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.

More Pitching and Rolling – February 8, 2024

What kind of fool am I?

Last night they announced a bird watching opportunity from 6 AM to 7 AM, led by a member of the expedition crew who specializes in bird watching. Problem was that last night we moved clocks forward one hour so 6 AM felt like 5 AM. Three people showed up: a couple from Chicago and me, but no leader. Finally the front desk was called and they rousted the leader from bed. He forgot to move his watch. We watched for birds from the stern with the deck pitching and rolling. The rain stopped but the deck was wet and slippery.

In the course of an hour we saw two possible species of pitons although they were too small for me to have an ID. Somehow we made it inside across the pitching deck.

You may be wondering why I was out and about in such rough weather. I keep saying that today was worse than yesterday but today really was the worst. The secret to my success? The scopolamine patch that I applied around 5:30 AM. I’ve been fine all day. I’ve eaten three square meals, walked around the ship quite a bit with no problem. It’s a miracle drug, I’m convinced. Actually that three squares thing might be an issue diet wise. Maybe I should lay off the patch as a weight loss regime.

We’ve been traversing the open Southern Sea on our way from South Orkney to South Georgia. We won’t arrive there until 1 PM, at which time the zodiacs, SOBs and submarines will hopefully be launched.

The government of South Georgia has put in place stringent requirements for those going ashore. We had to go through a second thorough cleaning of all external clothing, backpacks, etc. We also had to attend a briefing on cleanliness protocols. Here’s the video if you’re interested. It is narrated by Sir David Attenborough. https://gov.gs/south-georgia-visitors-guide/

We had to sign a document attesting to the steps we have taken to protect the environment. Avian flu is of particular concern.

No lectures this evening. Instead, our captain is leading a “Bad Dad Jokes” contest. Sadly, our dinner reservations interfere.

Just a few bird fact slides and a map to share our current route.

Here’s to smoother sailing tomorrow.

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We had fairly smooth sailing today. My anti-nausea patch fell off somewhere along the line and I didn’t notice its absence at all. Judy and I slept in and had breakfast at 9 AM. I had a sound drug-induced solid sleep. Judy had stayed up to see the A32a at 1:15 AM so she had a good excuse too. I spent the rest of the morning and into the afternoon getting caught up blog-wise. We did attend the daily briefing I mentioned yesterday. In addition to the weather discussion we learned about ice and albatrosses. Ice is really thick, blue ice is old ice and albatrosses are really big.

I never hear about albatrosses but I recall  photographing albatrosses through a really long telephoto lens in New Zealand. I added to the chum the skipper threw overboard to attract the albatrosses. I asked the skipper of the albatross boat if we were experiencing particularly rough seas. He said, “this is nothing. I once sailed all the way around Antarctica on a research ship. Now THAT was rough.” “Never me,” thought I. Yet here I am.

The big event of the day was our visit to South Orkney Islands. The expedition director sweet talked our captain into an expedition stop on the way to South Georgia. No Viking ship has ever been there and the schedule is tight due to the weather disruptions we’ve experienced. But the captain granted five hours: boats in the water, last boat on board. I think it got done in 5.5 hours.

The guy who named the place was a Scot and wanted to honor his home island chain, the Orkney islands. To the victor goes the naming rights, as they say.

We donned our gear, taking only three attempts to get into my life jacket, and reported to Zodiak Central on A Deck for our 3:30 departure. This was to be a touring hour; shore landings are not permitted here.

We saw chinstrap and gentoo penguins, fur seals (aka sea Lions) and southern elephant seals plus some Antarctic cormorants. We dodged rain that had been falling earlier so it was a very productive trip.

But as usual, the ice sculptures continually demanded our attention. Shingle Bay, where we operated, is full of glaciers, the kind that form at the top of a mountain and, as the snow compresses to form dense blue-colored ice, the whole thing slides down the mountain until it meets the sea. At that point the ice on the leading edge drops off, “calves,” to creat an iceberg plus shards of ice that float in the bay, just as we experienced yesterday. Unlike Antarctica where the glaciers tend to be part of a massive ice sheet, South Orkney has individual stand-alone glaciers. It reminded us of the glaciers we saw in Glacier Bay, Alaska.

We returned to our stateroom, did more blogging and movie creation and hit the chow line for dinner. Dinner was quite pleasant, up on Deck 5 with open views of the South Orkneys and icebergs floating by.  

Then an 8:30 performance, which was the first, and maybe only, stage entertainment event on this cruise. The act was a towering Hungarian solo violinist who played classical favorites, movie sound track songs, and even Frank Sinatra transcribed for the fiddle. Port wine and bourbon were served. Lots of fun!

Today the captain informed us that we’re going to experience more rough weather as we travers the open sea that is part of the Drake Passage. Never fear, I’ve got my patch ready to go so hopefully this won’t be as bad as last time.