Gold Harbor, South Georgia – February 9, 2024

Before we get started on today’s events, here is a video from Judy showing whale action recorded at Antarctica. Enjoy!

https://judyrick.zenfolio.com/p1039409213

We arrived at Gold Harbor at 2 PM today after what our captain said was a night of 6 to 8 meter swells. That’s 20 to 26 feet. And that’s a lot. Judy and I slept through it OK but walking the decks was a challenge.

Our cabin is designed with a floor to ceiling picture window. The top half can be lowered so we have an unobstructed view of the scenery. The downside is that as the ship rolls from side to side there is a rather loud creaking and banging sound coming from the windows at random intervals. The windows were complaining loudly and in new strange ways in last night’s seas. So much for worrying about the Drake Passage. The run from Antarctica to South Georgia has proved to be worse. But thankfully, my patch is holding well and iron-gut Judy shrugs it off without chemical intervention.

I spent much of the day trying for photos of sea birds that seem to follow the ship, some of which you can see in today’s pictures. Many of the birds are small and move quickly so the picture taking can be hit-or-miss. I did get one of a king penguin swimming in the water. I also sighted what a naturalist said was a macaroni penguin swimming.

We were told that the macaroni penguin was named by members of the Macaroni Club in London. The penguin in question has a rather elaborate set of head feathers. Hence, “stuck a feather in his cap and called him macaroni.”

Our turn for a zodiac tour came at 6 PM. Weather conditions didn’t permit submarine nor kayaking and regulations didn’t permit shore landings. But what a sight. Literally thousands of penguins, mostly kings, lining the beach. Fur seals and elephant seals were intermixed. This area is a breeding ground for penguins and we did see some brown furry balls that are the young king penguins. It’s also the time when these penguins molt, taking on a new set of waterproof feathers for the coming winter. King penguins tend to mate for life and we could see obvious parings of king penguins.

The harbor also sports some nice glaciers. There’s also a nice collection of icebergs, something we didn’t see much of coming over from South Orkney. Our captain said that when he was here four years ago there were no icebergs here. The bergs we saw today are from larger icebergs that have broken up as large icebergs tend to do, especially when they hit warmer water of the convergence zone.

The sad thing is that the avian flu has reached South Georgia, and Gold Harbor in particular. There were dead penguins on the beach. It also turns out that avian flu kills seals and we saw a number of both dead fur and dead elephant seals on the beach. One was being pecked at by a scavenging southern great petrel. Before going on our zodiac trip we saw a flock of birds of several different types feeding on a fur seal carcass floating near the side of our ship.

The captain promised a smooth ride, unlike the previous night, so here’s hoping.