Fearless Four go South

Photos are loading again to the website so we have decided to have a little caption competition for the followers of our Blog. Entries should be submitted by way of comment on this Post. They will of course be moderated and we may or may not publish a selection of the best offerings.

Also, depending on the quality of the entries, we may or may not offer a prize to the winner. It will be something worth owning, I can assure you!

The picture we have chosen is the one below of two King penguins deep in conversation not realising they can be overheard! Good luck everyone.

Having a few technical difficulties uploading photos at the moment. Hope we can resolve it soon. Planning a caption competition! Keep an eye out.

For our last night on the Fram, the Irish and Australian members of the Fearless Four plan to go dutch on a bottle of French champagne on a Norwegian ship while in international waters en route from the Falkland Islands to Argentina.

It will be served by a Filipino waiter.

Well, we are finally finished with landings and Polar Cirkel boats and all that palavar for this expedition.

Getting dressed for a landing was an art in itself. Start with the base layer, add the over layer followed by the outer layer. Then the waterproofs. Add boots, hat, scarf or balaclava, gloves and you’re only half way there.

Next come your camera, extra batteries and lenses; binnoculars, sunglasses, expedition ID card (hangs on a lanyard round your neck and madatory for landings), notebook & pen for taking essentials note of your visit (how do you think this blog gets written?), rucksack to carry all the aforesaid paraphanalia and then, and only then, can you think of finding a way to fit the mandatory lifejacket, a burdensome weight in itself. Oh and a walking stick.

There were times we felt better equipped than an astronaut. Certainly by the end of the 40 minutes or so it took to prepare, we were all trussed up like turkeys ready for the oven. And, inevitably, once ashore, you would have to go looking for some essential piece of equipment, maybe a camera battery, maybe a handkerchief. That’s when the ordeal would begin. That was when the Fearless Four invented the First Law of an Antarctic Landing: it is simple and goes like this:

The item most required will always be the one that is least accessible!

The law also works in reverse.

Friday 8 March, 2013.

Not our final blog by any means but a poignant one nonetheless.

We made our final landing of the voyage this morning on the very beautiful Carcass Island, off the coast of West Falkland. Despite not being technically in Antarctica this was without doubt one of the highlights of the trip, not least because storm force winds and overcast conditions had been replaced this morning by bright sunshine and calm sea conditions.

Carcass Island is the remote home of a tiny community of Falklanders – only two people live here all year round although during the summer months additional bodies are brought in to help host the expedition ships that stop here. In the only private home on the Island, we enjoyed easily the best cup of tea we had had since leaving home and a tableful of cakes, scones and biscuits, all home made.

This was followed by a walk out along the shore to enjoy the Island’s superb scenery and abundant wildlife, including the only megallanic penguins many of us have seen on the voyage.

It had been an early start – the landing began at 7am – and by the time we were back on board mid-morning, we already felt that we had had a wonderful day. We have now turned our back on some memorable experiences and settled in to the comfortable surroundings of the MV Fram for the four day voyage back to Buenos Aries.

And so it is that Fearlessfourgosouth go north.

Just dropped anchor off Carcass Island, West Falkland. Hope to spend the night here and attempt a landing in the morning. We’ll see.

I had an image before joining the Fram that our landings on Antarctica, where there are no piers of jettys the ship can pull alongside of, would require considerable agility. I suspected it might involve clambering down something akin to a fire-escape fixed to the side of the hull and then trying to clamber into a small inflatable dinghy that was pitching wildly in a rough sea. Not so.

Getting in and out of the 8 man rigid boats was simplicity itself. We made our way via either the ship’s main staircase or the lifts to the car deck where we booted-up and donned our life vests. When called, we descended a second staircase to a perfectly rigid railed plaform where we stepped into a shallow sponge bath to disinfect our boots. The platform allowed access to the landing boats through a side opening in the hull of the ship. Stepping into the boats with the aid of 2 or 3 crew members was very straighforward and was managed even by people with limited mobility. There are some pictures on the gallery page which show the operation in progress.

Under rules governing tourism in Antarctica, only 100 people at a time are allowed to set foot on the continent at any one time. That obviously presents a problem for boats like the Fram that carry more than 200 passengers. However, our Expedition Team managed the process in very organised way and no one missed out on landings other than those cancelled for weather conditions.

Passengers were divided into 7 boat groups. These were landed by rotation meaning the process started with group 1 on the first landing, group 2 for the second landing and so on meaning everyone was among the first group to land at some point in the voyage. Once 100 people had been landed, 8 at a time in the Polar Cirkel boats, there was a pause for up to 30 minutes until the early landers began returning to the Ship. The exercise then resumed and as one group returned, another was brought ashore thus ensuring that the 100 person limit was not exceeded.

Stepping ashore from the boats was also straightforward and was done with the aid of crew members and a small set of steps. Depending on the landing site, most landings lasted for about 2 hours or so although it was also possible to return to the ship earlier if desired.

Meant to mention that in the small catholic church, St Mary’s, in Port Stanley, we found copies of the ”Sacred Heart Messenger” on sale in the lobby.

Didn’t manage a landing today (Thursday 7 March) after all. The strong winds did not really abate and when the Captain dropped anchor at West Point on the west coast of the Falklands, he discovered that it was not holding. In the circumstances, no one had much difficulty with his decision to move on! It was no surprise either as the wind on deck was frightening.

Still lots of wildlife to see as the boat was surrounded by ocean birds, including albatrosss and penguins, for most of the day.

We will make one final attempt to land early in the morning (Friday 8th) at 07.00am (10am GMT).

One of our great aprehensions coming on this expedition – it is officially referred to by all concerned as an expedition and definitely not a crusie – was the risk of rough seas and sea sickness. We all came equipped with patches, pills and ginger capsules to to fight the impact, particularly of the dreaded Drake Passage. But in truth it has been gentle up to now. The Drake Passage, as reported earlier, was a lake for our southern crossing and the morning weather reports we have received since then have rarely recorded higher than a strong breeze, force 6 on the Beaufort Scale.

Until now that is.

The wind definitely got up on Tuesdsay evening (5 March) as we approached the Falklands and during the night gale force winds, Beaufort force 9, pitched the Fram violently from back to front and side to side.

Last night, as we sailed (slowly) from Stanley on the East Island around to the West Island, wind velocity increased to storm force 11 and caused sleepless nights for some. There was considerable crashing around as anything not tied down rolled and bumped about and passengers reported the sensation of feeling as if they were about to be bounced out of bed at any moment. It was a little calmer by dawn but nonetheless the seas outside were the highest we have seen since leaving Ushuaia. Looking through the cabin porthole the huge swell meant the window appeared all sea one moment and all sky the next as the Fram rolled from side to side.

Our landing this morning (Thursday, 7 March) at the tiny community on New Island on the west side of the Falklands has had to be postponed as the the risk associated with using the small Polar Cirkel boats was just too high. They are light and carry no ballast and would flip over in an instant. We hope to make one attempt to land a little further north later today and, given the richness and diversity of the wildlife in these islands, it will be a huge to disappointment to many if we don’t succeed.

Later this evening, or at the latest early tomorrow morning, we expect to turn our nose north and head back to Buenos Aries. Progress will depend on wind and sea conditions but we are due there at 8am next Tuesday morning 12 March (11am GMT).

Happy to say, though, the Fearless Four coped well with the conditions these last few days having managed to gain our sea legs on the earlier part of the voyage.