Fortuna Bay, South Georgia
Our last day in South Georgia began with a bump, a roll, and a few rattles as well. The seas and weather began flexing their muscle during the night as if to make sure that we didn’t leave the Southern Ocean thinking all those stories about its tempestuous nature were untrue. The winds were approaching fifty knots and pushing the sea swells well above the height we’d like for landing operations at our proposed destination. So in the early morning hours, the bridge held a meeting with our expedition leader in order to formulate plan B for the day. Luckily, when traveling in South Georgian waters, plan B is often just as good as (and sometimes even better than) plan A; as we would soon find out after landing in Fortuna Bay.
Now for those of you following at home, yes, we had already landed at Fortuna earlier in the trip. However, those of us that landed the first time only used the bay as a starting point for our traverse of the latter part of Shackleton’s famous trek. This time, we were intent on exploring the bay a little more intensively.
Even before we anchored, we found an enormous three-pronged iceberg grinding against the beachhead in the heavy surf. Swimming all around the berg were young fur seals and curious king penguins, but the real treats revealed themselves only once we had set foot on shore.
Though the breeding season has passed for the gigantic southern elephant seal, we found two large males had returned to the beach in order to go through their annual molt. Ironically, they were hauled out just a few meters from a small cave used by sealers a century ago as a base for hunting both the huge elephant seals and the Antarctic fur seals. The fur seals were around too, mostly mothers with this year’s pups but also some juveniles from previous years’ breeding.
Not far from the seal cave a few adventurous people scrambled up the tussock-covered slope to find a light-mantled sooty albatross nest occupied by a chick of the year and one of the parents as the other glided by over head. And still further away from the cave and closer to the rapidly receding glacier, hikers managed to find their way up to our last king penguin colony. However, along the way we were surrounded by a large number of the introduced reindeer. These reindeer, like us, were brought down by ship. However, the arrived some 80 years before us and have found the lush glacial meadows very much to their liking and have become quite relaxed in the absence of predators like wolves and bears. While they busily went about fattening up for the fast approaching winter, we were afforded some extremely close-up views of these ancient and resilient animals.
Finally, we somewhat reluctantly turned back to the ship and put South Georgia behind us as we sailed north. And though we are obviously very excited and eager for the remaining islands along our journey, our time here in the sub-Antarctic has left a lasting impression in our hearts and minds and we feel extremely fortunate to have experienced such a wildlife cornucopia.
Our last day in South Georgia began with a bump, a roll, and a few rattles as well. The seas and weather began flexing their muscle during the night as if to make sure that we didn’t leave the Southern Ocean thinking all those stories about its tempestuous nature were untrue. The winds were approaching fifty knots and pushing the sea swells well above the height we’d like for landing operations at our proposed destination. So in the early morning hours, the bridge held a meeting with our expedition leader in order to formulate plan B for the day. Luckily, when traveling in South Georgian waters, plan B is often just as good as (and sometimes even better than) plan A; as we would soon find out after landing in Fortuna Bay.
Now for those of you following at home, yes, we had already landed at Fortuna earlier in the trip. However, those of us that landed the first time only used the bay as a starting point for our traverse of the latter part of Shackleton’s famous trek. This time, we were intent on exploring the bay a little more intensively.
Even before we anchored, we found an enormous three-pronged iceberg grinding against the beachhead in the heavy surf. Swimming all around the berg were young fur seals and curious king penguins, but the real treats revealed themselves only once we had set foot on shore.
Though the breeding season has passed for the gigantic southern elephant seal, we found two large males had returned to the beach in order to go through their annual molt. Ironically, they were hauled out just a few meters from a small cave used by sealers a century ago as a base for hunting both the huge elephant seals and the Antarctic fur seals. The fur seals were around too, mostly mothers with this year’s pups but also some juveniles from previous years’ breeding.
Not far from the seal cave a few adventurous people scrambled up the tussock-covered slope to find a light-mantled sooty albatross nest occupied by a chick of the year and one of the parents as the other glided by over head. And still further away from the cave and closer to the rapidly receding glacier, hikers managed to find their way up to our last king penguin colony. However, along the way we were surrounded by a large number of the introduced reindeer. These reindeer, like us, were brought down by ship. However, the arrived some 80 years before us and have found the lush glacial meadows very much to their liking and have become quite relaxed in the absence of predators like wolves and bears. While they busily went about fattening up for the fast approaching winter, we were afforded some extremely close-up views of these ancient and resilient animals.
Finally, we somewhat reluctantly turned back to the ship and put South Georgia behind us as we sailed north. And though we are obviously very excited and eager for the remaining islands along our journey, our time here in the sub-Antarctic has left a lasting impression in our hearts and minds and we feel extremely fortunate to have experienced such a wildlife cornucopia.
