Day 10: S. Georgia Island

Day 10: S. Georgia Island

Jacket, fleece, long underwear (top and bottoms), cold weather pants, waterproof pants, buff, ear cover, hat, life jacket, id card, THB

Wellington boots, two pairs of socks

our positioning just off shore, or how to tie a fly

Right Whale Cove

Weather: Overcast, very cold, low cloud cover, hail, sunny, very very cold, sunny and snowing

Quote of The Day:  Are we kayaking today?

THB is skating on thin ice: THB has misplaced two essential items and with DB’s assistance retrieved them again. Good karma? Or just another example of getting old?

Today, Plans A and B on where the first excursions on S. Georgia will take place are no-go’s. As always, if kayaking is a possibility, there is a kayak pre-meeting before breakfast. Since it isn’t yet clear what Plan C is, THB and DB go to breakfast, eat quickly and then spend 20+ minutes getting in our dry suits and other accoutrements only to get a PA announcement that there will be no kayaking this morning. So off come the dry suits and we re-arrange what we’re taking with us.

The morning expedition is on beach, Right Whale Bay, crowded with King penguin adults and chicks, and Fur seals. The Fur seals (which look a lot like miniature Elephant seals) can be very aggressive so we are kept from getting too close.  THB’s gear worked well with the exception of having to take off one waterproof glove in order to take pics and thus having one frozen hand.  For this afternoon’s expedition, THB will try our other set of gloves (purchased in Puerto Madryn). Normally THB’s ears are the first thing to freeze. Today THB had 4 layers covering his ears, just the right amount.

Pics from Right Whale Cove

King penguins

brown furry things are King chicks

Day care

Middle school

Skua

Snowy Petrel?

In the Heights, above beach

Fur Seal

Lunch today included an option of roast beef, cooked just the way THB’s grandmother liked it: overdone. Came with Yorkshire pudding and horseradish.

Quite a long rest up period while HebSky moves us into position at Prion (Pree-ahn) Island. THB uses the extra time to fine tune his layers and checks to see if he can work the camera with neoprene gloves. Might work…tbd. The kayak expedition is cancelled.

There’s a limit to the number of visitors on Prion at any one time so this outing divides the passengers into two group: those that are doing a Zodiac tour first and those doing the Prion Island tour first.

The Zodiac ride was mostly to kill 45 minutes until it was our turn to be on solid ground. The visit to Prion was another entry into the world of nesting. Oh, and our group’s 45 minutes on Prion was an illustration of perseverance as gradually the snow built up to a pretty decent storm. Good news: not much wind!

-        Mostly male Fur seals awaiting the arrival of the very pregnant females who will immediately give birth to the pubs and get impregnated by the waiting males.

-          A few Elephant seals nursing their pubs

-          A decent rookery of Gentoos.

-          A few young Wandering Albatross

Pics from Prion Island:

DB in swoop buff

HebSky

Lichen

Gentoos at Prion Island

Giant Petrel

Fur seal a long way from  beach

Albatross chick, 8 months old, never left nest

Pintail ducks?

2nd albatross chick

Elephant seal with pup

Back on board: shower, attend the debrief and plans for tomorrow, and eat dinner at table for two.

Melvin, our "valet" finds us dark chocolate for turn-down