Jan 24, 2017 - South Georgia - Day 2

Today we made our last two stops in South Georgia at Stromness and Grytviken. Stromness was an old whaling station that eventually converted to a ship repair yard in 1931. In May of 1916, Sir Ernest Shackleton arrived in Stromness with his 5 men after leaving 22 men on Elephant Island. When we arrived in Stromness we were offered to hike the final part of his epic crossing of South Georgia. We hiked went about ¾ of the way, but still got to see all of the beautiful scenery. We decided to spend more time viewing the ancient whaling station...

Jan 23, 2017 - South Georgia - Day 1

Arrived in South Georgia early in the morning. We had an early start to the day, waking up at 6:15 am. Today, we were going to see the King penguins and seals! As soon as our zodiacs arrived on the Salisbury Plain we were in complete shock. Hundreds of thousands of king penguins were everywhere throughout the beach and all over the mountains. Along with hundreds of fur seal pups and some full grown elephant seals. It was absolutely astounding. We have never experienced anything like it before. The penguins and seal pups were very curious...

Feb 10, 2015 - Prion Island, S Georgia Is

Tuesday, February 10 Day 14 Prion Island We signed up for the 10 am zodiac tour of Prion Island, and watched as members of the 8:30 tour returned drenched by rain. We took measures, and I bought a plastic sleeve to protect my camera. When our turn came, we bundled onto the zodiac and walked onto Prion Island in the Bay of Isles. Our quest: nesting Wandering Albatross, with the largest wingspan of any living bird on earth. Fortunately, Mike was our guide and we walked carefully up the boardwalk to the viewing platforms. One of the...

Feb 9, 2015 - Fortuna Bay, Stromness, & Grytviken

Monday, February 9 Day 13 Fortuna Bay, Stromness, & Grytviken We sailed into Fortuna Bay and left 60 people who would make the four-hour hike from Fortuna over the mountain pass to Stromness, the whaling station where Shackleton finally got help. It took him and his two men 36 hours to hike from Peggotty Bluff to Stromness, but they couldn’t always tell from the mountain path whether the bay below was a whaling station. In fact, they descended here to Fortuna under the mistaken impression that they would find whalers only to be disappointed...

Feb 8, 2015 - St Andrew's Bay

Sunday, February 8 Day 12 St. Andrew’s Bay This was another early morning, 4 am wake up for our zodiac landing at St. Andrew’s Bay. The sky was clear, and the sun rose golden on the horizon. We were there to see the King Penguin colony and took a leisurely walk along the two-mile beach. The King Penguins were everywhere, carrying out their business without paying us any attention. They filled the beach, and they lined a little pool where they were reflected in the still waters. Lots of Oakum Boys were huddled around. We made our way up a...

Feb 7, 2015 - King Haakon Bay: Piggotty Bluff & Cape Rosa

Saturday, February 7 Day 11 King Haakon Bay: Peggotty Bluff & Cape Rosa We woke up to stormy, rainy weather and prepared ourselves for the worst. This was a Shackelton day, where we would visit Cape Rosa, where he and his five crew first touched land after 16 days on the Scotia Sea. After making repairs to their boat, The James Caird, they sailed farther into Haakon Bay and made camp at Peggotty Bluff. From there, Shackelton took two men, Worsley and Crean, to hike across the unexplored mountains of South Georgia in search of one of the...

Feb 6, 2015 - Gold Harbor & Cooper Bay

Friday, February 6 Day 10 South Georgia Island - Gold Harbor & Cooper Bay We spent two days crossing the Scotia Sea from the Antarctic Peninsula to South Georgia Island, a 105 mile long stretch of craggy mountain tops and jagged shoreline. What was once an active whaling industry, manned by young Norwegians until 1960, is now only evidenced by ruined and abandoned factory buildings and dormitories. Looking at a map of elevations and sea depths, it’s apparent that the Andes mountains running down the west coast of South America begin to...

Mar 8, 2010 - Stromness; Grytviken

Today we have walked from Fortuna Bay to Stromness following the last part of Shackleton's trek across South Georgia. It was only about 10 kilometres but quite steep, down scree slopes to the abandoned whaling village of Stromness. Shackleton stumbled down the hill and reported to the manager! Shackleton and his crew had visited South Georgia on their way south. "Everyone knew Shackleton well and we very sorry he is lost in ice with all hands. We not know three terrible looking bearded men who walked into office off the mountainside....

Mar 6, 2010 - South Georgia

After breakfast we had a little time to prepare and then we were called down to get on the zodiacs. The sea seemed calm until we got down to water level. It was probably the most difficult time loading that we have had so far. Once in the boat the sea seemed calm. The ride in to the beach and the beach landing went smoothly. We stood around and watched the King Penguins until the rest of our group arrived. Then we walked parallel to the beach down toward the glaciers. The footing was a little rocky but not bad. Then we had to wade across...

Mar 5, 2010 - South Georgia

We spent a quiet night at anchor. After breakfast we said goodbye to the small group of 10 people that had elected to talk a walk over the last portion of Shackleton’s journey across the island. To get there they had to scramble up a very steep grade to an altitude of 1000’. Then they walked across a saddle in his footsteps and took a very steep, muddy, slippery wash back down to sea level. The last portion was in a shallow stream. To top it off, it was snowing and the wind was strong. Evelyn and I elected to stay on board. Soon after the...

Mar 4, 2010 - South Georgia

We arrived at the northwest coast of South Georgia at breakfast time. The passengers ate while the captain and crew checked out our first possible landing site at Right Whale Bay. We were soon told that the swell was small enough but the wind was too much. It seems that the critical time is when a zodiac returns empty to the ship to pick up another load of sightseers. So we had some wait time until we get to another place to try. While we were waiting, Trevor gave us part 2 of his “In the Wake of Shackleton: The Crossing.” This time he...

Feb 2, 2008 - Grytviken, South Georgia

2/2– 2/4 After leaving Antarctica it took us a couple days before we reached Grytviken, South Georgia. The trip was exciting because of all the icebergs that we passed on the way. Some of them were over ¼ of a mile long. It was a beautiful trip which included many sightings of whales, seals penguins and albatrosses. On the third we were able to watch the Super Bowl, amazing since we are out in the middle of no-where. It is summer in Grytviken, but that does not seem to mean much. On our arrival it was snowing quite hard. Grytviken was an...