Having left Macquarie Island a day earlier than planned, yesterday was a sea day to reach Enderby Island as quickly as possible. On the edge of a low pressure system that was predicted to be less than 960 hectopascals was a Force 7 ride on a ship with most of the outside decks locked down. This is a Force 7 sea from my porthole – being in the storm itself would be horrendous.
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Le Soleal, a two year old ultramodern ice-rated ship, performs incredibly well in the conditions. We are being directly hit on the starboard side by 45 knot winds, but there is hardly any rolling motion on the ship. The crew believe she is the best equipped to handle these conditions and the passengers would agree after yesterday, despite a few head injuries for the more frail passengers trying to move about the ship.
An ocean-going yacht has dropped a team of sea lion researchers at the huts at Sandy Bay, in readiness for the annual tagging of the sea lion pups, which must create some angry sea lion mothers. At least they tag them rather than brand them these days.
We reach Enderby Island early this morning, and the shelter provided by the land mass means that we can land at Sandy Bay. Zodiac cruises around the bay are cancelled due to wind and swell, but we are able to land to do the 3km boardwalk through the rata, and dodge a few obnoxious adolescent male sea lions who are not happy with the intrusion. The 400kg beachmasters are too busy defending their harems to bother with us.
Patches of sunshine are followed by squally gusts of wind and rain throughout the day, but the hike is very easy and the highlight is actually the ferns under the rata trees and the tiny gentian flowers.
Yellow-eyed penguins are found on the island, along with the endangered Hooker’s Sea Lion, nesting Southern Royal Albatrosses, and the Auckland Island shag. The beach is firmly occupied by the sea lions, with the males defending their females, and the adorable creches of sea lion pups.
The afternoon zodiac cruises are cancelled, so the plan for tomorrow is to wait out the third low pressure system to pass through the island and to leave for Bluff on the South Island of New Zealand as soon as the swells are below 5 metres, probably early in the morning of the 10th of January. It means that we will miss visiting the Snares, but the sea conditions simply aren’t going to allow it.
