 2024 - The southern most band performance in the world

Tonight, as we were rocking and rolling back and forth on the Atlantic Ocean, a few members of the crew put on a band (monkey-eating eagles) performance for us - the southern most band performance in the world! Hosted at 055 38.090 S, 037 36.471 W and heading southwest towards Antarctica.

Today was another great day! The weather was amazing again and we managed to make all the landings that we planned for South Georgia! They hope for them all but are usually happy if they can make 50% of them as the weather can be quite challenging. In the morning we headed out on the zodiacs to explore the beaches. There was some swell on the ocean but overall not too bad when we headed out. By the time we were close to coming back, the wind had picked up again and the main boat (Expedition) could no longer hold Anchor as it was just dragging in the wind. So they picked up the anchor and drove away. Yup. That’s what it looked like from our zodiacs - there goes our boat…. They repositioned to face into the winds so that the wind would push them backwards and then we had to get back into the boat while it was moving (I am still not sure what the right term is here - driving? Sailing? Boating? Anyone???). Overall it was pretty smooth - just had to wait to catch the boat at the right sway to step on.

Then we headed towards Drygalski Fjord and wow! We cruised into this little fjord and were surrounded by jagged mountains on either side with so many glaciers all around. It ended with these two glaciers nestled in the jagged mountains. Here we did a 180 degree turn and headed back out and into the Atlantic Ocean. Apparently it has been 20 years since they have been able to get into the Fjord and have clear weather. The pictures do not do it justice. You just can't capture the vastness of the mountains! We have been told that the weather continues to be great for the next 24 hours, but there was also a comment about we won’t look beyond that just yet - we all have a feeling that our good weather streak may be coming to an end and that we will experience the Drake Shake on the last day towards Antarctica. They told us this cruise last year encountered 15m waves and everything was locked down - people had to stay in their rooms as moving around the ship was too dangerous with it rocking from side to side that much - so lets hope this is not in our future.

Sea days are lecture days but at least we get to sleep in! Tomorrow we learn about the ice seals, more penguins, the climate of Antarctica and we get to spend a lot of time just outside watching icebergs go by and keeping an eye out for whales. Gravol will be my best friend over the next 2 days.

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 20, 2024 - Katabatic Winds and a Zodiac

The morning started a bit rocky - our lucky weather streak had ended and we were in foggy conditions with decently rolling waves.  We set out in our zodiacs and it was definitely more challenging getting photos - just as you get your shot focused and push the shutter, the waves moved the boat up and down - so pretty much you got a photo of a penguins head and background or penguin feet and water and only if you were lucky did you actually get the full penguin.  We did have some blue skies peak out so we thought well the weather is improving hopefully it will die down soon!  

The boat beside us had a motor stall and we raced over to try and get them towed out before they hit the shore.  The wind made it impossible for our guide to catch their rope and we had front row views of their zodiac getting hit by a wave and pushed at quite an angle into the shore.  Luckily they lodged there and the zodiac did not flip but it sure made for some tense moments on the beach and they got a good Atlantic soaking as the waves kept hitting them stuck on the shore.  When they finally got out, the zodiac returned to the boat as many of them were soaked and needed to warm up.  We should have followed them but instead kept going down the beach because well crisis averted right?  

Further down the beach we came across this rare opening where glacier water was rushing down out into the ocean, and the best part, the penguins were lining up on the shore to slide down into the rushing water and ride the waves into some pretty good rapids before swimming back to shore - a penguin waterslide!  I could have sat there and watched them for ours - they were so funny.  We even saw an albatross and a seal head down the waterslide.  Even our guides had never seen anything like that and enjoyed watching the penguins have a blast.  

As we were heading back, suddenly everything changed.  The wind picked up, we were slammed by the Atlantic on all sides, heads lowered getting hit by salty water hopping that the zodiacs don’t flip over.  When we made it back towards the boat, there was a line up of getting zodiacs unloaded. You see there is some steps on the side of the ship that we pull up to.  Then the guys hook onto the zodiac with ropes so that everything sort of sways together.  Then we grab the hands of two other guys and have a very strategic move to get up onto the steps.  Sometimes if you happen to be there at the wrong time and the boat is rocking away, there can quickly be a gap of at least a flight of stairs or more.  So you time this strategically to make it back onto the boat.  These winds were making this process extremely hard.  They had numerous people on the stairs trying to get everyone off quickly and safely but it took much longer than normal.  Meanwhile we are sitting in our zodiacs, clutching on for dear life, waiting for our turn.  When we finally made it to the ramp, they decided it is no longer safe on this side and we had to pull all the way around the boat to the other side to load - but it sure didn’t seem any less windy!  You could have cut the tension with a knife as we pulled up - the crew was clearly stressed and doing their best to go as quickly as possible getting everyone back on board.  I don’t know if I got on board or they just quickly hank you but it sure was good to be back on the boat.  Luckily, we got everyone back on board safely.  During our debrief they told us that we got hit by a sudden storm and when we saw the glimmer of blue skies, we were actually in the eye/calm of the storm.   They had often times talked about Katabatic winds that can occur at anytime, but until you experience it,  you just don’t understand.  They told us we were in hurricane classified winds at 70 knots (130km/hr) during that time.  Very thankful with how skilled this crew is AND with all their safety briefings at the beginning where they are very strict on how to board and unboard a zodiac - for these reasons.  

Many people opted out of the afternoon zodiac outing but I decided to head back out but without my camera - the winds was better and we had more swells than waves but it rained the entire time.  It’s still great to see the wildlife just standing on the beach in these conditions.  And then you think about it and you realize that this is their summer!  This is the easy bit!  I can’t even imagine what winter would be like out there!

Tomorrow we are heading onwards and hopefully back to the nice weather.  We all agreed that we now had a tasting of what it could be like but prefer the nice sunny calm weather!  ;)  One more day here in South Georgia before we take on the Atlantic towards Antarctica.  Lots and lots of icebergs floating around us today which is super cool!

Oh and yes -that is an elephant seal in the photo with the zodiac - not a rock.  Better yet this is considered a small juvenile seal!  These things are impressive!!!!

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 19, 2024 - Got hissed at by a seal

I sat at breakfast this morning and thought to myself wow - here I am on a boat eating breakfast, looking out the window and the view was an amazing glacier between two mountains disappearing in the fog, with penguins and seals swimming and jumping in the water. What a surreal moment! As we sailed (did we sail? Boated? Drove?) to our next destination, we saw more humpbacks in the distance, penguins, seals, and many many icebergs. It was a bit of a "name the shape of that iceberg" game - kinda like we do for clouds. Watched some penguins frolicking around the ice - jumping on and off some of the smaller icebergs - that is until our waves knocked them off - oops.

Our first stop was at a beach where we could actually get off and have a little walk. The beach did not look like there was much wildlife there, but once you are on the beach it’s amazing to see how much is actually there! The rule is to stay 15m away from seals and 5m away from penguins - this becomes quite difficult. There were many feisty little seals that were ready to take us on and often came charging hissing like angry cats. It was mostly the young seals from last season. The babies were very curious with us and often followed us, while the older ones would open their eyelids but that is about all the movement we saw from them. In fact, sometimes you wondered if they were actually alive. Got to experience though why the seals are called “Odoriferous blubber slugs” - yup they smell bad! Very very very bad! By the end I was glad to get off the beach and thankful for the zodiac drive bys. lol

In the afternoon we visited a whaling station - Grytviken.  This is actually where Shackleton was buried - the cemetery and strolling through the old whaling station was closed due to recent suspected activity of bird flu, but we got to visit the museum, post office and little shop that they have here to fundraise funds for their research.  And of course hung out with many more seals!  We were lucky enough to have a little concert in the church hosted by our entertainment on board before heading back to the ship for a BBQ dinner.  

Tomorrow we head to the largest King penguin colony in the world, where we do another zodiac cruise by as it is way too crowded there for us to get onto the beach. I think I only took a total of 800 photos today! New record low!

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G Expedition - January 18, 2024 - Penguins, seals, whales - oh my!

- I am not sure how I am already at Day 7! It feels like I just boarded this boat! This morning I got up early and headed to the top deck to watch us come into our anchor spot. Huge majestically mountains with glaciers, rolling green hills and what looked like rocky beaches.

As we got closer to these rocky beaches and I zoomed in with my telephoto lens I realized that all the white spots I was seeing were not rocks, but rather penguins. Hundreds of thousands of Penguins. In the morning and afternoon we hopped into the zodiacs and sailed past some of these beaches admiring penguins and seals living together on these beaches. We saw mostly King Penguins and fur seals but also a leopard seal, Macaroni Penguins, Gentoo Penguins and many sea birds.

The young fur seals were quite interested in our zodiacs and kept swimming by looking up at us trying to figure out what the heck kind of red species this is! We had one penguin try and jump into our zodiac even. At lunch time, as we were sailing to our next spot, people saw some whales go by the boat. When numerous of these whales were spotted, the ship was slowed down and we started to turn in a slow 360degree turn so that we can just observe these whales. The main two that stayed with us was a mother humpback and her baby (about 6 months old), they had quite the time frolicking in the waves, turning onto their sides, diving slightly down and then coming back up. We watched them for about 30 minutes before the boat kept going to our destination! It was so magical!

The weather today was perfect again with low winds and the waters not being too choppy. I can’t wait to see what the next 2 weeks of this trip brings. We are 3 more days in South Georgia and then moving on to Antarctica.

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G-Adventures - January 16 & 17, 2024: Odoriferous blubber slugs & our first iceberg!

Day 5:  Odoriferous blubber slugs - smells better dead than alive. Jan 16, 2024

Well they told us we are still rock and rolling at only a 1.5/10.  We sure don’t want to see anything faster than that.  We stumble with our breakfast plates crashing into other guests, tables, etc while the servers carry trays of 10 meals around with no issues.  We spent all day at sea with no land in sight.  Had lots of lectures and learned about seals, penguins, seabirds, etc.  We were warned that when we come to see the Southern Elephant seal to be prepared - they are nicknamed “Odoriferous blubber slugs” because they smell better dead than alive, and it is best to stay far away as the smell will elicit a gag reflex...

Day 6:  Our first iceberg! Jan 17, 2024

Today we spent the morning going through biosecurity on board again - this is where we bring all of our outer layers for inspection and it all gets vacuumed and all the Velcro get picked through to ensure we are not taking any accidental vectors onto our next destination.  In the afternoon we sailed past Shag Rock - the only visible part of the Scotia Arc which is a line of volcanic activity under the ocean.  We were lucky enough to have great conditions as we sailed by and the captain even did a full 360degree turn around the rock, which we were told is very rare!  Shag rock is appropriately named after the shag birds that hang out on the rock.  Along with Shag Rock, we also saw our first icebergs cruising by!  

Tomorrow we are expected to make land in South Georgia and we are hoping to go out in the zodiacs and cruise around to see the wildlife from sea - the area we are going to be in is too dense for us to be able to get out and walk around as it would be impossible to keep 5m distance due to the large population there.  We are hoping for calm seas and less rocking!

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G-Adventures: January 15, 2024: Please be careful. Although this area is believed to be clear of mines, it is possible that a mine may be washed ashore from a nearby minefield.

The morning started with a hike to an area that they have found a lot of mines in the past from the invasion of the Falkland Islands in 1982.  While they have cleared the area now, they don’t guarantee it and we were told to stay off the beach as mines could wash ashore.  In 1982, they have identified 140 minefields and of those they have cleared 33 as safe now, with 3 more being declared safe soon.  In the year 2012, they found 5200 items such as small arms ammunitions, flares, projectiles, mortars and booby traps.  

The hike was to Gypsy’s Cove and it was quite lovely along the coast between grasses/bushes you could see penguin dens and one right beside the path even had two chicks in there.  At the top of the hike there was an old mounted gun from World War II that was one of the 14 manned defence sites of the Falkland Islands.  We watched some penguins on the beach - they would waddle towards the water and then when a wave touched them they would waddle back at a faster pace as if to say damn that water is cold!  Turns out they were just waiting on more penguins, because as soon as the other 2 penguins arrived they all dove into the water and swam away.  

In the afternoon, we explored the town of Stanley.  We were lucky because there were two other much larger cruise ships expecting to dock that day as well, however lucky for us, the wind was too strong for them to unload safely (since they were too large to pull into harbour) so we got the whole town to ourselves!  The benefits of picking a much smaller boat!  I could not have imagined that small town being invaded by 2000+ tourists in one day.  Falkland is actually part of the UK and all prices are listed in pounds although this is Falkland Island pounds.  The big cathedral in town had a whalebone arch beside it - it was made out of four jawbones from two blue whales that were brought from the South Shetland Islands in 1922.  The size of it is spectacular!  Really makes you think again how big whales really are when this is just their jawbones!  

As I headed back to the bus to get back onboard the ship, there were some South American Sea Lions basking in the sun on the dock while a little baby one just on the rocks that was bawling for his mom.  We heard two stories about this little guy - the first is that there was two baby’s and they were abandoned by the mother and one had already died.  The second was that mom was just out getting food and would likely be back.  Hopefully it is the latter.  

As we headed out towards the Southern Atlantic we immediately started hitting waves and swell and the boat has been rocking and rolling since then.  Last night at dinner I didn’t eat much and then went to my room, took some gravel and slept for 12 hours.  We are still rocking and rolling this morning with people stumbling about with their breakfast plates.  They expect this for today, but weather should improve for tomorrow.  Today is full of lectures learning about the animals we will meet at South Georgia - our next destination.  

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G Adventures - January 14, 2024: On a scale of 1 to 10, this was a 1

6:15 am wake up call got us out of bed headed to the buffet breakfast.  The options there are endless.  Fruit, eggs, bacon, sausage, beans, waffles, ice cream - absolutely amazing food.  It is all open seating so I decided on day 1 to never sit in the same chair twice.  I think so far I am doing ok but I also don’t really remember which ones I have sat in.  Hahahaha.   But usually every meal you meet new people which is a lot of fun.  

After breakfast we all went to our rooms awaiting our call signal to get dressed to go on the zodiac.  It was our first zodiac ride so we were all anxious and excited.  We were the last group to go, so I looked out the porthole and watched some of the other zodiac rides take off.  Finally it was my turn!  I headed down to the mud room and there you put on your waterproof pants, jacket, boots and life jacket.  Then you line up in the que to swipe out with your card to signal that you are now ashore and step through some vircon disinfectant foot bath.  Then you wait at the end of the steps that lead to the ocean.  The zodiacs pull up and the staff hold on to ropes so that the sway along with the ocean.  Then you step on the zodiac and quickly sit down.  Once it is full we zoom off getting splashed with salty sea water along the way.  

Luckily for us this morning the water was pretty calm and it was a pleasant ride to cement platform where we got off.  

Then it was a 35min uphill hike to get to the Rockhopper penguin and albatross colony.  The problem with the hike was that 1) I am carrying two cameras which are damn heavy 2) I am wearing heavy boots that are hard to walk in, waterproof pants that feel awkward and a life jacket and 3) holy shit it was windy!!!  

Every once in a while we would lift our heads and brace against the wind to look up and see that there are still red jackets ahead so best to keep going.  Finally after what seemed like forever we finally made it.  You could smell them first actually!  Penguin poop is not pleasant.  Then you can hear them - squawking away as if someone is getting murdered.  Finally we made it through the tall grasses to catch our first glimpse of hundreds of penguins and albatrosses just hanging out together.  We stood there in the blowing wind for over an hour before we got hustled along to get back to the ship.  The sight was amazing.  So worth the hike.  Lucky for us we stayed so long that we got a ride back to the boat.  

We were all on a high as we get to lunch and everyone was excitedly chatting about this mornings adventure - we all gave it a 10 out of 10.  How could it get better than this?  As we were having lunch, the boat was cruising along to our next destination for our afternoon at Saunders Island.  The conditions were perfect!  In 8 years they have not been able to pull right up on the beach due to bad waves and usually have to go around to the other side and have us hike in.  But today, the sun was shining, the weather was (apparently) calm, and we got to beach our zodiacs right at Saunders island.  

The ride to the island was great - penguins swimming in the water on either side of the zodiac.  When we pull in, there are exhibition leaders in the water waist deep and they grab the zodiac, spin it around and pull it in.  We then swing our legs over the edge and jump down into knee high water and quickly waddle onto the beach - and a waddle it is with all of our gear and wet weather outer layer.  But the sight walking onto the beach was unremarkable.  Penguins everywhere you looked!  The Gentoo Penguins would come jumping out of the water onto the beach, waddle up the beach in a row, usually giving us some sketchy looks -they must wonder what specific of humans we are - clearly the red gadventure species…. The the left of the beach there were some cliffs and the Rockhopper Penguins did what they were named for - they hopped out of the water, onto the cliffs and then hopped along the rocks to get up to the colony.  Watching them jump in the water it just looked like they were having the best time.  Further down the beach on the right, there was a small group of King penguins.  They look so official - like they are wearing formal outerwear and they always look like they are having a very important meeting, but nothing seems to come out of the meetings.  Beside the King penguins was a large group of Gentoo penguins.  While I was standing there a mother penguin was regurgitating food for her two babies and then after she stopped they kept pecking at her for more.  She then took off waddling at high speed through the colony with the babies chasing her down.  It was so amusing to watch!  As I headed back towards the beach and the Rockhopper Penguins, we passed by some Magellanic Penguins hanging out with some sheep!  They didn’t really do much - occasionally would walk past us in groups of 3-4.  

As we spent about 2.5-3 hours on the beach, you could see the waves growing in intensity.  Well this will be a fun ride back.  The zodiac comes in and we do the whole procedure in reverse.  One person fell out of the zodiac and landed in the water - we are wearing life jackets that have a CO2 canister in them so if they sense water they puff pop up, so she puffed up.  The ride back was super bumpy, we got soaked with sea water and were clutching on for dear life.  I will admit that I was super happy to be back on the big boat.  Everyone met up in the lounge for some tea and snacks before our debriefing/reviewing of tomorrow.  During the debriefing, someone was brave enough and asked the question we have all been thinking all day.  So on a scale of 1 to 10, how would you rate this afternoons zodiac ride/docking.  The main exhibition leader Jonathan laughed and said oh that way mild!  1 out of 10.  The room went silent - we all imagined what the other zodiac rides will look like.  Gulp.    Luckily tomorrow we get to get off on the boat ramp as we are docking at Stanley.  

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - G Adventures - January 13, 2024: Penguins at 2 o’clock

Woke up in the morning to a gently rocking boat and wondered what happened to the Drake Shake.  Turns out we just went with the flow of the waves and instead of rocking us, they pushed us accelerating us towards Falkland Islands at airplane speeds - ok so maybe not airplane speeds but we arrived 12 hours ahead of schedule!  The morning started with an amazing buffet breakfast and then a lot of safety briefings - how to get in and out of the zodiacs, that we need to be careful because once we are passed Falkland Islands there is no air evacuation.  The boat has to evacuate and it ain't fast.  We learned about previous issues they have had and to never ever put your fingers in a door way as the air pressured doors will chop them right off (hopefully - because crush injuries are worse).  

Around lunch time it started to hit me.  The waves had increased and the boat was rocking side to side quite a bit and I was feeling nauseous.  I took my Gravol and then went for lunch that maybe a bit of food in my stomach would help.  Well I didn’t eat much and ended up going to bed for a brief nap before my kayak training again (gear fitting).  Once the nauseousness subsided, the drowsiness kicked in!  All I wanted to do was sleep but we had two lectures in the afternoon and more kayak training!  Luckily I got a nap in after our kayak training and started to feel a bit better.  

After the lectures we went outside as we could start to see parts of the Falkland Islands.  Beautiful green islands with jagged brown cliffs and rocks - and best yet - even a rainbow!  As we were standing out on the bow of the boat we had an announcement over the speaker that some whales were spotted from the bridge.  We could see the blows off in the distance but they moved so fast it was hard to get a picture of them.  I got a dorsal fin photo - that count?  Hahahaha.  

At 6pm it was time for the captains cocktail and we were introduced to the captain crew that are running the ship - our captain has over 30 years of experience on boats and is one of the most experienced ones in the industry.  The bridge most days has an open door policy so we can pop in and out, visit and ask questions.  

We then had a brief meeting on the coming days - tomorrow we are hoping for 2 landings in Falkland Islands.  The first is from West Point Island where we do the Devil’s Nose Hike and then in the afternoon, the plan is to land at Saunders Island.  Once the briefing was done, we got to go back outside to watch as we came in for landing/docking/anchor dropping??  While out there we saw some seals swim by, some penguins zoom along beside the boat and finally the call everyone was waiting for : Penguin at 2 o’clock!  And there was our first Penguin swimming in the water past our boat.

We went inside for dinner all so super happy.  Wake up call tomorrow at 6:15am so I guess I better go to bed - but first I may just sneak outside and check to see if it got dark enough to see some stars…

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - GAdventures - January 12, 2024: Headed straight for the Drake Shake

Well we have left the port (after the port closed due to high winds but I guess they wanted to go anyway…) and now we are currently sailing straight into the Drake Shake.  

They told us to prepare for Rock and Roll Party tonight starting around midnight.  They are expecting about 4m waves which is moderate waves - they have sailed through 12m before which they said no one wants to do and is terrifying.  The boat has started to gradually sway more over the past 1 hour - I would say we are at about 1m waves so far.  So far no motion sickness yet - it’s kinda fun trying to walk when the boat is rocking.  We will see what happens as it kicks up and we start to lie down and settle into bed.  Currently we are rocking side to side which means as I am sleeping if I slide along the bed we could make impact with the wall - adding a pillow buffer for sure.  We have a wedge to put under our mattress to prevent us from rolling out of the bed.  We were all advised to take motion sickness medication prior to it getting bad because well there is a Rock and Roll Party expected.  As they get past the top of the Drake and start to head towards Falkland Islands they expect the waves to settle out and smooth sailing with only 2m waves which apparently we won’t feel (so late morning it should get better!)  I got some internet so we will see how good it is and I will update again in the morning.  So far having a blast and kinda want to stay here forever (but only if my pooches can come!!!  ;)  Took my gravol and off to bed!

[unstoppable-wanderlust-blog]

Spirit of Shackleton - GAdventures - Jan 11, 2024

I stalked the boat and saw it was coming in so I went down to the dock and watched it dock. 

Had some other people from the boat join me - we were all giddy with excitement.  Tomorrow at 4pm we board!  Not sure yet when we set off but here we go!  They have decided to do the trip in reverse so we get to go to Falklands and South Georgia first (bc of the bird flu outbreak - they want to get there in case it gets worse and gets closed) and then Antarctica will be at the end.  Which also means the drake will be the last thing we do....(well that sounds a bit ominous..).  But fret not - current weather reports are that the weather was bad between falklands and South Georgia too with 6-8m waves....

Wait and see.  Wait and see!