We’re still up early – of course – grabbing a quick breakfast up in the club, then heading to the outer decks for excellent views of the island and icebergs! Yay! Icebergs ahoy.
I end up going down to the Swan’s Nest taking in the amazing view all around the ship and even capturing a huge sooty Albatross (I think that’s what it was!) as it kept soaring above my head. The landscape is just stunning. We can see all the way over to the little beaches on Cooper Bay where the penguins are hanging out. Can’t wait to get out there.
As our team time approaches, we go back down to the cabin to get ready, and just hang out waiting for the call. We’re looking out the window when we see Mark, Diana, Anna, and the Seattle people in a zodiac heading out. What! No F’ing way! We have been talking about sticking together – thanks a lot gang! We literally run out of the cabin and run down to Base Camp, slap our boots on and hustle over to the zodiac loading area only to find the Russians already there. I’m almost in tears – seriously – it is that bad. But Annemieke is there organizing and tells us that she is sending the English group out first and we’ll have Richard as our zodiac driver. Unfortunately, there are only have 3 of us, Frances and Michael arrive which helps, but we are still looking for more – I spy the German group and run over to ask if they want to come with us. They agree so I get them to hurry up and rush back to the line. There is a bit of delay, but finally we all hop into the zodiac and are off with Richard to explore the coves.
Navigating around the rough water and swells, we first spy a group of Macaroni Penguins sitting atop a rock in the cove. From this vantage point we can also see tons of Chinstrap Penguins on the shore, up this little glacier looking thing. You just see the snow under their feet.
The views are amazing. Trying to find the most descriptive words for the scenery is really hard – it sort of defies description. The water is so blue, the giant petrels don’t look as huge floating serenely on the water’s surface, a lone penguin sits atop a rock outcropping, snowy sheathbills almost glow from atop one of the icebergs that are floating around.
Sailing around and around, we stop for a bit to watch the Giant Petrels and just listen to the peace and quiet here. Sitting still just off one of the coves, it is so quiet and peaceful we can even hear the seals calling to each other, and one baby crying.
We love watching the Petrels fish, almost like they are washing their face in the water. Ed gets some great close up shots of the Petrels and their tubenose bills – this allows them to drink sea water and filter out the salt so they don’t need to come ashore for fresh water at all (we are learning so much!). They are really amazing birds – and they are so funny when they fly – goofily running across the water before lifting off into the sky.
Navigating around a little iceberg, we head closer into the beach to watch the King Penguins as they go waddling around and start entering the water to fish. Then we watch as they come back, riding the waves in, shaking the water off their feathers and waddling back up the beach. Magical.
Sadly, it is time to turn back to the ship. We have fabulous wide angle views of the coastline with all the animals – and are lucky enough to be able to capture a group of penguins hopping/swimming through the water on their way out to deeper fishing territory.
Drone and close up views of Cooper Bay wildlife, courtesy of Gennadiy Skorokhod, SH Diana
Waiting in the zodiac traffic jam at the ship, we eventually get back from our fab zodiac ride, strip out of our wet landing clothes and run up to the pool deck to hang out in the brilliant sunshine! It is fabulous up here – who would have thunk it? Suntan lotion a necessity. We just loll about taking pictures of the gorgeous scenery around us and the icebergs out in the distance.
And then the announcement! Brandon comes on the PA and tells everyone to come to the Observatory Lounge for an important update from the Captain. Uh oh! Here it comes. We rush over there grabbing our normal seats. Soon, Mark joins us, as well as Anna and Diana. Then Frances and Michael pull over chairs and we’re all here poised to hear what Ed and I know is going to be the cancelation of Antarctica. We’ve already told Mark our thoughts – and now he believes us! The others are still thinking it’s about an itinerary change due to weather or the detention of the Russians! But we know better, unfortunately.
The Captain opens up by asking us if we’ve had a good weekend, to which the room resounding cheers. He then tells us he didn’t have a good weekend at all! Cute – but it doesn’t help the message he must deliver. The shaft problems have not become any better and we will not be able to go to Antarctica with 1 propeller. The starboard propeller is just free spinning, providing no power. We can still steer and navigate, but just with far less power. Thus, there is no alternative except to head straight back to Ushuaia; taking 5 days, now arriving the afternoon of Saturday, 11/30. Well bummer! The interesting thing is that the room is pretty much silent. We don’t think it really sunk in at all. Especially because of the language barriers, but even the English speakers aren’t groaning or up in arms or anything. It was all quite blessedly calm – which was a miracle. A few stupid questions, but not all that many.
We will stay aboard until the 3rd, and the staff is trying to develop activities for us while in port. Before we arrive, we will be receiving a compensation offer from the company. What more can they do? The stunned silence continues as we all disburse to our own thoughts and disappointments. We head to lunch on the aft deck, where the sun has become a memory, but the heat lamps are on and it is delightful out here. Obviously, we are very sad that we won’t be able to get to Antarctica again – but at least we’ve been there. We aren’t devastated, on the contrary we are both very relieved that the powers that be weren’t fool enough to try to make it there on 1 propeller (actually the ship would not been allowed – the Antarctic governing body and regulatory agencies would not give us permission). I mean, if that last propeller dies? And we’re in Antarctica? Say goodnight, Irene. Limping across the S. Atlantic to Ushuaia is the only smart option.
Sadly, this does mean our afternoon landing in Gold Harbor is cancelled, but you know what? We’ve seen and done a lot in S. Georgia already – and quite frankly we’re happy we don’t have to try to avoid the Russians out there any longer – especially as it would be a landing and you can’t corral them into a zodiac and keep them there like this morning!
Nothing left to do but have a nice lunch of fish and chips on the deck, take way more pictures of more and more amazing icebergs. We just can’t stop. At least we get to see them, which is very special since we aren’t going south. There are pinnacled icebergs, standing straight up out of the water.
And lots of tabular bergs all around.
As well as some incredibly gorgeous tabulars with huge holes through them from calving (we think those are called cathedral icebergs).
The sun comes and goes as we pose for our iceberg photos – thank you Richard and Sunshine for being our photographers!
Retreating to the Observation lounge as it starts turning really cold, we grab our seats for the 2pm showing of the documentary Our Planet – Frozen Worlds, all about the animals living on the ice in Antarctica, S. Georgia and the Polar regions. Then at 4, Emil talks about the Struggles of Survival, all about Penguins, how they are like us, they live in colonies and need socialization. He explains the purpose of the colonies; for breeding and safety – being able to warn each other of dangers. The disadvantages though, are by congregating so closely, diseases spread very easily. The Avian bird flu was especially bad down here the last couple of years.
Penguins have a sonar-like sense of place, they know where the snow melts first and go there for their colony, and they nest in the same place or near the same place, every year. Weirdly enough, where they nest as adults is in the same place that they were born. To build their nests, the males walk all the way back to the beach to pick up pebbles, one by one, walking them back up to the colony to give to the female who places it on nest.
While all the penguins may seem similar in size and genetics, they are all actually quite different. The smaller Adeli, Chinstrap and Macaroni penguins have 2 eggs, while all others only have one. They have a 35-37 day incubation and only hatch the larger egg. In an even weirder twist of genetics, Adeli’s 1st egg is larger than the 2nd, Macaroni’s 2nd egg is larger. Weird.
They also sleep in micro naps – 4 seconds at a time except 2 seconds at noon when Predators are most active – they can manage 11 hours sleep a day doing this. Another fun fact is that the Adeli penguins changed their diet entirely about 200 years ago from fish to krill. This was due to the overhunting of whales and seals the resulted in a huge abundance of krill. Ok, so we’re geeking out over all these interesting wildlife facts. I know. Just skip on ahead when I get boring!
After the lecture there were more iceberg pictures – including this great berg with a hole in the middle – it was gorgeous. Including the biggest we have ever seen – a huge tabular that looked like it was 10km long! You could land an airplane on it.
You can sort of see it from this picture, look at that clear area out on the horizon – underneath that is the iceberg!
We have a little bit of a break back in the cabin, and then up to our recap and briefing, which isn’t much of a briefing, everything has pretty much been said! Artem and Richard do put on a really cute hands on presentation on what a Sextant is, as well as talking about Frank Worsley, who was Shackleton’s right hand man. Nice little way to end the afternoon.
We had dinner with Annemeike and Brandon again – which is always lovely and fun and entertaining. Then drinks with Allan – well – just a night cap for the cabin as it was really late by the time we were finished with dinner. A couple of TV shows later and it was nighty nighttime for us.
Andiamo 