1 Dec 25 - Antarctica 25 - Sailing Away

After dropping my bags with Oceanwide Expeditions and walking around the Urban Reserve on the waterfront, I headed for the port area. The walk takes you past the Saint Christopher. It is a good place to look for Flightless Steamerduck: I've seen it there on two of my three visits to Ushuaia in recent years.

The Saint Christopher

SH Vega is at the front, with Ortelius in the middle and Ushuaia at the back: SH Vega is a polar strength cruise ship which carries about one hundred and fifty passengers in cruise ship type cabins, but I would book on Oceanwide Expeditions ships in preference every time

As I walked past the Saint Christopher, there was a pair of Flightless Steamerducks feeding in front of the boat. Note, the paler head of the male, the heavier orange bill and shorter wings, compared to the Flying Steamerducks (in the last Blog Post).

Flightless Steamerduck: This monotypic species occurs from Southern Chile to Tierra del Fuego

Neotropic Cormorant: This is the brasilianum subspecies which occurs from Costa Rica South to Tierra del Fuego

Night Heron: This adult Night Heron was preening itself on the remains of nearby boat

Some of the local Gulls for the Seagull fans.

Kelp Gull: This is the nominate dominicanus subspecies which occurs in coastal Southern South America, the Falkland Islands, South Georgia, Southern Australia, New Zealand & it's Subantarctic Islands

Kelp Gull: Adult. Note the long green legs. This isn't the subspecies that has occurred in the UK

Kelp Gull: Presume this is a First Summer individual

Dolphin Gull: The best Gull species I've seen

After another short walk, I arrived at the port area. I knew we wouldn't be allowed onboard Ortelius for at least another ninety minutes. However, getting there early would mean I would get a seat in the small waiting area. Plus, I would be in the perfect position to be able to board quickly, once we were allowed in. Being in a four berth cabin, it's first come, first choice of bunks. I wanted a lower bunk to allow me to get up quickly and quietly, so I could get on deck for some early morning watches.

Ortelius: My home for the next ten nights

Getting familiar with the lifeboat drill before we sailed

Good to see the IAATO rules for viewing Whales and Seals

The IAATO rules for viewing Whales and Birds

One of the key meetings at the start of the cruise was to meet Pippa, the Expedition Leader, and the rest of the Expedition staff.

The Expedition Team (left to right): Shan, Allan, Saskai, Jess, Sam, Beth, Wei and Gary. The Deputy Expedition Leader George isn't in this photo

After introducing the Expedition team, Pippa went onto provide some details on the likely route. The original plan was to sail South in the Weddell Sea until we were close to the Emperor Penguin colony on Snow Hill Island. However, there had been exceptional amounts of sea ice in the Weddell Sea this season and it didn't seem likely that we would be able to get close enough to Snow Hill. When travelling to extreme locations on expedition ships, I've learnt the weather doesn't always allow the original plan to be achieved.

Pippa, our Expedition Leader

I had bumped into a couple of Expedition staff from one of the other ships in the Urban Reserve and they had said only one ship had managed to make it to Snow Hill about a month earlier. Pippa confirmed that the first two trips on Ortelius hadn't been able to get far South in the Weddell Sea. She did mention that the latest weather forecasts, suggested the ice could move and open a window for us to get closer to Snow Hill Island by the time we reached the Weddell Sea. However, that forecast could and did change into one that wasn't going to allow us to head even as far South as I reached in Jan 23.

Our planned route for the South Shetland Islands to the Weddell Sea: I've coloured Snow Hill Island red

Despite the news about the sea ice, I was still travelling to Antarctica early enough in the Summer season to have a reasonable chance of seeing Emperor Penguins on the sea ice. We would have four days in Antarctica to look, which is a lot longer than most Antarctica trips. It was Oceanwide's key reason for this trip and the route. We knew that the bridge crew would be keeping a close eye out for Emperor Penguins when we reached the Weddell Sea, even if I, some of the keener passengers and the Expedition staff weren't looking due to meal times, the long days etc.

The orange is the Antarctic Peninsula and associated islands: There was exceptional amounts of sea ice (pink) in the Weddell Sea this season and we were wanting to sail about fifty or sixty miles down on the East side of the Peninsula. It didn't look promising

First we had to get down the Beagle Channel. Finally, about 18:30 all the mandatory meetings were over and I went up to the top deck, rather head down for the first evening meal. It wasn't going to be dark until about 21:30. Having seen the pod of Commerson's Dolphins the day before, I was keen to have another look for them. I scanned hard, but the calm conditions of the morning had changed to more typically choppy weather. This made looking for an unobtrusive Commerson's Dolphin harder, if they were still around. I didn't have any joy. However, I did well for Whales after we had passed Martillo Island: with three Humpback Whales, followed by two Sei Whales and finally a Fin Whale. There was also repeats of all the Seabird species I had seen the day before on the Martillo Island trip.

Passing Martillo Island, with some Argentinian mountains in the background

At least a half hour after we passed Martillo Island, the pilot left Ortelius. Once he had departed, the bridge and the bridge wings were opened to the passengers. I switched to the starboard bridge wing and as dinner was over, I was joined by one of the Expedition team, Jess. Jess used to work for ORCA as a seasonal live-aboard surveyor on one of the UK ferries. She had a good Cetacean background and was very familiar with the surveying I do for this excellent charity. She had missed the first two groups of Whales, but she arrived in time to see the Fin Whale. We also had brief sightings of the only Dolphin in the Beagle Channel that evening. It didn't give long views as it raced into to play in the wake of the bow. However, we saw enough to be sure it was either a Dusky Dolphin or a Peale's Dolphin: with the former species being the commoner Dolphin, from my experience in the Beagle Channel.

Fin Whale: Unlike the distant tail-slapping group of Humpback Whales and close, but brief, Sei Whales, this Fin Whale stayed on the surface long enough to get some photos

Fin Whale: With a dorsal fin and a lot of back showing, the likely species in these waters are Fin Whale or Sei Whale. The extent of the back will rule out the smaller Whale species like any of the potential Beaked Whales or an Antarctic Minke Whale

Fin Whale: There is a nice smooth curve on a broad-based dorsal fin which fits well for a Fin Whale. Sei Whale have a proportionally narrower-based dorsal fin, as the dorsal fin is thinner and taller, with a distinctive kink on the leading edge

Fin Whale: Another view of the back and the dorsal fin

About thirty minutes the light was going and it was time to head below and socialise with some of the passengers I had met when we first came on board. Then it was time to turn it as I had set my alarm for an early start.

1 Dec 25 - Argentina 25 - A Final Walk Around Ushuaia

I woke early as I had a number of things to sort out before I left the flat to drop the bags with Oceanwide Expeditions. A quick scan of the quay confirmed the Ortelius was tied up.

Ortelius is the middle ship on the right hand jetty

As previously mentioned in an earlier Blog Post, this is a flat I wouldn't recommend. However, it had one positive thing, it was only a ten minute walk to drop the bags off. I then headed off to the Urban Reserve which is next to the city.

The view of the Urban Reserve from the flat

There is a raw look to the Urban Reserve: However, the scenery behind is stunning

I'm sure I would find similar raw-looking areas next to some of the high Arctic towns

There was a selection of Ducks on the water, which included over two hundred Crested Ducks, fifty Flying Steamerducks and a handful of Red Shovelers and Speckled Teal.

Crested Duck: This is the nominate specularioides subspecies which occurs from central Chile & Argentina to Tierra del Fuego & the Falkland Islands

Crested Duck: There is a second subspecies which occurs in the Andes of North Chile & North Argentina to Peru & Bolivia

Flying Steamerduck: This monotypic species occurs in South Chile & South Argentina. They also occur on the Falkland Islands, where they are a scarce species

Flying Steamerduck: Note, the thinner and less orange bills compared to the Flightless Steamerducks

Flying Steamerduck: The males also have darker heads than Flightless Steamerducks

Red Shoveler: This monotypic Duck is probably my favourite of the Latin American Wildfowl. They occur from South Peru & South Brazil to Tierra del Fuego & the Falkland Islands

Night Heron: Adult. This is the obscurus subspecies which occurs from North Chile & North-central Argentina to Tierra del Fuego. There are two other New World subspecies to the North of this subspecies and on the Falkland Islands, respectively

Night Heron: Juv

Night Heron: Another adult

After the lake at the Urban Reserve, I walked along the path next to the stream that flows into the lake. It didn't take long to find a feeding Magellanic Snipe. They are very approachable compared to our Snipe, which typically would have flushed as soon as it saw me.

Magellanic Snipe: This is the nominate magellanica subspecies which occurs from central Chile & Argentina to Tierra del Fuego & the Falkland Islands

Magellanic Snipe

There was a party of three Long-tailed Meadowlarks at the end of the stream, as well as, a Chimango Caracara and a few Southern Lapwings by the houses that are adjacent to the Southern end of the reserve.

Long-tailed Meadowlark: This is the nominate loyca subspecies which occurs in Chile & Eastern Argentina as far South as Tierra del Fuego

Long-tailed Meadowlark: Two other subspecies occur in the North West of Argentina, with a third subspecies on the Falkland Islands

Long-tailed Meadowlark: This looks to be a display, as I saw two different individuals in this posture

Chimango Caracara: This is the temucoensis subspecies which occurs from South Chile & South Argentina to Tierra del Fuego

Southern Lapwing: This is the fretensis subspecies which occurs in South Chile & South Argentina. It always surprised me, how happy Southern Lapwings were on unfenced garden lawns. I saw few cats in Argentina and dog ownership wasn't high in Ushuaia, with many walked on leads. That scenario would be fantastic in the UK, but sadly it will never happen

As I reached the far corner of the Urban Reserve, it was good to see this old Argentinian Patrol Boat. It looked like she was being restored. Having checked since I got home, she was an American Fast Patrol Boat built during WW2 for deployment in the Pacific. After WW2, she was one of ten Fast Patrol Boats sold to the Argentinian Navy and in service up to 1984. After that she was used as a storage vessel, with most of the internal compartments removed. It is good to see that the Maritime Museum of Ushuaia is working closely with the Navy to restore her to her former glory. There still looks to be a lot of work to complete. However, there has been excellent progress to get her back to looking this good, from the sorry state as a glorified storage container.

Fast Patrol Boat A.R.A. Towora

It was lunchtime and time for me to head towards the port to board the Ortelius. I will cover the rest of the day in the next Blog Post.

30 Nov 25 - Argentina 25 - Penguin Island In The Beagle Channel

This is my third and final Blog Post in the trilogy covering the boat trip down the Beagle Channel to Martillo Island (Penguin Island). The first Post covered the islands just outside of Ushuaia where there are breeding colonies of Imperial Shags, Rock Shags and South American Sealions. The second Post covered the other Seabirds and a small pod of Commerson's Dolphins seen on the trip down to Martillo Island.

This boat was running about fifteen minutes ahead of our boat, to stagger visits to the various locations

Our skipper slowly parked the boat onto the beach at Martillo Island. The loafing around Penguins were clearly used to this and were completely unfazed by it.

Magellanic Penguin: Looking to the right where some of the Magellanic Penguin were resting

Magellanic Penguin: Magellanic Penguins dig out burrows under the bushes for their nests

Gentoo Penguin: There was also a compact Gentoo Penguin colony further back on the island

Magellanic Penguin: These Magellanic Penguins were only about ten metres from the boat and they didn't move as it was beached

Magellanic Penguin: Adult. This adult barely opened an eye as we beached

Magellanic Penguin: Juv. Zooming in on one of the juveniles

Magellanic Penguin: Another juvenile

Magellanic Penguin: There were also some Magellanic Penguins in the shallows

Magellanic Penguin

Magellanic Penguin: Looking in the water for food

Magellanic Penguin: The water is clear enough to allow a photo of this individual swimming underwater

Magellanic Penguin: Adult. They breed from coastal central Chile & central Argentina to Cape Horn & the Falkland Islands and winter as far North as South East Brazil

Magellanic Penguin: Thinking about going into the water

A closer view of the Gentoo Penguin colony.

Gentoo Penguin: This is the nominate papua subspecies which breeds locally in Tierra del Fuego, as well as, on the Falkland Islands

Fortunately, there were one or two photogenic Gentoo Penguins around the water's edge.

Gentoo Penguin: There are other two subspecies which breed on South Georgia and in the Antarctic Peninsula & neighbouring islands, respectively, with a third subspecies breeding on Macquarie Island & the South Indian Ocean islands of Prince Edward, Marion, Crozet & Heard Islands

Gentoo Penguin

I didn't realise it was possible to land on Martillo Island. Looking into this option, there is an operator who can land up to fifteen visitors. However, at just under three hundred quid per person, it's three times the price I paid and it would be hard to justify paying that price to get a bit closer to the Gentoo Penguins, if you were planning on a Southern Oceans trip.

Tourists with the Gentoo Penguins

There was a small colony of distant Rock Shags nesting on the cliff behind the left end of the beach. Other Birds on the beach includes some Imperial Shags, a few Upland Geese and a handful of Chilean Skuas.

Imperial Shags

Chilean Skua: They have a capped appearance. This monotypic species breeds along the coasts of South Chile & South Argentina and they range North to the coasts of South Peru & central Brazil outside of the breeding season

Chilean Skua: Like all Skuas, this one is on the lookout for an unguarded egg or chick

As we left, I spotted this navigation buoy with a few Rock Shags breeding on it, as well as, a few South American Sealions at its base.

This was a popular navigation buoy

A close up of the Rock Shags

A close up of the South American Sealions

We returned to Ushuaia about mid-afternoon and I wandered off to find a late lunch, before heading back to the flat. There were a couple of old Routemaster buses which are used for tourist runs around Ushuaia.

An old Routemaster bus: The colour scheme just looks wrong

An old Routemaster bus: Another thing that is wrong is having doors on the bus. The great thing about the Routemasters, is you could run after them and jump aboard a moving bus, if it had already pulled away. This was in the days when nobody worried about Elves and 'Elf & Safety wasn't as big a worry as today

I spent the rest of the day in the flat catching up on emails, backing up photos etc, as the next day I was headed off to Antarctica.