Day 13 February 4th
Hercules Bay, Grytviken, St. Andrew’s Bay, Godthul
We were up by 4:45 AM to begin a busy day! We were able to zodiac cruise Hercules Bay which we couldn’t do yesterday because of the wind. 
This is where the colony of Macaroni penguins could be found! The Macaroni penguins were swimming all around the bay and many were up the mountainside. This was another penguin species to see in their natural habitat!
Hercules Bay is also home for some fur seals, elephant seals and a few King Penguins.
Our next stop was Grytviken. It is located in the King Edward Cove on the western shore of Cumberland East Bay. It was used as a whaling station for over 60 years.
We did a historical tour of the area that explained how the whaling factory worked and then a tour explaining Shackleton’s connection to Grytviken. He died here and his grave is in the cemetery. We did an Irish whiskey toast to him at his gravesite and it was raining!
Of course there were also seals and penguins!
We saw our first icebergs on our way to Grytviken and again on our way to St. Andrew’s Bay. The glaciers and mountains were unbelievably beautiful.
As we approached St. Andrew’s Bay the winds were as strong as a hurricane so we couldn’t go ashore. We will try again tomorrow morning. So instead of going to St. Andrew’s Bay we went to Godthul. We were suppose to kayak here but it was too windy. The zodiacs took us to the beach at Godthul and it was filled with gentoo penguins, fur seals, some elephant seals and a few king penguins.
The gentoo colony was up the hill so we climbed through the tussock grass.
There was also a lake at the top of the hill!
We found that climbing down the hill was more difficult than going up because we had to contend with these wind bursts that were crazy strong! We were told at the recap for the day that we had wind gusts of 60 knots which is about 69 MPH! It was definitely a day to hold onto your hat!
