Tag: South Georgia

Day 14 February 5th

Day 14

Monday, February 5th

St. Andrews Bay, Gold Harbour, and Drygalski Fjord

 

Another early wake up call and we didn’t mind because it was going to be an exciting day!  By 7:00 AM we were in a zodiac being transferred to St. Andrews Bay!  It is the largest King colony of its kind on South Georgia.  We are so excited that the weather cooperated!  It is a stunning place.  There are elephant seals, fur seals, and over 100,000 breeding pairs of King penguins!  We had 2 hours, 15 minutes to explore the area.  We needed to give the molting penguins 15 meters or about 49 feet and the others around 5 meters or about 16 feet.  (A side note, all our distances, temperatures, and weights were given to us using the metric system.  The Americans were the only ones who had to think about conversions!) 

We would explore for a little bit and then sit at various times and the King penguins would come right up to us which was allowed.  You weren’t allowed to approach them but they could approach you!  It needed to be the penguin’s choice!

These King penguins are very curious about our little stuffed Tacky the penguin.  As the penguins approached, Tacky was away!  See the video below.

 

In this next video, listen to the pair of King penguins “talking”!

We feel that “a picture is worth a 1000 words”!  So we will include some of our favorite photos from St. Andrews Bay.

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Everywhere you look are King penguins and chicks.
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Over 200,000 King penguins and this number doesn’t include the chicks!
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Kings are all over the bay in every direction.
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So many Kings!
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The King chicks are at various stages of fledgling.
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This King chick appears to be wearing his tux! Its down feathers are almost gone!
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With climate changes, the glacier has receded quite a bit in the last 30 years!
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You will find fur seals and King penguins all along the banks of the glacial rivers!
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It is quite a sight to see this many penguins along the river!
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These elephant seals are huge!
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These elephant seals aren’t as big as the males which are out in the ocean feeding! Wow!
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These elephant seals are SO big. Females can weigh 800-2000 pounds.
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A King penguin breeding pair!
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Another pair enjoying the sunshine!
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“The hills are alive…”
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Until we meet again!

It was such a wonderful morning at St. Andrews Bay!

This afternoon was a trip to Gold Harbour.  The weather was not like the morning sunshine.  It was spitting rain most of the time that we were there.  We had a little over an hour to wander around and enjoy all of the wildlife and beauty that surrounded us before boarding a zodiac and touring around the harbour.

On land we saw elephant seals, skua birds, fur seals, King penguins, gentoo penguins, and a lone Chinstrap penguin.  We watched the King penguins kind of walk the Chinstrap into the water!

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One lonely Chinstrap penguin!
Gentoo penguins were on the beach and in the tussock grass.
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When you compare how many penguins it takes to equal one elephant seal!
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Elephant seals resting on the beach.
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Two young male elephant seals practicing “fighting”.

There were a lot of King penguins at Gold harbour.

A part of nature and not one we care to experience but a baby chick has been killed by a skua bird and they soon will be tearing it to shreds.  It is quite gruesome to see.IMG_1179

The picture below shows how curious the penguins are of humans and they aren’t afraid to get close to you!

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After dinner, the captain navigated the ship down the Drygalski Fjord, which is 4-5 miles long.  At the end is a beautiful glacier and more on each side of the ship.  Despite the wind, rain, ice pellets and fog most of us were out on the docks to enjoy the beautiful landscape that surrounded us.

It was definitely a day filled with amazing scenery, exciting wildlife and full of adventures!

Day 13 February 4th

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. IMG_0816

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One view of Hercules Bay

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.

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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!

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David, our historian, led the toast to Shakleton.

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!IMG_0902

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!

Day 12 February 3rd

Day 12  February 3rd

At our 4:15 AM wake up call, Ali, our expedition leader, announced we wouldn’t be going to Prion Island.  The wind was too strong and the zodiacs would be in danger.  We were to kayak at our 2nd stop of the day and that wasn’t going to happen either. 🙁

On to plan B which was to move on to visit one of the former whaling stations at Stromness Harbour.  Again the winds were gusting and we weren’t going to be able to land so the captain took the ship close to Leith Harbour and we were hoping the winds might die down over by Stromness.

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Strong winds but beautiful scenery!

“Over at Leith Harbour, the Captain maneuvered the ship as close as possible to give us a view of the old whaling station. With the sun out and blue skies it was an eerie but beautiful scene. This was the largest whaling station in South Georgia, operating for over 60 years. Established by the Christian Salvesen Company, it was given the name Leith after the Scottish hometown harbor of Salvesen.” (from our Voyage Journal)

Whaling Station in Leith Harbour
Whaling Station in Leith Harbour
Whaling Station in Leith Harbour
Whaling Station in Leith Harbour

After a ship cruise at Leith, we headed back around the corner to Stromness.

We were hoping to be able to finally step foot on South Georgia. The wind was still gusting but had settled enough for the expedition team to send out a scout boat.

The expedition team quickly readied themselves. Conditions were suitable so off to shore we went!  After three days being on the boat we were SO excited to have some time off of the boat on land, even if it was windy!

The sun stayed out but winds continued to blow. Katabatic gusts (wind caused by downward motion of cool air usually coming down the slopes of a mountain or glacier) would occasionally force everyone to stand their ground. All around us were young fur seal pups. We walked around them, still trying to give them as much space as possible or be growled at.

We enjoyed watching the seals rest and play.  And we also enjoyed the King penguins that were around.IMG_0667

Stromness also had the remnants of a whaling station.

Stromness Harbour
Stromness former Whaling Station
Stromness former Whaling Station
Stromness former Whaling Station
Stromness former Whaling Station

After visiting Stromness, it was time for lunch.  While at lunch, the ship headed to our next stop which was called Hercules Bay.  At this bay we are to see Macaroni penguins.  We pulled into the bay but the weather wasn’t on our side.  The wind was too strong for the zodiacs.  Needless to say we were disappointed.  As we left the bay and out in open water, we saw quite a few macaroni penguins swimming in the water and passed a glacier.IMG_0766

Just after we had taken off all of our waterproof gear, an announcement was made that we were heading back to our first stop, Prion Island, that we couldn’t visit early this morning because of the wind!

Prion Island was beautiful.  We climbed to see the Wandering albatross nests and birds.

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A boardwalk was built to protect the erosion of the gully and the prion burrows.

Only 50 of us could be on the island at a time!  The nests were at the end of the boardwalk.

Wandering Albatross on their nests!
The Wandering Albatross have the largest wingspan of any bird on the planet!
Their conservation status is vulnerable so we didn’t want to get close and disturb them.

We also saw many fur seals all around us. Quite a few were tucked into the tussock grass!

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Fur seals can be found all through the tussuck grass!

The beach where we got off the zodiac was filled with King and Magellanic penguins as well as fur seals.  It was something to experience.IMG_0804.JPG

After our time was up for visiting Prion Island, we boarded our zodiac and we had a zodiac cruise around the island.

Kelp! It felt like we were cruising in a science fiction film!
Close up of the kelp.
South Georgia Pipit. It is endemic to South Georgia.

Day 9,10, and 11 January 31st, February 1st, and February 2nd

Days 9, 10, and 11

January 31st, February 1st, and February 2nd

Heading to South Georgia

The storm had passed so we headed toward South Georgia.  Once we were away from the protection of the islands we noticed how rough the seas were and we were experiencing waves up to 26-30 feet!  Heading west we were rocking side to side and forward and back!  Many people were not feeling very well!  The outer decks were closed!  By mid morning the Captain decided to turn back for the protection of the Falkland Islands and wait until the swells had died down!

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This really doesn’t capture how rough the seas were today!

Even though the waves were rough, the expedition team  continued to give their presentations.  If you were not feeling well, you could watch from your cabin on your TV so that was helpful for many passengers.  I went to the presentations, Dave stayed in the room because he wasn’t feeling very well!  DJ, our geologist on board, gave a talk on “An Introduction to Geology”.  Later in the morning, Nicky, our ship’s photographer, gave a very informative talk about taking pictures in Antarctica and what settings would be beneficial for our cameras.  Also, David, the historian, gave a talk about the history of South Georgia.  We really appreciated the expedition’s presentations that informed us about what we would be experiencing and also did follow up presentations to give us more information about our experiences!

When the ship was back to the protection of the bay, our captain did a “drive by” of Berkeley Sound!

Going back to the bay gave the kitchen and dining room time to secure their dishes, bowls, pitchers, etc…  Earlier they were crashing everywhere!  We had to double check everything in our cabin because of the rocking of the ship!

February 1st was a gorgeous day with the sun shining brightly.  It was a great day to be on the outside decks.  However the boat was still rocking some.  This video gives you an idea of the movement but it is nothing compared to yesterday and the night before!

We came inside to hear Miko’s presentation on “The Pinnipeds of South Georgia” and Sam’s talk about the “Southern Ocean Galapagos:  Birds of South Georgia”.

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Albatross

After dinner, Tara, one of our kayak guides, gave a slideshow and talk about her kayaking trip around Svalbard.  Her journey included polar bears and kayaking through ice!  It took her and the 2 friends kayaking with her 72 days!  She’s quite brave to tackle and conquer this feat!

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A beautiful double rainbow as our second day at sea comes to an end.

Today is Friday, February 2nd, and it is our third day at sea as we approach South Georgia.  The ship is still rocking quite a bit.  It was cooler, cloudy and foggy.  Some Orca whales were spotted.  We didn’t get any pictures of them.

This morning we listened to the historian’s talk on Shackleton’s expedition to Antarctica.

In the afternoon we cruised by Shag Rocks.  These rock formations are isolated in the middle of nowhere.  They are jagged, peaked islands that are estimated to be about 150 million years old!  They are home to thousands of blue-eyed shags along with some other species of birds.

The ship’s bridge is open almost all of the time.  It is fun to go there and sit and watch the captain and his crew work.

At our recap, Ali, our expedition leader, announced that we’d have a 4:15 AM wake up call to get ready for a 5 AM departure to Prion Island.  We are looking forward to visiting this island because it is difficult to get a permit to go ashore.  Only 50 people are allowed on the island at a time!  It is a nesting area for the Wandering Albatross.  Other wildlife thrives on this island too.  Getting off the ship after three days is a bonus too!