Day 10 - Monday 30th December

Slightly more movement as we spent the night holding station outside St Andrews Bay and still some strong gusts – Linda still sleeping well with the vessel movement.

The Captain attempted an early entry (0430) to Royal Bay but the wind was gusting to 60kts with little shelter from wind or growing swell so we moved on to Gold Bay –where it was still mild - around 10C with a  30kt wind  – another lively zodiac landing – lots of water over the bow and an impressive surf landing - the zodiac drivers did an amazing job.

Elephant seal pups

Chinstrap Penguins

Gentoo Penguin swimming

King Penguins

Another large King Penguin colony with the large numbers of Fur Seals, Gentoo Penguins, Elephant Seal pups, also Brown Skua, Giant Petrels, Sheathbills and S Georgia Pintail ducks.

S. Georgia Pintail

Giant Petrel feasting on Seal Cub as Brown Skuas wait their turn

After lunch, move to Cooper Bay for Zodiac cruise where we saw Humpback whales, Macaroni penguins, Gentoos, Chinstrap, fur seals, white chinned petrels, light mantled sooty albatross.

Macaroni Penguins

While they stopped to watch us as we passed by, they soon resumed their endless bickering - probably the most aggressive of all the penguins amongst themselves.

There was also a large breeding colony of Magellanic penguins on Cooper Island but it was in a conservation area which was off limits.

As we departed from the Cooper Bay and rounded the southern tip of South Georgia, we were steaming into some bigger swells and stronger winds – with a substantial ‘wind event’ identified by our Expedition Leader at our pre-dinner Recap and Briefing. However, the Captain had chosen to sail around the edge of the weather which may mean a change to our itinerary.

As we sat down to dinner the vessel began to move quite a lot more with the result that the room almost emptied withing a few minutes – excluding the 6 people at our table. There were only about 60 people left after the exodus.

While we have seen a good number of good size ice bergs as we have made our way along the eastern side of South Georgia, we are now beginning to see some enormous tabular bergs which are truly impressive.

It was a bit of a bumpy night with the vessel steaming slowly in misty conditions on the lookout for icebergs. Great corkscrew motion for some of the time.