March 9, 2024 – South Georgia – Fortuna Bay & Grytviken

Antarctica / By

This morning wind was a bit of a challenge. We could not land at the first site intended, but after a while the wind relented, and the ship repositioned to another local which allowed us to go ashore. Here there were many baby Fur Seals along with more King Penguins and a couple of young Elephant seals. There were some nesting birds as well, but I do not recall the species. Everything seems to be either a Petrel or an Albatross.  The baby seals would come up to us, I guess expecting some food or something. If it is possible to be too cute, they qualify.

While the still pictures give you some idea of what we have seen. The real experience is better shown in the videos. 

The afternoon was spent at Grytviken, an old whaling station. There is a museum here to tell the story of the station, as well as a post office. Cathy and I decided to do the hike to Gull Lake. This was about a 3-mile hike (uphill both ways) up a fairly steep incline for much of it. To add to the challenge, the usual path was closed to us because of the Avian Flu. So, we had to hike through a bog and up the side of the hill to get to a point where we could join what was a rocky trail. The views from here were extraordinary. We could see the cemetery. Shackleton is buried here. While we could not get close to it, I can see in one of my pictures his gravestone. It is on the far right, the tallest stone in the back.

The evening recap was given in part by the captain. He explained the coming weather showing a screen from windy.com, an ap that tracks and forecasts wind conditions. While we had been fortunate to date with great conditions, he said there would be a a change in the near future with a storm coming in that would make in unsafe to operate in the area of South Georgia. In which case he would be attempting to stay ahead of the storm and head a day early toward Tristan De Cuna our next destination. So, we have a few sea days to look forward to.