Christmas Day at Sea

Slept in until 8.15am. Continental breakfast as having a champagne brunch. Glorious clear blue day 10 degrees Celsius.

Off to the first lecture of the day.

You must believe in evolution to understand penguins. They used to fly. What makes a bird. Not eggs or flying just feathers. Originally feathers for insulation not flying. 10,000 species on the planet. Flight came from escaping predators. Penguins evolved in southern ocean where no land predators so lost their ability to fly. Flight costs energy so if not needed why use it? Penguins best divers as heavy due to not flying where you need to be light. Penguins go back 70 million years. Share a common ancestor with the albatross and the divers. Started looking a bit like a Shearwater. Black and white is camouflage. 18 species of penguins. 6 genus. Genus is to do with ancestor. Head is the difference. Helps them recognise each other. Rockhoppers are crested penguin. No difference in colour between male and female. Males are slightly bigger. Only in the Southern Hemisphere highest at the Galapagos. Only two connected to Antarctica most are sub Antarctic. Emperors breed in winter. Penguins evolved in New Zealand. South sandwich island has highest concentration of penguins. Propulsion from the flippers. 80% life in the ocean. Feet very reptilian and strong. Set back for swimming. 13 cervical vertebrae (humans 7, swan 22). Only 20% of king penguin keep their partner year on year but as high as 91% in macaroni so why so much change in kings? Making stone nests not easy – only king and emperors have no nest. Finding your partner again with no nesting spot and when not all penguins arrive to breed at the same time makes finding the same partner again difficult. Brood patch keeps egg warm. Most penguins eat krill. Kings eat fish. 30-65% chick mortality. Return to breed after 2-5 years, life expectancy 18 – 45 years. Most evolved of birds as far as seabirds. Whales don’t come back on land, birth in ocean. Challenge is penguin needs to come back on land to breed. Viviparity may be the next step – giving birth to live young. Look out for moulting and incubating penguins. Just an amazing presentation.

Then off to our Christmas brunch with mimosas (champagne and orange juice) and a huge array of food choices that was very breakfast come lunch with all the usual breakfast suspects plus lasagne, fish, quiche and a beautiful fruit cobbler or waffles for the sweet tooths. We shared it with Cheryl & Mike from Dallas Texas who are becoming friends with whom we are sharing meals regularly.

Then they had asked us to share a few of our photos each day for the photo journal that will be shared with us all after the end of the trip. So I popped down to the photo room and added a few for a couple of the days we have had so far. We are so hoping this perfect weather lasts for South Georgia but we are aware of a storm coming through but with any luck, though we expect some rough seas, it will clear before our landings.

Back to the cabin for a bit of Christmas movie watching. We also ate our Christmas gift which was Nougat.

2pm was a mandatory bio security briefing for South Georgia. South Georgia has been called the best place on earth by a couple of guides we read. 4am we will likely be inside the polar front. South Georgia catches the brunt of storms coming through the Drake Passage and therefore is always windy (windy is a key word for this trip). Reindeer introduced. Eradicated 10-12 years ago. King penguins. Risks of male seals and asbestos and structure issues so 200m limits for buildings. Fur seals bad bites and infections. Catabatic winds. Zodiac landings in surf. Stay seated. Swing the zodiac with rear up the beach. Reloading. Two lines of 5. Avoid the engine. 😱

As we are going into the breeding area we will black out the ship at night. Keep curtains closed. This helps stop bite strikes. If bird found on deck get staff.

South Georgia government briefing video. Even thinking about keeping bags closed at all times to ensure rats don’t sneak in. Doing an excellent job to educate and to preserve. Dandelions now a problem and a beetle brought in from the Falklands. Avalanches. Ozone hole so sunburn issue. Fur seals can be very aggressive. Also Falklands war leftover munitions. Stuck for 8 hours once due to a wind event. Take extra dry clothes. Always use sunscreen and bring water. Cleaning has to happen between every excursion. Virkon baths but also absolute scrubbing of anything prior to dipping into virkon bath. Velcro, footwear, tripods, in and out of backpacks and mesh pockets, seams, pockets, trouser cuffs and jacket hoods. Put found seeds into a tissue and into a bin. All garbage returned to Ushuaia.

Back to cabin to clean everything and then to checkers who will send you to various checking centres and then sign off and then you can pick up a South Georgia booklet. Biosecurity cleaning stations set up in the mud room. It is our responsibility to clean our gear between each landing. Start at surf side with your boot and trouser bottom cleaning. Apart from one tiny bit of lint we passed with flying colours. The South Georgia booklet we were given was an added bonus.

Afternoon tea – groan… chocolate covered strawberries – ok I have room.

Our photo workshop was delayed so we thought we’d take a trip to the bridge. Whale seen. Fin whale. Binoculars to share up there and several wildlife manuals and great info on storm scales 😱

Our next great lecture, Elephant and fur seals with Johann, the marine biologist. We are so impressed with the range of knowledgeable people with us. The presentations and information have been excellent. Johann is a Columbian vet with a PhD. Seals are the deepest divers outside the whales. Pinniped includes all seals. Pinni is ear flap. Antarctic convergence – this is where the oceans mix and create currents and salinity differences so moves nutrients around – upwelling. Antarctic fur seal. Male 4-5 times mass of the female. External ear pin. Heavily hunted for their fur until the early 90s. Males also have a mane and are up to 1.8m length. 180kg weight. Long whiskers. External testicles can be seen at the rear. Females lighter chests and underbody. Dark at the top of the pectoral flipper. 25kg weight. Pups nursed for four months on the beach. First week mum stays with them but then will leave to fish. White one in one thousand. Not albino but guard hair only is white. A recessive gene creates this problem. South Georgia 95% pups born here. Fur seals will sometimes take penguins. Mostly krill and squid. Average 2 minutes down 8-20m. By 1926 banning of fur seal hunting they were down to only 100 individuals left. Now 4-6 million. Entanglement in fishing gear and fishing industry taking their food. Predators leopard seal and orcas for adults even skuas for pups are their main issues.

Southern elephant seal. Males 6x the mass of the females. Elephant seals rely on blubber to keep them warm rather than the fur. Again South Georgia one of main breeding areas. Proboscis is used for sound to mark territories. Amplifies the sound. Thick skin around the neck for fighting. Height 4.5 – 5.5m. Might need humans to show perspective. Can weigh 3 tonnes. Females no proboscis. 2.5-3m length. Side by side reproduction. (Just as well for the females!) Seal pups very cute. Weaned at 26 days. Moult by three months and go out for their own food. Sleep underwater. Female record dive was 1500m and length of time up to 2 hours. 75% squid and the rest fish.

Beer of the day – oops another rock hopper. About the same. Wait for it. It’s growing on him.

Much more bubbly than yesterday’s which was very flat. The pressure of 3 cruise ships in more than doubling the Stanley population perhaps? This bottle is up to 4. Yesterday was on tap. Went for a blue moon next. Rated a 5.

Jean Baptist’s POP was my cocktail. Not my favourite. Texan Cheryl is into the Stella!

I am impressed with the fact they really don’t take the towels if hung up. So many places have the signs but take the towels anyway. Not on board the Ocean Endeavour where the environment comes first.

Canapés pre the briefing. Yummy won tons.

Briefing. Biosecurity procedure for Christmas. First talk about Velcro. George de Mestral invented it. Looked at burrs stuck in his dog and pants. Bio-mimicking. Loops on burrs attaching to fibres. Velcro is the company. Took a while to catch on. Nylon works best and NASA picked it up for the space age. It’s a real problem here and must be checked constantly for seeds and other materials. The things you learn on these trips.

Fabrice (our ornithologist), talked polar front. Dotted line on the map if good map. This is the polar front – or convergence. Boundary between two big bodies of water. Outside about 6 degrees and inside 3 degrees. Communities in the water are different due to the temperatures. Krill only within the 3 degrees to 0 degrees, cold water a higher density and the colder water sinks beneath the warmer water. Creates the Humboldt, Benguela and NZ currents. Colder, less saline, more dense. Upwelling. Lots of productivity. South Georgia has diversity which is higher than Galapagos. We are 200 miles away from South Georgia at present. We are crossing west to east. Still north of Ushuaia. Happening between 9-1am takes about 3 hours to cross. Air temp will be lower tomorrow. Might see ice bergs. David DJ – ice berg competition – who will see the first. To be a berg it must be larger than a bus. Artie the bird nerd talked patience and positivity when looking for seabirds and water creatures. Travelling at 14 knots today. Spend time looking. Michelle (our photographer showed some of the photos that had been shared and. Cheryl and I (I’m sure having two Cheryl’s is frightening to some of you!) were thrilled to see some of ours picked out. Finally Solan. Weather good now, tonight rougher when asleep. Change still with us in the morning. 20-35km winds with some stronger gusts. Current feel is roll. Corkscrew might happen which is not quite so much fun. First event in South Georgia might be affected by this weather. Rosita Harbour and Salisbury plains. Fingers crossed.

We had more decorations including Christmas crackers (bonbons) with dinner and I couldn’t help admiring Solan’s jumper. Oh and I have been asked where Garrie’s hat was – well he didn’t want to partake but did wear this one.