Drygalski Fjord, South Georgia Island
This afternoon we arrived off Cape Disappointment, the southern tip of South Georgia. Although the island was probably first sighted by a merchant ship blown far off course in the late 1600’s, it was truly explored and charted by the redoubtable Captain James Cook. Towards the end of his second great voyage of discovery in 1775, Cook found South Georgia after circumnavigating Antarctica without ever seeing the continent. South Georgia, with it’s lofty peaks and huge glaciers, certainly looked continental to Cook, and for a few days he thought he may have discovered the mythical southern continent. However, after coasting along for a week, he arrived back at his starting point, realizing that this land was an island. His disappointment at not finding a continent but rather an island of only 70 miles in length engendered the Cape’s name.
Late this afternoon we came close to shore and despite strong winds had a look into Cooper Bay, just inshore from Cooper Island. Here we were surrounded by a profusion of life – flocks of Macaroni penguins swarmed around the ship whilst hundreds of Fur seals cavorted in the water. On leaving Cooper Bay we sailed up a long finger of water, Drygalski Fjord. As with all features here at South Georgia, this is an ice-carved valley, and looking at the walls in the fading evening light we could see the scoured aspect of the ice-sculpted rock. Flocks of terns, pintado petrels and storm-petrels fed just at the ice face, while pieces of ice continually fell from several hanging glaciers on either side. Pictured here is one of the hanging glaciers with it’s unusual and dramatic shapes – ice so dense that it is able to stand in unbelievably narrow slices and crazily tilted angles. A dramatic introduction to this exceptional sub-Antarctic island.
This afternoon we arrived off Cape Disappointment, the southern tip of South Georgia. Although the island was probably first sighted by a merchant ship blown far off course in the late 1600’s, it was truly explored and charted by the redoubtable Captain James Cook. Towards the end of his second great voyage of discovery in 1775, Cook found South Georgia after circumnavigating Antarctica without ever seeing the continent. South Georgia, with it’s lofty peaks and huge glaciers, certainly looked continental to Cook, and for a few days he thought he may have discovered the mythical southern continent. However, after coasting along for a week, he arrived back at his starting point, realizing that this land was an island. His disappointment at not finding a continent but rather an island of only 70 miles in length engendered the Cape’s name.
Late this afternoon we came close to shore and despite strong winds had a look into Cooper Bay, just inshore from Cooper Island. Here we were surrounded by a profusion of life – flocks of Macaroni penguins swarmed around the ship whilst hundreds of Fur seals cavorted in the water. On leaving Cooper Bay we sailed up a long finger of water, Drygalski Fjord. As with all features here at South Georgia, this is an ice-carved valley, and looking at the walls in the fading evening light we could see the scoured aspect of the ice-sculpted rock. Flocks of terns, pintado petrels and storm-petrels fed just at the ice face, while pieces of ice continually fell from several hanging glaciers on either side. Pictured here is one of the hanging glaciers with it’s unusual and dramatic shapes – ice so dense that it is able to stand in unbelievably narrow slices and crazily tilted angles. A dramatic introduction to this exceptional sub-Antarctic island.
