Antarctica 2023
SOUTH GEORGIA
Feb 11
GPS Position: 54°28.3’S / 035°55.1’W
Wind: SW-2 • Sea State: Calm • Weather: Overcast
Air temp: 12°C Sea temp: 6°C
After three long days at sea (with a stop at Elephant Island and the A-76a Iceberg) we woke up in South Georgia, it's overcast but a much nicer day. We can see penguin covered beaches from the ship. This is very different from the snow and ice covered shores that we saw only a few days earlier, it is lush and green with some glaciers and snow capped mountains.
Cooper Bay
Our first expedition at South Georgia is a Zodiac cruise of Cooper Bay. Right away we spot our next breed of penguins, the Macaroni penguins with their golden crowns. These unique looking penguins are classified as 'vulnerable' so we are lucky to have seen so many of them.
Between the abundance of Macaroni Penguins and Fur Seals, it's hard to stop and admire the rugged coastline.
There is these naturally created little pools along the shoreline, and they are just full of baby fur seals, diving, splashing, just having fun, and it is adorable!
Every little seal pup is just watching us go by
Our first sneak peak of a King Penguin, I sure hope we see more of them
As we start nearing the main beach at Cooper Bay we can see King penguins, lots of King penguins, lots and lots of King penguins, and Fur seals. Something I didn't expect to see was Gentoo and chinstrap penguins mixed in with the crowd.
There is so many fur seal babies, they come rushing up to check us out as the zodiacs get closer to the beach, and there is penguins swimming all around the boat.
Now that we have seen the bay and the beach area, it's time to cruise through the penguins and back to the ship.
Our time at Cooper Bay came to an end, and we left the penguins and fur seals behind, so we could get to another location and see more penguins and fur seals, a lot more penguins and fur seals.
As we move further up South Georgia, we get better views of the numerous glaciers on this sub-Antarctic Island.
St. Andrews Bay
The next glaciers we see are the next stop of our day, St Andrew's Bay. Known as the "Serengeti of the South", it is estimated there is 400,000 pairs of mating King penguins here! First we did the beach and then walked up to a glacier lake, it was hot!
Not only is there a ton of King Penguins here, but also Elephant seals and tons of fur seals, so many babies, and they are frisky little buggers. They charge and growl at you until you make yourself big or clap your hands at them, it’s pretty funny when Norine puts her hands on her hips and looks at them charging and they come to a quick stop and turn away.
These Elephant seals are huge, on average a female southern elephant seal weighs 350 to 900 kg (770 to 1,980 lb) and measure 2.6 to 3 m (8.5 to 9.8 ft) long, whereas bulls can range from 1,500 to 3,700 kg (3,300 to 8,200 lb) and grow to 4.2 to 5.8 m (14 to 19 ft) in length.
Penguin photo bomb
It's fascinating and a little intimidating to see these two giant beasts fighting on the beach, but it lasts for a minute and then they both lay down exhausted.
The moulting isn't quite as cool here, no funky mullets and odd bob cuts
Most of the Fur seal Pups are dark brown, almost black in color. However, a very small number of fur seals are blond or partially blond. It's not Albinism, but a rare (1 in 1000) genetic change called leucism.
There's not quite as many penguins at the glacial lake, but there's still so many curious penguins.
Funniest thing was a king penguin and a large seal quarreling, the seal lunges at the
penguin, and the penguin slaps him!
The large seal lays down and backs off.
The big eyes of the female Elephant seals are so cute.
You okay Bro?
Much like the Adelie penguins, these King penguins stand up to Skuas and Giant petrels that try to come in and steal eggs or babies.
It's back to the beach for us, a chance to say goodbye to all our new seal pup friends.
One last goodbye and then a then a zodiac tour along the shoreline and past the rookery.
Jakub is able to get our Zodiac right in close to the rocks so we can meet way more baby fur seals.
The beach seems even busier than when we were on it.
One little brown fuzzy baby amongst the crowd
What an absolutely amazing day, and it's only the first one of our visit to South Georgia, I have to send a note of thanks to my friend Brenda who recommended that we include South Georgia in our Antarctica trip.
We had dinner with the German eclipse chasers again, and then it was early to bed again, as Pippa has warned us about our early wake up call the next morning.
