Sunday 6 November 2011

Birds do it, whales do it, let’s do it, let’s sail south!


Another unbelievable sea day was presented to us. There was no wind and the sea was flat like a lake. In the morning we had a little fog, but that gave us a special feeling. Later on the sun burned the fog away and we were sailing under a blue sky in the direction of our first destination, the Falkland Islands/Islas Malvinas which we expect to reach on Monday in the early afternoon.

Even though there was nearly no wind - and the seabirds need the wind to fly – some Black-browed Albatrosses, Giant Petrels, Cape Petrels and even Wandering Albatrosses followed the ship. Our vessel created turbulence and updrafts and that’s what they like. We saw several whales today, including in the distance a Sei Whale, and we hope to see more whales when we come further to the south.


The first passengers had the opportunity to visit our bridge in the morning. Thank you Captain Rune Andreassen for the time you offered us. At the same time we continued our extensive lecture series. So you see all of you at home, we are not really on holiday, we are working hard but we have fun and we enjoy all the information we are receiving from our lecture team.


And now we are looking forward to get our own impressions. In the afternoon our photographer Marsel gave us important tips to make good photos. So we hope to bring nearly professional pictures with us home, to make our friends and family a little bit jealous.

In the evening many passengers were sitting together in the bar, in our cafeteria or in the reception area, talking with new friends. If you are traveling on a small ship like FRAM with not so many passengers, it is easy to find people with the same interest; this is an important part of our cruise too! It makes our trip unforgettable. Adding to this feeling was a spectacular sunset this evening.