We started today an hour earlier than usual because we have a longer distance to go between the morning and afternoon landings. Nancy, Anne, and I opted to take a “moderate” hike ashore to cross over the island to a penguin colony. We left the ship in the zodiac and quickly lost sight of the ship in the fog. Our hike was eerie in the fog.
We got to the other side of the island, worked our way through the high tussock grass, and came to a beach. There was no penguin colony there! We however did see a group of dolphins feeding close to shore. We went back across the island on a different path but still no penguins.
Meanwhile Bev decided to take it easy and go on a zodiac cruise instead of the hike. That turned out to be the right call. She saw lots of penguins, all kinds of sea birds, and dolphins! Oh well.
The highlight of the trip was my zodiac ride back out to the ship. The fog had lifted and we saw some dolphins playing near the bow of the ship. Our zodiac driver went by them and drew them off. They like to play in the bow wake of the zodiacs. We went nearly full speed and they swam along both sides of the zodiac so close that it was easy to touch them. We went back and forth for 10 minutes or so and they stayed right with us. They were so close that I got rather wet from the spray from their tail fins as they kept pace next to the boat. Awesome!
During lunch the ship repositioned to Steeple Jason – an uninhabited island near the western edge of the West Falkland islands. This island is home to the largest colony in the world of Brown Browed Albatrosses. There are estimated to be between 400,000 and 500,000 nesting pairs of albatross here. That’s about 3/4’s of the total world population of these birds.
We landed on the rocky shores of Steeple Jason and climbed over a hill to the albatross colony. The last 100 feet or so was through tussock grass that was in clumps that were taller than me. We came out only a few feet from the colony. It stretches along the shore as far as we could see. It was enormous. The young albatrosses take 4 months to go from an egg being layedto flying away. These young albatrosses were at about the 3 month point. They were molting off their down and getting their flight feathers. They were also starting to stand in the nests and exercise their enormous wings.
Seeing so many of these birds was breath taking. Our group spread out in the tussock grass and watched the colony. Compared to a penguin colony, the albatross colony was calm and quiet. The young birds never moved from their nests. They did make some noise, but it was to identify themselves to their returning parents. The adult birds were out at sea getting food and would periodically return to feed their young bird. It was always impressive to see the adults land in a very small space between nests and go through the process of folding their enormous wings. If was mesmerizing to watch all this go on with so many birds. We finally tore ourselves away in order tocatch the last boat back to the ship.
We had a late dinner and went to the Ice Lounge (the only area where all passengers and crew can assemble) for a show that the crew put on. Everyone was delighted to find that the crew was very talented. There were several solo singing numbers, a dance & singing number, a musical number, and then the band started. The band was EXCELLENT! There was a core of 5 people for the band but many others joined for one or two numbers. It was superb. It was not long before everyone was up dancing. We sang along and danced all sorts of dances for 2 hours – until midnight. And some people stayed beyond that. It was a great time and a great way to finish up the cruise.
We will spend Saturday (tomorrow) at sea and dock in Ushuaia shortly after dinner. We fly home Sunday afternoon and arrive in Miami Monday morning. We have to stop in Nassau in the Bahamas because the security at Ushuaia does not meet the US TSA requirements. So we stop at Nassau, unload, go through security, and reload for the last leg to Miami.
So sad to have the adventure ending.
The Adventures of Anne 