Days 279 – 281: Antarctica Cruise Days 15 – 17: Journey to South Georgia
While our original itinerary gave us 6 days in Antarctica, everything was weather dependent down here. Our captain could see that our stretch of good luck was running out and we would likely run into storms both in South Georgia and during or return voyage across the South Atlantic Ocean. As a result, he pulled the plug on our last day, intending to book it to South Georgia as quickly as possible – hopefully the extra time would give us more opportunity to take advantage of small breaks in the weather.
The next two days at sea were pretty uneventful – we had lots of time to catch up on pictures and the blog, as well as attend our fill of educational lectures (Lindsay fell asleep during every single one – not because of the content, but because of the dark room and the constant rocking of the ship). We also had to undergo a second Bio-Security check the day before we arrived at South Georgia – since this sub-Antarctic island was under the jurisdiction of the British crown, we had government officials watching us carefully to make sure we followed IAATO guidelines to the letter. Other than that, there wasn’t much to do each day expect look forward to our next decadent meal.
Getting up at 4AM to catch our last glimpse of Antarctica as we sail past Elephant Island and Clarence Island
A small group of passengers huddle in the Observatory Bar as we sail by Elephant Island to listen to the historical significant of this windswept and desolate rocky island. In 1915, British explorer Ernest Shackleton and his crew of 27 had to abandon their ship “Endurance” after it was crushed by ice floes. They survived for 5 months on pack ice, waiting for the water to thaw enough for them to escape using their three lifeboats. Shackleton got as far as Elephant Island, and left 22 members of the crew behind while he and five others took the last lifeboat and somehow managed to navigate 800 miles of open sea using nothing but a sexton to find help on South Georgia. Meanwhile, the party on Elephant Island survived another 135 days (in the winter!) with nothing but two overturned lifeboats for shelter. Miraculously, everyone from the expedition was rescued.
The historically unimportant – but very pretty! – Cornwallis Island
Weather conditions are not nice outside – apparently it was snowing, but the wind was blowing so hard we couldn’t tell
A special 6-course Chef’s Menu is the highlight of our day!
Three courses and counting! Cheers!
Avocado Tartar (AKA guacamole), Beef Consume (dumpling soup), and a delicious piece of chocolate ganache (which, let’s be honest, looks like a piece of poo) – while everything tasted really good, sometimes this ship is insufferably pretentious)
We hear that one of the guest performers missed the ship back in Ushuaia (no idea who it was supposed to be), so our entertainment got a little dull after a while (too many movie-nights and lounge singers) – we decided to break up the monotony a bit with some board games and a night cap in front of the snow-covered window at the piano bar
Although South Georgia is 800 miles away from the continent and sits above 60⁰S latitude, it is considered a “sub-Antarctic island” because it is located below the Antarctic Convergence, and as such, is surrounded by the same icy waters as the Peninsula. Many of the same animals we saw around the continent – penguins, seals, and whales – migrate back and forth to South Georgia to feed and/or breed. While the water remains just as cold, the warmer air temperature allows for a greater variety of plant life and flowing freshwater on land – factors that help make South Georgia one of the most prolific locations for wildlife in the world, rivalling even the Galapagos Island for density of animal population.
After two days at sea, we finally arrived at the southern tip of South Georgia in the late morning, a good three hours behind schedule due to the previous night’s snowstorm. It was cloudy and windy, and the waters were pretty rough, so the captain decided to limit the day’s activities to scenic cruising of the relatively protected Drygalski Fjord. The weather started to clear up enough for one group of guests to get approval for a zodiac tour around the shore, but as we had the last time slot of the day, we didn’t hold out much hope of getting off the boat. Keeping our fingers crossed for tomorrow!
As we approach the island of South Georgia, we can barely make out the tops of the mountains through the foggy clouds
About half of the landmass of South Georgia is covered by glaciers and snow – that sounds like a lot, but it’s a tropical paradise compared to Antarctica, where 97% of the continent is hidden!
Scenic cruising in the Drygalski Fjord – a protected channel of water at the southern tip of the crescent-shaped island
An Antarctic Tern flits above the deck of the ship, hunting for fish and krill in the icy waters below
The clouds lift just enough to brighten up the snow-covered hillsides
South Georgia is notorious for bad weather, and only gets an average of 1,000 hours of sunshine per year
We watch jealously as the first (and only!) group bounces through the icy water on a zodiac tour. While the conditions aren’t that bad once you are on the zodiac, the swells next to the ship made loading and off-loading too dangerous for the captain to let the tours proceed. After all, there are a lot of frail, elderly guests on this ship – last thing they need is for someone to break a hip…
The water immediately surrounding the island is pale blue, compared to the darker water in the Atlantic Ocean, thanks to the icemelt coming down from the glaciers. Since freshwater is lighter than saltwater, the glacial water “floats” on top of the seawater
As we sail away from the Drygalski Fjord, the captain navigates us between two huge, stunning icebergs
A huge iceberg, floating off the coast of South Georgia
Artsy close-ups of the cold, jagged edges of the mighty blue iceberg