On to South Georgia. It’s two days sail along the Southern Ocean from the Falklands to our destination. Various species of albatross and petrel are regular travel partners. Boy are they hard to catch with camera! Ben was able to get a shot with albatross and a couple of orcas. Too cool.
Shaky video – Boat moving, critter zooming!
The crew does a great job making use of the sea time. You can stay busy from the time you get up until you go to bed. On the ship there are two separate teams. The ship crew is responsible for ship operations, hospitality, housekeeping etc. Then there is the expedition team who are experts in their field. They lead the different offshore excursions and provide educational lectures throughout our time on the ship. There is an assortment of geologists, ornithologists, marine biologists, and a polar historian to name a few. Each day there are lectures on topics that are relevant to the place where we are heading. On sea days, if you choose, you can do lectures all day.
Thursday morning Dick attended the Introduction to the ‘Citizen Science Project’ lecture by Nicole. There are a number of projects set up where volunteers can aid in recording things such as bird, cloud, counts, and whale identification. The whale ID work is especially interesting. Whales can be individually identified by the pattern of their ‘fluke’, their tale underside. Pictures and spotting location are uploaded to ‘happywhale.com’ and matched against a database of known critters. We both chose the Seabirds of the Southern Ocean – the ornithologist is good and very enthusiastic about his subject. Of course, any whale pics will be uploaded too.
It was a busy day in the presentation lounge. Late morning, Mattias gave a talk on ‘Seabirds of the Southern Ocean’. Theresa spoke at an afternoon session on ‘Seals and Flipper Footed Mammals’ an in-depth presentation about walrus’, true seals, and sea lions – although commentary on the metabolites content of their flesh was probably more information than I needed.
Before dinner was the long-awaited Captains welcome party. Arriving in the lounge, we were handed Champagne flutes and the crew walked around passing out hors d’oeuvres. The captain was introduced and then he introduced all of his team. There’s a lot of people who work here to make our journey safe and comfortable.
After dinner, we went to the lounge for a nightcap and got to see Part 1 of the Shackleton movie.
On Friday, day 2 of our passage to South Georgia things were a little rough. Dick attended the ‘Alien Rodents and Mutant Reindeer of South Georgia’ lecture this morning, given by Rachael. Gotta love the name, but the subject was the introduction of non-native species and the massive eradication projects. After he told me about it, I wish I had gone. Clearly the best named of the presentations.
Hannah J, our historian, has a very quirky sense of humor and I am really starting to appreciate her. Her lecture about ‘Ernest Shackleton’ in general and the Endurance expedition in particular was fascinating. I didn’t want her to stop. Interestingly, she spent 6 months on South Georgia in Grytviken and part of her job was to tend to Shackleton’s grave.
After a few days without sight of land the view of ‘Shag Rocks’, a dramatic collection of islands is welcome. Crappy weather but still impressive. It also means we’re nearing South Georgia proper.
Because we are arriving in South Georgia tomorrow, we attend the Mandatory film briefing ‘South Georgia and Bio Security’, followed by the bio-security party.
Mary
I read where Argentina is stirring the pot at the U.N. in regards to the Falklands. Dick, tell me, did you SAY something wile you were there?
I’m clean! It was Mary!
Absolutely fascinated reading your blog, you guys are so adventurous, my heroes. Thank you for all the time you spend doing the blog. I really appreciate it, Love you guys x
Thanks Carol, it truly is the only way we can keep track!