Back onboard, though, there is no one around (see comments from previous post) and we have the place to ourselves! It is the most gorgeous day, which we choose to spend up on the aft pool deck sitting in the brilliant sunshine surrounded by stunning scenery.  How great is that?

Lunch up on deck, of course!  Then a beautiful sail out past King Edward Point where all the researchers live, into the bay, and around the island on our way to St. Andrews Bay, our next landing.

But, uh oh.  After lunch, there is a loud clanking sound and the propellers stop again.  Um.  This isn’t really going well is it?  The power outage only lasts 10 minutes, but you know us – we know this doesn’t bode well for the rest of this trip!  Yikes!

We have a briefing at 2 where Brandon announces we will be staying 2 days in S. Georgia.  This news is met with resounding joy – clapping, happy whoops.  We’re all excited to have another day on this amazing island.  The plans for tomorrow are to do a scenic ship cruise through the Drygalski Fjords early in the morning, then a zodiac ride around Cooper Bay where we can see King, Macaroni, Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins all living together and finally, in the afternoon a landing at Gold Harbour.  Cool. Especially because Ed and I just know that this means we aren’t going to Antarctica. We are already so delayed because of the weather, spending another day in S. Georgia just takes too much time – there is no way we can make it to Antarctica and back.  Also, the final slide of Brandon’s presentation shows the afternoon landing and then the SH Diana departs for Fortuna Bay.  Um.  That’s still in S. Georgia!  Honestly though, at this point?  That would be fine to just stay here – its an amazing place to explore, we’d not be complaining.  We’d rather that than get stuck somewhere down on the Peninsula, that’s for sure.

Onward we go.  The afternoon continues with more beautiful scenery, craggy peaks against a brilliant blue sky, penguins swimming alongside the ship and general relaxation until our Yellow group is called to the zodiacs at 4:30 for St. Andrews Bay.

We’re down in base camp first thing and suited up in our waterproof pants, ready for the first zodiac.  Hopping aboard, we take the quick ride to the landing area where the Expedition staff have staked out a walking path through the wildlife.  St. Andrews is a 2-mile-wide bay at the base of Mt. Skittle with one of the largest colonies of breeding King penguins – numbering over 150,000 pairs.  And they truly are everywhere!  As are Elephant and Fur seals. 

This is so great!  We’re first walking through the pebbles, just reveling in all this wildlife.  The penguins!  So cute and so curious.  The elephant seals burying themselves in the sand to stay warm. 

Making our way along the beach, we watch all the seals and various penguins waddling to and fro.  Then crossing over to more grassy and rocky terrain, we are entertained with fur seals running from each other.  And so many beautiful views.  So Cool.

We finally make it to the river inlet, with the cold water flowing rapidly down from the melting glacier.  There are thousands of penguins here, cooling off in the river. Many are molting, since they can’t go into the water until they have fully molted, the only way to keep themselves cold is to stand with their feet in the water.  An amazing scene!  So many penguins – and this isn’t even the bulk of them. Far off around the lake in the distance is the big colony, complete with chicks.  We can barely see them in our tele-focus – but Carine is here pointing things out and telling us about the penguins, and she lets us use her binoculars – which are the best ever!  We can clearly see all the adults and babies, in 3D almost.  Those binoculars probably cost a bundle, but oh, if we were into wildlife watching, they’d be on our buy list!

We end up standing there for quite a while, listening to Carine and just really wide eyed with wonder over the incredible view, the penguins at the river, and the cute little guys marching toward us.

Unfortunately our bliss is short lived.  Sorry, hate to be this way, but here come the Russians to destroy everything. Seriously. There are maybe 8 or 10 of us standing here, peacefully watching everything, not jostling for position on the embankment for photos, just nicely trading places and moving around so everyone can see and hear Carine.  But no, not these people.  They storm through the crowd, constantly on their phones, narrating or talking on the phone or something.  We have no idea. They are loud.  They are rude.  They don’t listen to Carine at all.  One idiot even jumps down the embankment to the edge of the river – clearly in an area that is marked off as keep out. And he won’t move when Carine calls to him.  Honestly.  We can’t stand it.  Talk about ruining something for everyone.

We do manage to stay a little bit longer, by moving a bit away, so we are able to enjoy the curious penguins who come to see what these new creatures (us) are all about.  So sweet!

Finally though, we’ve had enough, and head back toward the landing site.  The reverse walk is just as magical – and fortunately quiet as we are pretty much alone, passing newly arriving passengers who are easily avoided.  We watch the seals running through the penguins, scattering them at will, further on there are more fur seals playing and then collapsing. Such fun.  And all along our route are just incredible views out to the water and up into the mountains and the glacier.

Posing penguins. Posing fur seals. Baby fur seals.  Monstrous Elephant seals.  They are all here, living in harmony together.  Nature at its finest.

Nearing the zodiac landing site, we get a good look at the glacier on the side of the bay with all the penguins there cooling off.  We’d love to walk over to get a closer look, but that is apparently verboten – our red flags lead us straight to the zodiac, not the glacier.

We have other things to keep us occupied though, a couple of penguins are crossing our path – so cute – they are such curious little guys.  We all stand there watching them go, then turn in time to see a whole group of little guys heading our way.  We are all mesmerized, watching them head toward us.  They keep coming closer and closer trying to figure out what we are and what we are doing there.  So darling.  Finally they decide they don’t care and just mill around each other as we human stand gawking.

More seals. More penguins. More everything.  What a fabulous landing!  Couldn’t have had a better day for it either.  If there is any disappointment, it is that because we are here in the afternoon, the water is running too fast and hard for us to cross the river. Had we been here in the morning, we may have had a chance to cross to see the whole rookery out by the lake.  No matter – the time we spent and what we did see was extraordinary. 

Back onboard there is a cocktail party set up on the aft pool deck. Our very own Allan gets into the spirit of things while serving!  Grace and Sagar joined him shortly as the party got going.  We sat in the sun, sipping our drinks and chatting with Mark about the propeller issue (he heard the same clunking noise), the Russians (we all agree we do not want to be on tours with them – I suggest we make a zodiac team and band together with a few others we know feel the same way) and what might happen to the rest of the cruise.  You know our thoughts…time will tell.

The rest of the evening is spent watching the zodiacs return and marveling at the incredibly gorgeous sunset behind the mountain peaks.  Our last view of the St. Andrews bay is of the entire penguin rookery from afar.  Amazing.

One last picture dump – Courtesy of our excellent photographer, Gennadiy Skorokhod and SH Diana – you can see from his fabulous photography and Drone photos the entire rookery; the last photo is close up enough to even see the baby penguins that haven’t molted yet, still with their brown fur. And that is us down there by the river with Carine to our left and Mark on the far left.

Nighttime is the norm – dinner, drinks with Allan, cabin for TV.  Figuring we’ll be up early for the fjord, we prepare for an early bedtime, only to find that our schedule has been changed – no longer are we going to do the ship sailing through the Fjord – we are going straight to Cooper Bay.  Hmmmmm….Oh well.  Flexibility is the key here – we’ll be ready to go with our Yellow group when our time is called.