Friday, January 7th
Yesterday we sailed passed a rock formation called ‘Shag Rocks’, which signaled our official arrival in South Georgia. Quite a remarkable little rock formation if you think about it: they are not very big at all and stick straight up out of the water.
That morning everyone had to attend a mandatory expedition briefing on zodiacs, safety, behavior, environment, decontamination, and general rules for visiting the fragile eco-system that is South Georgia.
TW reached South Georgia proper around 7pm on the evening of the 6th and anchored in St Andrews Bay at 2:30am on the 7th.
Everyone on board had been given the option to be woken up around 3am, should the weather be favorable for a sunrise zodiac cruise ashore. When we got the call, we dressed up in our warm and waterproof layers, including rubber boots as these zodiac landings are ‘wet landings’.
We all gathered in The Plaza and although it looked like chaos we all were on shore in St Andrews Bay before the first rays of sunlight hit the beach. On the way over in the zodiac you could really smell the penguins. The sun brought out spectacular colors in King Penguins and their chicks!!!! As a first zodiac landing this was just amazing!!! And gorgeous weather! There were also lots of fur seals and pups. Around 5:15am we were back on board where one of the restaurants had opened early so we could enjoy breakfast before going back out again.
All residents and guests aboard had been divided into color coded groups, which will be our call signs for the duration of the Expedition. We are in White Group (WG).
WG got to go out again at 8am for another landing. This time the wind had picked up significantly and the landing and waters were much rougher.
The expedition team had staked out a route for us to follow. It was (and always is on the outings) very important that we stick to these routes as they minimize the impact we have on the wildlife.
We got to a small rise and from their truly realized how big this colony was: we looked out over about 200,000 pairs of King Penguins and their chicks. Twenty minutes into our trip we were told that operations had been canceled and we headed back to the zodiac. WG was the only group that made it out this time. Winds had picked up to 65mph (73mph is considered hurricane strength) and the biggest issue becomes docking the zodiac with TW and getting everyone out of the zodiacs and on TW safely.
Once everyone was back on board TW lifted anchor and sailed for calmer pastures.
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