Feb. 8

February 8, Cumberland Bay, South Georgia
Where to begin?
First with a correction. I think I mentioned that we would be seeing sea lions. Wrong. It should have been elephant seals.
Once again, we’ve cast off our role as tourists and become part of an expeditionary force.
We’re about to embark on a once-in-a-lifetime experience (unless you’re a scientist you will probably never get to South Georgia.) Here’s what we’ve been told in our daily program.
Required: A sense of adventure!
This is not a “port of call” in any traditional definition of the word. You are about to experience an “expedition” call on South Georgia. Grytviken is not “improved” nor does it have terribly friendly terrain. MANY hours have been invested, both here on the ship and on the island to prepare for our arrival. It is, however, the inevitable “unknown factor”….what we cannot foresee….whether it is weather, wildlife or other force of nature that can affect these plans.
Our tender operations will not be business as usual. FLEXIBILITY is the name of the game. Everyone who wishes to and is able will go ashore. Be realistic about your abilities.
Combine that with the instructions we received a day or two ago and we were wondering what we were in for.
We started off by seeing ice bergs ----large ones. Then seals swimming past the ship. And then we sailed into Cumberland Bay---probably one of the most beautiful, awesome, desolate places we’ve seen. No trees, just cliffs of ice and rock, fields of tussock grass, a tiny, white, quaint church, abandoned, rusted fuel tanks and equipment, and rotting piers and derelict half sunken ships.
And PENGUINS, AND FUR SEALS AND ELEPHANT SEALS. It was impossible to stay the requisite five years from the penguins and seals as they littered the beach, slopes and rough path. As we approached the small cemetery on the hill, the smell from the elephant seals greeted us. And what a smell! I’ll leave it to your imagination as to what caused the smell.
It is molting season so the penguins and seals are quite lethargic. We were happy for this for when they opened their mouths to yawn their teeth were very, very big.
And pointy. And sharp.
We were extremely lucky. The weather cooperated and instead of snow, wind, rain or extremely cold temperatures, we had a little wind, partial sun and temperatures above freezing., Our fluffy fleece jackets from Holland America were almost too much. We ended up taking off the gloves in order to take pictures and our hands were quite comfortable.
I’ll let the pictures tell the story. Whenever and however I can get them posted
The whaling station at Grytviken is no longer. It has been allowed to blow away, rust away and crumble. Slowly the storage tanks are being drained, metal roofs have been removed due to the danger of them flying off, and the rest of the place left to revert back to nature. Of course, it never will. The only people there are a dozen or so scientists who lead a very cold, lonely existence.
Only the captain can say Grytviken like he isn’t struggling. But after all, he’s Norweigan. Phonetically its Grits veek en.
Sir Ernest Shackleton’s epic journey took on new meaning when we saw the rugged, unforgiving mountains he crossed in his final effort to rescue his men. We’ve been reading many of numerous books on his ill-fated expedition. Most have astonishing photographs taken by a member of the crew. I found a very small volume in the library here called Escape from the Antarctic by Ernest Shackleton. It is published by Penguin Books and is an excerpt from South, the Endurance Expedition. It takes about an hour to read and I highly recommend it. Hopefully, you will be able to visualize the terrain and terrible seas.
Here’s a bit from the book I liked. It sounds like Shackleton had a sense of humor, even under conditions that would make most of us just curl up and hope to die.
When the James Caird (the small boat they hoped to sail to South
Georgia) was afloat in the surf she nearly capsized among the rocks
before we could get her clear, and Vincent and the carpenter, who
were on the deck, were thrown into the water. This was really bad luck,
for the two men would have small chance of drying their clothes
before we got under way. Hurley, who had the eye of the professional
photographer for “incidents” secured a picture of the upset, and I
firmly believe he would have liked the two unfortunate men to remain
in the water until he could get a “snap” at close quarters; but we
hauled them out immediately, regardless of his feelings.

As we were leaving Grytviken, I looked down and there was Alan unknowingly breaking the law. (Did I mention that we had to sign a form saying that we had read the rules and would abide by them?) Sometime during his trek through the grass his sneakers and socks had picked up some type of large round burrs. Fortunately we noticed them and he was able to pick and scrap them off.
While Alan was de-burring we noticed two members of the medical staff sitting on the dock beside medical bags and stacks of emergency food supplies. It was a strange assortment-----bottles of water (I can understand that) but dozens of large cans of peanuts, cases of Twix bars, cans of pear halves and things we couldn’t figure out? If the picture gets posted, take note of the Publix bag.
We now begin a week of sailing into Antarctica.