Penguins & Schnapps - a Hanseatic Cruise in Paradise

[freddie]

My partner, Pat, and I have just returned from a marvelous cruise in the Southern Sea on the Hanseatic. As trite as the expression may be, it truly was "a trip of a lifetime", the best cruise we've taken. While I will not try to do a detailed review of the cruise and the ship (Linda Garrison did an excellent review last year on about.com), I will do a sort of stream-of-consciousness series of posts to give some of our more lasting impressions. I will try to do that in several separate posts, in order that no one have to endure any single post that is so long and tedious that one might consider eating the mouse to end the misery. (I'd add some oompahh band music to keep everyone awake; but I don't know how to do that.)

 

This was an 18-day cruise aboard the MS Hanseatic, a Hapag-Lloyd ship, from Ushuaia to the Falklands, South Georgia, the South Orkneys, the South Shetlands, the Antarctic peninsula, and across the Drake Passage to Cape Horn and Ushuaia.

 

Sunday, Jan. 21 - On board the Hanseatic -

 

Now, we are finally on board this lovely little ship, in the South Atlantic on the way to the Falklands

 

We received our wake-up calls yesterday morning at our hotel, the Four Seaons in Buenos Aires, at 3:00 a.m. (is that gruesome or what?!) and caught our transfer to the airport for our charter flight down to Ushuaia. Then the cruiseline had to keep us occupied for about seven hours until the ship was ready for embarkation at 5:00 p.m., not an easy task in such a remarkably dull town. Although the forecast was for rain, our TA's good weather juju kicked in marvelously, resulting in the first warm and sunny day in Ushuaia in weeks. We were all treated to an excursion into the nearby national park, including a one and a half hour ride on the restored prison train - a trip of only four miles. When our very sweet guide asked us in jest if we now felt like prisoners, she missed the irony in our vigorous responses that we certainly did feel like prisoners!!

 

But even the dreariest tours come to an end; and our sleepy, hot and grubby (in a chic way, of course), and borderline cranky little crew happily went into major mood shift as we sipped champagne, identified our bags and boarded the ship at about 5:15.

 

Although we were scheduled to leave Ushuaia at 10:00 p.m., we stayed there overnight to await several delayed passengers. Our sail away was this morning at 6:00 a.m. under a sunny sky and with wonderfully calm seas through the Beagle Channel. It's a bit less flat now that we're out in the Atlantic, but just enough roll to remind us that we're on a ship. We should arrive in the Falklands tomorrow (Monday) morning and will have our first Zodiac landing at 7:00 a.m. So, tomorrow we will get to see our first penguins of the trip - drum roll, please!!

 

The weather is forecast to be Zodiac-friendly; but the weather here is notoriously fickle.

 

Enough of this drivel for how (otherwise, you will start to understand how prisoners feel, as we did yesterday). I will try to post again soon, with more details on food (very good so far), service (excellent), and fragrant penguin poop, as long as I manage to survive being elbowed out of line at the salad bar by the Teutonic contingent of the passenger population (about 80% of the total). More on that topic later, assuming that these emails are not censored by the ship's front office staff. For the moment, suffice it to say that the toughest members of the World Wrestling Federation (or whatever that group of steroidal nutbags is called) would not stand a chance in a buffet line, airline check-in and boarding, or parka and boot selection event against most of the passengers on this ship. This morning, I asked one of the senior staff members how to say "Pardon me" in German, in case I bumped into someone or wanted to get around someone in the hallway, etc. She gave me an expression which she said was loosely translated as "Get the hell out of my way!!" Clearly, she knows her countrymen (and -women) well...

 

Hoping that my German genes (50%) allow me to develop a good elbow to the ribs of anyone who wants my perceived space, I close.

 

Cheers, Fred

[freddie]

Monday, Jan. 22 - The Falkland Islands, New Island

 

Eureka!! We have met (and smelled) our first penguins.

 

Our good weather juju is holding. Last night's passage to the Falklands was fine, with only a bit of rocking. The water was smooth for our first Zodiac landing (of 18 - count 'em, 18!! - fantastico!! - planned for the whole trip) this morning. We hit the beach on New Island, West Falkand about 8:30 am and took a short hike to a huge colony of Rockhopper penguins - 20,000 -

30,000 pairs, most with babies. The fuzzy babies were particularly adorable, huddled together in their little groups (called "kindergartens" by the bird lady on the expedition staff). They are about five weeks old and about half as tall as the adults. There are also albatrosses and cormorants sharing the colony, which is on magnificent cliffs above the sea.

 

This afternoon, we will make a landing on another small island, where we will see two other species of penguins - Magellanic and Gentoo.

 

Yikes, time to get ready for today's special lunch, a Tapas Buffet. God forbid that we miss a meal... More penguin news later as it develops.

[freddie]

Tuesday, Jan. 23, at sea enroute to South Georgia -

 

In my earlier installments, I talked about the wonderful wildlife on New Island. I forgot to mention that there were lots of albatross babies, which are all fuzzy white and nearly as adorable as the penguin babies, although much bigger than the little penguins.

 

On our hike in the afternoon across Carcass Island, we saw, in addition to the Magellanic penguins, a lot of geese and ducks. Finally, we saw several huge birds devouring some recently deceased critter. I think that they were giant vultures (or maybe personal injury lawyers - it's easy to get those two species confused).

 

Now, on to South Georgia and the King penguins...

 

Think good thoughts about penguins. Cheers, Fred

[freddie]

Wednesday, Jan. 24 -

 

We're on the first of our two sea days on the way to South Georgia. The seas are completely smooth, quite a rarity for these parts. Sylvia Stevens, our delightful Scottish bird expert, told us a few minutes ago that this is the calmest she has seen the seas between the Falklands and South Georgia in the 17 years she has been coming here. Once again, our TA's weather juju is coming through for us. Lordie, the dear woman must have sacrificed a goat or a Texas congressman for us to get this good weather juju. (The goat would have been more valuable, of course...)

 

Today we had the best lunch on board a ship that we have ever had - the wonderful seafood buffet. It included: succulent fresh Falkland Islands oysters; marinated green mussels; several types of marinated or grilled shrimp; whole poached, grilled, and smoked salmon; linguine tossed with mussels and parmesan to order; eight kinds of herring; king crab legs; grilled plaice which was as delicious as Dover sole; a seafood stew of fish and calamari to kill for; and bottomless glasses of Danish schnapps.

 

Yesterday, we had the second best lunch we have had at sea, the Hanseatic Tapas Buffet.

 

(Yikes, a small pause as I just saw some killer whales off the port side...),

 

I cannot recall all of the offerings,but it was quite impressive: two or three dozen items, from enormous stir-fried-to-order spicy prawns to perfectly flaky empanadas to Spanish air-dried ham. We have not had better in the Plaza Mayor in Madrid.

 

We just attended Sylvia's lecture on South Georgia and are so jazzed about walking among tens of thousands of King penguins that we can't stand it. Tomorrow will be a sea day of great impatience and enormous expectations.

 

South Georgia, here we come...

[freddie]

Thursday, Jan. 25 - At sea enroute to South Georgia -

 

After the gorgeous sun and smooth seas of yesterday, we are today experiencing the more typical South Atlantic. Since early this morning, we are enjoying Force 7 winds and 8 - 12 foot seas. That means, dear folks, that we are rockin' and rollin'. This morning, waves were breaking over the bow and covering the windows to the Observation Lounge on the top desk with spray. Very exciting, although a bit dicey to try to take photos outside.

 

At both breakfast and lunch, there were two occasions when glasses tumbled off of tables when he hit a deep trough or rolled particularly dramatically. Thank God (and the pharma industry) for Scopace. It would be dreadful to not be able to stuff ourselves as usual. There was a good turnout at lunch, which was another tasty meal, although not as much fun as yesterday's marvelous seafood buffet. Scopace tends to create a dry mouth; so the only reasonable solution is to drink more!! There is a cocktail party this evening to allow us to try out that approach to dry mouth issues.

 

Walking around the ship is like walking on the moving and tilting floors of a carnival ride.

 

But for now we must concentrate on our present fabulous adventure and hope that the wind diminishes enough to allow us to make landings tomorrow on South Georgia. Fortunately, we have three or four days there; so if one day doesn't work, then we can try again the next day.

 

Here we come, you beautiful King penguins...

 

Note about this ship: The Hanseatic is a beautiful small ship. It is probably the most luxurious "expedition" ship afloat, with an ice-hardened hull and a fleet of Zodiacs, but also with fine Rosenthal china, crystal and silverware. There were about 170 passengers on our cruise, with a crew of about 130. The maximum passenger load the ship can carry is about 180. Despite its small size, it handled heavy seas very well. (But the crew was kind enough to place whoopee bags every few feet on the railings in the hallways when we were in stormy seas, just in case...)

[freddie]

Saturday, Jan. 27 - Salisbury Plain, Bay of Isles, South Georgia Island -

 

(with sincere apologies to Alfred, Lord Tennyson):

 

Penguins to the right of them.

Penguins to the left of them.

Penguins in front of them

Tweetered and chattered.

So onto the great plain of Kings

Strode the brave cruisers.

And on this bright morn,

On fair Salisbury Plain,

We have met the Kings;

And we are theirs.

 

 

Yes, indeed, ladies and gentlemen and kiddies of all ages, today we all fulfilled our fantasies of walking among the King penguins. That is for most of us one of the primary purposes of taking this itinerary. We were not disappointed. It was magical - they entirely captured our hearts. Pat & I managed to get on the first Zodiac out. The day is sunny and glorious, with almost no wind, allowing for easy landings in the Zodiacs. The hour and a half we spent among the Kings will be one of our great travel memories.

 

In addition to the tens of thousands of King penguins in this huge colony, there were many baby seals on the beach. They are cuter than the cutest stuffed animal and have the sweetest sad little faces.

 

 

This afternoon, we may be treated to a Zodiac tour of a large fur seal colony. We cannot go ashore in such a colony because the fur seals are quite aggessive.

 

Enough for now - just wanted to report in with the news that we peasants have mingled among the Kings.

 

Our afternoon adventure was a Zodiac tour of a large fur seal colony. It was great fun to be in the Zodiac right next to the colony on the beach, with hundreds of seals swimming around the Zodiac. There were hundreds of babies, including several blond ones. Our naturalist said that the blond ones never become dominant breeding adults. He didn't know why that is. I speculated that it was because they are too blond to learn to hunt well and don't realize until too late that calling for take-out does not really work well in this remote part of the world.

 

Cheers, Fred

[freddie]

Wednesday, Jan. 31 - South Orkney Islands -

 

THE DAY OF THE LEOPARD SEALS!!

 

Today was an exciting day indeed. We have been in cold and rough seas, with wind and snow since early this morning, preventing us from making a landing at the British research station on Signy Island in the South Orkneys. However, Herr Kapitan was able to find a holding anchorage off Monroe Island to allow us to make a Zodiac tour near the islands in Sandefjord Bay, where there are rookeries for hundreds of thousands of chinstrap penguins.

 

After bundling ourselves well in our three layers (as a reminder, kiddies, that means: light first layer close to skin; mid layer for warmth; and outer waterproof and extra-warm layer), we hardy cruisers climbed into the Zodiacs in the driving sleet and tossing seas.

 

The Zodiac outing (about an hour and a half) was fabulous. Because of the wind and sleet, we got drenched going towards the islands. (Fortunately, our three layers actually did the job; and we all stayed warm and dry under our outer layer - a testimony to the wisdom of that three-layer system.) It was enormous fun bouncing along the waves, like being on a white-water rafting trip. The thousands of chinstraps in the water, porpoising along beside the Zodiacs, were an absolute delight.

 

The Eau de Penguin No. 5 (the new fragrance to be offered this spring by Chanel, with Benny Hill as advertising icon - Catherine Deneuve rather rudely declined the gig, even though she did great with Chanel No. 5 for so many years) was remarkably evident, even from the ship a mile from shore.

 

The highlights of the Zodiac trips were several sightings of the predatory leopard seals. These enormous (10-12 feet long) seals with a very serpentine aspect are both entrancing and a bit frightening. One followed our Zodiac very closely for more than five minutes, raising its lovely but decidedly disturbing head from the water every few seconds to stare at us with those large, cold eyes. Then, we had the rare experience of seeing a leopard seal catch a penguin and surface with the poor little chinstrap in its mouth, within ten feet of the Zodiac.

 

Even more exciting, the Zodiac in which others of our party were touring was attacked by a leopard seal, which managed to pierce one of the air chambers with its sharp teeth, causing the chamber to partially deflate. Cool, no??!! We had hoped that the leopard seal which had dogged us for a while would have had the decency to attack our boat, but no such luck. (Okay, okay, don't get hysterical, anyone - there was no danger, since the Zodiacs have multiple, independently sealed air chambers; and the attacked boat was able to make it back to the ship with no problem other than a rearrangement of the passenger weight.) But now our compatriots have a great story to tell of the Attack of the Leopard Seal, while we must make do with our memories of the little chinstrap who got gobbled up (may he RIP).

 

The seas remain rough; but the snow has diminished as we cruise on towards Elephant Island, where most of Shackleton's crew awaited while he and five brave souls made the astonishing crossing of the Southern Sea to South Georgia Island in their 22 foot open boat.

 

Tonight is the Shackleton Dinner. I've not yet summoned up the courage to look at the menu, remaining hopeful that it does not have any penguin, seal, or cormorant items among the offerings. That may have worked for Shackleton and his starving crew; but we Hanseatic cruisers are used to more refined fare...

 

Cheers, Fred

[freddie]

Back home - Feb. 12 -

 

WHERE HAVE ALL THE PENGUINS GONE??!!

 

Yikes, we’ve been home a few days and are getting over our jet lag, finishing laundry (it only took five runs of our waterproof pants through the washer to get rid of the last fragrant traces of Eau de Penguin No. 5), and trying to convince our two skeptical doggies that we are indeed staying here for a while. But we miss our penguins…

 

As part of my therapy for penguin withdrawal, I have noted a few random comments about the cruise, as follows (the rest of my therapy involves copious quantities of schnapps and liverwurst):

 

Overriding observation: fantastic experience on a terrific ship.

 

Itinerary: Superb, magnifico, wunderbar. Once again, we must thank our dear TA, Ngaire, for having so enthusiastically promoted this itinerary. We are sure that we would have enjoyed the cruise even without the visits to South Georgia (and the Kings); but the cruise would have been greatly diminished without those remarkable landings.

 

Our memories include the enchantment of our time among the Kings, our astonishment at the gigantic icebergs which were many times larger than our ship, and our delight at sitting in a Zodiac surrounded by thousands of fur seals and porpoising adelie penguins. Those are experiences which must be experienced to be experienced (hmm, that sounds either quite Zen or quite bad-60’s-flashback).

 

The grub: Pat & I found the food on board to be very good to excellent, both in selection and in quality of execution. We were particularly pleased with the many interesting choices and the bold flavor profiles of the dishes. I cannot imagine our favorite line, Regent, (or any other American line) offering such things as grilled sweetbreads or veal kidneys in spicy mustard sauce. Now, many people would likely consider that a good thing, as those items are more than a bit creepy to a lot of people. (I liked the sweetbreads but could not bring myself to order the kidneys, preferring not to eat any body part used in transplants.) But the inclusion of such dishes which are so atypical of most cruise menus demonstrates that the chefs are not timid.

 

Fortunately, many less scary but marvelously tasty dishes were offered as well. We were quite fond of the excellent cheese selection offered at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oddly, the galley could not produce an edible warm dessert soufflé, despite offering them on numerous occasions. The Hanseatic version of a soufflé Grand Marnier always turned out to be a peculiar creation bearing a glumly close resemblance to silly putty. Thus, we simply indulged in the rich ice cream available (ahh, fond memories of the espresso croquant – until our little group gobbled up every scoop of it on board).

 

The boot room: First, please understand that this issue did not at all reduce our absolute enjoyment of the cruise and has, in fact, given us endless amusing anecdotes to use at cocktail parties for years to come. The Battle of the Boot-Room was a to-the-death battle that occurred just before and after each Zodiac landing, as everyone went to his or her designated boot-room (small rooms where we stored and washed our wellies) to put on the boots or to rinse them off after stomping about in penguin guano.

 

There was a limited amount of space in the two rooms, requiring the prospective bootees to be quite considerate and cooperative. Sadly, a large number of passengers on board had only the most passing acquaintance with either of those concepts and committed such random acts of unkindness as demanding that others move off of “their” bench (when, of course, the benches were entirely at everyone’s disposal), demanding that everyone within a radius of six feet clear a space while the demander flailed about trying to put on the little life vest, or trying to grab a boot-washing hose out of one’s hands (oops, I am so sorry, Frau Schmidt, that you got sprayed in the face when you grabbed the hose from me).

 

As I sat in the clinic one evening, waiting to see the ship’s sawbones about my dislocated shoulder, cracked ribs, and bruised fingers, I reflected that, in retrospect, I should have just let Frau Schmidt have the damned hose…

 

The Zodiacs: When Neptune decided that mortals needed some fun toys to use on his seas, he clearly had Zodiacs in mind. Our 18 Zodiac landings/tours were all super. It was also fascinating to see each day who would be our drivers, as they varied from the gorgeous Esther (the head driver) to delightful Doris (the hotel director) to eccentric Christian (the boutique manager, who was a driver-in-training and not entirely confidence-inspiring with his spiked white hair and oh-so-trendo space-man eyeglasses).

 

The staff and service: From the first day in Buenos Aires, when Hapag-Lloyd provided a whole bus for a tour of the city for only four of us in the English-speaking group, the service was cheerful and quite good. Herr Kapitan opened the Bridge a surprising amount of time during the cruise, even when we were in heavy water or among icebergs. The senior staff was uniformly (even when not in uniform) friendly and helpful.

 

Antarctica is magnificent beyond description, whether seen from the decks of the ship, hanging on for dear life in a bouncing Zodiac, or wandering about on a beach filled with fur seals and King penguins. We are blessed to have had this experience.

 

Cheers, Fred

[Moe&Curley]

We are very excited for you both....It sounds like a "Wonderful Vacation"

We leave 3/20 HAL S.A.

:)were looking forward to meet a few Penguim and to be able to walk with.

Wake me am I dreaming?:confused::rolleyes:

[crazy4cruisn]

Thanks for a great review! Can you post pictures? By the way, which Texas congressman could you sacrifice? Maybe the governor too???

We just got back from a S American/Antarctica cruise that we loved but wish we could have gone further in and also disembarked among the penguins!

[2552phxcrzr]

Terrific writing style; really enjoyed your review. We got back from Antarctica about the time you left - we were on Quark's Prof Molchanov, and did an itinerary very similar to yours, and enjoyed unusually good weather for most of the trip.

 

You mention warm temps in Ushuaia before embarking your trip. You must have just missed the storm that not only added to the snow in the mountains (there was little in the mountains when we embarked on Dec 31), but made our transit through the Beagle Channel back to Ushuaia one of the rockiest days of our trip - unusual freak storm in the area. Even the expedition staff and ship's crew were taken aback at the conditions in the Channel.

 

I'll have to look at the Hanseatic as a possible means of transport for our trip back.

[freddie]

We did indeed have great weather for most of our cruise. A rather wild day from the Falklands to South Georgia and another from Cape Horn north; but otherwise, the seas were wonderfully calm - according to our expedition staff, the best in the last 15 years!!!

 

I don't know how to post photos on this site; but there are several good slideshows posted on kodakgallery.com. You can go to http://www.kodakgallery.com and when they ask for email address use cruise@yahoo.com. Then, the password is: cc. The albums with Antarctica photos are: Fred's Antartica Photos, Ken's Antarctica, and Antarctica-Brad's Pix.

[2552phxcrzr]

Great pictures; I see your sense of humor carried over to the captions. Really enjoyed the trip down memory lane. Now, if only I can get my trip summary done and my picturesposted , I'll be in good shape.

 

Thanks for sharing.

[dileep]

Sounds like a lot of un!

 

thanks for sharing.

[YoPhilly]

Freddie, great review and wonderful photos. We're planning a southern cruise sometime in the next few years so you've given us lots to think about. Thanks for sharing.