Towards South Georgia

Today, Friday 21^st December is a quiet day at sea as we are making for South Georgia.  However there are preparations to be made.  Everyone had to attend a briefing on the IAATO rules and regulations for making landings on South Georgia and other parts of Antarctica.  IAATO is the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators and they have to work within very strict guidelines to ensure that the region stays pristine and unspoilt.

All of our outerwear has to be thoroughly cleaned.  The boots will be disinfected and we have to hoover our backpacks, trousers and jackets – so no escaping from housework!  This is to ensure that no seeds or dirt that may have stuck to us in other places are dropped on Antarctica.

We have been bird watching from the deck – us and one other chap, an Irishman called Oscar who is really devoted to his birding; he is out there every hour of the day.  He is very knowledgeable and helpful – so we know that we saw:

Cape petrel - photo taken from ship...

Black browed albatross - picture taken on land at New Island (Falklands)

Great southern petrel
Wilson’s storm petrel
Black bellied storm petrel
Giant shearwater
Antarctic prionWhite chinned petrel
Soft plumaged petrel

We also had the chance to visit the Captain on the bridge and to find out a bit about how the ship works – needless to say there is an automatic pilot and lots of very hi-tech equipment.  But it was also nice to see traditional charts with dividers, pencils and compasses sitting on them.

Once again we have been blessed with a fairly calm sea.  The ship does pitch (that means the front pointy end going up and down…) but there is not much roll because the ship’s stabilisers are being used (these are big wing things that stick out the side to stop it rocking and rolling from side to side).  We have a following westerly wind. However, the Captain has warned us that we are heading for a low pressure system with winds from the south that could reach gale force – something to look forward to then….

On South Georgia we have signed up to take part in a hike “in Shackleton’s footsteps” - if we pass the fitness test, that is. Luckily, the test is a visual one – if we look capable of walking 6km over a hill we are OK.  This follows the path of part of the journey that Sir Ernest Shackleton and his men made following their amazing 800mile journey from Elephant Island where his ship ‘Endurance’ was stuck in the ice in 1914.  I will let Julia take up the story…

“There can be fewer more heroic tales than that of Shackleton setting out with 5 members of his crew in the 22 foot long James Caird (one of the lifeboats on the ‘Endurance’) to row the 800 miles across tumultuous seas from Elephant Island to South Georgia to get help to rescue the remaining 22 crew members left behind.  The journey took 16 days and they faced the most appalling weather conditions in the open boat with almost no water, little food, soaking wet clothes and the ballast of stones and boulders in the bottom of the boat to lie on.  Somehow they made it to South Georgia but landed on the western side – all the whaling stations with men and ships that could rescue the crew stranded at Elephant Island were located on the eastern side at Stromness Bay.  Shackleton then took two men and managed another unbelievable feat crossing the completely unknown mountainous interior of South Georgia.  After 36 hours of non-stop walking (Shackleton’s tiny group had taken no sleeping bags with them so could not afford any rest during this time) they finally walked into the whaling station.  The 3 crew members left the other side of South Georgia were rescued in a few days but it took a further 4 months before Shackleton could rescue the 22 crew members left on Elephant Island in the small tug steamer ‘Yelcho’.  Not one man was lost from the crew of the ‘Endurance’.  I would commend anyone to read Shackleton’s account ‘South’ to get a full appreciation of this remarkable and moving tale.”