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Peter Kinsella's Antarctic Voyage Diary

Friday 9th February 2001, Approaching MacQuarie Island - Lusitania Bay
(55° 03.6' S 158° 27.9' E) & (54° 43.4' S 158° 57.6' E)

After a reasonably rough morning at sea during which we had a couple of lectures about MacQuarie Island, everyone was starting to feel a bit queasy, when at 1330 hours we spotted the island shrouded in cloud and by 1400 hours we were in the lee. At Lusitania Bay we stopped and literally thousands of king penguins swam over to the ship and proceeded to play around the ship for hours. The cloud lifted a bit to reveal a shoreline covered in penguin rookeries against a green hilly background. On the way into Lusitania Bay we spotted a pod of pilot whales but too far off to photograph. There was too much swell to disembark into the zodiacs. So at about 1700 hours we weighed anchor and sailed to Australia's ANARE station (Australian National Antarctic Research Enterprise) where information in relation to weather observations, ozone measurements, scientific observations, wildlife preservation is carried out. They are also in the process of eradicating the rabbits and cats introduced by sealers in 1810-20. At Buckles Bay the king penguins in the thousands swam around the ship, showing no fear at all. It was the most amazing experience of inquisitive wildlife we had seen so far.

Saturday 10th February, MacQuarie Island -, Buckles Bay & Sandy Bay
(54° 30.3' S 158° 57.2' E) & (54° 35.0' S 158° 55.5' E)

Often described as one of the "wonder spots" of the world, MacQuarie Island, designated a wildlife sanctuary in 1933, is only rivalled by South Georgia Island (off the Peninsula, near Argentina) in its magnificence, scenic diversity and prolific wildlife. Unfortunately there is no sheltered anchoring area at MacQuarie Island. In the morning we went ashore by zodiac and landed on the Isthmus at Buckle Bay and visited the ANARE station. It sounds simple to get into a zodiac, however with a one metre chop on top of a two to three metre swell, getting into the zodiac off the ladder was challenging to say the least. It didn’t stop there because there was a 30 knot north west wind blowing and a small surf at the beach which made that end interesting as well. The sailers off the Khlebnikov assisted, they were excellent and so far no-one had been injured getting on or off the ship.

We stepped on to the beach looking straight into the eyes of a 3.5 tonne 16ft. long bull elephant seal. These animals are enormous beasts when you get close to them, which is hard when you consider that scientists say they are the only animal which smells worse alive than dead. Apart from viewing the elephant seals, we wandered along the beach in windy and cold conditions to look at the king penguins, gentu penguins and various birds.

King Penguins on MacQuarie Island

All the animals have absolutely no fear of man. The base itself is very basic but comfortable with a summer complement of 40 odd staff and winter 24. They put on tea, scones, cakes, and biscuits etc, and started an impromptu party on the ramp as we left the island. Very much different from the French. They must have a wild old time on the island as some were dressed in costume, coloured hair etc as a send off for us. They get very few visitors so what does it matter, it’s an excuse for them to get out of the routine !!

I took "Thaddeus" in to meet the staff and they were delighted to meet him. It seems they all have little bears or the like on MacQuarie and they said "since I had a bear and talk to him, that I would have no problems getting a job there if I wanted" ?

This island is also home to hundreds of elephant seals loafing and sparring with each other and we saw four species of penguins. This also was special, but it was still very cold with the icy wind, however it was our first look at "green" for a few weeks, so we didn’t mind. The island was covered in mist and cloud and was awe inspiring. The sun poked its head out for about half an hour which also gave us a different view of things.

In the afternoon we visited Sandy Bay, home to 50,000 pairs of breeding royal penguins. A determined team effort was necessary at both of these landings to get all safely ashore and back! Despite strong winds and northerly swells we managed very enjoyable landings! The bird life overhead was also great with giant petrels, sooty albatross and prions flying all around. Is this me talking? --- WOW! It was a fantastic finale to our "record number of landings". Three of the MacQuarie staff returned to Hobart with us and I think after terms of 12 to 17 months they were pleased for a break. At about 1800 hours we left for Hobart. Dinner and then into the bar to meet the MacQuarie Island staff.