Live From the Sapphire, 30-Day Antarctica/SA B2B, Jan 20 - Feb 19

[Mary loves to travel]

at Bluff Cove yesterday morning, they had us walk across some type of a “bath” that disinfected the bottom of our shoes.    It was mentioned that this was for bird flu.    
 

Similar to Ken, we had an excellent time at Bluff Cove.    I saw on their website they’ve used the pandemic shutdown to finish the road, so it was a very smooth ride in. There were plenty of Gentoos and a flock (?) of about 30 Kings.    
 

We finally got our penguin “fix” 😊🐧

 

I should note that we were on the 8:30am tour.     We watched the penguins for awhile, then headed to the cafe to warmup.     Then went back over to the penguins, and had them almost to ourselves for about 15-20 minutes until the next group of buses arrived.   
 

Mary

Edited February 2 by Mary loves to travel

[cadien]

We're doing the Bluff Cove excursion on Feb 11 so it's great to see a preview.

[Ken the cruiser]

40 minutes ago, Mary loves to travel said:

at Bluff Cove yesterday morning, they had us walk across some type of a “bath” that disinfected the bottom of our shoes.    It was mentioned that this was for bird flu.    
 

Similar to Ken, we had an excellent time at Bluff Cove.    I saw on their website they’ve used the pandemic shutdown to finish the road, so it was a very smooth ride in. There were plenty of Gentoos and a flock (?) of about 30 Kings.    
 

We finally got our penguin “fix” 😊🐧

 

I should note that we were on the 8:30am tour.     We watched the penguins for awhile, then headed to the cafe to warmup.     Then went back over to the penguins, and had them almost to ourselves for about 15-20 minutes until the next group of buses arrived.   
 

Mary

So that’s what that soapy mat was for. Thanks! They probably told us that. I just didn’t hear them. But that would explain why we had to “wash” the bottom of our shoes when we first got off the van. 

[LACruiser88]

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

So that’s what that soapy mat was for. Thanks! They probably told us that. I just didn’t hear them. But that would explain why we had to “wash” the bottom of our shoes when we first got off the van. 

We did the same thing last March at Volunteer Point.  Stepped in a "Virkon" water bath to kill viruses, one of a few disinfectants to do so (we were in the exotic bird business for 40+ years).

[BlerkOne]

or similar. This was at Volunteer Point.

[BlerkOne]

35 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

So that’s what that soapy mat was for. Thanks! They probably told us that. I just didn’t hear them. But that would explain why we had to “wash” the bottom of our shoes when we first got off the van. 

Really it should be coming and going. To try to limit what you might bring in, and what you might have picked up and leave with.

[Ken the cruiser]

5 minutes ago, BlerkOne said:

Really it should be coming and going. To try to limit what you might bring in, and what you might have picked up and leave with.

We walked through it both on arrival and when we were leaving. But you’re right, the only mandatory “walk through” was when we arrived.

[Mary loves to travel]

3 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

We walked through it both on arrival and when we were leaving. But you’re right, the only mandatory “walk through” was when we arrived.

We didn’t walk through when leaving, but our van driver sprayed disinfectant on the soles of our shoes as we entered the van.  

[Cruiser Nonna]

If this question has already been asked - I apologize - but at the different ports/countries you have traveled on this sailing - did you have "their currency" or were US Dollars/Credit cards accepted for purchases? 

Your pictures and insight have been so helpful - doing the Buenos Aires to LA on 3/4 - so thank you again for taking your time to help all of us!  Stay well and safe

[Ken the cruiser]

1 hour ago, Mary loves to travel said:

We didn’t walk through when leaving, but our van driver sprayed disinfectant on the soles of our shoes as we entered the van.  

I apologize. I was remembering our morning excursion experience when we went to see the penguins at Newans Station, when we transferred from the 16-passenger van to the 4-wheel drive vehicles.
 

On the afternoon excursion to Bluff Cove, we stayed in the 16-passenger van the whole way, then walked through the disinfectant shoe bath when we arrived and then had the bottom of our shoes sprayed by the driver before we got back into the van to head back to the pier.

[Ken the cruiser]

28 minutes ago, Cruiser Nonna said:

If this question has already been asked - I apologize - but at the different ports/countries you have traveled on this sailing - did you have "their currency" or were US Dollars/Credit cards accepted for purchases? 

Your pictures and insight have been so helpful - doing the Buenos Aires to LA on 3/4 - so thank you again for taking your time to help all of us!  Stay well and safe

That’s a good question that maybe someone else following the thread has an answer to. For us, we tip our tour guides and drivers with US$ and only used our CC once and that was at the grocery store in the Falkland Islands.

[Boatharbour]

I have enjoyed following your trip so much. Thank you for taking the time to share.
Could I ask if you know anyone onboard who took the Volunteer Point excursion instead of the Bluff Point one? I believe there are more king penguins at Volunteer Point but it involves at least two hours each way over rough terrain. 

[EDVM96]

14 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

I believe there are more king penguins at Volunteer Point but it involves at least two hours each way over rough terrain. 

Volunteer Point has by far the largest king pengiun population on the Falkland Islands. About 2000 pairs breed here.

[effinaround]

20 minutes ago, Boatharbour said:

I have enjoyed following your trip so much. Thank you for taking the time to share.
Could I ask if you know anyone onboard who took the Volunteer Point excursion instead of the Bluff Point one? I believe there are more king penguins at Volunteer Point but it involves at least two hours each way over rough terrain. 

We did Volunteer Point.  What would you like to know? Lots of Kings at Volunteer Point and we had a great time! 

[effinaround]

If you like Kings, Volunteer Point is a good place to be:

[Boatharbour]

9 minutes ago, effinaround said:

We did Volunteer Point.  What would you like to know? Lots of Kings at Volunteer Point and we had a great time! 

I noticed there were some King penguins in Ken’s photos at Bluff Point and then wondered if we would need to travel all the way to Volunteer Point to see them.   But from your photo it looks as though there are far more at Volunteer Point ?

[effinaround]

This was tacked onto the washroom and is certainly outdated:

[Mary loves to travel]

1 hour ago, Boatharbour said:

I noticed there were some King penguins in Ken’s photos at Bluff Point and then wondered if we would need to travel all the way to Volunteer Point to see them.   But from your photo it looks as though there are far more at Volunteer Point ?

People on this trip have shared a lot of photos, and from what I’ve seen, yes, there are more Kings at Volunteer Point.    But the 2+hour ride each way, some of it bone-jarring, was a deal breaker for us.  We were really pleased with the number of Kings at Bluff Cove, as well as the many Gentoos and easy ride.   
 

It’s what you prefer.  

[Ken the cruiser]

@Boatharbour, just to add a little more variety to your upcoming excursion decision process, on the next leg we will be going back to the Falkland Islands again on Feb 11. This time we will be going on the below excursion which features Elephant seals and Gentoo penguins. But I will mention this. One thing we enjoyed about the 2 excursions we went on this time as well as our upcoming one is the diversity of wildlife we saw. 
 

I would be interested to hear from @effinaround if there were any other penguins, seals, and/or other wildlife to be seen at Volunteer Point? I’ve heard it’s an awesome excursion, but never heard about the diversity of wildlife to be seen there, other than of course the massive amount of King penguins.

 

[Ken the cruiser]

After dinner tonight we headed back to the cabin to take care of a few things, to include checking out the view from our much warmer balcony! 😁
 

 

Then we headed to the theater to watch the production show Bravo!

 

 
followed by the always hilarious game show Marriage Match! 😂

 

 

[EDVM96]

2 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

Samsung & Apple phones now make so nice HDR shots - it's amazing.. 👍

[Ken the cruiser]

Day 15 - Feb 3 - Sea Day (2 of 2)

 

 

 

 
Here’s our current location, both from a vertical

 

  
and horizontal perspective as seen on my iPad. 😁

 

 
The weather forecast is also looking relatively calm this evening with a mild rocking motion.

 

[hpeabody]

13 minutes ago, tillys mom said:

Mine came today, and it’s beautiful (I got the red one). I’m glad I’ll be wearing it because it is heavy, but I bet it’s warm.

That's great!  Funny we got them the same day.

[BlerkOne]

19 minutes ago, Ken the cruiser said:

 

I would be interested to hear from @effinaround if there were any other penguins, seals, and/or other wildlife to be seen at Volunteer Point? I’ve heard it’s an awesome excursion, but never heard about the diversity of wildlife to be seen there, other than of course the massive amount of King penguins.

 

 

There are 3 types of penguins (king, gentoo, Magellanic) at Volunteer Point. There are lots of King penguins. Most of the penguins are segregated, but free to move around if they choose.

 

 

Next time, I'm going to Seal Bay which is even farther. Not as many penguins, but up to 5 varieties!

[PurpleTraveller]

On my excursion to Volunteer Point in March 2018 there was a large number of King Penguins and their many young, as well as Gentoo Penguins and Magellanic Penguins.

 

 

 

 

 

We were also able to see them on the beach.

 

 

 

It was one of the best excursions I have ever been on and so worth the ride there and back.