A first day full of landings
Heaving anchor at about 05:00h in the morning, Europa motors the short way from her anchorage at Barrientos Island towards our next destination, Fort Point. We woke up to a rolling motion of the ship again, briefly bringing up the memories from the Drake Passage crossing. Those, who came up on the deck and saw, that it was not indeed the case. Looking at the scenery from the deck, we find ourselves surrounded by the splendour of Greenwich Island high mountains and glaciers, while the overcast weather seem to open up for us at our arrival and blue skies peek through the low clouds.
Morning at Fort Point
Fort Point got its name after the resemblance that the conspicuous jagged spires of basalt (reaching over 100 meters in height) dominating the landscape has with an actual fort. This formation is linked by a low
700m long isthmus to the calving glaciers of Greenwich Island. The whole place is quite exposed to the whims of the Bransfield Strait, but today looked like a perfect day for a landfall here. The shoreline was
relatively calm, allowing for safe zodiac operations.
The feeling of wildness given by all the wildlife around framed on the imposing scenery is awe-inspiring. The breathtaking landscape is home of Chinstrap and Gentoo penguin rookeries. The shoreline is festooned by bergy bits and brash ice, coming from calving on the neighbor glacier front. This early in the season, we came across only lone non-breeding fur seal.
After spending some time next to nearby penguin rookeries, we move along the beach to get a higher vantage point of the area. We hike uphill though snow slopes towards a neighbour “nunatak”, meaning a cliff which the island’s glacier has eroded as it was flowing around it. Now stands like an island amid the field of ice. We walked up the ring shaped corridor created between the granite pointy hill and the ice itself, formed by the heat retained on the dark rocks that melts the ice around them. The view from up there is extraordinary with the whole Fort Point area at our feet. The area was covered with deep snow, so the trail had to be broken in. Eventually everybody got to the top and enjoyed the spectacular views.
Next, after coming down, we moved to the northern beach side where we admired the impressive terminal face of the Musala Glacier. Layers of bushed ice washed on the beach and floating on water surface itself are a testament to a recent glacial calving. The weather was just perfect for this landing, towards the end ,we even enjoyed some sunshine. Few of us are going feel the burn on their faces later on. As lunch time approaches, we called for zodiacs and transfered the entire landing party to back to the ship. After mandatory cleaning an disinfection we pulled the "Blacky" up to the deck while "Grey" remained on the hip. Our next landing site for this afternoon is just behind the corner.
Afternoon - Yankee Harbour
As lunch is served, we start our 11nm way towards the spot where we plan the afternoon activities at Yankee Harbor, on the Southern shores of Greenwich Island. While finishing our meal, Europa motors her way into this enclosed bay, through the narrow entrance between a low glacial moraine and the ice cliffs of Glacier Bluff. The site owns its name to the fact that is was intensively used by USA sealers who were after the pelts of the Antarctic Fur Seal and the blubber of the Southern Elephant Seals around the 1820s. The most famous sealer of all times, James Weddell, also visited this bay on 22nd December 1821. As a witness of those old times, a single trypot lies at the beach, used to render the seal blubber into the precious oil. The landing took place next to the tip of the glacial moraine that dominates the area. It is formed by boulders and rocks that have been all been smoothened by the erosion of the sea.
Here we found three young elephant seals resting, not paying attention to foreign creatures standing at a distance and taking pictures of them. After that we start to move alongside the moraine towards the
penguin rookeries. We come across few Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins just standing there or playing ion the shore or n the water among numerous ice boulders washed here from nearby glacier after calving. In
the distance we can hear and spot a humpback whale, too far to be photographed.
As we reached the trypot and the rookeries, sun has come out warmed the air even more. After long-ish walk on the moraine, nobody felt cold. Just underneath the rookeries, on the beach lies a carcass, not
recognisable in stage of advanced decomposition. Based on size, probably elephant seal or whale, lost its shape torn apart by elements and numerous skuas and giant petrels feeding on its remains. Among them, on the beach, a little surprise, a lone Adelie Penguin. Unmistakable with black head and blue eyes. It is not the usual spot for them around here. Adelie penguins like cold and we can usually find them more south at Yalour and Berthelot Islands.
After checking the rookeries we continued our walk alongside the beach, curious what else we can find, Hold and behold, a seal species that we haven't seen so far on this trip. A weddell seal. Resting on the beach and completely oblivious to us just like the elephant seals, We took some pictures and continued our walk till it was time to get picked up by the zodiacs and return to the ship for an early dinner.
Evening - Halfmoon Island
Shortly after dinner, three bells rang and off we were for an evening landing at Half Moon Island. From Europa we could see Camara station on starboard side, and on port side the small beach with the remaining of an old whaling boat where we were going to land. The sea was calm, as was the landing site. Almost as if Antarctica was getting ready to rest for the night.
A short hike took us to the chinstrap rookery, it would be our last chance to find the lonely macaroni. Some searched with binoculars, others through their telephoto lenses. But the macaroni penguin was
nowhere to be seen. Maybe he finally met with the lonely macaroni just a few miles away at Fort Point and decided to move somewhere else.
Without much more time left, we were hack on the track to the cobbled beach in front of Camara Station. Once on the other side of Half Moon Island we got to enjoy the magnificent view of the crevassed glaciers coming down from the mountains and icebergs drifting through the McFarlane Strait.
A short but smooth zodiac ride brought us back on board. Some stayed on deck to help hoist the zodiacs and this way, end the day as we motor into the Bransfield Strait on route to Deception Island.
