Ship Day 2: Sea Lion Island

December 8, 2016     (reprinted from allisonwanderssome.wordpress.com)

A busy initiation to the expedition life! Our Expedition Leader Nate’s gentle intercom announcement woke us up at 7am; we had our breakfast at 7:30,  8am saw a information briefing during our meal, 9am was gear check, then a 9:45 call to the Mud Room to start the exodus ashore for our first excursion! We all scrambled a bit trying to figure out what to wear, what to bring, how to put on the foul weather gear and life jackets, how to safely descend into the Zodiacs, where to sit and what to hold on to. It was exhausting!

This is the first cruise of the season for OneOcean and so all the crew were excited about this shore visit if a bit rusty on their zodiac driving skills!  Our destination was Sea Lion Island off the far south eastern tip of the Falklands and the Vavilov anchored a fair distance offshore so our drivers had to navigate thru 2 sets of kelp beds which fouled the propellers, then run us safely up onto the beach thru a good-sized swell. A couple of the other boats got bit swamped with breaking waves but as we’re so well kitted out with waterproof gear, huge gumboots and dry bags it wasn’t a problem.
Upon landing we had a short briefing then were free to explore within our given boundaries starting with the large group of curious penguins right on the beach behind us.  Just down the beach a bit was a dead orca that had beached itself a few days a. A large gaggle of southern giant petrels were fiercely protective of their bounty and would squawk and flap their wings when they felt their meal was threatened. Like kids in a candy store the photographers in our midst whipped out their long lenses and started clicking away at each montage.


Sea Lion Island is where colonies of elephant seals come ashore for a few weeks each year for the females to birth, for the pups to wean (in just 22 days), and for everyone to molt. Luckily when they molt they’re pretty much just laying still for 3 weeks waiting for it all to be over and so it was a great opportunity to see these amazing giants.

Many have the seals have been marked for identification purposes

These pups are only about 3 weeks old

Adolescent males play fighting

Sea Lion Island is also a major for Magellanic and Gentoo penguins. The former create burrows in the soft peaty soil nearshore and the latter create rocky nests near the beach. They both were nesting while we were there so there was always someone on guard duty protecting their eggs.



On the way back to our landing beach we were welcome to stop at the local lodge for some excellent morning tea & cakes, which fortified us nicely for the gentle wander back to the zodiacs.


And our day wasn’t over yet! The captain hoisted anchor as soon as the last zodiac was safely stowed and we were by then down on Deck 3 having our lunch (Indian buffet). I hurried up to Deck 5 afterwards for a lovely shower in the sauna room (ours is one where you shower in the toilet and I hate getting everything so wet). Back to our cabin on Deck 4 to start looking at photos before we were encouraged to descend to Deck 1 for a presentation on Seals & Sea Lions. Back to our cabin, then up to Deck 6 for afternoon tea in the Sky Lounge, back to Deck 1 for another lecture on the Birds of Sea Lion Island, and back to our cabin! I’ve now no fears of gaining weight from overeating as all these stairs would keep anyone in shape!
We now have 2 days at sea as we make the crossing to the South Georgia Islands.