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As we got nearer to South Georgia, the the amount of bird life available for viewing increased, so a bit more time was spent up on deck. Further delays overnight (aka fog), has resulted in an afternoon arrival. This isn't even at Grytviken, which was the proposed landing point for the day. As the day wears on ideas are tossed around about possible landing sites, and it is decided that we will try for Cooper Bay on the southern tip of the island.
Cooper Bay
The route to Cooper Bay is strewn with icebergs, which is the good news, but the bad news is the sea is quite choppy and the weather generally a bit miserable. The ship is expertly navigated through Cooper Sound and we hover about a bit watching the blizzard through the poor visibility and against the wind, while the sea swells up and down three or four feet. Eventually the expedition team send a party to shore to investigate the possibility of landing. The ship's crew are preparing us for the worst with encouraging comments like "the sea is too rough" and "won't be landing in this weather". They could have cancelled the landing and no-one would have disagreed with them, but they don't and it is all systems go.
Two landing spots have been chosen. One is overrun with pestering seal pups which can be repelled by banging two pebbles together - a noise disliked by seals! - and the other, a short zodiac ride away is a Macaroni penguin rookery (with a few King, Chinstrap and Gentoo penguins thrown in to mix it up a bit). The penguins came out of the water and climbed a steep slope to reach their rookeries high on the hill above us.
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The zodiac ride back to the boat passes by a rock formation in the sea where the penguins have to either walk across the rocks between waves, or just belly flop in and swim.
The second landing site required a short walk through deepish water, under an overhanging rock with mini waterfall. We all got splattered. Unfortunately the waterfall was not so much water more a kind of penguin crap/urine concentrate. It is only when we returned to the ship did the full odorous impact hit us, though the crew were aware of the potential problem as they did some full body hosing down on everyone. That night the ship STANK to high heaven, as did the cabin. EVERYTHING, including rucksack, hats, camera and binocular straps had to be washed to get rid of the smell - which some passengers failed to do for several days, judging from the residual smells.
After dinner the sky was clear (possibly for the first time at night this trip), so Val showed off her knowledge of the night sky by pointing out the Southern Cross, alpha and beta Centauri as well as the Large and Small Magellanic Clouds to those who wanted to see them - all of which are southern hemisphere constellations or objects.
Continue to Grytviken and Fortuna Bay
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