Last night’s adventure turned out to be even more of an adventure than we realized living through it. This morning, the Octanis crew gave a complete briefing. First up: our captain. He summarized his thoughts with two words: grateful and proud. He was grateful that everyone was successfully brought back from Grytviken. He was proud for the professionalism exhibited by the crew, from zodiac and  SOB operators, the expedition team and the kitchen staff who continued meal service until almost midnight. And he was proud by the positive, nonjudgmental attitude exhibited by all 194 passengers involved in the landing.

He gave us some extra facts:

• At 6 PM and after, when much of the extraction took place, wind speed was a constant 80 to 85 knots with gusts to 90 knots. Just so you know, 90 knots is 103.57 miles per hour. That’s almost as fast as they drive on I75 in Florida!
• The forecast at the time passengers were taken to shore was for winds of 8 knots. Katabatic winds are impossible to predict. Someone said it’s unusual for katabatic winds to persist as long as they did.
• Using zodiacs to transfer people to the SOBs had never been tried before.
• Viking headquarters has agreed to make a substantial contribution to the South Georgia Heritage Trust in recognition of the aid they gave to us while we waited to be extracted.

The entire crew was called up on stage for recognition and passenger comments were solicited. All comments were positive, several saying that they had complete confidence in the Viking staff to do what was in the interest of guest safety. No grumbling at all. The session was a great way for Viking to be open and to acknowledge what happened without making excuses or downplaying the situation.

During the day today we visited three different venues at the northwest extremity of South Georgia. In every case the wind conditions did not permit deploying any zodiac or SOB operations. So we viewed the scenery from a comfortable distance.

The real bonus for today was sighting of blue whales, including a mother and her calf. Blue whales are the largest animal to ever populate the earth. They were hunted almost to extinction but have made a comeback. Several of the naturalists on board had never seen an Antarctic blue whale.

Birds and seals were attracted to the whales’ activity. Maybe they stir up the food chain. You can get an appreciation of the size of blue whales in comparison.

And of course there were birds. So today’s pictures are all birds and whales. Except for an iceberg or two; I’m hooked on icebergs!

By the end of the day we’d set sail for the Falklands. It’ll take us two sea days. Here’s hoping for smooth sailing!