Seal in Falklands and South Georgia - posted 28 Nov 2007
by Kate Laird

Seal is in South Georgia with a complement of eight: Kate, Hamish, the two children (Helen, 7, and Anna, 5), three British voyagers, and a Swiss wildlife photographer. Following are excerpts from Kate's logs for 5 Oct - 13 Nov.

5 October 2007
54:56 South 67:37 West

Puerto Williams, Chile -- Hamish is up at the Port Captain's now ... hopefully we can get permission to stop at Banner tonight and then start first light tomorrow, but we'll see. Otherwise we'll head out this afternoon. The GRIBS (weather charts received over satellite email) look good, and the weatherfax came in clearly, which is a good sign ... the SkyEye (real time weather satellite images downloaded directly to the boat) pictures are incredibly clear, but we are still rank amateurs at reading that so we are really just looking at the GRIBs. (We just bought the SkyEye a few weeks ago, and in the city with the interference of Navy ship radars, wifi internet and AC power on the dock, the images hadn't been particularly clear. The antenna aboard downloads infared and visual images from US government POES satellites as they pass overhead, and then we're able to look at the images immediately alongside our other weather information on the computer on board.)

6 October 2007
55:01 South 066:56 West

Banner Cove -- We motored down, first in no wind and then in head winds from Puerto Williams to Banner. Great spot, but we weren't allowed to go ashore since we've cleared out of Chile (and in any event the dinghy is packed away so we couldn't). Just getting the GRIBS now and then we'll decide, but planning to head off at first light.

7 October 2007
54:10 South 62:26 West

At sea -- Good morning. All well here. Ambling along ... spent the night paying close attention to our position to avoid overfalls off the ends of Staten Island, and now heading towards the Falklands ... occasional rain but extremely good weather generally. Anna just woke up and is now listening to the Odyssey. Helen still asleep. Hamish about to shake a reef out, but he's holding fire as there is a line of squalls coming. Saw more pintados yesterday than all of last season put together. Lots of black browed albatrosses, giant petrels, and one wandering albatross.

8 October 2007
52:07 South 058:18 West

At sea -- Good morning. Sailing along now, with the Falkland islands (Lively Island) visible in the sunlight to port. (We have our own personal squall cloud overhead, but the land is picked out in sun). Rather a sleepless night as Anna up most of my off watch with an earache. My fault entirely as I was interviewed a few months ago and she said, "what do you do about ear infections," and I said grandly, "they don't get ear infections." Dosed with ibruprophin. They never had them as babies; why are they starting now??

18 October 07
Stanley, Falkland Islands

We had a fine trip around the south end of Staten Island en route to Stanley, and the good luck to catch the tide exactly along the south coast of the Falklands. Friends from two other boats came down to catch our lines when we arrived ... by coincidence, we'd all last been together roughly 7500 miles due north in Greenland.

We're really enjoying the chance to visit Stanley ... our previous visits have been on extremely tight schedules, and so we haven't had the chance to appreciate it. Helen declared, "it's the best town we've ever visited."

We have a few projects to do before leaving for South Georgia ... the most important is loading Seal with digestive biscuits, marmite, baked beans, and all the other things we haven't seen since leaving England in August 06.

29 October 07
At sea, 52:12 South 54:54 West

We are sailing in perfect conditions ... a rare sight in the Southern Ocean. Pintado petrels, blackbrowed albatrosses, and a few wandering albatrosses are winging past the boat in the sunshine. The pintados are the boldest, and skim right past the boat ... often banking just at the last second to clear the end of the spinnaker pole ... the wanderers seem to give the boat a bit wider berth, but a few minutes ago I was on the helm, and one came right down the side. A fairly young one (you can tell the rough age of wanderers by how white their wings are). Amazing to be eye to eye with such a magnificent bird.

We're sailing wing and wing with about 17 knots of true wind in gentle seas ... everyone is getting the hang of helming ... only one of our guests has done any overnight sailing before, but everyone is turning up for watches and doing their stints on the wheel like seasoned sailors. Hamish and I are in our Swedish system of 3 hours on at night and four hours in the day so that one of us is up the entire time, and everyone else is rotating through 2 hours on, 6 hours off, though that could become 4 on 4 off if the weather gets heavier.

The forecast is quite good for the next few days, but there is a chance of headwinds in a few days, so we're putting a bit in the bank.

30 October 07
At sea, 52:53 South 51:10 West

Good morning. We are still enjoying absolutely fantastic weather. Last night was clear sky with stars ... very unusual in the Southern Ocean. We now have a 25 knot westerly wind, and we're sailing along well. Looks like the cloud is coming in, but we've had unbelievable sun. Lots of birds around the boat - wandering and blackbrowed albatrosses, grey headed, prions, pintados, wilson storm petrels, and about an hour with half a dozen hour glass dolphins surfing around the boat yesterday.

Everyone is adjusting well to life at sea ... Bob has never gone sailing before, but has picked it up extraordinarily well ... seems like he's been doing it for years. Everyone else has done a bit of sailing before, but no long passages, but everyone is doing extremely well in fairly tricky conditions - helming downwind with the sails wing and wing.

We had several sharp squalls come through yesterday with 35 knots of wind and hail, but for the most part the wind has been very steady.

We broke into the Christmas cake last night (great to eat at 3 am). Hamish bought out the smoked salmon last night, but it was mostly consumed by Lairds ... everyone else thought it looked a bit ... fishy. Helen ate most of it as usual.

The sheep are curing in the rigging ... we need to get a shorter winch handle for the runners / preventers when we have full grown sheep on board .... the 10" handle clears lambs fine, but they are wearing a bit of a groove in the port sheep.

31 October 07
At sea, 53:47 South 45:46 West

Happy Halloween. I think I'm going to dress as a large banana ... yellow foul weather gear ... all I need is a large yellow hat.

Saw our first icebergs this morning. It's now snowing ... and no wind at all despite the barometer plunging ... Some great sailing yesterday, and another starry night with a few shooting stars. Fewer birds around today .... yesterday, we were right on the edge of the Convergence, so there was probably lots of feed there ...

1 November 07
At sea, 54:07 South 42:47 West

Good morning. Snow squalls this a.m., and unusually, it's building up on deck. I had to wipe the windows in the raised saloon, just like wiping the windshield of a car ... We had a slow night last night -- there is lots of ice around, so we took down the headsail and put three reefs in the main and bimbled along at about 4 knots with someone on deck on lookout and Hamish or I on the radar.

Yesterday afternoon was a big contrast - 40 knot blow with gusts to 50 knots, good sized seas, and sailing wing and wing. The albatrosses and prions and pintados were wheeling around in the wind, and we even saw a skua. Cecilia said of her first stint at the wheel with 40 knots: "it was incredibly exhilarating, even if it was terrifying at first." Really nice day with sun and blue curling waves.

Now sailing in more snow.

2 November 07
At sea, 53:59 South 38:49 West

South Georgia in sight. We hove to again last night for about 8 hours ... heavy seas and no chance of seeing mid sized, low slung bergs on the radar in those seas. In the daylight today we passed three that were about the size of Seal (the boat, not the mammal!) and protruding only about 1 foot above the surface ... I showed everyone: "this is why we hove to."

Bigger winds yesterday, 35-45 knots through most of the day. Made excellent progress until we had to heave to (this means backing the staysail and lashing the wheel so the boat jogs along at very slow speeds).

Saw a seal yesterday. Suspect it was a fur seal based on the time of year, but I couldn't really tell. Strange to see one out of sight of land, but they range enormously at sea. Grey headed albatrosses around now and lots of Antarctic petrels (I won't try to specify what type: there are several different kinds; it's beyond me to distinguish between them from this range.)

Fur seal.

Icicles on the lifelines this morning. Lots of big icebergs around. We're surprised by the number of bergs we've seen so far ... we've lost track of how many over the past three days. We're still making pretty good time, despite having to stop the boat for two nights.

4 November 07
Grytviken, 54:17 South 36:30 West

We arrived in Grytviken yesterday afternoon after a terrific sail down the coast. The wind was a bit fickle coming through the mountains ... 9 to 45 knots, but good sailing anyway. It snowed most of the day, so no one was too desolate not to be on shore. There was lots of bird life around, although less in the heavier snows. Light mantled sooty albatrosses, snow petrels, king penguins, fur seals in addition to the catalog of birds we've been seeing for the last several days.

When we arrived alongside the jetty, Anna looked out the window and proclaimed, "I see a penguin, and I think it's a king." The king penguin stood at the jetty looking at the boat for most of the afternoon and evening. Elephant seals are wrestling in the water close by and we can hear the belching even with the door shut.

Today's plan is to visit the museum here and the whaling station, assemble the dinghy (we put it below when we are offshore to keep the decks clear). We hope to head off north early tomorrow.

5 November 07
Grytviken, 54:17 South 36:30 West

We spent the day in Grytviken, exploring the whaling station and the museum. We had a warm welcome from John Fowler from the Falklands who is working at the museum this summer, and Helen and Anna delighted in seeing all the "taxi-derms." A Falklands taxidermist has done a fantastic job on many of the bird species and the girls really enjoyed getting a close look at them. Unusual for a museum was a sign that says "Please Touch" with a king penguin skin and a fur seal skin (and quite a few others) for them to touch. Helen declared, "that's the best museum I've ever visited."

They had their first snowshoe around the whaling station.

Elephant seals are grunting continually - one even spent quite a while swimming under the boat last night, blowing bubbles against the hull.

Helen and Anna with elephant seals.

There are groups of King Penguins in the area. John Fowler said they have been congregating in small groups and staying in the same place for several days in a row.

At breakfast, Cecilia said, "I really want to see a sheathbill." About fifteen minutes later, Hamish was able to say, "turn around!" as a sheathbill walked right past the window.

We've switched our clocks to GMT so that sunrise is at 6:30. Hamish and Nigel were out taking pictures at first light. Somehow it seems much less painful to get up at 6:30 than 3:30, even if it's the same moment of the day.

Cecilia and Bob are off with their tripods now and Hamish is back on board cooking bacon and eggs. We're supposed to boil our egg shells for 20 minutes before putting them into the biodegradable rubbish (because of the risk of transferring avian diseases), but we don't have enough propane for that (or want that much steam in the boat), so I've purloined one of Helen and Anna's toy boxes, and we're saving our egg shells for disposal mid ocean when we head back to the Falklands. (Other biodegradable rubbish is chopped up and thrown over the side well offshore; all bottles, tins, and plastic are saved on board for disposal back in civilization.)

Most everyone has made the walk to Shackleton's gravesite, visited the museum and the church, and now we're preparing to head back to the north end of the island over the next few days.

6 November 07
Prince Olav Harbour, 54:04 South 037:09 West

After a morning in Grytviken and tea with Pat and Sarah Lurcock, the government officer and postmaster who have been here for the last fifteen years, and three of the museum staff, we set off under motor in light winds. We passed a host of giant petrels (including a fairly unusual white morph one) and pintados feeding on a seal carcass. As we headed north in the sunshine, we could see on the Skyeye that all of the region was covered in cloud apart from a little sun in the lee of South Georgia.

The most exciting sighting of the day was a Southern Right Whale, swimming practically in the breakers right off the Fortuna Glacier. It was only the third right whale I've ever seen (all southern) ... even with over 300 days whale watching in New England, I've never seen a northern right whale (which are very close to extinction.)

There are whales swimming around South Georgia now who will remember being hunted, so it's not surprising that it's usually difficult to spot whales around here. So it was a thrill to see this Southern Right, particularly swimming so close to shore. We didn't manage to take any good fluke photos, but it's certainly a moment we will remember, even if we didn't catch it very well on the cameras.

The wind funnelled down Possession and Antarctic Bays at about 45 knots with snow, so it was a bit of a thrash getting here. Everyone took a turn at helming and ice watching. By the time we came into Prince Olav Harbour, there were strong williwaws coming off the hills ... it is forbidden now to tie up to the whaling station jetties, so we anchored in the middle of the cove, with a bouyed anchor. It is hard for yachtsmen to accept the ban on tying up to the whaling stations. Even in a decrepit state, the piers are more secure than lying to the anchor in a harbor where the bottom is littered with old equipment and whale bones, waiting to snag the anchor. The anchor is holding well, but it is dangerously easy to snag something on the foul ground which could make it impossible to retrieve the anchor without scuba diving.

Last night, the grumbles of elephant seals echoed through the water ... it sounded like they were right outside the hull, but in fact, they were on the beach on the other side of the harbor. The male fur seals have staked out their positions, awaiting the females' return.

9 November
Elsehul, 54 : 02 South 037 : 58 West

Most everyone went ashore fairly early. There are grey headed and light mantled sooty albatrosses here, as well as giant petrels, and a host of male fur seals, marking their territory before the females arrive. Several bull elephant seals share the shore - one with a large harem and the others with just one or two females. Helen and Anna and I went ashore a bit later, and walked up over the isthmus to Undine harbour, quite unrecognizable from the last time Hamish and I had been there in a 60-knot blow. We sat in the tussac and watched king penguins. This small colony had all ages of penguins from the fluffy downy brown chicks, to nearly ready to swim adolescents, with tufts of down on their sleek feathers, to the full grown adults.

One unusual find was an very large pellet of penguin feathers that looked like an owl pellet (owls regurgitate unedible substances in pellets). Tyto albas (Barn Owls) have been seen on South Georgia, so perhaps there are some here, although we haven't seen any.

Walking through the tussac was a bit hard going because there were so many fur seals, so in the end, Helen and Anna settled on a rock on the beach and used pebbles to play "fur seals and elephant seals."

Dinghy cruising is actually the best way to see Elsehul and stay away from the fur seals. We went around into Joke Cove, and explored the notches of the harbor. We found a whole group of newborn fur seal pups with their mothers, quite out of range of the males on the
beach. They'd pupped on the uncomfortable rocks. These seals are a bit early from the main fur seal pupping time; it is interesting to see them without a protective male. (The females don't need the protection for their pups; it's just the males protecting their females from other males. Pups get trampled in the fights, so it's probably a good strategy of these females to raise their pups off the beach.)

Light mantled sooty albatrosses were visible soaring on the cliff faces. They are spectacular fliers and have a haunting call.Lunch on board went uneaten as everyone wanted to stay ashore. There was a celebratory air on board in the evening as all the digital photographers went through their day's take at the saloon table. Outside the window, a gang of fur seals chased a gentoo penguin, and the sheathbills continued to peck at the boat.

11 November
Fortuna Bay, 54 : 09 South 036 : 49 West

We left Elsehul early yesterday morning, waving goodbye to two other yachts there for the night. Golden Fleece was bound for Stanley, and Abel Tasman for Grytviken.

The wind was perfect - 25 knots on a broad reach in the shelter of South Georgia. SEAL leaped along with the log pegged at 8.5 - 9.5 knots for hours at a time, which is pretty good going for a heavily laden boat. The sky was clearing as we approached, and we arrived at Fortuna Bay at about 6 pm. The wind settled down once we were in the harbor, and dinner plans were forgotten as everyone went ashore for the evening. The sun sets at about 10 pm, so we enjoyed the excellent light and stayed ashore until cold feet sent us back to the boat.

There is a large elephant seal harem next to us and we were able to climb up a hill and watch the harem by the hours. The beach master was kept very busy, mating with about six females in the hour we were there, and meanwhile repelling advances from two smaller males coming in from either side hoping to catch him unawares. He left the harem alone for a few minutes to have a splash in the water, and one of the smaller males nearly made it in, but a chorus of belches from the females brought the beach master back in to see off the rogue male, nearly crushing a pup in the process.

Quite a few of the pups are still in their black pelage (which means they're about three weeks old), but there are a host of bigger ones on their own. The older lone pups stay near but not in the harem ... perhaps to keep from being crushed in the fights. The young pups are right in the thick of it, as they are staying close to their mothers to nurse. The prime elephant seal action is considerably earlier in the year, but we're still seeing quite a bit.

The fur seals here are considerably more relaxed than the ones in Elsehul. Since they must be in the same exact phase of their breeding cycle, we can only assume that is because there are far fewer seals here. Fortuna Bay is quickly becoming populated with fur seals. The first one sighted here was in 2001, and already there are significant numbers.

There are reindeer, which came right down to the beach last night and we were able to get a good look at them through the raised saloon windows while we ate dinner. I hiked up to a gentoo penguin colony, and others hiked down the beach to a king penguin colony.

Helen, Anna, and Seal in Fortuna.

The cove we're in is called Whistle Cove. We guess that is because it is where Shackleton heard the work whistle at Stromness when he and Worsley and Crean were on their epic crossing of South Georgia. Until he heard that whistle, he didn't know for sure if the whalers were still at Stromness, but once they heard it, they knew they'd been saved, as long as they could make it across the low mountains to Stromness.

A few of us are considering retracing the final part of the crossing ... we can walk from here to Stromness. There were quite a few keen on doing the walk yesterday before we arrived here, but today, the lure of the wildlife on the beach may keep everyone at sea level.

12 November
Fortuna Bay, 54 : 09 South 036 : 49 West

We had a great day yesterday in Fortuna Bay. The variety of wildlife here is just amazing, and we had the extraordinary good luck to have light winds the entire time we've been here. We have to leave today as the wind is turning to the north which will make beach landings impossible...

...There's an elephant seal and a reindeer skeleton on the beach which make for excellent comparative anatomy for Russell (our vet) and for Helen and Anna, who have a keen interest in bones.

Cecilia sat near the king penguins for several hours with her tripod, and after about an hour, the chicks (fluffy and brown, totally unlike the sleek adults) came over to check her out. She didn't dare move to change lenses, but she had too long a telephoto to capture them. They
walked right up to her and pecked at her camera bag.

13 November
King Edward Point, 54 : 17 South 036 : 30 West

Yesterday was a day for cruising on Seal ... we called in to several sites en route - first stop was a macaroni penguin colony that we viewed from Seal's bow. We've seen several macaroni colonies but most were too inaccessible to see the penguins well, so it was great to have a good look at them finally. Staying on board the boat or dinghy is one of the best way to view wildlife, because they don't pay much attention to the yacht...

...Stromness was interesting as it is where Shackleton finally reached after his boat journey from Elephant Island and crossing of South Georgia. (Many adventurers with modern equipment and with GPSs have tried to reenact Shackleton's journey ... to date, a few have
achieved the boat journey and many have made the crossing through the mountains, but no one has achieved the entire route. The closest was Arved Fuchs a few years ago, but even he had to be towed the last bit to King Haakon Bay by his support yacht through 50 knot winds and icebergs.). Two groups of climbers have made the "Shackleton Crossing" so far this season.

The wind was coming around to the north however, so we headed around to Jason Harbour for the night. A light mantled sooty albatross was flying over the cliff when we arrived, next to a grazing reindeer. (The reindeer were introduced by Norwegian whalers for food, and they
have done remarkably well on South Georgia. Plans are underway to eradicate one of the herds.) We closed the door to keep from bothering the light mantled sooty albatross with our dinner conversation, but we could see the fur and elephant seals out of the windows while eating our lamb curry dinner.

At last light, Hamish and I made a quick reconnaissance of Jason Lagoon with the dinghy. It's an almost perfect circle - a glacial cirque - and we could just get the dinghy through over the moraine at the mouth. Fur seals and elephant seals lined the beach. In the water, the fur seals are so relaxed that they don't even notice the dinghy engine. When we were heading back out over the moraine, there was a fur seal right in the way. He was lolling in the water, rolling like a barrel, and paid no attention to us. We had to wait for him to clear out so we could get through the pass.

Everyone was quite keen to explore Jason Harbour in the morning, but time in South Georgia is always weather dependant, even though we've had unusually good weather so far. Hamish woke first at five am to the sound of ice chuckling outside the boat. From the noise level, we
expected to find the boat completely surrounded by ice, but in fact, it was just one smallish iceberg that must have contained an unusually large amount of air. The wind instruments were clogged with snow, and there was a wet 4" fall all over the deck. Hamish shovelled
out the dinghy while we waited until first light before heading off to Grytviken. A swell had started to come into the bay, so it was time to head out ... we have come alongside the government / BAS pier at King Edward Point, as it has the best protection around from this
NE swell. We'd planned to come here today in any event to take on water.

Shortly after we arrived, we were sitting down to bacon and eggs when a great belching and semi roaring came through the door. We jumped on deck to find a large male elephant seal, mouth opened, a foot off the stern. We're not sure if he was offering a commentary on the boat's name, or merely complaining that we were on his circuit. (He's now floating in the water off the small boat launching ramp, with his nose and top of his head and a bit of back visible ... rather like a hippopotamus. There's another lying on the pier along with his females.)

For more about Seal see http://www.expeditionsail.com.