During the night we moved to Gold Harbour on the south east end of S. Georgia. They are trying to make up for the two days we lost when we were stuck in the Falklands due to the storm. Therefore we were up at 4:45 and they started loading zodiacs at 5:30.
They have us divided into four groups, albatross, gentoo, king (we are kings). and petrol, for loading into the zodiacs. They can take 8 to 10 people in a zodiac, depending on the sea conditions and landing conditions, and there are about 30 people per group. Most of the time they spin the zodiacs and we get out into the surf along the back of the dinghy. They have provided us with muck boats which do a great job keeping our feet dry.
This was our first chance to really see elephant seals. It is past mating season but during mating season there are bull seals fighting for their beach real estate. We saw some juvenile males fighting, more for practice than for beach real estate. They are big animals and we stayed clear of them. Here are some pictures of elephant seals.
There is also a colony of gentoo penguins as well as a colony of king penguins. Here are pictures of gentoo with a few kings mixed in.
After walking the beach we came back to the ship for breakfast. During breakfast they moved the ship further south to Cooper Bay. This was the only stop where we would see macaroni penguins. We had the option to kayak but this would mean we would miss climbing the hill to see the macaroni. We opted not to kayak because we wanted to see the macaroni up close. Half of the passengers started by trekking up the hill to see the penguins and the other half started with a zodiac cruise. We were in the cruise group. We were lucky because our zodiac driver was Hannah, the marine mammal naturalist. We saw lots of birds as well as a female leopard seal. Hannah could tell it was a female because the females are larger than the males. The leopard seals was huge and quite curious. So curious that she bit and punctured three of the zodiacs, but not our zodiac. The zodiacs have eight air compartments so it wasn’t a big deal but interesting nonetheless. We also saw lots of macaroni penguins getting into and out of the water. Here are pictures of the macaroni penguins and the leopard seal (it was hard to get a good picture of the leopard seal because we didn’t know where she would surface.)
It was started raining while we were out. Rick didn’t want to take out his camera and my gloves were wet through. The walk up the hill was supposed to be tough in the best of conditions. After our zodiac cruise we decided not to go up the hill because we thought it would be quite slippery and muddy. A couple of people fell and one lady really hurt her knee so it was just as well we didn’t go up the hill. In the end we were disappointed that we didn’t go kayaking because everyone said it was fantastic and we didn’t end up going up the hill anyway but as my grandfather use to say that the way the peanut butter bounces.
We came back the the ship for lunch and in the afternoon we cruised down the Drygalski fjord. It was beautiful with lots of glaciers and birds, specifically prions and storm petrols. There were many water falls from the melting glaciers, some of which evaporated before hitting the ocean. At the end of the fjord there was a glacier and thousands of birds flying around at the base. Adam, our birding naturalist, said that fresh water from the melting glacier was forcing cril up to the surface of the water which was a feast for the birds. The wind in the fjord was FIERCE. It would accelerate down the side of the fjord and it was almost impossible to stand. Here are pictures from the fjord. Notice the color of the water as a result of the melting glacier.
It was interesting to watch the boat to turn in a fjord not much wider than the boat itself. The captain used the bow thrusters to pivot around and we headed towards the mouth of the fjord.
That night we headed north back to the top of the island.