Sth Georgia

South Georgia

27th, 28th and 29th Feb 

I always like to do something cool on Leap Day!  
This is pretty cool.




Sub-Antarctic region .

South Georgia is a peak sticking up from the Scotia Arc  - an underwater mountain range  - the continuation of the Andes. 74% of South Georgia is covered with glaciers, ice caps and snow fields in summer. 
In winter the snow is to the water.

Latitude 35.4 to 38.01 west and 53.58 to 54.53 South.  2150 ks from Tierra del Fugego.

Cook visited in 1775 and note the abundance of whales and seals. And that was the beginning of the end for the ecology of the area.

Massive of damage was done to the whale and seal populations.  Bird life is still being devastated by the Norwegian Brown rat.


South Georgia Weather.

CLICK HERE FOR SOUTH GEORGIA WEATHER
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28th Feb, Cooper Bay, South Georgia        54°47,3’S     35°48,0’W

5.30 AM  (in the morning!) wake up call. That was fun. The team decided that the sea was safe for us to go for a zodiac cruise around Coopers Bay. So off we went.

Cooper Bay is a place that four species of penguins all use as a rookery. Gentoo (of course), Chin strap, Kings and YAY Macaroni.

Macaroni’s were named for the fine 18th century Yankee gentlemen who travelled to France and dressed up with feathers in their hair. These (penguins) are the guys with the bright yellow tufts of long golden feathers growing from their foreheads. And this was our only chance to see them. So cute with their big fat red beaks and golden hairdo’s. "Stuck a feather in his hat and called it Macaroni". We were not disappointed with the Macaroni.  They are awesome.

They were all over the hills and many on the rocks. So we bobbed and bounced around in the Zodiac to see them.

We cruised up and down the beach for a while and saw great things. There were heaps of Elephant Seals, Fur Seals and we got our first look at the mobs of King Penguins. 

And Glaciers. Don’t forget the glaciers everywhere. 

If we had have been told we were going to look at glaciers, and black sand beaches we would have been thrilled and very pleased. These stunning props were just backdrops for the amazing animal life. Funny how you focus on different things.

The sea was fairly rough with a big swell. It was fun getting the zodiac back to marina. Took a lot of skill from the sailors who catch us. Very bumpy getting out. But we managed.

28th Feb. Gold Harbour, South Georgia     54°37,5’S     35°56,2’W  

At 9.30 we loaded up for our next excursion to Gold Harbour.

We landed on a steep black beach. Well kind of landed.  The zodiac went up to about 10 metres off the shore, spun around and shot in backwards. Four staff were the ‘landing crew’, wearing rescue suits and walked into the water to grab the boat. They dragged it up a bit then man handled us out one at a time.

We slid up the edge to the back of the boat – faced the ocean, spun our legs out over the edge. They took our arms and lower us in to the water. About knee deep – thus the fancy pants and boots we all wear. And there we go. It is so well done and so easy – even in a decent swell.

And then, I don’t know what to say……. There are not enough words.  It was………

We walked 5 paces up the beach and had our briefing. “Stay it the flags, 2 meters from Penguins unless they come to you, 5 from the seals, 15 metres from Elephants” – “yeah, like I’m going closer then that!”.  Then walked another 5 steps and stopped. We had seen it from the zodiac but it was not the same as standing on the beach with ……… King penguins. Their gold patches glowing in the sun. And they were everywhere. I mean everywhere. The beach was at least a 2km long and covered. Everyone took about 100 photos before moving 10 steps. Delegations of Kings came down to check us out. Very business like.

And then realizing ”Oh, that brown stuff is not a rock. It's an Elephant Seals”. Only small juveniles. A mere 3 to 4 meters long. But being juveniles they did not hate each other. They would not be trying for “Beach Master” roles for a few years. They were all in a huddle basking in the glorious day. They would occasionally lift their heads and grumble at the others. They yawned and pull the most adorable faces (in an elephant seal way).

I managed to drag myself away and spent ages watching the young Fur Seals (who remember are really Sea Lions as they have ears and pelvises) frolic. They bound along and have play fights. Occasionally they would rush through a group of Kings and cop a rousing. Very funny. Up and down the beach, through the stream of glacial melt. Up and down into tussocks. Yodeling, growling and racing around. Then like all toddlers they would suddenly collapse with exhaustion. Flop, right where they were and bang, asleep. Cute yawns, scratching and cuddling up of the flippers.

And then bam…. More kings.  Remember there are many many thousands of them. You cannot see a piece of beach without Kings on it.  Not 2 Kings, dozens – on every spot.

Behind the beach was a steep slope with beautiful native tussocks. And beside every tussock was a seal. So many seals.

And then the occasional young Elephant making its way slowly along. Lumbering / galloping for 10 meters then resting.

The Elephants were molting. They couldn't go into the water until their old coat dried up and fell off and the new coat grew through. So they just lay in the sun and smile until the job is done. No hunting, no eating. Just sleeping, stretching and scratching!

The Kings are ridiculously photogenic and funny / cute / amazing. They have no fear of us and come right up to you.  I may have ‘accidentally’ "high fived" one as it walked by!

The penguins walk around in pairs, often stopping to snog. I sure know where the term “Necking” comes from. Their long elegant necks twined around each other as a display of affection. A third may join in and then there is a lot of “bitch slapping” with wings flying and the thwack, thwack thwacking.

Other will stop and throw their heads up and sing. Many also walk around in groups, and are so very busy. Places to go, people to see. All of a sudden they will stop in a group of five or six and discuss some burning issue. A very important issues. Maybe they are CEO's, out in their best suits.

But then some are not in their best suits – some of the young ones are behind in their molt – and are still covered in patches of the softest brown feathers. One in a fur coat. One had a beautiful ruff around it’s neck. Another a Mohawk! They look so out of place in this formal arena. 

Often they walk in a true ‘penguin parade’ – five or six walking in a straight line. Again off on some important mission.

Maybe down to the water, where they walk in to about waist height, then suck in their tummies as the cold water hits them. They look like people doing this. Then a wave hits them and down they bend and become the most agile, sleek creature ever. Off they shoot in search of food.

From the ship this morning I saw a few glaciers. One was a true hanging glacier. Coming down a stone valley way up high. “That must be impressive when it calves” say I.  As we were walking along the beach there was a huge nose way up the other end of the beach. The very cooperative glacier calved. A huge avalanche of snow and ice poured down. It looked like a waterfall and went for many minutes. Only the humans reacted. None of the thousands of Penguins, the hundreds of Fur Seals or the dozens of elephant Seals.

The sun shone, the animals performed. It was amazing.

Then our three hours was up. We had been walking around for three hours! Time to go.

The Zodiac trip was fun – getting back onto the ship was very exciting. A one-metre swell made unloading fun. The Zodiac would go up high well above the height of the mariner and water would rush onto the deck. Then the mariner would go up about a meter, well above the height of the zodiac and all the water would pour into the zodiac.

Lucky we were so skilled at trusting the sailors and holding on as trained. The operation of loading and unloading was so well done. So safe and not as scary as it could have been. A great team!

WOW - an amazing time!

28th Feb. St Andrew’s Bay, South Georgia.  54°26,2’S        36°10,5’W   

We headed out for our afternoon trip to the next spot. St Andrews Bay.

OK! Now I really don’t know what to say!

Apparently this morning was only the warm up. This was the really exciting place.

Ready for it……120,000 breeding pairs…plus a chick (or two) each! So up to 350,000 King Penguins on the beach, the slopes and up the hills. And thousands of young Fur Seals. And 100’s of Elephant Seals. This is the beach that David Attenborough is often seen on!

UNBELIEVABLE!
SPECTACULAR!
FUNNY!
EXCITING!

So much! So many! So amazing! 

So all of the same as this morning. Just multiplied.



The landing was even more exciting. The beach had a really steep drop off. So in would come the boat and spin around and back in. The team, with Jonathon in the lead would grab it. Jonathon was in a dry suit and was in water well up to his armpits. Suddenly this face would appear at the front of the Zodiac in the huge swell. Such a well rehearsed procedure.

We walked about 1km up the beach, across two glacial streams – only about 400 to 500 mls deep but very rocky and very strong current. The water was straight off the glacier and looked like milk. I was clever! I got an expedition staff to lean on as I crossed. A few people did stumble and one did go down and have a bit if a dip.

Then up a slope where we could see the whole scene. Cannot describe it without photos – but it was King Penguins as far as you could see. A bit like monochrome fairy bread.

On the far side of the creeks the young fur seals were fairly aggressive. Sweet little cut things, bigger then Labradors – who would then come running at you and barking. They would grunt and gnash their teeth.



You had to stamp and clap or bang stones at them. A few times they did get a very large camera lens in their cranky little faces. Kind of funny…but I would not be walking on that beach in November when it was covered with breeding, aggressive 1000 kg adults.




Mother seals have their cubs and feed them their rich, 50% fat milk. They double their weight in the first 10 days. Then Mum says "I'm off fishing. See you in 7-10 days". So the areas are covered in hungry, lonely seal cubs.

Elephant seals were lying around molting.


  
After another three hours of walking and staring we hopped back into a Zodiac. The poor team were still in and out of the deep rough water getting us in. We went for a cruise before going back to the ship. Just in case we hadn’t quiet got the concept of how many King Penguins there were. So many.

Penguins were in the water fishing, they were riding the waves in big mobs for protection from the ever-lurking Leopard seals. Then deeper out they were rocketing through the water and porpoising

like champions. These hilarious clumsy, slow, shuffling guys on land were like underwater bullets. Amazing.

We saw seals surfing and really riding waves, penguins having fun bobbing around in the surf, elephant seals blobbing around in the current where the very strong little stream flowed into the surf.

Of course the always entertaining seals (when they are not charging you) were playing in the water – rolling, leaping and riding waves.

Then back to the ship. Docking at the marina was easy. Just a slow gentle roll!

WHAT A DAY! This journey has been worth it JUST FOR THIS DAY. People tell you that you must go to South Georgia. But you cannot comprehend how amazing it is. Here I was heard to say that if I was to be struck down there and then I would go happy. The sense of ......... amazement, joy, fulfilment etc was so powerful.
To be privileged enough to be able to come to this place, to experience such wonder was almost overpowering. I'm sure I was not the only one that had tears of joy at the wonder of this place.

I slept well tonight! And probably dreamt of King Penguins.

29^th Feb, Grytviken, South Georgia.
54°16,9’S      36°30,1’W

Today we went to Grytviken (Grit vi ken), the old whaling centre of South Georgia and now the capital – probably as it is the only inhabited part. The island only had summer residents. They all go away for the winter. In the summer they run the Museum, the post office and of course the gift shop. There is a Governor who runs the place and the people who care for the environment.


The place was heavily infested with rats, mice, pigs, reindeer, cats and heaps of plants introduced by the whaling community.

South Georgia has no trees or even shrubs. Nothing. Just mosses and soft ground covers, and the tussocks. Therefore ALL birds nest on the ground or in burrows. Perfect for rats. Walk up and have a feed. A few species including the Pipit, the Pintailed Duck and the Royal Albatross were on the edge of extinction. There was also a huge weed problem.

Glaciers divide the island into sections. The feral pests could not cross between sections.
The rules here are like the rest of Antarctica – no food of any kind off the ship, vacuuming clothing, scrubbing boots etc. But here an inspector came onto the ship and looked at every single boot that was going off.


Grytviken is in a huge sheltered bay and was like a lake. When the Europeans first arrived there were whales everywhere. For the first few years they didn’t even have to leave the bay to go whale killing. But they soon fixed that!

We had a very short zodiac trip then walked around for three hours. When the whalers left they thought they were just leaving for one season, but the industry never re-started. So all the equipment was left.

The place is stunning. Huge rugged rocky hills coved in the bright green vegetation. Blue sky and a massive amount of rusted building, boats, oil tanks, machinery, chains …….. As you can imagine I was in heaven with the colours.

Fur seals. Baby fur seals everywhere. The mothers leave them to go hunting. They go for up to 10 days. So there are groups of young ranging from tiny – like cocker spaniels to bigger ones. Everywhere. So cute.




There was a really blond one. So very cute. Very young and adorable. If I bring a fur seal home it will be this one. It had the normal huge eyes but this one had brown eyes not super dark eyes.
And Elephant Seals. Just lying there waiting for their new warm, waterproof coats. 

There was a yacht tied up at the only jetty in town so I went to have a chat. It was a NZ couple that have been sailing the world for years. I was invited on board and went for a visit. Linda, was so excited to have women to chat to. They are on their way to Cape Town - once they fix the hole where they hit rocks. She was very glad that the yacht didn’t sink. They thought it was going to. They patched it with nailed on tin and calking and limped into port. So now there were having some time in Grytviken. 



We went and visited Shakleton’s grave.




Kay, one of my new friends, was widowed a few years ago. Her husband was a Shackleton freak. They were always planning this trip. That is why she came. So today was the day she was hanging out for. We went to his grave and she scattered some of her husband’s ashes there.
It was lovely and meant so much to her. More tears were had.




The museum had a great collection of artefacts. The boat that Shackleton and three others sailed from Elephant Island in, is ridiculously small. What remarkable men, that they were able to sail a dingy and navigate across some of the worst waters in the world. Lucky they made a deck to keep out some of the weather! And water!

The church as lovely! The 1900's library was still in tact - with borrowing cards. We got to ring the bell.

There were people out weed spraying.

As for the rats…score one to the humans. They have been carrying out a massive rat eradication program. Involving the development of a pellet that rats cannot resist. The rats take the pellet to their nests and eat it there. Then they die in the nest thus reducing the risk of ‘secondary kills’ of scavengers. The pellets were spread by helicopter with big spinner buckets. It has taken years (well summers) but has been the most successful eradication program in the world. They also had to hand spread in every cave, building, old machinery and whatever on the island.

This was possible due to the glaciers. It is impossible for the rats to cross them so the natural boundaries have allowed this it happen.

The humans have nearly won. They are so close.

This is all being run by the South Georgian Heritage Trust, a group run out of Scotland. They are in the final stages of beating the rat and as a fund raiser I sponsored a hectare of South Georgia. I want those rats gone! As I said “I cannot afford to buy in, but the world cannot afford for me not to!” This is THE most important place for southern sea birds in the world.

The Pipit has already started to breed its way back. They have an amazing photo taken on the last day of aerial spraying. On the last day they were loading the helicopters back onto the ship to return. A Pipit landed on the ship ropes and sat and sang its song as if in thanks. Pipits had not been seen in that particular area for many years.

We spent so much time just wandering and looking. So nice. And the Governor processed our visit and stamped our passports He came on board with an inspector who checked that our shoes were clean.

They are mean to me on this trip!

I came in from three hours of walking around, had lunch and sat down to start working on photos. As I looked out the window there are amazing, massive glaciers. So I have to dress up and race out to look. Stunning. The blue colours in the ice were wonderful.

Then I sat down again and whales were sited – so up to the bridge I go to watch and spot. Humpbacks, a distance away. The Captain spun the ship and off we went, but the whales waved their tails and went deep.

But then we came across mobs of seals out in a hunting party – or maybe just a party from the way they were leaping and diving. Some of them came really close to the ship. The water changed to a turquoise colour and you could see the seals speeding through the water before they broke through in a flash of sparkling bronze.

And then mobs of Macaroni Penguins out hunting. 



Amazing how high they 'fly'.

And then we saw Fin Whales. Amazing creatures.

So mean! Do they know we want a little rest before the next activity! How will I ever get my photos sorted!

29th Feb, Fortuna Bay, South Georgia     54°08,1’S    36°48,0’W

The afternoon excursion was to Fortuna Bay. Another amazing spot. Unbelievably pretty. It was a rocky black beach. Behind it was hundreds of hectares of flat grass. Creeks ran through it. Thin creeks. Some only 300mm wide and 500 deep. Around them were the most beautiful mosses and bogs. Running behind most of the ‘green’ (as it looked like a golf course) were huge bare mountains.

The tree line – or should I say vegetation line, was only a few hundred meters high. There were also big craggy out crops of rock. So beautiful. To the other side was a giant glacier. And to top it off we got a blue sky – again!

You get to choose where your one hectare of sponsored land was. This is it. Right here at Fortuna Bay. This is where I chose.

There were so many seal pups waiting for mum on this beach and the surrounding area. Thousands of baby seals ranging in size from fat Jack Russell’s, to Cocker Spaniels, and Labradors. Many just lay there sleeping, others yelled. Some were quite aggressive. Others just thought they were aggressive. A clap sent them running. It was fun to watch the people that were terrifies of them. LOL.

Walking along we saw another white seal. This was a really young guy who was very funny.



After a while it went and lay in the creek and would look up then puts its head under water so that it’s eyes were covered. Very funny.

She was hiding from us! Why do I say she? 'cause she was so dammed cute - had to be a girl.

There were also many Mums back from sea and nursing their babies. So fantastic.

About 2 ks down the beach we 'rock clambered' up to the hill where we were going for the view. There were tens of thousands of Kings in front of a glacier. Dammed impressive. It was amazing.

It is hard to comprehend the sheer numbers. Your eyes had trouble focusing on an individual. You can see why animals herd to confuse predators.

And of course there were tens of thousands scattered all over the place doing their penguin things. 

We saw a clutch of Pintail chicks with their parents. Pintails are a native duck from South Georgia. They were almost wiped out by the rats and by seeing chicks they (the environmentalist) know the rats are gone! Yay for my rat free area. 'Cause remember - I own (the rat eradication sponsorship) on this area!

We finally dragged ourselves back to the zodiac, after another three hours of walking around, and sat for a while watching the tiny seals 'attack' us.  They would bounce around in a group then lunge at us. It wasn't too bad. They were like Cocker Spaniels. I was back on the ship by around 7.30pm. 

That night the ship sat in the bay for a long time as it was a short trip to the next stop. The noise coming from Fortuna Beach was amazing. Barking and yelling seals, and singing penguins. Thousands of tiny hungry seal pups waiting for their mothers to come and feed them. But at least they do better then the Elephant Seal pup. At about four weeks of age the mother just doesn't come back. They have been weaned!

Got back to the ship so exhausted. Tired, happy but shattered to leave.

What a sensational day! AGAIN! South Georgia is like the Serengeti of the cold. It is amazing. SO MUCH WILDLIFE! But the landscape at Fortuna Bay was so stunning. 

That night we were sitting around in The Club talking about it. I said "how will we explain this to people? What will we say?"

Chris from London said "Tell them to sell a kidney if that's what they need to do to get here".

And you know what? She was right.

This place was powerful. It was so everything....stimulating, pleasing, spiritual. Mind blowing!

1st March, Prion Island, South Georgia.   54°00,1’S      37°06,2’W

We were allowed to sleep in until 7 this morning. Then a double trip.

First part was to Prion Island – an albatross breeding area. And another stunning place.

The beach was covered in young Elephant seals and seal pups rushing around looking for mum and snapping at up. And of course penguins.

The island is restricted to only 50 people at a time so we split into two groups. One group went for a zodiac cruise, we went to the island. Then a change over.

We walked up a boardwalk. This was the only place we landed with any facilities such as the boardwalk, as it is such a sensitive place and the albatross are endangered. The walk goes up a fairly steep hill and has a few observation platforms near the nests.

Occasionally we met a seal block, where a seal was walking or just sitting enjoying the view, on the boardwalk. We just had to wait for it to move on. We were invading their home after all.

At the top of the large hill was the rookery - Wandering Albatross. You hear about the albatross having the three metre wing span, and you see it when they fly…but to see them sitting on nest, incubating their giant chicks, you really see their size.

These giant birds, build a ‘basket’ nest, lay their eggs in it in January and then sit on them until November. The sit on a hill side in the Sub Antarctic weather. They get covered in snow and as their nests are on the hill slopes, the wind blasts up onto them. Such a Catch 22 – only huge strong birds would be able to withstand that weather, but huge strong chicks take a lot longer to grow, so the parents have to withstand the conditions.

The hill is covered in the sub Antarctic tussocks. They are beautiful. Long thing leaves about a cm wide. They grown out of a buttress type thing. They would be an awesome garden plant. The buttress is not unlike the baskets you get to put ferns in – a dense thatch matting type material. And then the leaves spill down like a ground cover. The hills are covered with them.

And of course they are covered in seals. Way up high – seals everywhere. They often sit on top of the tussocks and give them a flat top. Talk about a room with a view. There are also large patches of a beautiful moss.

The further north we went, the later the breeding cycles are. The seal pups get smaller and the penguins are later in their molt. Today we saw molting penguins who appear to stand still and watch their feathers fall out. There are patches on the ground, about 300 by 600 that are a thick pile of feathers.

A tiny pup ran through a pile and looked like it had been tar and feathered. Cute.

We eventually had to tear ourselves away and hop into the zodiacs for a cruise. It was amazing too. Prion Island is in a sheltered bay. The water was like glass. And the colours where are so vibrant. Maybe it’s the super clean air…maybe it’s because we went for 10 days without the colour green… but it was stunning. And then the rocks have heaps of orange in them. That and the water was very turquoise. Everything looked amazing.

We went out through a kelp bed where he had to pick a path.

On the rocks we saw Pipits. This island is one of the few that rats didn’t get into, so the breeding stock here has been repopulating the whole of South Georgia as they spread back to other areas. The Birders were pretty excited!

Then further out past amazing cliffs and rocky outcrops.

We went around an island and into a channel with huge kelp beds. This kelp makes our big stuff look tiny. In the area around the shore it was about 20 m long and so thick. It was also in a really dense growth pattern and looked sensational in surging water. In some places it was wound into a huge ball. Others were like intricate art works as the waves went back. For about 20 minutes we had to lift the motor and paddle. So lovely. Now I had the added excitement of the lichen all over the rocks. Again I was nearly busting with excitement at the beauty of this place.

This really was a magic spot.

We saw more Pipits, a Cormorant rookery with (big) babies being fed. Sooty and Wandering Albatross. Seals and more seals. Leaping penguins.

Some of the kelp beds were huge. We had to lift the prop and paddle through. Fun.   



Flipper decided it would be a good time to catch up on some sleep.

It was then back to the ship - the last zodiac AGAIN! We made all six of our planned excursions. Pretty flash! The weather has been magical. So has everything. Now time to leave South Georgia. How lucky was I to have been to this magical place.

We set sail but still had to keep rushing out to look as we passed huge glaciers and more spectacular scenery.

2nd March,  At Sea.       

53°49,7’S       38°11,5’W

Oh South Georgia – I do love you and miss you. You are amazing! And I am so happy that I bought into the rat program so that others can see this in the coming years.

Again I say how mean they are on this trip. In the afternoon I spent some time working on my photos. When I finished, I put the computer down, snuggled up and started to have a nap. Crackle goes the PA. ”Whales at 11 o’clock.”

So of course off I went. Fin whales. A pod of 4. So wonderful. And a few humpbacks off in the distance. There were also Albatross. And many groups of penguins out fishing. Huge mobs of the elusive Macaroni. They are so cute with their little yellow hairdo’s flashing as they dived. There must have been a lot of fish out there as there were so many mobs of penguins, many seals and heaps of birds.

Time for a cup of tea in the lounge. And three, two, one..............Flipper came rushing in, then out onto the deck. Must have been good to get Flipper all excited and running, so I ran for a coat and the big camera in time for ……………Ahhhhhhh. Only 6 people went out and saw it.........

          A BLUE Whale!

Yes, I know. This photo could be two logs floating along. But it's not! Promise.

It's BLUE WHALEs. 

In fact it was

 a mother and calf! I didn't get much of a look at the calf - but the mother was so long. All I could think of was that she looked like a cigar, a torpedo. And she was a lighter grey than the other wales we had seen. Not blue - but a light bluish grey.

Apparently the National Geographic ship had radioed across that they were tracking a mother and calf Blue, and they were heading our way. And then there she was. They didn't put a call out on our ship as she was to far away then dived. So only the six of us saw her. For about to minutes.

The largest animal ever to have lived. Back from the brink of extinction, but still highly endangered. They can be up to 33 metres long and 200 ton. An African Elephant is 6 ton! Their heart is the size of a small car and a child can crawl through their arteries.

AND I SAW THEM! I am the luckiest person! I have seen Blue Whales!

3rd March, At Sea, South Atlantic Ocean.      

53°06,8’S     44°46,4’W

This morning I leant that the super over pants I wear are not so super without thermals underneath. They are waterproof and padded but not thermal. An early morning call for ‘Hourglass Dolphins’ outside. As I was still in PJs, so I just put on my over pants and jacket and ran out. I was not freezing…but I now really know how efficient thermal pants are. LOL.

Hourglass Dolphins are only tiny, up to 1.8 metres long and very rare. They live between Antarctica and about 45 degrees south and never in water warmer then 13 degrees.

Underwater they flash their colours and look amazing. So pretty with their snub little noses.

They are very rarely seen - so again - how lucky was I.  Worth freezing for!

Today was a lovely relaxing day. A few lectures on The Ozone Layer and one on Climate Change. And lots of relaxing and playing cards. Much fun. Much laughing.

We had a charity auction that night to ‘kill the rat’ at South Georgia.

I bought the ships flag. I didn't mean to buy the flag - but when I saw it I decided that I wanted it. The one that was flying on the ship this cruise! I have taken many photos of it flapping at the front of the ship. The staff will all sign it when we bring it in! How exciting. Great memento.

The price I paid bought another hectare of land in the Rat Eradication program. I was happy.

The Atlantic Ocean and the ‘Furious Fifties” were very kind to us. The seas were only about 4 metres.

4th March, At Sea, South Atlantic Ocean.       

54°58,9´S       66°50,6´W

Big seas last night. Only about 6 metres. It was great timing as everyone was in bed and could enjoy it. Well, many of us enjoyed it. Many didn’t.

It did feel like you were falling out of bed a few times – but as your bed is moving with you it must be an illusion. When lying in bed it feels like you are being moved in a big circle of about 2 metres. I loved it. Although it did wake me up.

One of the German ladies really didn't like it. She got up and packed a bag to be ready for the abandon ship call. She was sure the ship was going down. She was a bit sad when we told her told that you don’t get to bring a bag on the lifeboats.

Another person fell out of bed. Yep - a small ship is a lot rougher then a huge ship.

We then had another lovely quiet day relaxing, laughing and looking at the fog.

Next stop is Port Stanley in the Falklands. Very touchy subject... what to call it..... I will call it Falklands as we are in British territory – When back in Argentina I will call it Malvinas - or I might get mugged.

NOW CLICK ON THE MALVINA'S TAB