January 5-6th, 2015
“The storm increases, the sea runs high, the snow makes the air thick, we cannot see ten yards
before us, happily the wind is off shore. If a Captain, some Officers, and a Crew
were convicted of some heinous crimes, they ought to be sent by way of punishment
to these inhospitable cursed Regions, for to explore and survey them.
The very thought to live here a year fills the whole soul with horror and despair.
God! What miserable wretches must they must be, that live here in these terrible Climates.
Clarity lets me hope, that human nature was never thought so low by his Maker,
as to be doomed to lead or rather languish out so miserable a life.”
– Johann Reinhold Forster, naturalist on Captain Cooks Resolution in 1775 about South Georgia
before us, happily the wind is off shore. If a Captain, some Officers, and a Crew
were convicted of some heinous crimes, they ought to be sent by way of punishment
to these inhospitable cursed Regions, for to explore and survey them.
The very thought to live here a year fills the whole soul with horror and despair.
God! What miserable wretches must they must be, that live here in these terrible Climates.
Clarity lets me hope, that human nature was never thought so low by his Maker,
as to be doomed to lead or rather languish out so miserable a life.”
– Johann Reinhold Forster, naturalist on Captain Cooks Resolution in 1775 about South Georgia
Yesterday and today we’re at sea – which means many talks and nothing much to see except the rolling waves and the occasional albatross riding the wind outside the windows. We spent our time attending talks, writing, and going through pictures from our time in Antarctica while waiting for South Georgia to come into sight. The most exciting part of these two days was late tonight when we had to adjust our course to go around a 17-mile long iceberg. 17. Miles. It took us into some rougher waves that sent a laptop, some external hard drives, and a book or two flying across the room, but it wasn’t so bad as to require those bed straps we were warned told about.
Day 11: Gold Harbor & Cooper Bay
January 7th, 2015
“Beauty and grace are performed whether or not we will or sense them. The least we can do is try to be there.”
- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
- Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek
This morning we expected to wake up super early (3:15am) in order to make a sunrise landing at Gold Harbour, one of the prettiest harbours in South Georgia. That didn’t quite happen due to last night’s detour, and we arrived at Gold Harbour after sunrise. But that’s ok! We enjoyed a few extra hours of sleep and got to land 5 hours later. We found a mountain range with a glacier spilling out on one end of the beach and grassy tussocks on the other, which gave us a beautiful backdrop for the elephant seals (holy crap, they’re big), the fur seals (so cute and fuzzy), and the 25,000 nesting pairs of king penguins (not including the sub-adults and chicks) and provided a fascinating introduction to the stunning island of South Georgia. Walking around amidst the massive number of animals producing a loud cacophony of sounds was a totally new experience – in Antarctica, we had many many penguins squawking at us. Here, we were surrounded by battling elephant seals, ferocious and protective fur seals, fur seal pups squeaking for their mothers, and the noise of 75,000(guesstimate) king penguins. It was quite the experience for our ears. And our cameras. The hardest part about taking pictures at Gold Harbor is that you don’t know what to photograph, because there is so much happening at any given time. Quite the problem, we know. In the afternoon we took a zodiac tour around Cooper’s Bay where we saw our first colony of macaroni penguins and got to watch the fur seals playing in the kelp, before getting to climb up a large hill of tussock to see the macaroni colony from land. Trying to avoid the feisty seals and managing to walk through the strange bumps on the ground was a bit of a challenge – but a pretty interesting chance to get to see this colony that thrives on the rocky coast up close! The fur seal pups were probably our favorite things about getting to land though: they’re so curious and think that they’re as fierce as the adults, which makes for some pretty funny moments as they chase people (only when their back is turned), or when they run scared when you growl back at them. Today was a great first day on an island that we already had high expectations for. We’re definitely looking forward to the next few days exploring!