2 1/2 Sea Days: Chills-Thrills-Spills

If you feel that this should be skipped as this entry has no wildlife pictures, feel free to! But should you be interested in South Georgia Island’s uniqueness, South Ocean/Scotia Sea storms and/or A23a, stay tuned!

We have been given a few briefings, and our expedition guides are conducting “conversations” throughout the “at-sea” days to educate us on the wonders of our next destination. We have had to watch the first of the following videos and attend the Mandatory South Georgia Briefing (with attendance being taken by crew) in order to visit the South Georgia Islands. As well, any passenger planning on going ashore in this area needs to complete the Biosecurity checks, in which all outer layers, camera bags, hats, gloves, binoculars, and walking sticks need to be inspected and cleaned of any guano, seeds, feathers, and pollen.

Take a look at the mandatory video (excellent viewing anyways) and the other official South Georgia video for more in-depth information.

https://gov.gs/south-georgia-visitors-guide/

https://youtu.be/1cURHd3yDLw?si=NpXPd6AsUkI6zvck

As part of our briefing this morning, Adam updated the weather and seas for the next roughly (literally), 30 hours or so. Although we beat most of the storm (two low-pressure cells converging in the area), we did not entirely beat it to South Georgia. The photos in today’s entry feature some coloured maps from the App Windy, with predictions of wind and waves. We are rocking and rolling pretty steadily at this point with 2-3 meter waves, but winds gusting to 30 knots. All the outside decks have been closed since early morning, and a few salt/pepper shakers and sugar dispensers went off tables at lunch.

Adam indicated that by early hours this morning, we will be entering a new level of waves and wind and can expect by noon tomorrow to have winds of up to 60 knots and waves up to 17 feet. The forecast ended there, although we will not be at South Georgia Island by then. I think it was going to get worse, and he just didn’t want us to think about it because the maps were slowly turning from red to vivid red, and then the chart ended at 60 knots an hour. I’m sure you can keep track of our weather on a weather app of some kind that you may or may not have. Either way, I have my pressure bands on my wrists, patches behind my ears and on the advice of the Captain and crew have taken my seasick pills.

Some of you avid newspaper readers may have been reading, since November, about an iceberg who’s called aA23a (the world‘s largest iceberg) which calved in late November. It promptly got stranded and has been let loose and has been floating in iceberg alley for a while. A23a is roughly twice the size of Greater London, and stands to a height of approximately the same as the Empire State Building. Its present course has it running into the South Georgia Islands within a few weeks. Below you will find two links: one with a current tracker from January 16 and its path traced and predicted by the British Antarctic Survey. The second article is an in-depth look at A23a by the BBC. The reason why I’m even entering this information in this blog is that said iceberg is sitting directly in our path today towards the South Georgia Islands. Somewhere around midnight tonight, we will be taking a detour to avoid the iceberg on our journey to beat the storm. Lindsay has volunteered to set her alarm and wake me, so that I can go out on the deck and take photos to share with you. This may happen or not (from within the safety of a enclosed deck), but as it will be midnight and rough seas, it will be hard to see due to the mist and clouds and lack of sunlight, even though we will be within a couple of kilometers of it.

https://www.bas.ac.uk/media-post/new-animation-…

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/resources/idt-f4de43…

Finally, a little bit about how we’ve spent the last two days at sea. Eating is the focal point of the day. When are we going to have breakfast? Where to go for lunch? When, where and with whom for dinner? But in between these difficult decisions, we are faced with many are options? Here is a very quick outline:

Yesterday I opted to start my day with a workout and laundry before breakfast, then proceeded to shower, lay around for a bit, and then go to lunch, followed immediately by team trivia where I had to duck out and have Simon substitute for me as I had scheduled a massage. After my massage, I came back to the room, had a little Netflix bingeing of Lincoln. Lawyer, followed by dinner in the colonnade, and then back to the room after a lovely hour-long concert by Lupi, our cruise director, who is a trained opera singer. He did a wonderful rendition of Pavarotti and Andrea Bocelli songs. We then came back to the room for a one more episode of Lincoln Lawyer, and Lindsay‘s nephew called for a wee chat. So despite “not having anyting to do”, we didn’t get to sleep again until midnight.

Today was another busy day that started with breakfast and I then took a walk indoors as all the outer door decks are closed. I walked every deck back-and-forth three or four times and did the stairs to get in an hour-long walk. That was followed by a quick shower, then off down to the mandatory briefing, which was quickly followed by Team trivia, then off to get a facial, then a quick lunch. Finishing off early afternoon, back to the cabin and then to the bridge to do a bridge tour (which Lindsay had already done) and now I’m catching up on my blogging but in a mere hour, we need to be changed into our fancies and go to a cocktail party. Then it’ll be dinner and finally it’s a dance party to end the evening. OH, Lindsay won a penguin (stuffed) when she was the champion of the cornhole (as it’s called in the United States and beanbag toss in Canada) Yay, Lindsay! Czytaj więcej