Chile and Antarctica cruise

[RooFlyer]

Typical landscape. In the foreground is a 'stone river' - elongated 'rivers' of large boulders, with no obvious explanation (not river beds)



Remains of an Argentinian helicopter



Memorial to the 1982 war. Every casualty named.



And the local hero, Maggie Thatcher. Bust by a local artist on Thatcher Drive. You wouldn't want to say a bad word about Maggie round here.



Government House.



House of local Parliament




Museum - very extensive displays



Cathedral. It was designated a cathedral before the town was proclaimed a city. Arches of 4 Blue Whale jaw bones




Brick house - bricks brought from England

 

[RooFlyer]

Farewell Stanley. There were regualar shuttles of zodiacs to take people back to the boat







On board, usual hot chocolate available "with accompaniments"



I settled for another G&T on my verandah



Later we set off for 2 sea days then South Georgia on Christmas day. Deteriorating seas conditions forecast by the Exped leader but as I write this, late afternoon on the 23rd, its not too bad.



I think the Captain has put the accelerator down, as we seem to be making very good progress. Perhaps outrunning the worse of the weather



The vessel is all decked out in Christmas stuff of course - trees everywhere, and gingerbread houses also in all the restaurants.





Last night, we were told to advance watches etc one hour. That seemed a bit pointless, as we would go back an hour as soon as we left Sth Georgia, but it now appears that the vessel has quite a bit of interaction with the Sth Georgia government biosecurity and immigration people, so having everyone on the local time seems reasonable.

Major separate biosecurity briefing for SG earlier today. Sniffer dogs come aboard (rats and mice) that they also inspect a significant sample of our outer layers. The cruise line is scored on this and maintaining a high score enables SS to continue to have good access.

Later, we had to bring all our outer layers (parka, waterproof pants, headwear, gloves, and walking poles etc) for inspection by the Exped team. Very closely examined, especially velcro, which in my case had a couple of minute pieces of debris removed with tweezers.

Avian bird flu has reached Sth Georgia (from the Arctic according to the DNA) and several possible landing sites are now closed. It has gotten into the seals (maybe sea lions?) ad 'mass mortality' events are occurring. However, after another year it is expected that the populations will develop immunity and things will stabilise. SS's high biosecurity rating means they/we continue to have the maximum access allowed.

 

[love_the_life]

We loved South Georgia. Remember to take a credit card if you visit the main settlement as they had a lovely small gift shop. Stupidly we didn’t.

We didn’t have the dogs on board from memory but we did have to vacuum every bit of already worn outer clothing.

 

[RooFlyer]

Its the morning of 24th December; our second consecutive sea day.

<sound of crickets here>

We've been sailing through a zone of 28-32 knots (approx 56-64 km/hr) winds and 5m swells/waves for the past 24 hrs or so, but fortunately (I think) more-or-less on our tail. We appear to be making good time, and for my first oceanic voyage, the boat is handling it very well - some side-to-side rocking but quite benign on temperament and stomach.









TBH, very few of the organised on-board activities appeal to me, so I'll entertain by showcasing the nifty hand-washing stations - soap, rinse and towel dry all in one!



To be continued ...

 

[RooFlyer]

So I've been whiling the day away .... I can see why people value the free laundry after X days of SS sailing. The 3 washing machines and 3 dryers on board are constantly in use and you have to plan your swoop to get a free one several hours ahead of time (they give the minutes to finish).

Anyway, there I was in my suite and I looked out and noticed:



Holy cough! That'll do for a fair number of G&Ts!! Huge.






With that, I decided to open a nice cleanskin Carmenere from the hotel I stayed at in Santa Cruz. Very nice!!



I mentioned some christmas decorations. Not sure if this was a miscalculations, but they made do



Even better, a geology talk this afternoon

 

[TheRealTMA]

Gin and tonic and blue ice! Merry Christmas.

 

[Daver6]

So I've been whiling the day away .... I can see why people value the free laundry after X days of SS sailing. The 3 washing machines and 3 dryers on board are constantly in use and you have to plan your swoop to get a free one several hours ahead of time (they give the minutes to finish).

Anyway, there I was in my suite and I looked out and noticed:

View attachment 361208

Holy cough! That'll do for a fair number of G&Ts!! Huge.

View attachment 361207

View attachment 361206


With that, I decided to open a nice cleanskin Carmenere from the hotel I stayed at in Santa Cruz. Very nice!!

View attachment 361212

I mentioned some christmas decorations. Not sure if this was a miscalculations, but they made do

View attachment 361210

Even better, a geology talk this afternoon

View attachment 361209

Perhaps you could ask the captain to tow one of those bergs back to Australia. Wasn't that the solution to our water problems at one stage?

 

[tgh]

At the rate Antarctica is shedding ice, each city could have it's own berg moored just offshore..
Business opportunity knocking for someone ?

 

[RooFlyer]

Perhaps you could ask the captain to tow one of those bergs back to Australia. Wasn't that the solution to our water problems at one stage?

At the rate Antarctica is shedding ice, each city could have it's own berg moored just offshore..
Business opportunity knocking for someone ?

I think it was looked at reasonably seriously some years ago for Perth.

 

[RooFlyer]

Christmas eve. All crew and servers looking festive with Santa Claus hats and all the spaces also decked out





I haven't shown many menu/food shots as I notice there isn't many pics being taken at the table, but this was the menu in La Terrazza for Christmas Eve









Switching between The Restaurant and La Terrazza I've found the menu to be varied and quite extensive. However I remain a bit disappointed in the standard of some of the wait staff (DYKWIA? Yes, but this is SilverSeas). A good number struggle with a wine request that's not one of the 2 offered for the evening. A few major fails in the meals of others - a grilled fish that was a dry as the desert, and last night, a piece of undercooked goose + gristle, sent back. Flambeed cherries cold. Christmas pud last night was a bit ordinary. My goose



Santa put in an appearance and we had carols from a very multi national crew



the Captain had a walk-on



meanwhile, it looked as though we were weaving around some iceberg fields, just north of Sth Georgia

 

[drron]

A lot of the staff on the classic cruises don't want to do Antarctic or Arctic cruises. Some 60% come from the Phillipines or Indonesia and don't like the cold. Those that do usually only do 1 season. You do get the occasional one who really likes it and continues on the Expedition ships. They then often end up on the Expedition team.

 

[RooFlyer]

On the morning of Christmas Day, we arrived at Cooper Bay, at the SE tip of Sth Georgia.



And the penguinos were immediately active!



A bleak but beautiful outlook








We will be zodiac-ing around the bay. No landing possible due to biosecurity (and that will soon become evident why).



I was fortunate to be in the fist zodiac away this morning (the order changes), as it was the best of the weather and seas.







Spot the geologist in the Expedition team

 

[RooFlyer]

And to the wildlife.

Macaroni penguins









Fur seals






Many pups about, about a month old.

 

[RooFlyer]

Warning ... a bit of gore to follow

Elephant seal



Mixed penguins. Note the seal carcases on the beach. Bird flu is killing them



Gentoo penguins





Kings







Elephant seal carcas



A petrel feasting on a seal pup

 

[RooFlyer]

Southern giant petrel. The things on the top of its beak is the excretion point for excess salt





Elephant seals



Ross glacier



We returned to the boat after 1.5 hrs, and the second group of zodiacs went out. After about an hour, the conditions deteriorated, with wind and seas getting up. I was a bit surprised that they didn't cut short the excursion and return to the ship (about 6-7 zodiacs out). Next time I looked, they were all heading back to shore, to shelter in a bay.



It started snowing and the conditions looked grim



The ship did some maneuvering I guess to provide a lee to allow pax to get off the zodiacs and then get the zodiacs out of the water and after about 90 mins from when they turned back to the shore, the zodiacs came back to the ship and all re-boarded safely.

It was described on-board as a katabatic event.

We were scheduled to go to a second location this afternoon, and do another zodiac run, but that's almost certainly going to be cancelled, due to the loss of time

 

[RooFlyer]

A map of Sth Georgia Island for reference

 

[RooFlyer]

Well, that was interesting. After vessel manoeuvred further into the bay to get the zodiacs out, and after they were on board, we had to then manoeuvre out of the bay again. We started a 1/2 pirouette, with the rocks off the stern looking a little bit close to me . After about a 1/5 turn, he stopped and rotated back; went forward a bit and then turned around again.







Crisis (if only in my mind ) averted, we went back to sea and are proceeding to somewhere TBA.

One thing that was obvious when we were manoeuvring, is the sheer abundance of wildlife in the water around us. Seals and penguins everywhere.

On the pool deck, preparations re underway for new years eve (in the snow)

 

[RooFlyer]

Now sailing NW back along the coast of Sth Georgia, we are between two trains of icebergs - one out to sea, the other between us and the island. Stunning.

Flat topped ones have broken off the Antarctic Ice shelf

 

[kookaburra75]

Stunning photos of the icebergs. When you consider that the bulk of the iceberg is underwater, they are some massive pieces of ice.

 

[RooFlyer]

The sun came out late in the afternoon. Still windy and bitterly cold outside.







Wandering albatross