Mount Pleasant airport was far from pleasant when we landed in a heavy rainstorm, bad omen?
Whilst waiting to board the flight in Punta Arenas I had bumped into two other members of the voyage crew, Bernard and Yanne from Brittany. Then when sorting out transport from Mount Pleasant to Stanley we met up with a further three, Marlous from the Netherlands, Piers a Brit living in France not far from Toulouse and Cristina from Denmark but living in New Jersey. I had prebooked a minibus so had no transport challenges but the others were unaware of this requirement. We eventually found another minibus who had sufficient spare space for them. Coming into Stanley I could see no sign of Tecla either at the anchorage or alongside the town quay and was becoming concerned. Fortunately, in the minibus with me were 4 Asian guys who were joining a fishing boat at the commercial port (a little way out of town) and when we were dropping them off I saw Tecla docked behind their boat. She’s small! After dropping off my kitbag I walked back into town and met up with the others later in the Harbour View Café where we all had tea and cream scones 😊. They had also managed to locate the Tecla and had also dropped off their bags with her. When walking back to the commercial harbour to formally join Tecla at 18.00 we met up with a seventh member of the voyage crew, Henri, a French man from basque country but now working in Paris.
On board we met up with the crew, Gjis (pronounced Hies), Captain form the Netherland’s who’s family own the boat, Enky, Mate from France, Will, Deck Hand from Tasmania and Jonathan, Guide and general assistant from Punta Arenas Chile. We also met the 8th member of the Voyage Crew, Kerry from Ireland.
The guys gave us a safety briefing and an outline of what we might expect during the trip then we all got to know each other more over dinner.
First impression of voyage crew and permanent crew were good, lets see 🙂
Sunday morning (5th Jan) saw us moving to anchor off the town for last minute provisions, we then weighed anchor and sailed out of Stanley harbour at about 09.15. After a visit to Volunteer Point where we took a walk ashore to view the largest King Penguin colony in the Falklands along with smaller Gentoo and Magellanic Penguin colonies.
Leaving in the afternoon for Saunders Island we were initially under sail but soon, due to unfavourable winds, we had to start motor sailing. As the day wore on the weather deteriorated and, by the 20.00 – 24.00 watch (my watch), we were encountering high winds and very choppy sea conditions.
Weather conditions had deteriorated further during the early morning of Monday morning and the 00.00 – 04.00 watch had a pretty miserable time of it having to reduce sail in heavy rain and very confused sea conditions. Several of the Voyage Crew were by now suffering from sea sickness. By the time I was back on watch at 08.00 we were approaching the lee of Saunders Island and the conditions had moderated considerably. After anchoring off the settlement all of the other voyage crew went ashore but, as I had been here only a few weeks ago I elected to stay on board and catch up with some sleep and my diary. The night was then spent at anchor.
Leaving Saunders anchorage at 05.45 on Tuesday we left via narrow passages through the islands including Woolly Gap. All were negotiated under sail thus necessitating a lot of jibing, a good introduction to sail handling on Tecla. Sailing this route was quite a demanding but extremely rewarding experience. The original intention had been to visit one or two more of the islands in the Falklands group but, due to deteriorating weather conditions the captain has decided we will sail directly for Antarctica where our first port of call, if feasible, will be Elephant Island. Coming through the passages we had the normal escort services of both Commerson and Beale’s Dolphins and the following watch reported seeing a number of wales which were thought to be Fin Wales.
Once clear of the islands the initial course was to the South West allowing us to avoid the rough seas normally encountered over the Burford Banks and take the passage between then and Staten Island.
As I had been allocated to the 8 to 12 watch the day was seen out on watch and at midnight, on handing over to the 12 to 4 we assisted with jibing to take us from a South Westerly course round to a South Easterly course to cross the Drake passage and make directly for Elephant Island.
Wednesday was more of the same still heading SW on a bearing of 160 to 170 under sail. Early in the day the sea conditions had been quite good allowing for a degree of comfort onboard but, as the day progressed, the winds strengthened and the sea became very choppy leading to us pitching around a lot and making helming (with a following wind) challenging. My fellow watch keepers on the 8 to 12 are Kerry and Christina for the voyage crew and Gjis and Jonathan from the permanent crew who do a six-hour watch (6 to 12). Kerry, Cristina, Jonathan and myself do half hour shifts on the helm and then standby on deck to help with any sail handling that may be necessary. As, if there is no sail handling to do, time can drag a little so we have started playing word games ‘name an animal starting with…’ for instance and, as it can get rather cold with the air temperature at 4 deg C, we hum tunes and ‘dance’ around deck. As we are wearing multiple layers to ward of the cold the dancing is more of a shuffle which we have christened the penguin dance. Adds amusement and helps us stay a little warmer.
Thursday 9th Jan dawned as a reasonably clear day with extended periods of sunshine and good winds leading to a very pleasant sailing conditions. Our guide / deck hand, Jonathan, brought out a Terrango which is a South American stringed instrument. The instrument has neck similar to that of a guitar but much shorter and carrying 10 strings. The sound box is very small and, although his is made of laminated wood, was traditionally made using the shell of an Armadillo. The instrument produces quite a high-pitched note which, along with the tunes he plays, is very invocative of Latin America. This, along with the fine weather, gave quite a holiday atmosphere on the watch. Through the watch the wind was gradually weakening leading to removing the reef from the sails and replacing the jib with a larger one in an effort to maximise speed in the prevailing conditions. Unfortunately, the wind had died away to almost nothing by early afternoon leading to the engine being started and ‘motor sailing’ commencing. The evening watch was a polar opposite of the morning, although still benefitting from calm seas we were shrouded in haze and faced frequent rain showers making for rather miserable conditions. It was now that the oilskins I had purchased in Punta Arenas really showed their benefit keeping me dry and snug thoughout.
Sailed on through generally misty / overcast conditions on the Friday with the only highlights being the siting of a Pale Mantled Sooty Albatross, apparently an unusual sighting, and having hot chocolate mid watch. More games and dancing to try and dispel the cold and tedium of watch keeping in these conditions. Saturday morning saw improving conditions with the sun breaking through on occasion and us reaching the Convergence Zone where we were in colder waters which, having higher levels of Zoo and Photo Plankton, lead to associated higher incidents of sightings of marine life, mainly penguins and whales. This transition also heralded a change in water colour which went from a royal blue to mercury grey. Once again we were serenaded by Jonathan on the Terrango.
At one stage during the morning watch we spotted whales spouting ahead of us and quickly realised that there was a large pod of maybe 10 or more Fin Whales feeding around us so Gjis stopped the engine and we just drifted and observed them for about 25 minutes. There were a couple of occasions where tail flukes were spotted as the animals dove leading us to believe that there were probably one or two Humpback Whales amongst the Fins. This was a very special sighting and left us all rather in awe. In comparison the evening watch was a bit of an anti-climax, but we did cross the 600 latitude and thus officially entered Antarctic waters. It was also noted that from now we needed to be on standby for having to start ice watches as the risk of encountering ice was now considerable.
Sunday 12th Jan saw us arriving at Elephant Island.
The original plan had been to land at Cape Wild on the northern coast. This is the location where, sheltering under their life boats the crew of the Endeavour spent the winter waiting for Shackleton to reach the whaling stations on South Georgia and arrange a rescue mission. Cape Wild is named for Shackleton’s second in command.
Unfortunately, due to dense fog and relatively high swell it was deemed not to be possible to make this landing so we continued around the island to the South Western corner where we anchored in a small bay under Cape Lookout from where we went ashore onto a small beach.
First landfall on the South Shetland islands and in Antarctica. The beach here was very rocky with a small glacier terminating above providing a cascade and a small glacial lagoon at the back of the beach. On the beach were a small group of sub-adult Elephant Seals and a few Cape Fur Seals along with small colonies of Gentoo and Chinstrap Penguins. The first Chinstraps I had seen. These are quite a dainty smallish penguin with very pink feet and a fine chinstrap of black pencilled into the white of the throat, they are quite cute little things. There were quite well developed chicks in both colonies but we were advised that the Gentoo chicks were probably about 2 months with the Chinstraps about 1 month. Also observed were a few artic terns fishing just off the beach and bathing in the fresh water lagoon.
On re-joining Tecla we immediately set sail to our next destination.
So, here we are off the north western tip of Antarctica. Having survived the roaring forties on the Europa I have now sailed from Stanley at 51,42 South to Elephant Island at 61,50 South thus passing through the furious fifties and into the screaming sixties and in the process crossing the infamous Drake Passage. And, I’m still alive to tell the story.
To be honest, as mentioned above we left the Falklands in a hurry in an effort to avoid the storm systems coming in so we had what was considered to be a very comfortable crossing of the Drake. Although miserable at times we never experienced the very large broken seas that it is renowned for so, we were lucky.
What of Antarctica? First impression is that it is bleak and unwelcoming. It looks like it will deal you a very raw hand if you are not very wary of its moods. And, its big. We have only seen the Coasts of Elephant Island to date and this, to my mind, was just a small island off the coast of the Antarctica Peninsular. Its a pretty substantial island with peaks of close to 1000m and some not insignificant glaciers. What will the mainland be like?
Having seen Elephant Island in the flesh really makes you appreciate how mentally and physically tough those who were marooned here from the Endurance must have been.