2003 Lost Islands of the Atlantic

Author: Lois Olive Gray

Photos: Kay EllenGilmour, MD

Photo Album: kaygilmour.smugmug.com

ExpeditionCruise-AfricatoS.America

Dates: 11/19/03 - 12/21/03

Mode of Travel: Expedition Ship

Travel Agent: The Audubon Society

This was one of the most memorable trips of our lives. One month visiting the major islands on the west coast of Africa, crossing the Atlantic to the islands of South Georgia and the Falklands and ending at the tip of South America in Ushuaia. The voyage was the shake-down cruise of the MS Orion. It could not be replicatedbut the islands we visited are there for the taking - if you can get there!

GettingThere

November 19: Went to see “Matrix: Revolutions” with Johnny in the afternoon and then ran home to change clothes to head for the Miami Airport at 4 PM We got there about 4:45 which turned out to be excellent since we had problems with our tickets. The travel agent for Travel Dynamics had failed to issue the tickets with the upgrades to Business Class and so each one had to be reissued. What a magillah! However, not only was our AA Rep efficient, she was also hilarious. She looked at our ship tickets, looked at the name of this cruise (“Lost Islands of the Atlantic”) and then at us questioningly. Straight-faced she said it sounded like a soap opera to her; then she drolly added, “As the Stomach Churns!” She deserved the extra special efficiency award and the comedy award for the season.

Our flight was delayed about 30 minutes but all went well, except that our plane was rocked about quite a bit during the 8-hour flight from Miami to Madrid. Lois slept through most of it but Kay was kept awake. However, do we ever like Business Class! The seats recline almost to a normal sleeping position and there is a leg extension that supports your legs at a nearly horizontal level. Much better sleep happens in these seats. The meal service was also quite good with excellent food and lots of attention. We could have even taken personal DVD players to watch whatever we wanted among their selections; however, we did not do that. Instead we kept on with our books. (In reviewing this piece for the Internet in 2023 -How things have changed!! iPads - not Books - in flight TV instead of DVD players and sleeping pods as the direct descendants of reclining seats!)

Despite the late start, we arrived in Madrid about 12 hours later and our plane to Las Palmas, Canary Islands, was supposed to leave at 12:10 PM The passport control was easy and there was no Customs to go through. We had problems with gate changes for our Las Palmas flight but it all ended fine and we got on our plane in plenty of time. The flight took 2 hrs. 20 minutes and was smooth and easy to sleep through. The Canary Islands are one hour earlier than Spain, so we arrived here at 2:05 PM.

TheSpanishCanaryIslands

We were met by a TD representative who got us on our bus to the Maspalomas Hotel and Resort - very nice indeed, quite plush actually. We walked around a bit outside the compound and saw rock-strewn beach that looked very cold, rather than inviting.

It is obvious that this area caters mostly to German tourists - witness the prevalence of German language signs, German language TV stations, and German nationals on the beach. We were dazzled by the wonderful bougainvillea plants all the way to the hotel from the airport, not to mention all the varied and vibrant palm trees and other tropical plants, like cacti, etc. The architectural styles are definitely Spanish and we were amused at the scene on the south end of the beach of a collection of buildings that looked like a ruined medieval town.

Got back to the hotel about 4:30 and rested half an hour, then took our showers, and changed our blouses so we would also “look” clean at the get together at the bar and then the dinner. We made it our business to get to know at least three different fellow travelers before we went into the dinner and we both succeeded. Besides wine, champagne, or some tropical looking drink, we were plied with hors d’oeuvres and a few announcements.

Then we went into the restaurant at the hotel and met the folks at our table. We had particular fun meeting two of our naturalists, Marco and his wife, Patricia; they had spent considerable time in the Antarctic and knew several of the folks we had met on our Hanseatic expedition - David Fletcher and Klemens Putz chief among them. The food was delicious and we were enjoying it and the conversation but we “hollered uncle” with fatigue and came back to the room. And what a suite we have - two bedrooms and two baths - how luxurious can you get! So we are going to try to get a good night’s sleep and be prepared for sightseeing around the Canaries before boarding the Orion.

Our 7:00 AM wake-up call was not resented since we had both gotten a good night’s sleep. The breakfast buffet started at 7:30 AM and we were completely packed up and ready to join the others in the La Foresta restaurant on time. The selection ran the gamut from typical American fare like cereal and rolls to the more traditional European offerings like cold cuts, cheese, cucumbers, and the like. We finished up lightly and gave up our passports to be taken to the ship for us. There we learned that Claire Hemingway (not related to Ernest) had taken a fall last night and ended up in the hospital being tested for anything broken. She is quite a game gal since she is 96 and on this trip by herself. We hope that all will be well and that she will be able

GrandCanariaIsland

At 8:30 AM we reported for a tour of Gran Canaria Island. We drove north of the hotel area towards the harbor but turned off in order to drive to the top of a low hill that nevertheless afforded a good view of the area. The road was very narrow and we had a couple of “interesting” episodes of trying to accommodate another bus on its way up or down the mountain.

On the drive up we passed from the desert area with cactus and very drought resistant plants on up into the heights where greater rainfall occurs and much thicker vegetation covers the land. There are still plenty of cactus and “desert roses” but also geraniums and begonias.

The views down through the valleys out to the sea were clear and broad. We saw the crater of an extinct volcano where one man lives 200 meters below the land around the depression. Everywhere around us we could see the brightly colored houses that decorate the hillsides. Red tile roofs are the dominant cover for houses and they added to the brightly hued scene below us some 1200 feet.

We visited the Museo Colon in the Plaza de la Cathedral, the oldest city square in the islands. The Spanish first reached the Canaries on June14, 1578.

Museo Colon

This was the first place they stopped to look around. None of the buildings around the plaza was original however - all are copies of the first buildings. They are adorned with wonderfully carved pine balconies and lovely ceilings inside the edifices as well.

The Museo boasts two excellent paintings of Columbus himself, supposed to be true likenesses. There were also reproductions of the Pinta, Nina, and Santa Maria. Columbus started on 3 of his 4 voyages to the New World from the Canaries. So the Canary Islanders do not want to hear about the Vikings having reached the shores of N. America before he got there. In any event, they say, their “great navigator” was the first to document his explorations in writing.

Bernardo next took us to the Hotel Catherine (most senior of the hotels in the Canaries) which is now a casino with lovely gardens on its grounds. We saw several examples of the native tree, the drago, which looks like a cross between a cactus and a Joshua tree. Next to the Hotel is a little reproduction of a typical Canary Island village with tiny shops, a church façade, restaurants, and taverns. It was picturesque and pretty too.

EMBARKATION -THE ORION

Next, we went on to the harbor to board the Orion at about 1 PM. Good news on the Claire front now: she broke nothing in her fall and is rejoining the trip. We got into our spacious and deluxe cabin and unpacked everything and got it stowed away for the next 30 days. How good to have things out of the suitcases and into drawers and closets. Then we went exploring to see the ship’s layout and amenities. It is smaller than the Hanseatic, we think, but very crisp and new - everything even smells new. What’s more worrying however is that the “technicians” were still aboard trying to fix up all the last minute details! Talk about bringing things right down to the wire!

At 5 PM we went to the Leda Lounge for afternoon tea and an embarkation talk from our expedition leader, John. He is competent, we hope, but he is not very loquacious at this first get together as our favorite expedition leader (EL), Geoff. He told us a little of the history of the Orion itself and then familiarized us with shipboard life and what we could expect during the voyage. Though we left late, about 6:15 PM rather than 5 as announced, everything else seems to be on schedule. Dinner will be at 7:30 PM but we have decided that we have to start being restrained in the food department or we will not be able to get on and off the Zodiacs.

A footnote worthy of notice is that the great liner Queen Mary II afforded the Orion a singular act of maritime courtesy. She left the harbor before Orion so the new ship could have the benefit of the calm seas she leaves in her enormous wake. Apparently, that is a tradition among nautical folks to honor a new ship on her maiden voyage.

We enjoyed dinner with MJ and Allen, two other lecturers for the trip, as well as Janet and Bob from Connecticut. Bob is a retired general surgeon and Janet is a retired OR nurse. They met at Columbia while he was in residency. MJ is a professional illustrator and Allen is one of our bird experts. The getting to know you small talk went fine.

Our first visit to the Constellation Dining Room revealed that we would be using only half its size since we are only 47 passengers instead of total complement of 109. All the tables are set for 6 people except for two which are set for four. So it became clear that all meals here would be taken with other passengers.

TwoDaysAtSea

We started this day that has also “lived in infamy” by joining Gabor on the aft deck (level 6) for some morning stretching. He is Hungarian with a thick accent but he demonstrates well what he wishes us to do. There are seven of us ladies eager to pull our muscles and try to get the blood circulating at 8 AM Though Gabor looks hung over, we think he is just sleepy at that hour. He has a “boom box” and plays New Age music to accompany (or perhaps drown out) our creaking joints, groaning muscles and snapping tendons. It was a good workout and we felt better (at least virtuous) for having had to courage to get up on deck at that hour.

The sea is amazingly calm which is excellent since they are still calibrating the stabilizers. After our quite Spartan breakfast (egg and bacon only), Kay felt a little queasy and decided that she had better lie down a while to give things a chance to settle. We both had put on our sea- bands after the exercise session, but the ship had a decided rolling motion that was the cause of Kay’s unstable stomach. The sky is “paintable” because of the wonderful clouds spread across the blue bowl over our heads. The temperature is in the 70s and just delightful. So glad that I decided to bring a couple of pairs of shorts.

Kay concentrated on settling her stomach while I finished up the New Yorker I had brought with us. We waited for the l0 AM mandatory safety drill. International Regulations require that these drills take place within the first 24 hours of a voyage. So up to the Leda Lounge we went at the appointed hour, carrying our life vests as instructed. There John gave us the information necessary and then we put on the vests and headed for Muster Station A where we lined up as regulations require. John had already taken attendance in the lounge so he knew we had all appeared in the appropriate place. Muster Station B had reported atop the forward lounge and they were all accounted for as well. Having finished that always somewhat unsettling but necessary drill, we were turned loose again.

Kay retreated to the bed again and went to sleep and Lois attended the 11 AM lecture by MJ on journaling a trip through sketching. She showed slides of various people’s favorite sketches (members of a sketcher’s club international that she belongs to) and showed us the sorts of things we could aspire to produce. Most the pictures were quite obviously the work of “professionals” filled with detail and proficiency. However, it was intriguing enough to draw Lois back to her afternoon session that would introduce us to the techniques of drafting.

Lunchtime found Kay still uninterested in food, so Lois went to the dining room. Not being terribly hungry herself, she ate only the clear consommé and a piece of bread but the table talk was interesting anyway. On returning to the cabin, Lois found that Kay had evidently recovered enough to leave and go exploring. So she went to the Sixth deck Galaxy Lounge where the second sketching session would take place at 2:00, bringing with her the book on Napoleon’s last 6 years on St. Helena Island: “The Emperor’s Last Island.” About 15 people showed up for the sketching class, really surprising MJ. She said she feels lucky when 10% of a passenger’s complement shows up for one of her lectures and here we were at 25%. She took us through some basic exercises designed to help us control our hand and finger movements and then taught us a technique of using a “lens” (square window in a sheet of paper) to focus on something in order to begin to draw it. Some of the class were definitely more talented than others, but all in all it was interesting enough to make me want to continue her classes just to see if I could perhaps be the “most improved” in the class - that would be my only other hope than “worst in class.”

At 3 PM, Roger presented his lecture with slides on “tropical shores”, sort of a preview of what we can expect to see on the islands we will be visiting. We learned that Ascension Island is the second most important breeding ground for the green sea turtle (after #1 Costa Rica) and that the folks there are working to improve reproduction rates by protecting the turtles and their nests. Another interesting factoid concerned coconut trees - we learned that they are the most ubiquitous trees in the world - partly because their “seed,” the coconut, is so easily dispersed by the oceans of the world. The tropic zone he described as being the area between the Tropics of Cancer and Capricorn. He said we would see few if any gulls

since they are not usually pelagic birds, but we would see Red Footed Boobies, Masked Albatross, and Brown Noddies, as well as fairy or white terns. Luckily, Kay had conquered her intestinal troubles (or the stabilizers were actually doing a better job now) and she slipped into the lecture hall as well.

So she had the opportunity of learning that the tropical seas are the least productive of the seas of the world because they are relatively “sterile” unlike the temperate and polar seas which are highly fertile and therefore support enormous quantities of sea life, bird life, and mammals.

4:30 PM found us on the aft deck for afternoon tea - Kay was pretty voracious since she had skipped lunch (except for eating a couple pieces of fruit in the room) so she had a couple of tea sandwiches and a cookie. Lois had tea and a little cake slice. The tea is delicious but we have to start remembering to bring our Equal/Splenda bag. Our experience at this tea function was sort of a déjà vu all over again: there was a music group called Odessa entertaining us with guitar, keyboard, accordion and maracas - however, it was strange since only Kay and I were there - shades of the D and D Madrid restaurant after the Gorbachev lecture.

On our return to the cabin we found that we had been invited to have dinner at the Captain’s Table tonight. That meant getting as dressed up as we could be - which wasn’t very smarted up because we had not really brought “dress­up” clothes. However, we at least “did” our hair and tried to throw something acceptable on our bodies. We had a cocktail hour and Recap session prior to dinner as we would have every night. Maybe that glass of champagne at the pre- dinner cocktail party loosened us up enough, unaccustomed as we are to such? We enjoyed getting to know Juanita, the clinical psychologist a little better too. She was our cocktail party companion. She is still working in Summit, NJ, and has a busy private practice as well as acting as a consultant to various businesses around the area. She seemed to be an outgoing and interesting traveling companion too. She related a tale of having had herself and her luggage routed to Palmas, Mallorca, instead of Las Palmas, Gran Canarias. Luckily she was able to get everything straightened out in Madrid so that she and her suitcases flew to the right island. After the champagne and wine, we drifted into dinner.

There were 10 of us at the table and so it really broke into 5 and 5 for conversation. We never spoke a word to the Captain since he was not at our end of the table. However, we had enjoyable dinner companions just the same: Dr. V., the ship’s physician, and Tom and Ron, two fellows from Los Angeles. Tom is managing director of a travel company and Ron is an interior designer. We talked with Tom about his company’s trips to Botswana and he said he could put us on either a scheduled trip or he could custom design a trip for us. We will keep in contact with him for sure. Ron is an engaging fellow who kept us interested with his talk of travels, his Egyptian show dog, Petra, even now in a show at Tucson, and his wildlife filled neighborhood only 5 miles from downtown L.A. The meal was delicious but way too much food. However the evening sped by and we both admitted we had enjoyed everything. .

Dinner started at 7:45 PM and we did not leave the Captain’s Table until 10:30 PM so we felt continental, but too tired to do the diary or any pictures. Therefore, we just read a few minutes and fell asleep. What a wonderful first full day on the Atlantic in the Orion!

We started our morning out again with stretching under the sleepy Gabor’s direction. Luckily he is not a brutal task-master so the exercises are merely stimulating not exhausting. However, you can certainly feel a good burn with the stretches he chooses. Another good thing is that today’s routine is not the same as yesterday’s - so there will be variety in this regime. We have also started “doing the stairs” before each meal so maybe that will help us with our trying to avoid adding poundage.

The first educational session today was a lecture on the Cape Verde Islands which addressed the volcanic origins of the archipelago rather than its cultural history. However, we did learn that Darwin is important in the history of these islands since he did some of his studies here as well as in South America and the Galapagos. He was particularly interested in the similarity of animals and plants on these islands to those of Senegal on the African coast. Now we know that the Cape Verdes broke off the African Continent when various tectonic plates shifted.

Cape Verde has northern and southern sections that are different in their dryness and in their positions relative to the winds off the Sahara. The Northern Section where we are to visit has the hot and dry winds of the Sahel while Sao Tiago where the capital of the country, Priya, sits is relatively moister and more able to produce vegetation and to permit agriculture. So windward is wetter and leeward is drier. The Cape Verdes sit near the Inter-tropical Zone of Convergence where the warmer waters of the tropics meet with colder waters coming from the North and create a richer supply of sea life than in the tropics.

The island we are to visit is called Sao Vicente and its capital is the second largest of the Cape Verdean cities, Mindelo, with 55,000 inhabitants. The highest point on the island is Mt. Verde that is 2539 feet high. The island is characterized by dry, stony plains, sand dunes, barren hills with some pitiful attempts at forestation with introduced acacia trees.

This is another country where there are more natives living away from their home country than actually living in it. There are about 700,000 folks living here and more than a million dispersed around the world, particularly in New England, Germany and Holland. Historically the menfolk would leave the island seeking work on the docks of the world. The whaling trade brought many to New England and there are about 400,000 US citizens with Cape Verdean ancestry.

Cape Verde became an independent country on July 5, 1975, when along with Guinea-Bissau, it attained its separation from Portugal. There were some hopes that the Cape Verdes and Guinea-Bissau would form a single country but differences in philosophy and hopes for the future kept that from happening. Therefore, this lonely Atlantic archipelago is an independent country. Our lunch today was delightful since we sat on the aft deck enjoying the sunshine and breezes while we indulged in our delicious, if sparing, buffet meal. Salad and soup were the fare for us with a tiny touch of fruit for dessert - pretty darned good too. Between lunch and our next activity we went to the Computer Lounge and were able to send our first group e-mail out into the ether and for free this time.

The second sketching class was held at 2 PM and this time Kay was able to attend - and, she became the star of the class almost immediately with her “reverse” sketch of the piano bench in the Galaxy Lounge. But are we surprisedcertainly not! We had been using our “squares” to sketch clouds, sea and sky using the method of dark, medium and white to create the impressions. Kay got “lost in the details” so to speak and was getting frustrated. MJ the teacher came over and decided that she was the perfect candidate to use the reverse method: after Kay created the general shape of the object, MJ totally blacked it in and then asked Kay to erase the appropriate parts of the sketch to create the details and highlights needed for the bench. When Kay had finished we all agreed that it was a fine picture of a bench and we admired it vociferously. Others of us are having a lot more trouble creating anything that looks like what it’s supposed to represent. Our next formal educational program was on “Coral Reefs,” their creation and their inhabitants around the tropics. Coral reefs usually start as volcanic islands in which the mountain either subsides or rises, at any rate the water level rises. When the mountain totally subsides under the ocean waters, a coral atoll is left behind. All this made me wonder about the reefs off Florida and Belize because I do not think that either of those places is volcanic in origin. However, the slide show was lovely with excellent pictures of undersea creatures so there was no time for embarrassing questions or answers.

We did enjoy afternoon tea on the back deck again and had some interesting conversations with other travelers. We skipped the cocktail hour but joined John for his talk about our first excursion tomorrow - to Sao Vicente in the Cape Verde Islands. He warned us that we might find it a little depressing since it has been a long time since the Islands were prosperous way stations on slavery routes for the Portuguese, a refueling depot for the British (coal) or a Western Union Telegraph Station. The Islands have fallen on hard times and there is no money to spend on infrastructure, maintenance, or new buildings. He said the area is desolate in appearance and in the populace’s attitudes. When he last visited, he found the people unhappy and unhopeful.

Supper was delicious as always. But we got into a rather heated, at least on our part, discussion of health insurance, malpractice, and general liability insurance in

the USA. With a little wine on board, Kay and Lois became pretty intense in their efforts to help the folks see what is happening and how it is impacting them even if they don’t recognize it. Oh well, I think we all parted friends anyway. On getting back, we watched a video broadcast of a BBC series on mammals and it was very engaging. Wonderful and unexpected photography centering mostly on marsupials in this first of nine programs on mammalian adaptations and niche filling. Most of the program centered on Australia of course but there was some amazing footage on South American creatures as well. A little reading and then we called it a day.

RepublicofCapeVerde

No stretching class to begin our day today because we are going off the ship at around 8:30 AM After breakfast, there were two buses waiting to take us into town to see the sights. Our guide was a young Lithuanian man who has lived in Mindelo for two years. His English was quite good and he could even cracks jokes correctly.

Thankfully, we could see that John’s last look at São Vicente and its capital city was not accurate any longer. The city seems poor, of course, but hopeless? absolutely not. There are new model cars on the streets, much building going on both commercial and apparently residential, smiling and friendly people in the streets.

They are an interesting ethnic mix, a true melting pot of people ranging in colors from quite black to light tans. Their heritage is 50% West African, but the other 50% derives from Portuguese, English, Jewish, Italian and other Europeans. They are a handsome people for the most part and no one looks hungry or homeless. The town presents an attractive façade of many tropical pastel colors - houses, municipal buildings, and commercial establishments. The city is certainly not rich, but it is clean and neat and the buildings do not appear very neglected as John had described. There were many schoolchildren in their various colored uniforms on their lunch break (or siesta time) and they all looked happy, well shod, and healthy. The children are smiling and friendly to us obviously older strangers. There were many calls of “Hola” and “Hello“.

The adults were less openly friendly though they certainly did answer when greeted by us. The women carry enormous baskets on their heads with a graceful posture and stride, no doubt a legacy from their African heritage.

There is a decidedly Latin flavor to the architecture, more accurately Portuguese, The harbor is dramatic, surrounded by other arid islands of the archipelago that are coated with Saharan sands blown over the seas from the African mainland.

We saw the oldest building in the city which was originally a fort (called Furtin del Rey) and later a prison and probably somewhere in between a place for housing slaves before they were thrown into the ships for the transatlantic passage. There is currently a family living in the structure that is a pale yellow and sat on a hill

overlooking the busy harbor. Apparently, the port is once again a source of economic progress for this city and we saw many sailing boats and yachts in the calm and blue-green waters of the protected harbor. A lighthouse, resembling quite closely a church, sits high in the rocks perched above the sea, guarding one wing of the harbor and the land sweeps around in a semi-oval the other way to form the other “wall” of the harbor. It was puzzling and disappointing to see the shore of the harbor was littered and filthy while the streets and alleys were free of detritus and waste. We saw an old Portuguese cabildo (town hall) which is currently used for some unknown purpose except to stand as a reminder of the Portuguese past.

A few steps away is the Mercado de Peixes - the local fish market. We visited this busy and odoriferous place where lively commerce was taking place. There were huge tunas for sale and smaller whole fish and indeterminate fillets. Some vegetables were also on display including potatoes, cabbage, squash, cucumbers and greens of some variety.

A couple of blocks away stands the Mercado Municipal - consisting of little concrete stalls prettily decorated on one side with tiles depicting various details of life in the past and present here. The stalls are not tourist meccas; they are the places where

the locals buy the things they need for daily life - clothing, kitchenware, gadgets, CDs and the like. It too seemed a busy and friendly place .

Following our visits to the markets, we were driven across the island to the tiny fishing village of Sao Pedro, a little beachside town with colorful housing, sand streets, and many schoolchildren on their siesta break

Some of our group went swimming at the very pretty beach with its Caribbean clear turquoise water and its fine volcanic sand underfoot. When standing on the beach and looking back towards town, we could see the great sand dunes born of the

Sahel winds bringing the grains of sand across from the Sahara to form these high hills of slippery sand. The ocean water was cool and inviting but we did not want to swim and get back on the boat all salty and sandy.

The center of town was a square with a pavilion-type structure at each corner of the square. These stood on metal legs and were covered with corrugated iron tops, all painted a bright blue. They afforded much appreciated shade since it was getting warmer and we wondered if they aren’t thronged with people in July and August when it must be much hotter.

Some children immediately gravitated towards us as we occupied one of the pavilions. Such lovely little girls aged about 10 with names like Eileen, Elena, and Maria. They spoke their criollo tongue and we spoke Spanish with them and amazingly enough we understand each other well enough to carry on some sort of conversation. We learned that some were friends and others cousins and that they went to school in a tan stucco building across from the city square. They were pleased to pose for pictures and one little boy joined them in order to display his “ojos terrible” when he everted his eyelids so that we saw their bright pink undersides. Typical little boy in any place in the world!

As we left the square we took time to watch two men intent on a game they were playing using marbles and a “board” with six cups on each side. Try as we could, we were not able to make sense of it. But they were obviously enjoying the competition. Our guide told us the game is of West African origin and is called “Oril” but he could not explain it either except to say that it was complicated and that it involved getting all the marbles on one side or the other.

Then it was time to return to the Orion and our lunch; by now it was 1 PM and we were having to admit that we were hungry once again. The buffet was on the back deck once more so that we could continue to enjoy the views of the pretty harbor of Mindelo. We lost Tom and Ron, the two Japanese tour directors who were researching the ship, and Fred at this stop as they will be going tonight to Lisbon. Tom had been checking out the ship as well to see if his company might want to send clients on trips using the Orion.

We had an afternoon video in the Cosmos Lecture Hall on “The Great Whales” done by the National Geographic Society. However, it was obviously a propaganda piece done in the 70s to try to raise consciousness about the horrors of continued whaling activities by the USSR and Japan in particular and praising the good work of Green Peace in protesting and trying to intervene in the oceans of the world. All in all, we learned very little about the great whales themselves and lots about the predations of those countries.

Finished the book, “Napoleon’s Last Island” and while it was informative on facts about his awful exile as well as St Helena history, it was a melancholy and ultimately irritating book because the author was way too presumptuous for my tasteimaging that she could empathize her way into “understanding” how Napoleon must have felt. I’m sure she didn’t have a clue!

FourandahalfDaysatSea

Day One

The first of 4 sea days between the Cape Verdes and Ascension Island passed very well because the sea was unruffled as were our innards. The naturalists and expedition leaders kept us busy. Our first lecture in the morning covered the controversy regarding whether or not birds evolved from dinosaurs and what feathers themselves can contribute to the discussion as well as what the latest fossil finds in China have done to change the terms of the argument. These fossils appear to represent flightless dinosaurs who nevertheless seem to have developed primitive feathers.

A lecture in the afternoon covered the biodiversity of oceanic islands and the high rates of extinction these populations are subject to once alien species are introduced either accidentally or purposefully. Roger used St. Helena as his example to demonstrate the impact on that little Eden’s native flora and fauna once cats, dogs, horses, burros, rats, mice, goats and pigs became residents there. All but one bird species has been wiped out- - so the little wirebird is now the only native bird on St. Helena. Many species of plants were also extirpated or reduced to tiny pockets of growth high on the cliffs where the grazing animals cannot reach. Our sketch class today was also different from the usual exercises we have been doing. MJ had gotten a couple of fish in Mindelo for us to “print.” She brought the flying fish to the Galaxy Lounge today and showed us how she had prepared it by removing all the mucus and loose scales and then used toothpicks to pin the fins in the attitudes she wanted them to assume.

She also packed the natural orifices of the fish before painting it with India ink from tail fins to head features, taking care not to go too far down the back and belly of the creature. Next she placed “rice paper,” really made of mulberry bark, carefully and firmly over the fish body. The trick was not to allow the paper to slip as she put pressure on the body through the paper so that it would take up the ink. She produced three prints that look like Japanese paintings really quite charming. Then she invited the class members to come up and “print” their own copies of the fish body. With each successive painting, the results of the prints were better since the paper had sufficient ink to absorb after the fish body had taken in all the ink it

could. Kay made about the 6th copy and hers was really fine. The detail of the lovely dorsal fin was exquisite as was the scale pattern on the body of the fish.

MJ also taught everyone how to “finish” the print by painting in the eye which looks “empty” after the paper pressure. Using blue watercolor, a ring was drawn around the outside circumference of the eye socket and then a dark pupil with a “V­shaped” notch of white in that circle was placed in the center of the blue ring. It was amazing how much more “alive” the print appeared when the eye was put into the picture.

Other activities of the day included reading, exercising, stretching, dining, and having afternoon tea. A lovely, relaxing and totally enjoyable day on the Orion. Tonight we plan to watch the third episode in the mammal series - this one on plant predators.

The activity at Recap (and cocktail hour) this evening was a celebration of John’s fortieth birthday. Craig created some foolishness about the necessity of his wearing a completely out- of-date type shirt in order to conform to Canadian Maritime Law on birthdays at sea. So he produced a polyester long-sleeved monstrosity that John had to wear the rest of the evening. He was a good sport and we all toasted him and wished him well on his 40th “year to heaven.” We were totally foiled when the Mammal series failed to come on at 9:30 or even 15 minutes afterwards. Even two promptings to Reception was not very effective in that when the show finally came on, they went back to the first episode rather than moving on to the third. Oh well, we read and I finished the strangely mesmerizing “Dogs of Babel.”

Day Two

Haiku - A Day at Sea

We woke, stretched, ate, sea gazed, read learned, dined, sketched, took tea, lazed, supped, slept. We “grew.”

Actually, our haiku for the ship’s official passenger log for today pretty much sums up this day and yesterday and probably tomorrow as well - or any other strictly sea day.

Our lecture this morning was on Giant Squids by Clyde Roper. He showed slides of early impressions of this sea “monster” and then gradually led us through what is currently known about this 40-50 ft. cephalopod. Actually, no live specimen has yet been taken, though several have washed up on various shores around the world. Scientists have eagerly examined these corpses, but there is very much about their bodies, their biology, and even their daily lives that remain unknown. There is to be a second half of this lecture tomorrow.

After lunch (we’re getting more abstemious in our lunch diets for sure), we went to sketch class with MJ. She helped everyone “complete” their fish prints if there were blank or under- inked spots. She also taught us how to print our “chop,” to add a spot of red to the black and white fish print. Patricia added “Orion 2003” (in calligraphy) to the prints of those who desired her to do so. Those touches certainly added a professional look to everyone’s work.

At 4 we went to the Cosmos Lecture Hall for a fascinating slide show that John produced to cover the trip he took just before this one in which he led a group in a circumnavigation of the African Continent starting and ending in Spain. The whole trip took 2 ½ months. He started the show with the West Coast of Africa, starting in Spain, then Morocco, Mauritania, Senegal, Ghana, Benin, and Namibia. His pictures were quite good and gave us a good flavor of what such a trip would be like.

We enjoyed a little afternoon tea on the aft deck and came back to the cabin for showers and getting ready to go to dinner. It was a good thing we enjoyed the outof-doors since now we are in the middle of a thunder, lightning and rainstorm. The sea is not very much more rocky than it has been all day, but who knows what the storm will bring if it continues much longer.

Actually, the storm passed as quickly as it had arisen and the seas never responded to the cloud commands of Zeus’ thunderbolts, numerous though they were. Instead, the waves stayed small and controlled, not wild and high - for which, we were profoundly grateful.

THANKSGIVING DAY

Today we woke to a thanksgiving feeling since the temperature is 77 F and the sea was 73 F. The serenity of the seas continued even though a light rain was falling as we went aft and up to our stretching class. We had to squeeze in a little closer to one another to keep everyone, including Gabor, out of range of the drops drifting down from the leaden sky.

Following breakfast, we practiced our sketching of glasses and bottles of “Evian” water but without any real success or satisfaction except in knowing that we were being “good students” completing our homework. We are hoping that MJ will give us some individual instructions about how we can each improve our sketching techniques.

Clyde finished his lecture on giant squids at 11 o’clock. It is amazing how much he can tell us about these mysterious creatures when the real bottom line is that he has never seen a live one (nor has anyone else). Though specimens have been found in fishermen’s nets and stranded on various shores around the world, there is more unknown about them than is actually known. So, like Black Holes and Quasars, a lot has to be inferred from evidence around them.

He was fascinating in his descriptions of the several different expeditions he has undertaken in an effort to actually “see” a giant squid in its natural habitat - from diving in submersibles in many deep oceanic canyons to attaching “critter cams” to sperm whales in hopes that one of them will locate its own favorite prey for the scientists to observe. Obviously, the whales have no problem finding their own special delicacy, so why not use their knowledge as well as their diving expertise. So far, though, none of the methods he has tried has produced a look at a live squid in the open ocean.

At lunch today, we brought our “gobbling turkey” to the table and gave our lunch companions a Thanksgiving themed coaster for their wine glasses. We think they were amused. Everybody we introduced to the gobbler laughed and wondered how we had gotten it into our luggage along with all the other items we had to bring.

Later in the afternoon we got to see the National Geographic Special in which Clyde had starred in 1997 in the critter cam attempt to locate the pelagic giant squid. Though it documented primary failure, the film demonstrated some very interesting and never-before- filmed or even known behaviors in sperm whales: sleeping while hanging vertically fairly near the ocean’s surface, clicks and groans and squeals in their vocalizations, and swimming and diving so closely together that their bodies actually touched and rubbed against one another.

Since tonight is our Thanksgiving Day dinner, we have decided to skip afternoon tea so that we will be a little hungrier for the traditional feast. We will bring our coasters and our “indyuk” (Russian for turkey) beanie baby to the table. We have been invited to dine at the Audubon table this evening.

At recap, John told us that the Orion would be arriving late to Ascension since we had lost 8 hours due to our inability to average 14.5 knots an hour over four days. However, he assured us we would still be landing at Ascension. Moreover, he reminded us about the strange movie that would be shown in the Lecture Hall after dinner: “Fast, Cheap and Out of Control”. The director, better known for “Thin Blue Line”, is an unconventional filmmaker (Errol Morris) and he thought we might enjoy this strange show.

Our “traditional” Thanksgiving Dinner found us at the Audubon table with Claire, Anna, Meryl and Roger. It was a very pleasant evening; the kitchen staff tried hard with the decorations and the meal. Kay had turkey but I had roast guinea hen that was tasty--like chicken.

It was bedtime after we watched the odd movie which was too strange to describe. Kay and I never noticed any “bump” in the night even though we crossed the Equator at 2 AM and woke up in the Southern Hemisphere!

Day Four Beaufort 5 Air temp 79

Rockier than ever this morning, so bumpy and rolly that Gabor decided that our stretching would have to be done entirely on the mats - no standing or leaning. He gave us a pretty good workout anyway and then we went upstairs to breakfast. Felt a little greenish after this so we settled ourselves down to get the stomachs right: Kay lay down and napped while Lois sat in a chair and read. We were both recovered by the time of the first morning lecture.

Alan gave his lecture on “A Brief History of the Feather.” It was fairly interesting actually and we did learn about follicles and feathers and how they emerge from the follicle fully formed. We learned a little about how the feathers can change in color due to diet in some species but only in very young birds. We also learned that there is quite a bit that the experts do not understand about feathers, so it remains an interesting and fruitful field for research.We both wanted comfort food for lunch and luckily we enjoyed a tortellini dish on the back deck in the sunshine. Quite good and we had an interesting new meal companion. This time Patricia joined us since Marco is feeling rather poorly due to the rocking of the ship. She has a good sense of humor and speaks English much more fluently than we can speak Spanish.

Later on in the afternoon, we had a mandatory session with the Captain and First Mate on Zodiac embarkation and safety rules. Everything was familiar to us from our other Zodiac expeditions. Apparently, there are universal procedures and all the ships find them the easiest and safest methods.

Now we are sitting around waiting for the next mealtime - can we believe it? Kay is reading and I am about to go back to my NY Times Crossword Puzzle.

John arrived late to our Thanksgiving Dinner and we had the only empty chair he could easily access so he joined us. He’s an interesting fellow and we were definitely curious about his 2½ years in the Peace Corps in Nepal. He was also able to bring us up-to-date on what’s been going on in that country since the royal family was massacred. The most immediate danger to the whole country is the Maoist People’s uprising that has been quite ruthless in gaining converts and in killing off those who

refuse to cooperate. Tourism has definitely been adversely affected and the new king (who came to the throne under suspicious circumstances) doesn’t seem to have a good plan for destroying the movement. Everyone seems to be holding on to the hope that India will not tolerate a Maoist takeover on its borders.

We continue to see that this is a “shakedown” cruise as the crew and technicians work on problems, most of them connected with the computer systems guiding various ship functions and amenities: like the elevator, the ship’s stabilizers, and some of the audiovisual technology. John told us last night that they are having some troubles with the stabilizers though he did not go into great detail about just what the matter is.

We already know that the elevator in the central part of the ship is not functioning and that the computer experts aboard cannot work on it or the “warranty” from the shipyard will be invalidated. There is also a major condensation problem in the ceiling over part of the Leda Lounge and sometimes the room looks like Snuffy Smith’s cabin with buckets resting on all surfaces plus the floors to catch the “rainwater”.

We have also had troubles meeting the speed schedule for travel but I do not think that has anything to do with ship problems; here I think it is the current and the wind working against us. So we are going to arrive at Ascension Island about 6-8 hours later than earlier anticipated. Since we must refuel there as well, we will take Sunday as our “land” day.

Tonight we had to set our clocks forward one hour in order to stay consistent with the ship’s clock. So we headed for bed, without our thick duvets, very shortly after supper.

Last Day

It was tough to get up this morning and head for stretching class - neither of us felt like it nor as it turned out did anyone else - as a matter of fact a couple of people missed it altogether. However, we were strong and persevered. Now we did not have anything scheduled until 11 AM when Meryl will give us a talk on birds. Our meal companions this morning were Vera and an unknown lady. It’s amazing that we can still meet folks that we have not met before and do not have a name forand it is too bad that we have all just about stopped wearing name tags.

After breakfast, we went back to our cabin to read and relax after all those “strenuous” exertions of the morning. It is wonderful to be able to spend some time reading without feeling like you have a million other things you should be doing. That’s one of the beauties of a cruise with lots of sea days.

We did interrupt our reading (I’m now into Trollope’s “The Way We Live Now” and Kay is enjoying “The Eyre Affair” (which does make her laugh out loud regularly) to attend Meryl’s lecture “Birds on the Move.” She discussed the rigors of migration for birds, using examples of long distance migrators as well as birds who really only moved upslope and downslope. All birds move to follow either their food or to get to their breeding grounds. There was considerable give and take in discussing what are the causes of migration, how birds’ respiratory systems help them in these long flights, how their fat distribution helps them with the stamina required and the like. It was very interesting and, once again, it is easy to be struck by how much is not known about something as familiar as the birds all around us.

A tour of the very modern and mechanized bridge was next on our agenda. We joined Bill, Sage and Meryl on our visit. A nice officer explained as much to us as we could probably have understood. We were truly amazed to find that there is not even a small wheel to steer in docking situations. Even the Hanseatic had a tiny circle for the pilot to use. We did get the daily longitude and latitude readings for all the days since we have started so that we can track our actual path through the seas to Ascension Island 4 ½ days from Cabo Verde!

The remainder of the afternoon was devoted to trying to sketch apples and grapes for our assignment in MJ’s class. Neither of us was very satisfied with our progress through all the 5 attempts we made. Some were better than others, but none were really good. Now we are supposed to try to sketch something on the Island during our visit but Kay told MJ she would be photographing the Island, not sketching it.

John got us together at 4 to tell us more about disembarkation tomorrow He has divided us into two groups: the Albatrosses and the Boobies.. We will probably be getting into the Zodiacs about 9 AM and then we will get a tour of the little town of Georgetown and its environs.

He called all of us who had not purchased evacuation insurance through Travel Dynamics to meet with him immediately after this talk and told us we needed to provide copies of our insurance papers to Reception today sometime since the folks on the Island require it before permitting us to land. No one had ever told us, to our knowledge, that such insurance was a requirement for getting to visit the islands. Were we ever glad that we had purchased it and brought the papers with us! Otherwise, we might have had to enjoy the Islands from the deck of the Orion!

John’s slides took us on yet another section of the circumnavigation of Africa he had led just before joining this cruise. We saw beautiful shots of South Africa that really must be a spectacular looking country. We also went to Victoria Falls and Mozambique in the pictures. Zimbabwe was on the itinerary as well. John takes effective slides and has made the trip look yummy so far.

Showers and hair washing were next on our list of things to get done before dinner. Then we joined “Recap” and afterwards joined Jackie and Kathy for dinner. We had arranged earlier with Jackie to have supper together. She and Kathy are very congenial and we enjoyed ourselves. How special it is to sight land after 4 ½ days at sea without seeing anything but waves and clouds and very occasional birds. It is not difficult to extrapolate these feelings into what the whalers and merchant seamen of sailing days must have experienced when they would catch sight of a mountain in the distance that was solid and not moving after months on the briny.

We got our own first look at land about 5 PM today and it was startling because it looked much larger than I had expected it to do. The mountains are about 2000+ ft. high and they do ride their island raft well above the waves. They were at first shadowy and purplish as they floated about 25 miles off our bow. But they were substantial and real and we knew that we would be able to walk on them and among them and feel terra firma under our feet!

As we got closer to our anchorage, we could see more colors than just mauve - now we could see red cinder cones and the lush verdure of Green Mountain, the highest on Ascension. Buildings and NASA radar stations and wireless communication equipment soon swam into view as well and added white and steel gray and brown to the palette. The town buildings and homes are not colorful like the Cape Verdes or the Canaries however. The buildings are made of concrete and have been whitewashed. We are all eager for a landing tomorrow.

We did learn an interesting factoid about the Island at Recap tonight - for many years the island was treated by the Royal Navy as a ship of the line. Whatever law, rules and regulations prevailed on Her Majesty’s ships also prevailed here on Ascension. Only in the last two years have the citizens been treated like Britons or other Commonwealth country citizens. We have been told not to open our windows tonight since they are going to wash them sometime during the evening. At least it has cooled down a bit in here so that‘s not too bad a request. However, it will probably necessitate a wake-up call in the morning to avoid oversleeping and missing our onshore excursion. It really will feel good to walk on solid earth again. However, anchored as we are in a protected cove tonight, the ship is barely moving at all!

The British Overseas Territory of Ascension Island

Beaufort 2 and temps 75, both sea and air

Everyone was up eagerly this morning - we are all ready to “hit the beaches:” of Georgetown but it turned out that we landed at a pier instead. However, we need a little background before we get there. The Zodiac operation was a bit raggedy since this was the crew’s first landing. However, everybody got on and off very well at the side gate. The wind and the waves did not help the novice Zodiac drivers however. It took Patricia quite a bit of maneuvering to get us lined up at the pier properly for the able bodied seamen to take us off the Zodiacs.

However, the important thing is that she did it and no one was the worse for wear. The steps up from the dock were steep and wet but everyone made it up there just fine. How strange it felt to have the ground firm beneath our step! But many of us found ourselves swaying a little as we visited the post office, the little museum, the conservation shop, and the grocery store. The town is arranged around a square with a municipal building on the seaside and the other shops and a restaurant called “Reflections” arranged in a horseshoe to make the square. There are flowering plants around, all familiar to us as tropical and subtropical greenery like bougainvillea, lantana, oleander, etc. Many of the more vibrant bougainvillea were actually “caged” in chicken wire fencing to prevent the goats, sheep and donkeys from snacking on them.

We were invited to visit the historic turtle ponds that had been used for about 200 years to make sure that passing ships could get green turtles aboard for fresh meat during long voyages because the turtles could last so long without food and water. The ponds are no longer in use since the green turtle is now protected and encouraged to return to Ascension for breeding purposes. Stedson, our guide, told us that nowadays when a turtle gets itself stranded among the rocks or otherwise in trouble, 4-5 fellows wade out into the waters to free the creature from its trap or solve its problem so that it can go about its business of reproduction. Quite a different attitude towards the turtle.

The euphorbia preserve was the next destination on the island. What a bleak and barren spot it is, too. But it has great importance to the island because it is one of the last stands of one of the indigenous plants, the Euphorbia organoides a little lacy plant low to the ground sporting several different colors. It is obviously extremely drought tolerant or it could not be making a last stand in this terrain. “Fresh” lava flows (about 500 to 1000 years old) abound everywhere and the ground is so dry that it is powdery and dusty. Where these brave plants get any moisture is just inexplicable.

One reason the area has been preserved is that the land belongs to the airport and has been fenced in, thus deterring the goats, sheep and donkeys from munching it right out of existence. In this same area was a dry grass (probably dead really) which grew in the lava fields providing a lovely view of silvery “feathers” hiding the harsher textured rocks. Lois thought she might try to sketch that scene for tomorrow’s class.

After driving through the US and UK bases, we came to the Gannet Hill Overlook above the airstrip (or airhead as the Ascension island folk call it) from where we could see a wonderful view along the shoreline. We were informed that the runway has been recently lengthened to use as a possible emergency landing area for the space shuttles and it is now the 6th longest runway in the world. With the US shuttle program is such a shambles right now, it is hard to imagine when this tax boondoggle might actually come into use.

The Fort Hayes Complex was very interesting to explore. The fort had been built in the 1800s as part of the fortifications to prevent Napoleon from escaping from St. Helena. The structure is concrete made with seawater so it is slowly crumbling into sand. However, the views from its various parapets and cannon sites are really quite wonderful and some of the best of our pictures will no doubt come from this excursion.

Her Majesty’s Prison

A brisk walk thru the “downtown” culminated in a visit to their well-done museum.

The little museum included endearing family pictures, shots of the island during World War II, pictures of various notables who have visited, including one of Margaret Thatcher on her way to the Falklands in 1992. There were lots of pieces of old communication equipment from the days when this was a major British station. There is still an important base here for the British military but the communications effort is largely privatized now.

For lunch, we were taken up to the little area called Two Boats where the island club sits. On the road, we passed a donkey family of a male, two females and a couple of young. They looked healthy and happy beside the roadway; Evidently, they are not considered noxious aliens yet because there is no eradication program working against them.

The Two-Boat Club is a large facility with a bar, an auditorium, a restaurant, skittles lanes, swimming pool and landscaping attempts. It looks like a typical suburban club except that the view from the terrace is special. The sea has such wonderful colors along the shoreline and out into the deeps.

Our lunch was accompanied by a Fanta Orange - how special can things get! We had several varieties of fish, cheese pasta, salad, French fries, and ice cream for dessert. The fish cakes are a specialty of the island and we could certainly understand why once we had a taste of one. The little fried croquette is spicy and delicious. Everyone seemed to have enjoyed it very much. The presence of clean potties made this stop special in another way as well.

After our lunch we loaded into Range Rovers for the trip up to the shoulder of Green Mountain where once there had been a working farm. The paved road that led up to our destination had more hairpin curves than ever could have been imagined from the bottom of the mountain. Several times our little Range Rovers had to stop, back up and turn more sharply to make a particular turn. There was no way to negotiate some of the turns without the back-up maneuver despite the fact that the Range Rovers are quite short. And bouncy! We were jostled all over the place left and right, but luckily no one bumped his/her head or loosened a kidney. At the top, the groups divided into those going to the beach for a swim and those going for a 2 ½ hour walk through the lush almost rainforest atop Green Mountain with Stedson guiding.

About 15 of us had signed up for the walk and so it was very quickly after we arrived at the now abandoned farmhouse that we set off. It was a lovely ridge walk with just amazing views of the coastline and down the steep shoulders of the mountain.

Most of the lush vegetation we walked through is introduced though Stedson did point out the very few indigenous species still growing up here, though being rapidly crowded out by ginger plants, Norfolk pine (planted by seafarers for use as masts for their ships), eucalypts, and screw pine as well as lantana and wild strawberries. On the trail sides as we passed we saw the feral sheep rushing away from us down incredibly steep slopes maaaaiiiing their disapproval.

We had never thought of sheep as particularly agile creatures, but they were doing a fine job getting up and down the slippery and precipitous slopes of Green Mountain. We did all right as well even though our shoes were filthy with mud very quickly along the way. We doubted they would ever be right again, but then we had not yet encountered the effective little mudroom of the Orion.

During the hike we passed through several tunnels blasted out by the Royal Marines to carry water pipes from the top of the mountain down to Georgetown. We also would often break out onto an open vista of incredible beauty revealing the high flying clouds over the cobalt sea which reached with turquoise fingertips into the shoreline creating beautiful little coves and beaches of golden sand.

We saw several dead rats along our way, a positive result of the rat abatement program the conservationists have undertaken in an attempt to re-establish seabird rookeries.

Our walk was thoroughly enjoyable and we were all glad that we had taken it. On the hike, I learned that Stedson had served in the Falklands War having been conscripted to work on refueling ships from St. Helena (he is a Saint as the residents of that island are called). He said he never had to get out onto the Falkland Islands but stayed further out to sea where the minesweepers could retreat to take on more fuel when needed. When our hike was over, we rode down in the Range Rovers again to Comfortless Cove where we would see the yellow fever cemetery as well as the beach where our swimmers had spent their afternoon while we hiked the muddy trails among the dead rat carcasses. Since the island has successfully ridded itself of its feral cat population in trying to attract the shorebirds back to the mainland, the rats have become the problem.

At the Cove, we explored the Cemetery containing about 10 gravesites with dates ranging from the 1830s up to one dated June 1861. This grave contained a US sailor who had been aboard the USS Constitution at that time and had perished. What that ship was doing in these waters during that time none of us could even imagine. The lava surrounding the little cemetery is particularly sharp and rugged so it was clear that yellow fever was a fearsome affliction and the islanders did not want even the bodies brought on the island for more convenient burial.

The little cove was also quite beautiful with its narrow inlet and small beach, but truly lovely with its Caribbean watercolors and glowing golden sands. The cove teemed with sea life we learned later when Roger gave his Recap talk about all the creatures he had seen while snorkeling there. Still, we were not sorry that we had elected to take the beautiful hike since we would not have done any swimming anyway. Stedson drove us through some new lava beds to get us back to the pier in time to jump back into the Zodiacs for the return to the Orion. The area we traversed he called the “ghost rookeries” because we could still see the guano painting the black lava projections on their leeward sides from the thousands of years when Brown-footed and Red-footed Boobies, noddies, and Wideawakes (gannets) nested here. Because of the feral cats, the birds deserted the mainland at least 200 years ago. So now we just see the “ghosts” of these rookeries. The guano is always on the leeward side because the birds would face into the wind and the guano would squirt out the back of the bird.

A Brown Noddy or two has been found on the island this year leading to the hope among the conservation workers that the feral cat extirpation will bring the seabirds back to the mainland. Stedson is involved in the bird counts and he seemed quite jubilant to have found a couple of these little birds nesting among the lava again.

Our ride back to the Orion was faster than the one to Georgetown because the wind and waves were much less pronounced. We boarded the ship at the marina area at the stern rather than the side gate so apparently it was deemed safer that way. However, the process provided a good dose of terror to Kay and Lois since it appeared that the able-bodied Seamen did not know the proper way to lash the Zodiacs to the rising and falling ship. At one point, it appeared that the Zodiac would float under the Orion at its high point and then come crashing down on the Zodiac and all of us. We were shouting to them about how to loop the Zodiac ropes to give more play for the waves to complete their actions. Somehow, nothing serious occurred but we were glad to be back on board without incident. Most of us had gotten a little more sun that we anticipated as well as much more mud.

The mudroom on the Orion is a very efficient and useful place even though we would have suggested a location for it nearer to the on and off loading sites. As it is, the Zodiac riders must walk through the Leda Lounge and down the carpeted staircases to get there when the embarkation site is the Marina Deck on the rear of the ship. The water hoses and brushes work very well indeed and the wooden grates on the floor allow the shoes to stay dry while the water flows through the grating and out of the room. Our shoes actually cleaned up amazingly well even my sparkly running shoes that had definitely changed from white to red on the hike. The little barge from Georgetown was still “bunkering” (refueling) the Orion when we returned and there were a few more barrels to be loaded. The little barge brings one big barrel, loads that into the ship, and then heads back to port to pick up another. A time-consuming and labor intensive job for sure. As it turned out, instead of leaving Ascension Island around 6 PM we did not get away until about 9 PM Oh well, now we are on our way to St. Helena which trip should take about a day and a half. Now we are clean, our shoes look amazingly bright, we are well fed, and the seas are rocking us to sleep. A wonderful day on this isolated and very busy island!

TwoDaysatSea

Day One - Beaufort 4-5, seas moderate, temp 75F

Another sea day after our glorious island exploration yesterday. Reluctantly we got up and joined Gabor and the other ladies for stretching and exercising. But we found that Gabor was perhaps even more unwilling than we. He was sporting a really red face from his time in the sunshine on the beaches of Ascension. But unhappy about it or no, he led us in the morning class and then happily dismissed us to breakfast.

Listening to music and reading as you will is such a pleasure on the sea days. We are delighted that we brought the CDs with us because they have already brought a lot of enjoyment. Kay also worked on her pictures during our down time before the morning lecture at 11 by Alan on Birds at Sea. Really didn’t learn anything from him because we have heard so much of it before on the Hanseatic and in the Galapagos. But he had some nice pictures and we were being supportive by attending.

After lunch we went to sketch class and learned that our next assignment will be to try to understand body shapes among the birds so that we can draw approximations of the birds we will soon be seeing on the Islands and around the ship. MJ also critiqued some of our earlier efforts and we showed them to the group. I think that it is safe to say that Kay is one of MJ’s favorite students and one in whom she sees much promise and that I am absolutely the least promising in the group. She tries to be kind and encouraging but she damns with faint praise and gives my work short shrift indeed. Of course, that is better for the whole class because my efforts are pretty poor specimens. However, it’s still fun; I’m enjoying trying my hand at something so new and foreign to me. We then had about 50 minutes before time to attend Marco’s lecture on “Albatrosses and Long Line Fishing.” Even though we felt that we should be supportive of him too we just could not bring ourselves to attend a lecture on such a sad topic, plus we already know much of the story, the statistics and the faint hopes of conservationists. So in spite of our guilty consciences, we stayed in the cabin listening to Pavarotti, reading and working on pictures.

We did manage to creep out for afternoon tea but then although we sat out on the back deck daring the rain to fall on our heads, who should sit fairly near us but Marco and Patricia? We hoped that the lecture hall was so full that they did not notice exactly who did and did not attend the talk. We discussed books and travels a bit with MJ and Vanessa who joined us at our guilt table though they did not know that the cloud hanging over that spot was such an emotion.

Now we are waiting for Recap to learn if we really are supposed to get to St. Helena tomorrow morning for a walk about Jamestown and Longwood to see where Napoleon strolled, horseback rode, gardened and tried to find meaning in his life after all he had accomplished before. No doubt, John will let us know how we are doing in making for the island.

The Recap tonight made it official that we are a day behind schedule - we do not reach St. Helena until tomorrow night. Then our exploration of the island will happen on Wednesday, December 3.. We had a nice dinner tonight with Jackie and Claire. We all chided Claire gently, trying to get her to be a bit more ambitious and

aggressive in walking again. She just complained that her left gluteus maximus hurt too much to try. We are afraid she will get so dependent and fearful that she will not try at all and then lose strength and agility which at her age would be disastrous.

Day Two Temperature 72 and seas moderate with a Beaufort of 4-5

Two new folks joined our stretch class today so our little aft deck is getting a bit crowded. However, we make do and everybody finds a place to put her mat and her body for the standing exercises. It really is a good way to start the morning because Gabor does some strength training as well as the stretching. So we feel invigorated instead of sluggish (which all this eating produces).

Jackie came to our cabin this morning to have Kay download her pictures off her little “credit card” sized Bell and Howell digital camera. Then we both had to get our showers and hair washes prior to Roger’s 11 AM presentation on the succulent plants and how they fight drought and heat. It was relatively repetitious for us but he had some interesting slides and he is at least an eager speaker with a few jokes to throw in.

John met with everybody before lunch to tell us about our disembarkation plans for St. Helena. The Captain has apparently now decided that we will reach the island at midnight tonight. The customs folks will come aboard about 7 AM and the hope is to get us off the Orion beginning at 8 so that the tours of Jamestown city and of the Longwood area where the Napoleonic history is centered can begin at 9 AM

It sounds like the Zodiac ride will be a long one and that the pilot on the island is the one who directs the unloading and reloading of the Zodiacs at the dock or on the beach as he deems appropriate because he is the one who knows the swells and how the craft behave in them.

I wish we had never heard the story about the Zodiac that overturned on the approach to Tristan da Cunha because it has made me more anxious about the rides, especially with our untrained ABs trying to figure things out as they go. Oh well..

At lunch today on the aft deck, we experienced something quite unsettling as the crew apparently was trying to see how the stabilizers will work in seas where the waves are hitting us abeam. The ship did zig zags in the water and seemed to heel over rather alarmingly. The captain was seated at the table across from Kay and I and even he looked up in surprise but he quickly settled back down to his lunch rather than racing off to the Bridge. We did not enjoy the feel of that maneuver at all!

At sketch class today we showed the bird drawings we had worked on (Kay and I in the Library using bird books as models) and some of the students are quite good and progressing by astonishing leaps. Kay is certainly improving satisfyingly too and I have to admit that I am also getting better, but far from good. However, it was fun to draw the birds and have them actually look like the models. In class we drew multiple studies of shells and a little Mole Crab. The time went by very quickly and we enjoyed it.

Our dinner tonight had an “international” flair since all the courses offered styles from different places. We had Swedish seafood gratin for an entrée, mulligatawny soup, and Caribbean fruit cocktail for an appetizer. The dessert was a chocolate cake from Austria. There were other choices for each course as well so folks did not have to eat what I ate. Kay had borscht for her soup instead of mulligatawny.

TheBritishOverseasTerritoryofSt.Helena

(5 43 S and 15 55 W) Beaufort 2, temperature 72

This morning we awoke to discover that we had completed the 700 miles from Ascension to Jamestown, St. Helena Island. We had dropped anchor in James Bay at midnight though most of us were not aware of that fact at the time. We were tucked into our beds being gently rocked. Since we wanted to see St. Helena early, we had asked for a wake-up call at 6 and we hopped up to look out the window.

The great ragged volcanic cliffs of the Island are really grim and forbidding and there are no sandy beaches anywhere here. The cliffs rise hundreds of feet into the air and are dark and steep. It was easy to think that we could imagine how Napoleon’s heart must have dropped when he first beheld this unfriendly sight! His prison was a tropical island with a land mass of 47 square miles this, for The Emperor of the French who for a time bestrode the world like a colossus.

There are beautiful and intriguing patterns in the basalt of the cliffs though Napoleon probably never got a chance to realize that since he was not allowed to see the island from the sea again. There are many layers clearly limned in the walls, no doubt caused by successive outpourings of lava. There are syrupy cascading loops of lava flowing down gentler slopes now frozen in time.There are great checkerboard squares where some of the layers are horizontal and then abruptly will appear vertical lines, creating questions about how such tipping of the layers could have occurred.

There are fractures and caves in the sheer walls where guano collects from the many seabirds nesting there. However, there is no plant life on the walls though you can see shrubs, grasses, and even trees along the very tops. 98% of this greenery comes from invasive plants because over the course of its long history the ecology and biology of the island have been completely changed due to the actions of man and his imported beasties. There are no longer any indigenous animals and only one native land bird remains, the Wirebird. There are only 2 species of native plants on the island as well. These poor “natives” are extremely difficult to see and are constantly in danger of being completely wiped out as they are out-competed by the introduced plants and birds.

The skies over the island were gray and stormy but we were relieved to see blue patches struggling to emerge from behind that dark curtain. We saw the little boat, the “Wideawake,” filled with customs officials making for our stern promptly at 6:55 AM so we were encouraged that we might soon be going ashore. And sure enough, they were a friendly and accommodating bunch so the first group of Zodiac riders left promptly at eight. The Zodiac adventure was less tumultuous this time and it seemed that the whole process had become smoother and more practiced. Of course, the fact that we were not contending with a huge swell made a difference as well. So we got off on the wharf at Jamestown about 8:30 ourselves (we were in the second group) and stepped into Napoleonic history!

Because six of us had opted to climb down 700 steps of Jacob’s ladder placed there in 1829 by the Royal Marines, we had a little mini-van all to ourselves of which the driver was the wonderfully dubbed, Vernon Quickfall. After we had been on the incredibly narrow, steep, and winding roads of the island for just a little while, we hoped that this “son of Saints” was not aptly named. We knew that native-born islanders are called Saints, but Vernon told us that though he was the child of two Saints, he himself had been born in South Africa and had only lived on the island about 3 years. However, he was quite knowledgeable and a good and courteous driver as well, honking at every tight switchback and giving way to the uphill drivers. The roads are single lane for the most part with lay-bys to accommodate some of the extreme twists and, of course, since this is a British Dependent Territory, the folks drive on the wrong side of the road.

As we were driven towards Longwood, Napoleon’s home on the island, Vernon pointed out the oldest Anglican Church in the Southern Hemisphere (St. James Church) as well as the oldest public library in that part of the world. He also stopped so that we could overlook the little valley where The Briars and its Pavilion still stand today.

The Pavilion was the first place Napoleon stayed on the island while Longwood was being readied for him. Because of the host family’s generosity and friendship, his stay there seems to have been his happiest time on the island. The house and Pavilion are green with corrugated tin roofs and the little cove is pleasant and green. Looming over the area at the south end of the enclosing walls is “Heart­Shaped Falls” which is completely dry at this time of year. We had left downtown Jamestown (the only town on the island) by Napoleon Street as we headed up and up towards Longwood. The flowers were gay and vibrant and most of them well known to us such as the hibiscus, bougainvillea, lantana, jacaranda, agapanthus, crotons, iris, poinsettia, and portulaca. On these tiny specks in the South Atlantic, the flowers and plants are brave and insistent in their colors. Nearly every house was decorated and enlivened with this happy fact, but the houses themselves were also attractive and well kept. Though many of the buildings are quite old, most of them have been remodeled out of necessity because of the invasion of termites from Brazil (via a captured and salvaged slave ship in the 1840s) which took out the wooden portions of the buildings.

As we climbed the 3 miles from Jamestown to Longwood, Vernon showed us the elementary school and told us about the secondary school which is “on the other side of the country”. We were amused by this terminology in referring to this tiny spot of earth surrounded by the most surreal cobalt blue sea. The teenagers are

bussed across to the other side. He did not consider himself a Napoleon authority and did not answer questions on that topic but told us to wait til we got to the house where the official guides would be available.

On reaching Longwood, Vernon parked on a grassy sward next to the Longwood Gate.

We went through the gate into the garden and had our first look at the house (prison) where the Emperor of France spent his last six years of life. The garden showed the terracing which Napoleon himself had planned so that there would be various levels to his garden. There were purple and white agapanthuses blooming as well as royal iris. Several Norfolk pines shade the grounds and there are two trees which have been here since Napoleon’s own time on the island. We never did get the names of the trees but they looked like cedars of some sort and leaned away from the prevailing winds.

Longwood House is larger than we had anticipated from our pre-visit reading. The property is now part of La Belle France which is also responsible for upkeep of the house and grounds. The house appears to be in good repair and is a beige-white stucco. The concrete steps leading to the front entrance are said to be the very ones that Napoleon himself walked up and down every time he entered and departed from the house. The plan of the house is a T-shape with three rooms set in shotgun fashion before the arms of the T are reached and rooms stretch out in both directions from the mast of the T. The first room contains the two globes by the front door and the billiards table which Napoleon used as a table for his maps, sketches, and manuscripts as he wrote and dictated his memoirs and descriptions of his battle plans and strategies and analyses of how they were carried out. Ironically, he never played billiards and the table ultimately became his autopsy table. It was covered with a white sheet on our visit.

There are pictures of the Emperor both alive and in death on the walls and some of them are quite movingly depicted. The walls were a brilliant Irish yellow-green as they had apparently been in Napoleon’s day with a geometric border at the top. The next room contained the bed on which Napoleon died. The bed was moved into this room when he was in the last weeks of his terminal illness. The wallpaper here was white with a green double-diamond pattern fairly widely spaced. The bed was surprising in its smallness, but the guide told us that it wasn’t because Napoleon was so short, but that all beds during that time were short because folks did not sleep flat; instead they propped themselves up on many pillows so that only the leg length really needed to be accommodated, not the torso and head. In this room there was also a copy of the death mask done by the Italian physician who last attended the Emperor.

Our guide addressed the many theories and controversies surrounding the death of Napoleon at the comparatively young age of 52. He said that the idea of his having been poisoned by arsenic is not considered acceptable for several reasons: first, cosmetics and wallpaper and pastes contained arsenic at that time; second,

hair was preserved as a keepsake routinely and it was placed in arsenic solutions for longtime preservation; third, the autopsy had revealed stomach and intestinal “ulcers” which are believed to be cancers since that disease seemed to be a family heritage: Napoleon’s mother and father, two brothers, and two sisters also died of stomach cancer; fourth, there was no physical way that Napoleon could have been poisoned in the last days of his life because he could neither eat nor drink and he would have had to have taken in at least 50 doses over three days to produce death. Therefore, the Saints do not accept the conspiracy theory of Napoleon’s death.

The dining room was next on the visit and it was covered with a reproduction of the original red and gold wallpaper from Napoleon’s own day. Several chairs, candlesticks, busts of family members, and pictures were said to be Napoleon’s own possessions and left behind after his death and even when his body was returned to France. It seemed eerie and not a little sad to be wandering among the belongings and within the walls where the man spent his last days. It’s a human condition that we seem to be more affected by the fall of the mighty than by other tragedies.

Once outside again, the young Saint gentleman with a lovely accent told us that the British paranoia about Napoleon’s possible escape was understandable since during those days thousands of ships visited St. Helena because they had no choice when traveling between India and Europe or between South America and Europe because they must get fresh water and supplies from the island. Any of those ships could have brought rescue and/or trouble with them.

We were next taken to the little grassy walk down to Napoleon’s tomb site. Of course, he is no longer there but the land is again considered French territory and the gravesite is maintained with flowers, an iron fence enclosing the slab which has no writing on it and the French flag flutters in the breeze above it.

The site is the place Napoleon chose for his final resting place in the Sane Valley and it is quite a lovely grotto in the surrounding mountains and valleys. It is protected from the incessant winds which blow across the Longwood site so perhaps it seemed more restful to the Emperor.

The walk to and from the gravesite was a good leg stretcher to get us ready for the Jacob’s ladder descent.

Vernon drove us down one cliff and up another of at least a 15% grade to reach the top of the Ladder. The ladder consists of 700 steps. It was constructed by the Royal Marines in 1829 to facilitate the transfer of manure up out of Jamestown and to connect the part of the little city on the heights with the section at the beach level.

Each step is 11 inches high and there are banisters on both sides of the concrete stair steps. The views of the town, the harbor, the heights above the town, and the sea beyond were quite spectacular since the ladder descends a bare cliff face with no impediments to the views. The walk down took about 15 minutes and on reaching the bottom right next to the toilets and the Museum, we realized how rubbery legged we were. It took a few steps and some stretches for the legs to feel at all normal.

We searched out the tourist shop, the arts and crafts store, and residential areas trying to stay on our feet because we knew that immediate sitting down would not be good at all. We were searching, in vain, as it turned out, for copies of the some of the beautiful etchings of Longwood we had seen at the house where none was for sale. We had thought that one of those would have made a terrific addition to the travel wall, but there were none to be found in the whole city. Finally, we did go into the Wellington Hotel for our promised refreshments since we knew that our legs were now ready for a rest and we needed some nutrition. We were served cold fruit juices and some little tartlets, which were quite tasty.

Now it was time to go to the harbor area and watch the wonderful bird activity there. The fairy terns were enchanting pure white with a black eye and a black bill. They are a smallish tern that flies like a butterfly fluttering its way everywhere. The face is so innocent and pure that it tugs at your heart. What lovely little birds with such a strange nonchalance about their reproductive lives. They perform beautiful “nuptial” flights together and then the female will often lay the egg in an indentation on a twig!

The melodious songs of the transplanted Mynah birds were ever-present in the town and in the country areas of the island. They are a handsome little bird that looks somewhat like our mockingbirds in flight since it has bars across its wings in a similar pattern. However, the song is much more various than our feathered neighbor’s. And, apparently, the mynah can be taught to mimic human speech like a parrot. The little city of Jamestown was charming and had much more character than Ascension’s Georgetown. It’s older, of course, which helps give it a flavor filled with its own history.

The buildings such as the Castle where government activities take place and the churches and the hotels are also of an earlier vintage. Indeed, St. James Church calls itself the “oldest Anglican church south of the Equator (dating from 1774). The little square is pleasant and breeze-filled so that the interesting looking people can enjoy the benches and their conversations comfortably. The people themselves are a mix of many genetic strains: British, Chinese, Africans, Portuguese, Indians, and even some Scandinavians. The skin tones range from quite black to quite white and all gradations in between.

St. James Church

However, nothing is made of these racial overtones among the people apparently. They are all just “saints.” If that is really so, then perhaps St. Helena is really the paradise that the saints claim that it to be.: With its hospitable climate, lovely scenery, no snakes or harmful creatures (other than the introduced rats and termites), beautiful flowers, no crime, and friendly and unprejudiced people who have assimilated all nations and settled in this tiny speck in the wide Atlantic Ocean. During afternoon tea, we had a huge treat - hundreds of Striped Dolphins were porpoising alongside both port and starboard of the ship. They stuck with us for quite a long time, long enough for Kay to get some excellent and impressive pictures of their antics and for Patricia to win an argument with Craig over what kind of dolphins they were. We ended with a roomful of people looking at Kay’s pictures and exclaiming over them. Everyone wants them to be shown at Recap and lots of folks want copies of them.

ThreeDaysatSea

Day One (20 20 S and 07 05 W) air temp 70 and sea temp 68, Beaufort 5 We surely knew this morning that we had walked down Jacob’s Ladder yesterday! Our legs were sore both to touch and to movement. My arms and shoulders were also achy. Dan had calculated that we had descended the equivalent of a 70 story building and this morning, before stretching, we wouldn’t have quarreled with him!

However, we drug ourselves to Gabor’s torture session and found that it actually helped a bit to stretch those poor muscles. However, they shortened up every time we sat down for even a few minutes.

John had warned us last night that at 10 AM we would hear alarm bells and orders from the bridge about a fire on the ship and even an abandon ship order. It would be a mandatory drill for the crew and we were to ignore it and just stay out of everyone’s way while they went through their paces. Even with warning, it is very unnerving to hear all those sharp and persistent bells. I wrote yesterday’s diary through the whole thing and tried to ignore it as much as possible.

Our 11 o’clock entertainment today was the long lost (since the first day at sea) video of the National Geographic’s “Ocean Drifters”. It was excellent but very gloomy at the end as it outlined all the garbage and detritus from ships, shores, and humans in general that ends up in the ocean waters and endangers the lives of all the creatures of the deep.

The film was made in 1993 and it is hard to believe that much progress has been made in preventing all this mayhem. Now we know too that there is an added element of danger to the creatures and plants of sea: all our chemicals and medicines eventually find their way into the oceans as well. These programs really are preaching to the choir and it surely does shake the faith of the choir members as to whether inevitable doom is upon the planet or whether we should continue to work and hope for improvement!

Sketch class took place in the Leda Lounge and we showed what we had done with our assignment of sketching flowers or pinecones. Some of the members of the group really have shone astonishing skills and improvement on skills they brought to class. MJ is pleased with all the enthusiasm and work she sees going on around her.

Our homework for tomorrow is to draw something upside down and to use the watercolor on the gray paper she gave us for at least two studies. This lady is a slave driver for sure. We wish that class were every two days instead of every day. John completed the slide show of his circumnavigation of Africa this year and the pictures are intriguing.

He is a good photographer and narrator as well. The trip took 2½ months which seems a bit too long for me. Also, some of the places they visited look pretty poverty-stricken and sad. He told us that the most pirate activity in the world is around the Horn of Africa and they had to pass that way just one day after a cargo ship had been attacked. No problem for the cruise ship however.

Roger used Kay’s excellent striped dolphin pictures at Recap tonight to discuss the behaviors and distributions of some of these animals in the world’s oceans. All the passengers were very impressed with Kay’s pictures and with the technology that allowed us to view them in the Leda Lounge.

We had dinner at separate tables tonight and seemed to get along just fine with the folks we joined. Only problem was both groups sat around talking longer than we would have preferred. Went to bed with gently rocking seas, sore legs and warning bells in our ears about how it would be calm in the morning but begin to be more rocky and bouncy as the afternoon progressed.

Day Two (S 26 06 and W 08 47) sea slight, air temp 70, Beaufort 3

Legs still sore today, oh woe. However, we did not use that as an excuse to skip our stretch class. Luckily, Gabor went through exercises, which helped to ease the aching in the very muscles we were complaining about. So we left the aft deck feeling a little looser and went off to breakfast.

We spent the morning getting cleaned up ourselves, putting together a laundry load, and finishing up our upside down pictures: Kay’s of a foo dog on the cover of her book on Imperial China and Lois’ a copy of the sketch of Plantation House in the St. Helena Quincentenaries’ Booklet. Both were quite time consuming and we really had not finished them when it was time to go to Clyde’s lecture on Bioluminescence.

He presented some interesting slides of invertebrates that have this particular facility and also discussed some of the findings he had made during his researches into this subject.

After lunch, we went to sketch class and got a new assignment studies in perspective. Though it seemed simple as MJ presented it, I think that actually carrying it out will be another story. MJ was also the presenter of the 4 PM lecture program. She covered some science illustrations she had done for three different explorations and researches done through Woods Hole and the Alvin Submersible. Though she did not go down in the ROV, she was the person who got to gather together all the disparate pictures of the specimens (corals, fish, cephalopods, ocean bottom) and present them in a whole panorama of what the sea bottom really looks like. Her work is excellent and we can certainly see why she is in demand as a science illustrator.

There were antics at the Recap tonight - several of the passengers and naturalists presented a little skit and sing along based on “Glow Little Glow Worm” inspired of course by Clyde’s talk on bioluminescence. We all got a good laugh from their foolishness and were impressed that anyone knew all the words to that silly ditty.

Now we are going to try the film “Fitzcarraldo.” Such a strange but nonetheless mesmerizing movie! Finally remember its companion piece “Burden of Dreams.”

Day Three (W 30 54 S 10 36) temp 70F and sea temp 60F, Beaufort 4

It’s really quite lovely this morning - warm, sunny and breezy with an irenic sea beneath our ship.

Exercise this time was interrupted by two sightings: sperm whales spouting on the starboard side, with their spouts producing the 45-degree angle special only to that species and two fellow travelers on the sea - a tanker and a container ship, both bound to round the Cape of Good Hope. The whales were the most marvelous - so huge and long. Kay got excellent pictures of them and we think we may have even seen sucker marks from the giant squid on one large body. Clyde came later in the

day and saw the pictures but he felt that the single ring marking made it unlikely that it was an architeuthis (giant squid). Those usually present themselves in pairs at the very least. He thought it was more likely a parasite of some type on the whale’s skin.

We have decided to keep the day for ourselves and have refrained from attending any of the lectures or other activities, instead amusing ourselves in our cabin with reading and research, and enjoying the ocean views. We skipped a video on Longitude, a lecture, and dinner; We’re just really wearied by too much food over too long a suppertime.

At lunchtime, we saw “Spectacled Petrels” and Kay got some excellent pictures of this quite endangered bird. Later on at Recap, Marco told us just how “on the edge” these Tristan birds are. In 1938, they were down to 6 breeding pairs! Today they are at 1000 breeding pairs but that does not get them off the critical list. The biggest threat they face today is long line fishing that, of course, also imperils so many of the seabirds. This bird has large bluish eye rings, which gives him the “Harry Potter” look.

Afternoon tea was our supper so we had a crustless sandwich and two cookies. We each took a piece of crumb cake back to the cabin so we could snack if we got hungry. We luxuriated in our own time and kept “appreciating” what time it was at intervals when we realized that we would still be at supper. At 9:30, we were tired of reading since holding your book steady enough to see the letters does grow wearying on a ship that is bouncing like a tennis ball. So we elected to watch the NOVA program on Longitude based on Dava Sobel’s book which we had both read. The story of John Harrison’s 40+-year struggle to solve the problem of longitude at sea is still a gripping one and it was well done by NOVA.

After the program, we decided to get into the never-still beds and try to read a little longer before going to sleep. Tomorrow we should wake up at Tristan da Cunha.

BritishOverseasTerritory-TristandaCunha

We were not quite at Tristan when we woke up at 6:45 AM but at 7 John came on and told us we were within about 30 - 45 minutes of the island. We went ahead and got dressed for breakfast since it was obvious that there would not be an 8 AM embarkation. So we considered the question of which place is the remotest in the inhabited world. Both St Helena and Tristan claim that appellation and both seem to have good reasons to do so, but it seemed to us that Tristan probably has the strongest evidence. Only 300 people live here and in 1961 when all had to be evacuated from the island due to volcanic activity, all but 4 elected to return to the island 2 years later after it had been determined that it was safe for them to do so. The mileage between St. Helena and Tristan is 1343 miles.

Our skies this morning are definitely “cubierto” or “nublado” and the sea swells seem to be too high for safe Zodiac landings. It was discouraging to think about the fact that only about 50 Zodiac landings are possible each year! The birds are flying about in front and alongside the ship and Kay is enjoying taking pictures. John announced that it is considered unsafe to launch Zodiacs right now and that conditions will be assessed again at 9:30 AM. The sky has lifted a little since this morning but it is difficult for us lay folks to determine what makes landing safe or unsafe. So we hope that we are in conscientious and conservative hands.

What a miracle - the sea conditions moderated sufficiently for us to make it to the island and it was a terrific visit! Even though there were big swells and the Tristan landing is known to be treacherous, our fellows were able to make the visit happen. Several people opted to stay on board because John emphasized that the whole process would be dangerous. To minimize the peril, the captain demanded that only 7 passengers should be carried per Zodiac. We also used the Marina Deck rather than the side gate for the disembarkation and for reboarding the Orion.

While we waited for our turn to get aboard, we watched all the birds in the anchorage area. Kay was taking pictures wildly but effectively. We saw Arctic Terns in winter plumage and Antarctic terns in summer feathers.

What handsome birds both species are with their smart black caps and short, full wings, diving into the water heads first on their hunting expeditions.

We also saw Yellow-Nosed Albatross skimming across the waters and they had the same wonderful eyebrows as all the other albatross we have seen in our travels. The Orion was anchored about 300-400 yards offshore of the island but more challenging than even that fact is the approach to Tristan. The Zodiac travels in and then enters a two-sided breakwater area where the sea is only a little calmer and then must make a 90-degree right turn into the quay, sidle up to the landing site and get itself tied up properly so that the Zodiac doesn’t tip over as the swells come in. The swells can be 3-5 meters high which makes getting on and off the Zodiacs treacherous except for the wonderful AB seamen who are strong and sure-footed. They often actually “lift” us out of danger.

From the decks of the Orion and on the Zodiacs as well we could see what a forbidding looking place Tristan is except for the tiny soft green stretch where Edinburgh of the Seven Seas sits. For us, the central mountains and the volcano looked short because their tops were just insubstantial clouds of fog and rain. The lower slopes were rugged, cindery, and sported several colors.

The town spread out before us with its colorful small houses cast about the greensward. It was hard to believe that our own neighborhood of St. Nicholas was bigger than this whole country - in population and area. We have 312 houses and Tristan has just 317 inhabitants. The green sod and lava rock fences made us think of Ireland (of course the constant misting did nothing to dispel this impression either). From the boats, the soil looked thick and rich and that turned out to be so in town and at the “potato patches” but certainly not deep enough to produce peat. Besides, this volcanic island has probably not been above the surface of the sea long enough to form peat. As we wandered the streets of little Edinburgh of the Seven Seas, we saw the cows and their calves, the sheep and chickens, as well as dogs which all looked as if they had descended from one “Eve” mother dog.

The people are shy but not unfriendly. If you speak to them, they will readily answer and will willingly supply information you request. They do not look as ethnically mixed as the Saints did, but they do appear to have Portuguese and English forebears. Some of the people we talked with (like Stan the Harbor Master) looked quite handsome and Hispanic. Others looked like “John Bull” himself just transported from a street in London. There are about 40 children on the island and they go to school from primary school through the A-levels; after that, if they want further education, they must go to the UK. We learned too that these people must be pretty self-sufficient since their supply ship visits only in January though other ships do bring supplies irregularly from other parts of the world.

The great concrete black “jacks” that create the breakwater for the landing quay are made right here on the island. They weigh about 3 tons and are created by welding metal sheets into a T-shaped form. Then that form is put into a mold and concrete is poured in around the form. In about 34-36 hours, the concrete hardens and then the great barriers can be placed on the breakwater to shore it up. The lifting here is done by a crane that was brought to the island in pieces. About 30 of these forms are made each year to insure that the breakwater stays in good repair.

We walked up a short embankment to reach the town and first had our pictures taken with the signs denoting how far Tristan is from everywhere else in the world: such figures given as 5900 miles to Oslo, 5l00 miles to Cardiff, 22 miles to Nightingale Island, and with the sign welcoming us to the remotest inhabited place in the world. Then we headed into the small museum store which the good folks had opened for us even though it is Sunday (Pearl Harbor Day).

Flowers were blooming all over Edinburgh - lilies, nasturtiums, hydrangea, and geraniums. We walked through the mist, enjoying the sights around us; particularly amusing was a “bus stop” sign along the road out of town where a concrete bench sat beside a sign straight off a London street. We thought we would walk out of the city for about an hour to see the scenery out towards the potato patches, but we had not gotten very far when we were rescued from our folly.

Stan, the Harbor Master, had Joe and Marilyn with him and was taking them out to the patches. They asked if we would like to go along and we readily assented since the little truck had plenty of room for us. We would never have made it very far along the single-lane asphalt covered road out to the patches on our own. It was jsu too far away.

As it was, we got to see marvelous scenery on the way. The mist curtain still masked the tops of the mountains, but we could see magnificent green “alluvial fans” coming down from the slopes. Instead of being composed of scree and clinker, the grasses had climbed up these fans and created a soft pure green carpet cascading down the slopes.

We saw more cows, burros, and sheep, not to mention all the ducks and chickens in this rural area. The people have built low triangular huts for their seed potatoes and also small “vacation” huts so that they can stay out in the patches a couple of days to work in the fields rather than having to walk out every single day. Stan told us that they can grow just about anything they want other than watermelons such as lettuce, broccoli, beans, asparagus, cabbages, greens, carrots and of course potatoes!

Tristan da Cunha is one great volcano poking its head to a height of 6670 feet above sea level at Queen Mary’s Peak. It’s not on the Mid-Atlantic Ridge but is rather a surface expression of a deep-seated hot spot some 400 km east of the ridge. Hot spots, such as this and the Hawaiian Islands, receive magma from deep in the earth’s mantle.

In 1961, the Settlement on the northwestern plain was threatened by an eruption that destroyed the crawfish factory and the island’s two best landing beaches. The entire population was evacuated to England. They stayed in the UK for two years until scientists determined that there was no danger to the inhabitable part of the island. Then all but a few people elected to return to their island home. The stress of living in a city like London or even in other places in the UK was just too much. They preferred the peace, quiet, unhurried pace, lack of crime, and sense of community they enjoy on their own paradise.

Back in the little town center, we walked about looking at the houses and heading out towards the cinder cone. However, we had insufficient time to try to climb up it for some views of the coastline.

We explored the schoolyard and saw the town’s cemetery in addition to the church, rectory, and residence of the Governor of Tristan. People responded with friendly greetings as we passed and we could see the relaxed and unstressed attitude of the island folk

School Zone - How could anyone not know?

We had been asked to be back at the quay at 12:20 and we were there. However, we waited a little longer until the second to last Zodiac back to the Orion. We were seven passengers and one driver and the swells had increased considerably since we left the ship for the island. Getting the Zodiac properly positioned at the Marina deck required three passes and even then getting off the rubber raft and back on deck was not easy as the swells propelled the ship’s fantail up into the air high above the Zodiac.

That was scary indeed and we couldn’t figure out why the Zodiacs didn’t throw us out the far side as the side tethered to the ship rose up with the Orion. But thank goodness that did not happen and we got back on board safely. A couple of the Zodiacs apparently had some problems getting fouled with seaweed, the first we have seen since we left the Cape Verdes. Actually, Meryl told us at Recap, that this was kelp; but we were just as happy not to have made a closer acquaintance with it. At about 3 o’clock, we had a “sail by” of Nightingale Island about 22 miles south of Tristan. Here, millions of seabirds nest and raise their young in this highest part of the Southern Ocean and across the sub Antarctic convergence.

We saw thousands of Great Shearwaters spread out over the ocean’s surface bobbing along together. They did a couple of little running steps and then took off into the air. We also saw several Southern Giant Petrels, Skuas, Sooty Albatross, and Common Diving Petrels. Though it continued to rain on our heads, we were out on deck with Roger, Meryl, Marco, and Patricia trying to identify the many birds enjoying the updrafts created by the ship so that they could soar and dip and hover without any energy cost, according to Marco.

At dinner tonight we ate only the appetizer and soup so that we were not at the meal for 2 ½ hours. We ate with Roger and Meryl since that’s all they wanted as well. Others are getting tired of the huge suppers that take so long to be served and consumed. It is not through lack of efficiency on the galley’s part, but simply that so many people have to be fed 4 complete courses and it just takes time to get it all done and eaten.

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FourDaysofHighSeas

Day One (S 40 25 and W16 17) Beaufort 5-6, sea state 5, 59F air, 55F sea

Sea day today with a light chop but not enough to upset anyone. They are warning us that this afternoon and tomorrow will be the worst days of the crossing. We decided just to take the day to ourselves, except that we would do our penguin studies for sketch class.

Stretch class was more fun than usual because it was interrupted every few minutes by a marvelous wandering albatross who played with us. She would swoop out from the rear of the ship and then just hang over our little class as though amused by the activities of these crazy beings on the deck. Her control in the strong winds was a miracle to behold because she could hover over us with as much precision as a hummingbird. But then she could also veer off with the shearing winds and disappear from our view almost immediately. Every time she flirted with us, Gabor and Kay would grab their cameras and try to capture her up close. So our exercises were performed with less dedication and focus than usual. However, how often do you get such wonderful close looks right into an albatross’s eye? While I tried to finish the Trollope book “How We Live Now,” Kay went to the fantail for a while longer to try for even better pictures of the birds who were riding our updrafts and playing in the wind. Then she returned to the room and we began our second and third penguin studies from photographs in a book on Antarctica, which she brought with her from the library. We used watercolors, pastel pencils, ink sketch pens, and pencils in the creation of our portraits of Gentoo and Chinstraps. When we finished, we were pretty well satisfied with them and knew that we could attend class without the embarrassment of students who didn’t do their homework.

MJ showed us the same series of sketches by members of her Natural Science Illustrators Guild that she had shown at the beginning of the voyage to get folks interested in her class. It was fascinating to look at them again and realize that we really had learned quite a bit about techniques and methods of sketching. So even if we are never very good ourselves, we will be able to “appreciate” talent more than before.

Spent the rest of the afternoon reading and resting and watching the weather deteriorate. We enjoyed another slimmer supper, this time with Juanita, Mary, and Jackie. Back in the room, we tried to batten down the hatches by picking up all the loose things in the room, lash the furniture together more securely, clear all surfaces, put away everything in the bathroom, and generally get ready for a bad night.

Day Two (S 43 53 and W20 18), Beaufort 9-10, wind speeds 50-65 with gusts to 75,

Seas very rough

What a night! This may have been worse than our worst night on the Hanseatic. Neither of us remembered sleeping very much but we did recall clinging to the mattress in an effort to stay in the bed. Several times the ship’s falling down a wave slope left us in the air. The furniture we had lashed together came apart and we were chasing the glass table to keep it from crashing into the glass sliding doors onto our balcony. Pencils and water bottles which we had forgotten to secure found ways to make noise as they rolled about the floor of the cabin. The ceiling snapped and clicked, the winds moaned as did the engine. The bathroom had a song of its own - something clattered along the tiles running from one end of the bathroom to the other; it sounded like a piece of glass or a pipe or screwdriver.

Anyway, I got up and had a look but couldn’t see what was skittering along. It persisted as the waves grew higher and boat rocked harder so Kay got up and she could see nothing either. We both decided that it was something actually under the tile floor. Maybe a workman left a tool or perhaps a piece of piping had come loose or been left behind. Finally it sounded like it lodged at one end of the bathroom and we have not heard from it since. At 7:15 AM, after no real sleep, John came on the PA and told us what we already knew - that we were in very heavy seas. He said the captain had asked that everyone stay in his room and try to keep as safe as possible there. No falling around. For about a minute or perhaps 90 seconds there was the ominous sound of silence - no engine noise.

About twenty minutes later, John came back on the PA to tell us that the main engine had cut itself off and that the auxiliary engines had immediately come on. However, since they are not nearly as powerful, the stabilizers do not work as well. So that’s when we were experiencing the really enormous rises and falls of the ship. Luckily, the chief engineer got the main engine running again in less than 20 minutes for which we were all grateful.

The seas continued to run extremely heavy and lots of folks did not feel well. The kitchen staff had made the usual breakfast for us but the huge swells caused a near catastrophe because everything fell on the floor - food, glasses, silverware, fruit juices, everything making a tremendous mess there. When the captain decided that the conditions had improved enough for us to have breakfast, it was served in the Leda Lounge and consisted of yogurt, breads, and bottled juices. Really that was probably more than enough for the nervous stomachs on board.

At 10 AM John held a reading of “The White Seal”: from Rudyard Kipling’s Jungle Book up in the Leda Lounge. We had a couple of chairs turnover with people in them and apparently, that had happened at breakfast too. I was glad that I had chosen to sit in the banquette seats. The story is charming and John read it well. So different though because it has nothing to do with the jungle creatures written about in the other stories. Kay slept during this time because she was not feeling very well and had not gotten good sleep last night.

We watched the TV in our own room at 11 AM to see the story of the kelp forests in the seas. The attraction there of course is the wonderful sea otters. The video Included enchanting pictures of sea otters both floating on top of the water anchored to the kelp leaves and exploring the sea bottom for food.

Lunch was in the regular dining room but it was sandwiches and cookies only. That was also plenty of food as well and then we returned to our room as the captain and John suggested. This was a rest day and a “take it easy” day for sure. Later on tea was offered in the Leda Lounge and they had some wonderful chewy chocolate cookies. More reading, sleeping and then showering as the weather conditions improved and the seas became less mountainous.

We went to Recap at 7 when John told us what had happened with the engine this morning. Apparently, there are controls to run the ship on the aft deck and during the night with all the water flowing, splashing, and pounding the panels, moisture got into the works and shorted them out. Hence, the main engine cut out and, reassuringly, the auxiliary engines came right on. We detect here a “design flaw” since it seems inevitable that the ocean will often come sloshing and splashing on board at the rear of the ship and hit those control panels. It didn’t take the chief engineer long to figure out the problem and fix it (less than 15 minutes) so that was comforting too.

Then it was off to supper at 7:30, eating with Alan, MJ, and Jackie. It was a nice dinner group and we ate salad and pasta with chocolate chip ice cream for dessert. Now we are back in our room and we will be watching “Blast“ which we brought from Kathy and John‘s. Now that we back in the cabin, it seems like the seas have gotten rougher again! Oh joy, just in time to try to sleep.

Day Three (W 24 28 and S 47 06) Beaufort 2-3, air temp 52F and sea 46F

The night turned out to be just fine - we slept so very well after having not slept at all the night before. It stayed calm and peaceful until the early dawn at (4:43 AM) when the seas were flat. So we had a good day because the storm was now behind us and that meant we had following seas and following winds. Much better sailing conditions.

We had stretch class in the Leda Lounge and it worked out all right even though we were not able to get down on the floor. Outside it was rainy and colder than we’ve been used to so the Lounge was a good alternative.

We did some bird watching with Marco and Roger after stretching. Saw some White-Chinned Petrels, some Light-Mantled Albatross, Sooty Albatross, and Prions of various types. It was cold enough to wear jackets and headgear. Sincethe seas were fairly flat at that time and the winds were down, there weren’t as many birds as we had seen on the really rough day.

Finished “The Eyre Affair” between bird watching and lunch. Then we went to sketch class to practice drawing penguin figures based on some examples that MJ provided. At 2:45, John and Craig presented the IAATO rules for tourist conduct in Antarctica. Things like how far people should stay from the wildlife, about leaving nothing behind on the land, about not collecting anything from the land like pebbles or feathers or bones.

The next activity was Clyde’s talk on squid fisheries and recipes too. Nothing that he suggested sounded tempting to me however - either cooked or raw, garlicked, or otherwise seasoned. However, he did teach us that cephalopod catches have gone up as the catches for finfish have gone down all over the world.

We had a good French dinner tonight and ate with Dan, Rhea, Joe and Marilynexcept for the part of the conversation that had to do with the engine stoppage and the storms and foul weather, it was an entertaining evening. Now we’re in the cabin watching “All About Eve” and hoping that the seas get no worse than right now.

Day Four (47 31 S and 25 16 W) Beaufort 1, 41F air temp, calm seas

The seas calmed down last night right after we went to bed and we had another good night’s sleep until 6 AM when the morning light came streaming in, reflected as it was off an iceberg out our window. It was fairly far away but we could still see its wonderful blue colors and the multitudes of striations or layers in the ice. So we have been hoping for the best and continuing with our activities. We did our stretching outside again this morning and though it was chilly it felt good to be outside on the deck over a calm and gentle sea.

They were showing another Shackleton film in the Cosmos Lecture Hall but we decided not to see it again, but instead did some reading in the room and some photographing out on deck. There are many birds flying around us today and this morning we even saw penguins porpoising through the waves fairly close to the ship! Couldn’t tell what kind they were but every one of us out there knew that they were penguins and not seabirds.

Alan gave a lecture titled “Breeding Birds of South Georgia” but he really covered the questions of speciation in these birds and how the taxonomists are attempting to label something that is in flux all the time.

More reading, photography, picture manipulating and ocean-gazing carried us through to the 4 o’clock penguin lecture by Patricia. She did an excellent job of describing the varieties of penguins we would be seeing and discussing details of their physiology and adaptations to their habitats. She gave facts and figures on their sizes, diving depth capacities, and breeding and fledging chicks. She had been very nervous because of her English but we all thought she did a marvelous job and that her command of English was more than adequate. She can even make jokes and funny comments in English and though she told us later that she has millions of thoughts about the penguins in her mind she was frustrated at her inability to express the ones she wants to use. Anyone who has ever tried to speak a foreign language would have to be sympathetic to that difficulty. At any rate, she made a nice presentation and explained things well.

At tea this afternoon, John gave us a preview of our landing tomorrow in South Georgia at Grytviken. This whaling station was founded in 1905 by Captain Larsen (a Swedish sea captain). Unfortunately, it was probably the most “successful” of the Antarctic stations in terms of the numbers of whales processed here. The crews became so efficient that they could completely flense a whale in 20 minutes.

Sounds like we will get a beach landing a little away from the Museum area since the dock we used last year must have gotten rickety over the year and a half. Sounds like we are going to get the full 4 days on the island and will be visiting the wonderful Gold Harbor among all the other places. We shall be hoping for calm seas and no swells to speak of. No mention of our favorite place, Salisbury Plain, however.

SouthGeorgia

DAY 1-GRYTVIKEN

Woke up at 5:15 AM after a restful night without even any nightmares or anxiety dreams. Read until Kay woke up at 6 and then we opened the door and found the long awaited email from Kathy telling us that Johnny had come through his surgery well and that she was at home. Now we are awaiting an update, which she said she would try to send today.

We were steaming along towards South Georgia when we got up into the Leda Lounge and our projected anchoring time in Grytviken was 7 AM. We pretty much made it on time too. The authorities came aboard and began processing the ship and passengers promptly. From the decks we could see some amazing changes. King Edward Point appeared to have some more buildings though we couldn’t really say how many. King Edward Point (also known as KEP) is a promontory and settlement with port facilities (wharf) on the northeastern coast of the island of South Georgia. It is located at 54°17′S 36°30′W in Cumberland East Bay It is just below Grytviken at the head of King Edward Cove.

There was a large T-shaped modular building next to the whaling station tanks, which had certainly not been there before. It houses the workers who are involved in the asbestos abatement program, anywhere from 30-45 at the time. They are apparently stripping the asbestos from the derelict buildings but they also seem to be trying to remove big piles of earth as well - whether they are turning it over or actually removing it, we couldn’t tell. Turns out that they are not removing earth, but are digging enormous trenches to bury the metal debris that will be left over. But lots of work is going on all around the station. There are no buildings, which you can visit actually connected with the station but I don’t really recall that we could before either. However, we could wander among the buildings in February 2002. Our observer told us that there will be no buildings left when the work is completed because they cannot allow the asbestos to blow about in a gale as the buildings deteriorate since that would be devastating not only to the people living here but also to the wildlife.

It turns out that South George Government is actually paying for this work itself through the fisheries licenses and the cruise ship anchorage fees as well as tourist spending. It’s really a huge undertaking for them and is expected to last about 2 years before the project is over. We wonder what about Stromness - does it need to be demolished as well? Or the other whaling stations around the island?

From the deck we also spotted three King Penguins toddling down the hill from the Cemetery towards to sea. They were walking with dignity and decorum as is their wont but they never went into the water. Once we were on the land with them we saw why - they were molting and they do not enter the water in that state. We could also clearly see lots of “boulders” strewn about the beaches and lying in the shallow water next to shore. Of course, it was surprising when one of these enormous stones changed its position. So we knew at once that they were the elephant seals!

The Zodiac transfers on both ends were easily done and we found ourselves in the “town” by 9 or so. We started out immediately for the Cemetery hoping to get there before the rest of the passengers made it there. The only person we did not outrun was Elly and we waited for her when we saw her hot on our trail. There were a few Fur Seals lying about among the Elephant Seals but no one paid us much attention

except for one young fellow who made a desultory run at us from far away and was easily dissuaded. The elephant seals just eyed us with their enormous liquid brown eyes and otherwise ignored us unless we had to walk very close to them due to their lying in the pathway. The “trail” out was quite mushy in places and our boots proved themselves to be waterproof and to have good tread. Only problem is that the muddy soil wants to pull the boots right off your feet! We had forgotten that it’s a pretty good hike around to the Cemetery but we made it in good order and took a couple of pictures and listened to the burbling bellies of the elephant seals and the “arfing” of a couple of young fur seals, one of which cried pretty continuously. In addition to these fellows, we also got to see molting king penguins and a few gentoos as well. Some folks said at Recap that they had espied a chinstrap or two as well, but Kay and I did not see them.

Kay helped Susan who was afraid to walk as close to the elephant seals as it was necessary to do in order to reach the graveyard and others seemed relieved that she was accompanying them through the “gauntlet” as well. There were no untoward incidents.

Further along on our trip back from the site, we met Ann and asked if we could get above the harbor a little ways for pictures and she told us we could walk anywhere we wished except where the signs said that the area was closed.

So we climbed the hill behind the church and enjoyed good views of the area from above. We also got a chance to test our new boots for climbing and descending and they have good tread above. We also got a chance to test our new boots for climbing and descending and they have good tread above.

On regaining the “ground floor“, we went into the Norwegian Lutheran Church, erected there in 1913, and saw the charming Xmas decorations. Since there are more folks living on South Georgia now, we are sure the church will be ringing with songs, toasts and prayers both tomorrow on the one-hundredth anniversary of its founding and on the twenty-fifth for Christmas. From the paint on the grasses and mosses on the ground around the Church, we can see that it has been given a new face for the holiday season as well.

The South Georgia Museum called for a revisit as well and we went in to use the facilities, see the enormous wandering albatross and visit the gift shop to buy a Tshirt with the king penguins on it. The museum still impresses with its organization, the specific exhibits with excellent information given, and the dramatic photographs displayed - not to mention the equipment, the models of rooms where whalers lived, the theatre marquee and the room where whale products are exhibited.

To end our visit to Grytviken, we walked along the shore from the Museum over to King Edward Point. They had opened the post office for us since that facility has been moved from the Museum. We saw Pintail Ducks, Antarctic Terns, Blue-Eyed Shags, Fur Seals, and tumbled blobs of Elephant Seals on our way. Needless to say, it was impossible to stay 50 ft. from them because they were lining the pathway all the way. Mostly, they again just rolled their enormous eyes our way and if we seemed just a little too close, they would open their wide bright pink mouths at us.

On getting back to the ship we had 30 minutes before lunch and we were hungry and thirsty! Lunch today was particularly delicious too - sweet and sour chicken and fish (sounds delightful, eh?), fried potatoes and onions. Guess we needed and wanted all those carbs since we had exerted ourselves much more than usual! We wished we dared to get in line for seconds but we did not.

The ship hoisted anchor and we sailed the 19 miles to St. Andrews Bay hoping for a late afternoon excursion among the penguins there, but alas, it was not to be. The swells on the ocean told us that the swells on shore would be excessively big for the Zodiacs. Besides, the ride from the Orion to shore would have been about 10-15 minutes long over some rough seas, which were getting rougher as we waited for the verdict from the scout boat. So we reluctantly left the Bay and headed out into the Southern Ocean where we will be spending the night before trying an early morning landing at Gold Harbour.

Now we are awaiting Recap and our Shackleton dinner. It will be interesting to see what our chef has in store for us to celebrate the Boss! Turned out the food was just our usual fare, described however with Shackleton-related names: like Endurance Crushed (Pineapple with Battida de Coco), Shackleton’s Dream (Beef

Stroganoff), Penguins Round Dance (Grilled Rib Eye Steak), and Ernest Shackleton’s Last Will (Mascarpone Cream with Blueberry Sauce and Eggnog Ice Cream). Everything too good, as usual and we ate too much as usual. We are hopeful that another email will reach us during the night so we can see how Johnny is progressing now. If all goes as planned, he may be going home tomorrow though that seems very hard to believe. Three days in the hospital after such major surgery just seems unreal!

DAY 2–GOLD HARBOUR AND DRYGALSKI FJORD

We looked out at the sea on arising around 5 AM and it was not promising at all for our hoped for landing at Gold Harbour. As the morning wore on, it became ever clearer that we were not going to have a morning excursion among the penguins. We were even truants from stretch class this morning and went to breakfast instead. Such rotten girls! There were free-floating icebergs in the usual anchorage for Gold Harbour which further complicated things for the landing, but the captain sent out a scout boat anyway to make sure that there was no way to land.

The long combers kept rolling in on shore and it was another “no brainer” that the excursion was a “no go”. However, we got good looks through our binoculars in the warmth of our expensive cabin at the wildlife on shore. King penguins stood all over the shore and could be seen up the slopes behind the beaches. There was lots of brown “woolly boollys” (the grown chicks waiting to molt) standing around as well. And we could see a few elephant seals and seabirds among them too.

It is truly overwhelming why these awkward little birds want to climb so high above the shore and then have that terrible trip down and back a couple of times each day. They look so unsteady on their feet and so tiny as they struggle down the steep paths, but the earliest birds choose the highest ground. So there must be some reproductive advantage in that climb.

When we left Gold Harbour, the plan was to move on to the Drygalski Fjord for our sail into that beautiful formation with the hope that we might even get a Zodiac ride there should conditions permit. In the meantime, we went to the Marco and Patricia show: a slide presentation on sea mammals with emphasis on how to tell

the differences between the fur seals (which are actually sea lions) and the other seals. The most obvious difference, of course, is the little ears hanging from the sides of the fur seal heads. The other dramatic difference is their dependence on their thick and lustrous fur for thermal protection and insulation while the other seals put on blubber for their protection from the cold (as do the penguins). The Faveros put on a good show with lots of jokes and plenty of information as well.

The folks who wanted to take a Zodiac ride in the Fjord were asked to eat lunch early and quickly since the plan was to take us out about 1 PM. We reached the entrance to the Fjord as scheduled about noon and the change in the ocean was immediate as soon as we got inside. The water was full of glacial milk so the color was a lovely turquoise even without the sunshine to reveal that shade and there was a very calm surface as well. We all trooped out to the front of the ship to see the glorious scenery all around us. It was cold but not unbearable probably because we had the right gear this time. The face-covers, mittens, and my new parka were all just the ticket. I could stand out on deck with no discomfort whatever.

The Fjord is about 4 miles long, sharply cut into South Georgia’s southeast coast and the walls on both sides are high (probably 1000 ft. or more) and deeply sculptured in basaltic rock, which may or may not have become metamorphic by now. There are tussock grasses growing along the lower slopes and the huge

boulders sitting out in the swells of the sea. There is a considerable amount of kelp in the waters and there is more greenery to be seen on the mountainsides than can be attributed to the tussocks. Green mosses and golden and orange algae are also seen decorating the rocks along the shore. There is pink-red algae growing in the older snow drifts and patches along the shoreline as well.

Several kinds of animals were waiting to welcome us as well. Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins were quite numerous, both playing in the waters with their wonderful porpoising and standing like sentinels on the shore. There were shags (blue-eyed or imperial cormorants) and Antarctic terns flying above us as well.

Some of the shags even sat on boulders watching us roar by with our noisy outboard motor. Weddell Seals were draped along the rocky coast as well as stretched out in the snow patches above the beaches. They hardly let our passage disturb them at all; only occasionally would one lift its head to watch us warily.

The part of the Fjord that we cruised is called the Larsen Arm and we went to its end, which was shaped like a huge cirque. Hanging in the ending horseshoe was a glacier with an enormous translucent blue cave at its foot suggesting that calving might be imminent. We did not get very close to its mouth just in case. Many large and small bergie bits were floating in the fjord as well which made it clear that these large formations do break off and float free. Each one of them is a work of nature’s own art too the colors in the ice are magical and almost incredible. Our Zodiac ride was about an hour and it was a real highlight for Kay and I since we had not enjoyed that experience before.

On coming out of the Fjord, we started back around the South Georgia’s coast, hoping that perhaps conditions at Gold Harbour would have changed enough now to permit a late afternoon landing. From the parade of icebergs lining our way and because of the choppiness of the seas, we did not really believe that it would happen and it did not! However, we greatly enjoyed the passing parade of beautiful icebergs: huge tabular bergs that must have broken off the Antarctic ice shelf and drifted northward weeping their crystalline fresh water into the sea as they rode the ocean currents. Smaller bergs appeared to have calved off the tidal glaciers on South Georgia or perhaps the South Shetlands. But all were majestic in their silent

beauty, their marvelous colors, and fantastic shapes carved by winds and waves. They really did appear to have been lined up like floats in a parade to honor King Neptune in the Southern Ocean.

John talked to us about the Shackleton walk tomorrow and prepared us for an early morning departure and a hike of about 3-4 hours. Kay and I cannot really remember how long it took but we do remember that it was tough, both the climb and the rugged descent. John talked plainly about it and was obviously trying to encourage folks to think about it carefully in the hope that he would discourage folks who should not attempt it. He stressed that there is no turning back once you have committed to make the hike.

Now we are sitting around awaiting evening Recap and then of course another dinner. Sent Sharon another e-mail this afternoon and appealed for some news of Johnny’s progress since we are not hearing anything from Kathy since the day of surgery. Perhaps she will answer us tonight and we will find another message in our door when we get up in the morning.

DAY 3-THE SHACKLETON WALK

Today was the “dream finally realized” hike for many of us on the Orion. Being so completely immersed in the Shackleton story, we were all excited and eager to begin. The ship anchored in Fortuna Bay around 8 and the hikers (about 28 in all counting crew members who joined us) were on the Zodiacs about 8:30 AM. We stood around on a beach full of fur seals and some penguins, waiting for all the hikers to arrive and enjoyed the beautiful blue skies with wonderful cloud formations, sparkling glaciers, gleaming snow patches, arfing seals and honking penguins.

None of the critters seemed too concerned about our visit. At 9 AM everybody had assembled and we started up the tussocky slope following Marco who was “clacking stones” at any of the bull seals who might look in our direction. The way up was much as we remembered, pretty steep over interesting shale rocks which actually look like big pieces of petrified bark. The higher we climbed the more spectacular

the scenery became, opening out into huge valleys and vaulting mountains with glaciers cascading down their sides. The world turned white on black as the snow patches became more numerous over the rocks and up on the dark sides of the basaltic mountains. But overhead the blue of the sky kept the scene bright.

It is impossible on this hike not to be constantly aware of the spirits of Shackleton, Crean and Worley accompanying you. You know the story so well and are so aware of the suffering they had triumphed over to reach this far in their survival story! You can feel their eyes straining to see the outline of Stromness Bay or to pick out the weathered buildings and grim tanks of Stromness itself.

Your senses are heightened and you want to hear the factory whistle start the day’s work. You can sense (though not truly feel) their exhaustion, both physical and emotional, and also understand their growing hope that they were going to prevail after all. When you pass Crean’s Lake on your way up the saddle, you can grasp the fear, horror and utter despair they must have experienced momentarily when Tom Crean broke through the too-thin crust of ice on that little mountain lake. Yet you can also imagine clearly the immense relief they must have felt when they successfully pulled him out of that danger.When you finally crest the saddle and see the steep descent necessary to negotiate, a little of their tiredness creeps into your legs too. Those false summits you climbed as you reached for the crest drained some of your optimism, as it must have robbed some of theirs. But when you finally see the Stromness Bay, its surface glittering like diamonds out in front of you, you can intuit how they mustered their fading reserves and felt their hopes soar. Just knowing that they were finally in the right place must have given them renewed vigor and confidence

Along the way, you also enjoy the less abstract beauties of the landscape, the wildlife, the invigorating breezes, the tiny plants, and the canopy of heaven above you. Even the little pile of Gentoo penguin bones bleached in the austral sun to a dazzling ivory white has a loveliness of its own.

The well- hidden, rich brown skua, predator at the Gentoo rookery, is a marvelous child of nature too as she sits in the tussock grasses waiting, and waiting. The petite pincushions of mosses with the smallest little flowers on them are a bright emerald green that demands your attention among the dead straw-colored tussock blades.

Graceful caribou assembled on a plain-like area near the pewter-hued braided river add their buff color to the palette that nature is using to paint this unforgettable picture.

The honking, busy, toddling, little Gentoo in their black tuxedos with their red bills and pinky- orange feet are occupying their rookery so far from the shoreline, creating nest mounds with dirt and dried grass and mosses.

The cascading waterfall, behind you as you walk towards the whaling station, rushes steeply down the mountainside in silvery rivulets, hissing and roaring as it catches at stones and ledges along its path. How lovely it is to you; how hateful it must have appeared to our three heroes, since they had to climb down it using rope and courage. Each little promontory edge you reach on your long descent to the beach offers an exciting and different view of this most beautiful place! Can you imagine that Shackleton, Crean, and Worley could appreciate the wild beauty of this place?

At last you are standing at the shoreline of Stromness Bay, the former “main street” of the whaling station. Now, as your eyes peer to the right, looking for the stationmaster’s cottage, you see the town peopled with the native creatures of South Georgia rather than the two little boys playing in the street that those exhausted men first saw. You see undisturbed lustrous fur seals, formally attired penguins, and molting elephant seals instead of greasy, weathered whaling men. You can imagine the flooding joy and relief filling your three walking companions as they approach that fateful door. But you also understand their rising urgency to get

help in rescuing their companions on the other side of the island at Peggotty Camp and even more desperation to return for the despairing, hapless, suffering men at Elephant Island. Your marvelous hike is over but their adventure still has a long way to go to its finish.

Walking this path with them like this is an unforgettable experience as well as a glimpse into the resilience and courage of the human spirit! How amazing that it has been your privilege to enter this world of unfettered nature and human striving for a brief visit that will enrich the rest of your life!

When we finally reached the area just behind the very wide shore, we discovered that the Zodiacs were not there to meet us and that we had to run a gauntlet of many aggressive bull fur seals who were obviously full of testosterone and full of their own strength. They didn’t show themselves to be very intimidated by the clicking rocks we serenaded them with but they did show themselves willing to charge. These are big fellows and much more menacing than the 1-2 year old pups we had contended with in February 2002! We stayed pretty much in a single file while awaiting the Zodiacs, which seemed to take forever to rescue (I mean, reach)

us but we did manage to get off the beach without serious incident. However, because of the presence of so many fur seals, it was decided not to land the rest of the passengers on that beach but to offer Zodiac rides instead.

While we were standing around clicking rocks, we saw a most amazing sight: an enormous pure white bull fur seal emerged from the waves, looking for all the world like a polar bear. We had seen this type of “Isabelline” white fur in several pups when we were here last year, but we were told that they rarely survived into adulthood because they make such easy prey while they are young since they stand out so clearly on land and in the ocean waters.

But this big fellow had obviously beaten all the odds and here he was ready to fight his way onto the beach among the other males. His amazing survival and perseverance should earn him a special name - Shackleton!

The rest of our day was certainly anticlimactic after the Shackleton hike, but some things do need to be mentioned. First, we learned today that American Spec Ops forces captured Saddam Hussein and now we wonder how that fact will change the tenor of the Iraq situation. The strong heroes of our own Orion crew got Claire and her wheelchair into a Zodiac today for a spin around the Stromness Bay so she could see the fur seals, the stationmaster’s house where Shackleton’s trek finally ended, and the magnificent scenery close up. At dinner tonight, everyone could agree that it had been a most marvelous and special day for us here on South Georgia Island!

DAY 5-RIGHT WHALEBAY &ELSEHUL INNER BAY

Another day in this Eden of the world! We started the morning in Right Whale Bay but we did not see any whales at all. However, we did see literally tons of fur seals and lots of king penguins. We rode the Zodiacs to the shore and did passes in front of the shoreline, watching the fur seals and penguins on the beach and playing in the surf. We were glad to see all the birds flying overhead and landing on the water aswell.

When once we were allowed ashore for a “stand” of a few minutes, we saw right in front of us a brand new fur seal pup, just born minutes before. We were not allowed to wander away from the landing site because the beach was literally covered in fur, with lots of big males sleeping and patrolling their harems. We observed the new mother licking and nudging her infant and helping to dry him off. We figured that the first group to land at the “stand” must have actually seen the birth and, sure enough, Ingrid had not only watched the birth she had filmed it. We are supposed to see those pictures tonight at Recap.

It was cold on the Zodiac and the waves were getting larger so Marco decided that unless we were all crazy to stay out longer, we should head back to the Orion. It was difficult getting some of the people back into the Zodiac and Marco actually had to bodily lift Anna up like a doll and put her into the vessel. We had further trouble getting away from the shoreline because of the big swells and when the strong ABs had pushed us out beyond the breaking waves we were quickly in trouble because the engine wouldn’t start. Now we were getting athwart the incoming rollers and that was not a good place to be. We could just see ourselves being catapulted out and onto the shore right in the face of one of the big male fur seals. But Marco was persistent and got the motor going again and we were soon out of danger and off to the ship. We were quite relieved to see that since we were using the Marina Deck for loading and unloading the Zodiacs, the Orion provided shelter from the ever-larger swells and our return to the ship was quite easy.

Because we left Right Whale Bay a bit earlier than anticipated, we had a nice slow sail to Elsehul Inner Bay just 15 nautical miles away. Therefore, we enjoyed our lunch with two of the crew ladies (the purser and the shopkeeper) and Bill and Sage. It was fascinating to talk with the gals and learn how they had gotten their jobs, etc.

The German girl who is from former East Germany told us a little about how life changed there and how difficult it was for some people to understand and accept the changes. Some are still unaccepted - on both the East and West sides of the divide.

After lunch, we were told to assemble in the Leda Lounge if we wanted to take another Zodiac ride today, this time in this beautiful bay. Of course, we wanted to and so were down there on time and ready at 2:25 PM We got on the last Zodiac of the 4 with Craig and started out on the long ride from the Orion to the inner bay area. The swells were large and the water was rough, but once we had entered the bay, the waters became calm and the magnificent scenery more enjoyable.

Among the wonders we saw on this terrific exploration were the following sights. An unbelievable macaroni penguin rookery where the little fellows lived among the sharp and craggy rocks along the shore but also scaled the slipperiest and steepest rock slopes to get to the tops of the tussocky ridges. The angles and wet surfaces defied belief that the Macaronis could ascend or descend. But they did - falling around a bit, but they made it.

We saw king penguins and Gentoo nesting together with all the fur seals and elephant seals among them. There were only about 20 “woolly boollies” on shore but we enjoyed each and every one. There were nesting albatrosses, black-browed, dusky capped and lightly mantled sooties, in the tussocks as well.

Obviously, real estate is at a premium in the Sub Antarctic just as it is in the Arctic. Other birds we viewed were giant petrels, snowy sheathbills, shags, and pintail ducks. The giant petrels were fun to watch because they have such trouble getting into the air off the water - they sort of “run” across the top of the waves trying to get airborne and they don’t always make it either. They also crash land face first into the waves when they are trying to settle gracefully onto the ocean. Another of the wonderful things to see out here was the sinuous, undulating kelp, long strands rocking backand forth to the rhythm of the waves. It is truly a lovely picture - an improvement on Medusa’s snaky locks.

The ride back in to the Orion was long and wet and bumpy but now we are back on board and enjoying getting warm and clean. Dinner is about an hour away now and I must get my shower.

At dinner, we were advised to look out the port windows and see the 10-20 mile long tabular iceberg floating out at the distant horizon. It was pretty incredibleeven from our distance we could tell that it was a whopper! Some of the tables had another wonderful experience at the end of the meal - they got to see the Green Flash! Unfortunately, most of us did not. It must have been a longer than usual display as well. There was a great deal of yelling and hooraying going on among those who got to see it!

TwoDaysatSea

Day One (53 12S and 44 14W) Beaufort 3, seas slight, air temp 41F

We woke up today to absolutely perfect sea conditions - flat calm and no windeven the air temperature seemed mild compared to our temps on some of the Zodiac outings. Miracle of miracles, it stayed that way all day too - except that it actually got a little warmer as the day went by.

Stretch class in the sunshine up on the sixth deck was positively delightful. However, since Kay had started early getting ready for her afternoon slide show presentation, she skipped the physical exercise today. She worked energetically all day, with only a time-out for lunch, and finished up just an hour ahead of the scheduled program.

The morning was quiet in our room with Kay doing digital photos and Lois reading. At 11 AM Marco came down so that he and Kay could work out a joint presentation with Kay providing commentary on the slides and Marco giving tidbits about the wildlife pictured during the show. As a surprise, Marco and Patricia worked up a wonderful quiz for the folks at the end of the slide show.

Lois went to see “90 South” the archival film using the movies shot by the expedition photographer, Herbert Ponting, during the ill-fated Scott South Pole attempt. The film was in amazingly good condition and the shots of the men, the ponies and the dogs were touching and so immediate. Even the wildlife Ponting “shot” was wonderful and so real and alive. Of course, Ponting could not go with the men who actually made the run for the pole, so that part of the story was covered with artist’s renderings. It was a technical triumph to have those films and the story itself never fails to move its hearers, or watchers, as the present case was. The archival footing was retrieved and restored in 1993 after having languished in various places in the intervening years since Scott made his fateful trip in 1912. The eighty-one year old movie film was still in remarkable condition.

Sketch class was held today at 2 and again Lois had to represent both inhabitants of Cabin 508. Kay was still doing last minute “tune­ups.” MJ today demonstrated to us the use of Chinese brushes and real bird feathers in creating special effects in sketching. We all got to practice using these broad brushes trying to execute calligraphic type suggestions of penguins. She also showed us how to crumple rice paper and use the broad brushes to create wonderfully suggestive (Japaneselooking) mountains, clouds and foregrounds for Antarctic scenes. After we created our mountain backgrounds, we were to add the calligraphic penguins.

My mountains were not too bad, but the penguins were pathetic. The other activity today was choosing what in our sketchbooks we wanted MJ to copy for the wine and cheese party we are having to demonstrate the work we have been doing. She will make copies of those to be projected and we are each supposed to make comments about the pictures to the group.

At 4 PM, Kay became the “Big Shew” and her presentation came off wonderfully well. The pictures themselves were sensational and her commentary was funny, satiric, pointed, and very well received. Everybody thoroughly enjoyed the show and Lois heard comments afterwards to the effect that Kay’s presentation was “tremendous”. Patricia and Marco added even more to the entertainment by creating a clever quiz for some competition between the Albatrosses and Boobies. It was definitely a “ya hadda be there” experience but it sure had us all laughing uproariously.

At Recap Patricia presented the results of the quiz, which the Albatrosses won by the slimmest of margins: 91.5% to 90.5%. She and Marco had put the results on a spreadsheet so that we could even see which questions created which percents. In other words, where did we all do best and worst. We all had a cackle-fest over that too - so this was the best Recap as well as the best presentation!

Day Two (52 07S and 53 53W) Beaufort 4, seas moderate, air temp 47F

Another lovely sea day - fair skies, calm seas, and enough going on to keep us busy. What more could we ask. Started the day as usual with Gabor doing stretches, but actually we had been awake since 5:15 AM - long before our 8 AM rendezvous with

Gabor. Guess we really are getting to the end of the voyage, because we seemed to do more laughing and joking than exercising. But it’s still a good way to start the day, on deck with plenty of fresh sea air and sunshine and getting those sinews and joints limbered up for the rest of the day.

After breakfast, we did some more reading and photographic work as well as figuring out what we would do for MJ’s gift sketchbook to thank her for the wonderful classes she has been giving us. At 11 AM, we joined everybody in the Cosmos Lecture Hall for Alan’s talk on “Patterns and Penguins” in which he described similarities and differences in beak morphology together with food preferences as well as plumage variations among the various species of penguin we will have seen on this trip.

Following lunch, Kay went to the sketch class at 2 while Lois typed on Craig’s computer, copy typing from our computer, the Shackleton hike day. It took much longer than it should have because of Lois’ basic incompetence regarding computers. In fact, for some completely inexplicable and irremediable reason the last three paragraphs of her entry ended up coming out in red letters with complete underlining. She could not figure out how to stop it or erase it. However, she did finish the report and handed the whole thing, computer and all, back to Craig with some sense of satisfaction.

Clyde Roper gave his final lecture of the trip called “Here’s Looking at You, Squid” and it turned out to be his very best. He used slides of various cartoons and comic strips, many of which were hilarious, to illustrate various facts he had previously introduced to us about the cephalopods, especially squids and octopi. We all greatly enjoyed this approach and he got lots of appreciative laughter.

John gathered us all together at 5:45 PM to tell us about tomorrow’s excursions on the Falkland Islands and we were glad to know that we will not be repeating any of the landings we made in February 2002, except for Port Stanley of course. Tomorrow we will be visiting a Magallanic penguin rookery at Port Williams and then we will get three hours in Stanley.

TheColonyoftheFalklands

The official name of this sub Antarctic British outpost is British Overseas Territory of the Falklands. It measures 4700 square miles when all the islands, islets, skerries, etc. are counted. There are 2805 permanent residents as well as 200 British military personnel. We began our visit at with a anchorage at Point William Inlet.

SPARROW COVE

I wonder how long it will take us to get back to more normal sleeping patterns when we get home. Right now, we are waking up every morning about 5 AM and I don’t know that I want to continue that habit--6 AM might be all right but surely not any earlier. This morning there really was no reason to get up so early because we were not getting off the ship until 8:30 or so. Oh well, it does give us plenty of time for reading.

We got onto the Zodiacs via the Marina Deck this morning and rode to the Port Williams floating dock with Marco. The wind was quite strong and it was correspondingly very choppy on the water so we got sprayed pretty often. It was difficult for Marco to make much headway since we were fighting both the breezes and the waves. At last, we did get there. Then we were to board the Land Rovers, 6 to a truck. However, we ended up with more than that number in each truck.

What a ride it was too, “crammed in the ships” as we were. We were being taken across to a beach on the opposite side of the island at this point. However, there were no roads so we went bumping along over rocks, shoreline sand, tussocks, through mud patches and across water. The Land Rovers leaned and pitched and jerked and jounced. But we did get to the Gentoo rookery without any tip-overs, bogging down, or getting stuck. We don’t know what kind of shape everyone’s backs and hips were after the ride, however. There were 3 small rookeries to visit, all of them fairly far removed from the sea. There were about 700 breeding pairs in the three areas. The local guide told us that even though this had been the worst spring on record in terms of rain and low temperatures, the Gentoo had been quite successful. Most of the pairs had two chicks!

We found the babies lying around the nests in all sorts of interesting attitudes. Some were sprawled on their stomachs with their too-big feet sticking out behind them, others of them trying to squeeze themselves into their original nests that they have actually outgrown, still more of them leaning heavily and clumsily against the parents, begging for food we were sure.

In the middle of one of the Gentoo rookeries, there were 2 pairs of king penguins standing around. The local guide said they were sitting on eggs as well. It made for an interesting community and the kings had commanded the choice spot.

The strange landscape all around us was quite typical according to the local guide. There were the barren hills, the upthrusts of igneous dykes piercing right through the ground. The vegetation is low and scrubby but colorful at this time of yearspring. The greens spread across the hills and plains are pale and tinged with silvery threads of color. The sky overhead was a brilliant blue and there were fantastic cloud formations above as well. The rookeries were muddy and dark splotches in the otherwise unbroken green carpet. The rookeries were also strangely quiet. We were used to the clamorous constant honking of the Gentoo in the Antarctic and were surprised at this quiet behavior. Maybe it was the continuous blowing wind that stupefied the penguins into silence? It certainly made us feel a little crazy - we don’t think we would like to live in this kind of hurricane all the time.

We stayed out in the field a couple of hours, long enough to see the penguins begin to return from the sea where one-half of each pair had been feeding and bathing. The babies were in for a good feeding we were sure. We reboarded the Land Rovers and jerked and jumped our way back to the floating dock area - except for one minor problem. One of the Rovers bogged down in a muddy slough. Another driver quickly came to his assistance and we were sure that the riders were pleased since the Rover was leaning at a precarious angle. The first pull accomplished nothing except for breaking the rope. On the next try, the truck lurched out of the hole without tipping over.

STANLEY

The Zodiac ride back to the Orion was not as damp or long as the first and we were back on board in a trice, or so it seemed compared with the ride out. We had a chance to rest up a little while before lunch. Our next excursion was into Stanley. Here we just walked down the gangplank to waiting bus, which would take us to the Museum or the Visitor Center. We opted for the Museum since it was farther away and we could walk back into town. There appeared to be a new suburban area between the harbor and the town center.

The Museum is still a very interesting place and very well done. We didn’t see any new additions to the displays but we enjoyed going through it again. A black kitty came to greet us on the lawn and actually suffered us to give her a loving little pat or two. Then we headed down towards the waterside to walk into town.

Life in the early 20th Century

We saw an extraordinary display which at first we did not understand - a large military helicopter seemed to be harassing a sleek looking boat on the water, flying backwards away from the boat but always keeping quite close to it. Then it made a wide circle and came back the other away and appeared to be chasing the boat away from the docking area. However, it turned out that it was a military exercise wherein a man was to be rescued from the ship’s deck. And we did get to see it successfully done too. There were pretty flowers blooming in most of the yards, including that of Government House, and Kay took pictures of all of them. We also revisited the war memorials and saw that the fellow who had been re-gilding the letters on the Falkland War statue had done a good job last year when we visited. We stopped at a few gift shops and bought some little gifties for Xmas presents. We

also visited St. Mary’s Catholic Church and Christ Church Cathedral. We were tired by the time we got back to the Visitor Center and ready to head back to the ship.

We only had a little time to get cleaned up after we returned to the Orion because we had to attend a disembarkation briefing at 6:45 PM and then it was the wine and cheese party for the Sketch Group. Our books were on display and then MJ also projected examples of each student’s work and discussed the techniques she had been teaching us. Meanwhile everyone was enjoying wine and cheese provided by John and the Orion. Everyone seemed to enjoy the display and seeing the work which the faithful sketchers had produced during the almost 30 days we have been aboard ship. Then it was time to head for supper after hearing about tomorrow’s program from John. We are all hoping for rock hoppers tomorrow on Westpoint Island!

CARCASS ISLAND AND WESTPOINT ISLAND

Up early again this morning but not so early as yesterday. The sea looked unconducive to a landing at Carcass Island and the closer we got, the less promising conditions looked. The Captain tried to anchor at one spot and decided that it wouldn’t work. So all proposed landing preparations were postponed. Then the Captain decided to reposition the Orion in a different bay so that we could make the scheduled landing.

Sure enough, conditions improved both at the anchorage and with the weather. So the Zodiacs were lowered and the hikers proceeded to a wet landing on a sandy beach. Because it was raining and cold, lots of the folks who thought last night that they would hike decided not to, but we had the die-hards with us anyway. And a lovely walk it was..

We hiked a short distance upslope from the beach and walked along on low grasses and among the sometimes 6 foot-high tussock grasses where the Magallanic penguins dig their burrows. We saw some 40-50 in all, spread about along the shoreline in several spots as well as among the tussock mounds. We also saw the upland geese and a new one--the Kelp Goose and it was really quite pretty - pure white with black bill and feet. Darting along among us were several little songbirds -

the Tussock Bird, the Siskin or Meadowlark, Military Starlings and a TBJ (tiny brown jobby) that no one has identified for us yet.

The different plants were so fascinating and lovely. There was one that looked magenta at a distance and appeared to be very like “vinagresia” seen in Argentine Patagonia. There was a very low-to-the ground plant whose leaves appeared to be

begonias too. And all the different greens blended occasionally and then contrasted to make a wonderful foreground for the hills that continued up the slope from where we walked. Most of them were decorated near their tops with bare spots caused by an eruption of sharp-edged whitish-gray stones.

The sky remained overcast and occasionally it rained and then it would clear briefly. At the shoreline we saw steamer ducks with whirligig wings apparently trying to lift them off the water - but it never works, steamers are too heavy to fly. So what they are really doing is a puzzlement. There were pied oystercatchers and rock cormorants, both adults with white breasts and all-black juveniles.

The Magallanic penguins are small and have two vivid white stripes curving around the sides of their heads. They have much more skin showing around their eyes and beaks than other species. They live in warmer climates and need the exposed dermis layer to give off heat to regulate their body temperatures. These penguins are kin to the Galapagos penguin, the jackass penguin of South Africa, the Humboldt penguin of the west coast of South America and the fairy penguin of New Zealand and Australia. All are very similar in their markings and in their skin exposure.

The ones we saw today did not have any chicks with them but we do not know if that is unusual for this time of year or not. It was amazing to see them popping up all over the landscape from their deep burrows

As we walked on towards the McGill Settlement (the farm complex of one familynot a town or village), we saw some turkey vultures - very much a surprise. Apparently, they are occasional visitors to the Falklands though not necessarily regular ones. The walk itself was very pleasant over gently undulating ground with remarkable views both left (on the seaside) and right (on the upslope side).

MCGILL SETTLEMENT

The Settlement consisted of several outbuildings in addition to the farmhouse and a wonderful “secret garden” created by the many cedar and other trees planted as a windbreak for the house and its contiguous land. There were some muchunexpected things in that little microclimate, including some yucca type plants and even a palm like tree. The cedars really do create a wonderful respite from the constant wind and the garden had to be a very comforting place for the family.

We saw a Striated Caracara in a big cedar right out the back door of the house but he would never let Kay get the camera focused on him; Instead, he just kept moving higher into the cedar tree and hid among the close-set branches.

We saw a little brown wren up close and personal in the garden.

He was very inquisitive and unafraid of people and there were several of them flitting about very busily and importantly.

We were invited into the farmhouse for tea and sweets and it was a lovely spread indeed. But it was so breathtakingly hot in the parlor area that we could not stay long - however we did sample a cookie or too and they were good indeed.

Then it was time to head down to the beach below the house to be picked up by the Zodiacs to return to Orion. The weather looked quite ambiguous at the point - the seas were still a little jumpy but some blue sky was beginning to show through the

mist, rain, and low hanging clouds. The non-hikers had been brought to the McGill house as well so they could enjoy the tea and goodies and the Orion had moved in order to bring them in closer to shore for their Zodiac ride.

Our return to the ship was much shorter than where we began the hike. In addition, as an additional plus, we had magical accompaniment on our ride back to the Orion Beale’s dolphins racing across the bay to catch our Zodiac to bow ride with us. They were so close we could have stretched our arms just a little and touched their dorsal fins. What a thrill and the dolphins enjoyed it too.

Lunch was served about 45 minutes after we got back on board, probably about 2 hours after we had enjoyed the tea and cookies. They do feed you often and well on the Orion.

Meanwhile, the ship was covering the 12 nautical miles to Westpoint Island. We actually got to the anchorage about 30 minutes early and everything else moved ahead earlier as well - which turned out to be quite significant and good!

Not only did we make good time but also a miracle occurred that seemed to be a real gift for our last excursion! The sky cleared and became a clear blue with thin strings of white clouds, the temperature climbed so that we did not need so many layers on for our hike to the rock hoppers. The Zodiac ride was calm and relatively short and we had a dry landing on a wooden dock below the farmhouse and grounds. Patricia sang us a Gardel song about Buenos Aires on our way to the shore. We must get her to teach us the words if not the tune.

WESTPOINT ISLAND

The wooden dock was as slippery as wet ice, but we were lucky to have our strong and stable Able Bodied Seamen standing there to help us get off the Zodiacs with dignity. Apparently, our expedition leader, John, had not been so fortunate when he had come to shore to scout out the landing. He stepped and went for a short flight and fell ignominiously flat out. So he cautioned all of us to be very careful and to accept the assistance offered. No problema!

The welcoming committee here consisted of some Steamer Ducks and their chick and the cheeky, even brazen, Striated Caracaras who wanted to steal anything available.

They are quite a handsome bird really, lustrous brown feathers that catch the light well, stern and piercing hawkish eyes, formidable talons on yellow feet, and considerable curiosity.

There was a steep climb from the shore to the farmyard area where we were to begin the hike to Devil’s Nose. There we were promised that we would see Blackbrowed Albatross and Rockhopper Penguins. They said the walk was about ½ mile or ½ hour but we did not believe them at all once we had completed the walk. It was steady up the whole way until you reached the escarpment where all the nests were laid out in front and around you. Not only that, there was a stiff headwind fighting our progress the whole way up.

The kind owners of the settlement had provided two Land Rovers to drive some of our fellow passengers who felt they could not make the hike. We followed the tire tracks across the grassy fields.

The walk was stupendously beautiful because of the brilliant and piercing blue of the sky, the long trails of thin but picturesque clouds, and the magnificent scenery along the way. Views down into one cove along our path revealed several horses grazing in the grass above a semi- circular beach with turquoise waters. The hills rose steeply but not very tall around us, topped again with rocky outcroppings. There was some skittish sheep seen along our way too but they did not stay around to be photographed. We weren’t disappointed in that since our quarry was definitely some other creature.

As we approached the escarpment, the tussock grasses appeared on the scene and these were spectacular in their lushness and their heights not to mention how they clung to the steep cliff on its way down to the sea. We ended up about 300 ft. above the beach but that was all right too because what we had come for was arrayed all around us on the cliff faces: Black browed Albatross in their thousands nesting in every available space.

We saw them leaving and arriving, swooping in on their graceful wings with their sweet and lovely faces looking for just the proper nest. Then the arrivee and the nest sitter would engage in their head weaving and bill clacking like French people kissing one another on opposite cheeks. There was a constant din arising from the rookeries since the birds also vocalize their greetings to one another. We could not be sure that we saw any chicks but we certainly saw plenty of nest sitting, so maybe it was a little early in the season for the eggs to have hatched. These birds are lovely, graceful, aerodynamically built and skilled, fascinating in their behaviors.

Suddenly, waddling, hopping and toddling along a muddy path of their own creation came the pièce de résistance, the object of our trip, the Holy Grail we had sought – a line of 8 little Rockhopper Penguins!

It was difficult to avoid squealing or screaming in delight. Such adorable little fellows they are with their wonderful face markings and the jaunty yellow-orange feathers coming off their eye areas. It took a few minutes to see their actual eyes since the striking yellow feathers that look like eyebrows at a distance make the eyes appear like oriental eyes made up in an exotic fashion. When they got a little closer, we saw that the eye itself is red.

Of course, like their cousin penguins they are dressed in their black and white suits looking quite like a Fred Astaire, except that they don’t move like him at all. Their little legs are very thick and stubby, ending in pinkish-white strong feet, a little like chicken feet but much sturdier and equipped with some webbing. They jump quite impressively though not much jumping was required on their muddy path. They seemed a little bemused by the presence of so many creatures looking at them through these long black tubes that clicked and clacked at them. Nevertheless, they got their courage up and went hopping on down the path towards the albatross rookery where they also had their homes.

We saw one young Rockhopper, at least we assume he was immature, who had no yellow- orange feathers streaming back from his eyes. He had the yellow markings where his eyebrows would be, but not the long feathers. We also noted that when the wind hit the penguins from behind and it did so almost constantly, their head feathers raised up so that they looked like they were sporting brush cuts.

How cunningly Nature has fashioned these charming birds! They are tiny, comically adorned, yet dignified and persistent against all the harshness Nature herself hurls against them - constant tearing winds, bitter cold, darkness, scarce food, exhausting hikes from the heights of cliffs to the sea at least twice daily! Yet, they prevail. No wonder Klemens studies them and works to preserve them. MOREOVER, he gets to hug them! I wanted to cuddle one so much myself!

The walk back from that most marvelous experience did not seem to take nearly so much time as getting there had done. The settlement family had supplied us with tea and another rich and varied assortment of sweets from cakes and cookies to a delicious little pancake thing. They were very gracious and we enjoyed the respite out of the wind. Their teacups, saucers, and dessert plates were most charming as well.

Then we began loading the Zodiacs for our last ride of this trip. The waves were kind and the return to the ship quite easy. However, in 20-30 minutes we were all rejoicing at the early start we had been afforded for the excursion to Westpoint Island. A vicious little squall sprang up which quickly tossed the seas into foam and lashing spray off the crests of the waves. We were all grateful that we had gotten off the island and back on the ship before that storm broke.

The evening was filled with the Captain’s Farewell Cocktail Party (which we skipped) and then the Captain’s Farewell Dinner with us at a special Audubon table amid very rough seas. These were the last functions of the evening.

This was the greatest day of all in every way, in my opinion, because of the weather and the Rockhopper penguins. What a gift and a blessing!

SeaDay-HomewardBound

December 20 (63 45W and 52 03S,, air temp 47F, Beaufort 3-4)

Got up to do our final stretch/exercise class with Gabor and found the class much smaller than usual; however, the die-hards were there - Vera, Alison, Janet, Kay and Lois. So we went through our paces with a lot more joking and laughing than usual too. Gabor has been a good fellow - never condescending to his little old ladies, realistic as to our abilities and inabilities but not the less inventive in finding ways for us to both stretch and do some strengthening exercises as well. We bid him a fond farewell and thanked him for helping us not become total blobs on the trip.

Of course, today was our designated packing day too - oh joy! We have a lot of things to stuff into our suitcases but we are convinced that we will get it all in. However, we are looking for any excuse to procrastinate too. So when John announced that Maco would give a little talk called “FAQs about Albatrosses and Other Seabirds”, we immediately stopped trying to get organized and headed to the Cosmos Lecture Hall. He had some good pictures of the birds themselves and he had framed some interesting questions regarding these lovely and fascinating birds.

Questions concerning how they find food at sea (sight and smell because the microorganisms they eat normally emit a chemical complex which has a definite smell that hovers above them just over the sea surface), how they sleep (in catnaps when they touch down on the ocean), and how far they range in foraging both when they are alone and when they are feeding chicks (amazingly long distances up to 7000 miles when feeding their young).

Then it was time to get serious about packing. So we went back to the cabin and tried to get organized. We did pretty well by using our small daypacks as well as the additional small “duffel” bags we had brought just in case. Got most of the clothing as well as the rain-gear and wintry supplies into the regular suitcases and then we figured out how to stuff some of the things in between the softer clothes.

We went to lunch and ate inside since the weather still is not warm enough to make us want to sit on the aft deck. Then it was back to the packing exercises before 3 o’clock when Marco and Patricia were giving their presentation “Life in the Freezer,” a pictorial and talking show about their time living in Antarctica for doctoral work and then later as research scientists. They are both very amusing speakers and it is amazing how much more confidence they now exhibit in their command of English. We enjoyed both their slides and their stories.

At 4:30 (thank goodness we were done packing by then) we went to see a documentary filmed by Errol Morris on “Clyde Roper, The Squid Hunter.” It was cleverly done and really caught the essence of Clyde’s public personality. The documentarian uses strange transitions, unusual camera angles, and odd cuts in the conversation to make the interview process more intriguing and captivating.

We skipped afternoon tea and saved our appetites for Recap and supper. The Recap was lots of fun thanks to everybody and applause for various folks who had stood out in the crowd. We had some delicious popcorn and joined some Christmas caroling that was adequate if not spirited.

Alison’s song “I’m Dreaming of a Dry Landing” went over very well.

“I’m Dreaming of a Dry Landing”

I’m dreaming of a dry landing, with tennis shoes upon my feet, With no spray of saline, my lenses pristine, And no bull seals there to greet.

I’m dreaming of new life jackets that can be easily undone. May your shore excursions be fun.

And may all your Beaufort scales read “one.”

Our final supper on board the Orion was with Jackie and Mary - a good way to end the trip since that’s how we had spent most of the meals. Then it was off to the cabin for a final sweep of the room and stuffing the last few things we found into the already crammed bags! We read and went to bed early after watching an installment on birds that we have been following all along.

Ushuaia,Argentina

We arrived at Ushuaia on December 21. We got all the disembarkation details out of the way and were put off the Orion for the last time. It was rainy and overcast in Ushuaia but it didn’t matter because they took us out to the National Park of Tierra Del Fuego until it was time to get us some lunch and then head for the airport. The bus took us to some overlooks at lakes and rivers and we took some pictures and walked about a little even though the rain continued.

Finally we were taken to the Café de Fe for lunch consisting of orange juice and empanadas which were just okay - not spicy enough but guess they have to consider their target audience. Dessert was a peculiar croissant filled with a chocolate-caramel sauce and drizzled with more chocolate. They were of odd consistency and not too sweet really.

BuenosAiresandHome

Then it was time to head for the Ushuaia Airport and our 2 PM plane to Buenos Aires. They got us there with no hitches but the flight was delayed. We talked among our group and the time passed just fine. The flight was uneventful and they fed us a bite on the way. The Travel Dynamics representative met us outside customs and led us to the international terminal for our connecting flights. Deborah met us and asked us to help Leo who seemed to be quite out of breath and not a little addled. So we helped him get on the plane and then we helped shlepp his stuff off the flight to Miami and got him on his way to his connecting flight to Washington.

The Buenos Aires to Miami flight was very bumpy but it was so great to be in Business Class so that we were waited on hand and foot and had those wonderful reclining seats. Just can’t beat it for an 8 hr. flight! We got through Customs easily and had a cart to help us get all our bags (much more than we usually tote) out to the Taxi Stand. The cabbie was a sane man who did not frighten us more on the way to Hollywood than the “bumpy night” from Buenos Aires to Miami. We found Kathy and John already up and at ‘em already. It was a perfect ending to a marvelous trip when we found Lois’ nephew, Johnny, doing so wonderfully well after surgery.

We got lost for 30 days among the lonely and mysterious islands of the Atlantic but we are now back in the real world ready to celebrate Christmas with our family.

This was truly a trip of a lifetime.