Fortuna Bay

Posted on by

As soon as everyone (and every zodiac) was back on board from Grytviken, we continued North – now heading for the penguin colony at Fortuna Bay.

As it was about time to get ready for an early dinner – and the most informal one on the whole trip. So while passing through the iceberg cemetery again, we were enjoying beef tartar, salmon-scallop rolls, venison and the likes – – true decadence at its best 😉

Straight after dinner we made it back to the zodiacs for an evening landing at Fortuna Bay. After getting ashore and a short walk later, we found ourselves in a colony of king penguins.

More Relaxation at Sea

Posted on by

From Tristan da Cunha we continued to South Georgia; based on the itinerary another four days of cruising lay ahead of us. However two cyclones between us and South Georgia meant that we had to adjust our course to not end up in the storm. Instead of South-West, we continued West and made it to South Georgia delayed by good two days.

On board the daily routine continued with lectures, loads of reading and eating. Also the crew got inventive to come up with new items on the program – from a passenger chanty choir, an introduction to cocktail mixing lessons to Spanish lessons.

Of course with two cyclones in the vicinity (a couple of 100 km away), we also felt their offshots … or in other words, the “road” was quiet bumpy at stages.

Tristan da Cunha

Posted on by

Land ahoy!

After four days on the open Atlantic Ocean we had reached the shores of Tristan da Cunha in the afternoon of the 24th.

The sea was still choppy, nevertheless we were all more than hoping to get our feet back on solid ground … However after the captain made radio-contact with the islanders and we heard that it was not possible for them to get out of their port, that hope died quickly … if they could not come out, how would we get in?

So – instead of a shore landing, we now ended up circumnavigating the island – getting the full 360° view of the island. We made the best out of the situation and ended up having Küpplis in the Observation Lounge.

Leaving Africa

Posted on by

My first activity – even before unpacking (simply because my luggage had not arrived at my cabin yet) – was “Tea Time” … a nice tea on the deck, watching table mountain and the loading of the ship.

Once I had my luggage, I started unpacking – only disturbed by the safety briefing and sea rescue exercise. The same was quickly followed by immigration and being stamped out of South Africa.

The ship nevertheless still was not cleared; we had dinner (and a first taste of what superb food was ahead of us) in the port. We only left Cape Town after a number of drinks (for me mostly with cucumber) and well after the midnight snack.

Boarding Hanseatic

Posted on by

We concluded the city tour with a stop at the V&A Waterfront; here we also had lunch, before being transferred to the ship – MV Hanseatic.

At the port a committee was waiting for us handing out sparkling wine to welcome us.  After luggage identification, we were finally allowed to board the ship … I probably had been the first passenger in a while to board the ship in flip-flops 😉 .