Day 7 - Friday 27th December

Arriving at South Georgia, we had to bypass our intended landing at Church Bay because of 40kt winds and a heavy swell but it was much calmer as we arrived in the Bay of Isles – sheltered from the winds but hidden from view by the mist and fog. 

Woke early and managed a gym session before breakfast as we anchored in Rosita Bay, where we had a Zodiac cruise around the bay.

Good number of fur seals, with the occasional lone King Penguin, an elephant seal weaner or two and quite a few Northern and Southern Great Petrels.

Even saw a leucistic (white) Southern Great Petrel which is quite unusual.

Male Fur Seal - beachmaster

Fur Seal Pups

Fur Seals

Elephant seal weaner

While we were having lunch, we steamed across the bay to Salisbury Plain where we had a short Zodiac cruise and then a surf landing so that we could walk up to the huge King Penguin and Fur Seal colonies.

Astounding number of penguins in the main colony and a very healthy population of Fur Seals, considering they were almost wiped out in the early part of the 20^th century.

While our surf landing had been relatively dry, we were both at the bow as we came off the beach and got very wet. This is when I discovered that my waterproof trousers were no longer 100% waterproof – thankfully they had replacements in the shop on board.