Live from the Wind(s) of Antarctica. Dec. 19, 2023.

[CardowMD]

What a spectacular photo with the penguins in the foreground and ship in the misty background! That is a cover shot! Thank you for sharing!

[twangster]

It's a Leopard seal and it's hunting.

 

 

 

 

 

Leopard seals eat King penguins and this seal is not going away hungry today.  It's got one.

 

 

Andrew tells us this is pretty rare here.  Something he might see twice a season.

 

 

 

 

 

They grow up to 3m long.

 

 

 

 

 

While a King penguin didn't survive the day, this is nature and it's all part of the food chain.

 

 

Wow.  Pretty cool.

[twangster]

Off to the main beach.

 

 

What a gorgeous day!

 

 

 

King penguins wall to wall.

 

 

 

 

 

Some elephant seals taking a break.

 

 

 

Andrew thinks this may be the beach master.

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

It's difficult to capture in photos the shear numbers.

 

 

 

 

Fur seals coming ashore.

 

 

It's a penguin pool party!

 

 

 

[twangster]

After an hour or so it was time to head back to the ship.

 

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

Kayaker's had another outing today.

 

 

 

 

 

The rest of the zodiac fleet coming home.

 

 

[twangster]

As we began our departure from St Andrews Bay I was given a view towards the sea from my suite.  You can't see it very well in the photo but the horizon is littered with icebergs.

 

 

I'm so glad I upgraded to a balcony suite for this sailing.  Not a bad place to post this thread from.

 

 

 

 

 

 

We had an escort out of St Andrews Bay.

 

 

More Kings.

 

 

Our progression:

 

[highplanesdrifters]

Truly excellent photos and reporting. Thanks!

[Tothesunset]

It's wonderful to see all those creatures waddling around in their environment and all looking the same. 

 

And the penguins. 

[Port Power]

I thought it might be you in the same zodiac this morning.  It was the camera that gave you away!

 

We were so fortunate to be in the right place at the right time.  My iPhone obviously doesn’t do justice the the scenery, but I did manage one decent shot of the leopard seal.  No comparison, of course.  However, the eyes see much more than a camera can show, and the brain will remember.

 

[twangster]

Our afternoon at Gold Harbor is now complete.  With two sea days coming up I’m taking the night off from this thread.  I will continue with our Gold Harbor visit tomorrow.  
 

More to come…

 

Live as it gets, from the Silver Wind.  
 

Edited December 27, 2023 by twangster

[kgoodman16]

Fabulous photos.  What’s it been like bringing cameras and tripods ashore?  Can you bring camera bags, or do they have dry bags to use?.  Flying down on the 3rd for the departure on the 6th.  Can’t wait.

[kgoodman16]

Oh, did you need to bring a laptop, or were you able to use the computers on the ship to process your shots?  Thanks 

[Fletcher]

1 hour ago, kgoodman16 said:

Oh, did you need to bring a laptop, or were you able to use the computers on the ship to process your shots?  Thanks 

You can see Twangster's laptop in recent photos.   By the way, the first thing I do when getting on a Silversea ship is to ask the butler to remove the single armchair which is always in the way.  

[twangster]

Day Nine continued...  Gold Harbor, South Georgia Island

 

Over the lunch break the ship sailed South along the coast of South Georgia Island.

 

At lunch in The Restaurant I could see the ship approaching the coastline so I headed up to deck 9 forward.

 

 

The weather was great but there was some wind.

 

 

 

 

 

It was all so beautiful...

 

 

 

We passed close by a small iceberg.

 

 

Looking aft I could see the minefield of icebergs we had sailed through.

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

Giant Petrels were soaring around the ship.

 

 

 

These next shots were a challenge to capture.  The wind was so strong outside on deck 9 forward it was hard to hold my camera steady.

 

 

 

 

It felt like a massive chunk of glacier would fall at any moment.

 

 

I could make out large numbers of something on the beach but we were too far to see any detail.

 

 

 

Very different geology here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The wind.  It so strong I could sense the bridge was testing it to see if it would be safe.

 

I didn't think they could lower the zodiacs in this wind and I was all but convinced we would miss our visit so I headed down to my cabin to wait for the announcement.  Then they announced they were sending out a scout.  That gives us some hope.

 

[twangster]

Then the announcement came that we are a go!

 

They called multiple groups including mine first so off I went.

 

 

They shortened the zodiac tours to 60 minutes to make sure everyone could participate in case the weather changed.

 

 

 

 

The wind didn't seem that bad on the surface.

 

 

A decent sized group of elephant seals occupied one end of the beach.

 

 

 

[twangster]

Elephant seals can dive to incredible depths but it tires them out so they head to the beach after a dive to rest and recover.

 

 

 

 

 

Our driver tells us these are likely young males.

 

 

 

 

 

Looking over to the glacial waterfall with a zodiac in the foreground seemed like a nice photo, then a fur seal photobombed it.

 

 

From here we'll cruise over to the main beach.

 

 

There was more evidence of the avian flu present and there were numbers of deceased penguins. 

 

 

It's very sad to see but this is why we can't make landings everywhere.  As much as it's inconvenient for us it's devastating to many species here in South Georgia.  This is the reality of the situation.

 

 

The colony here is estimated to be around 25,000 mating pairs.

 

[twangster]

 

How a penguin enters the water...

 

 

Waddle...

 

 

Waddle...

 

 

Getting ready to flop, gotta time it just right with the waves...

 

 

Almost time...

 

 

... and flop.

 

 

Paddle, paddle, paddle...

 

 

Phew!  Made it.

 

 

More bergie bits present in this bay.

 

 

[twangster]

The hanging glacier is a dominant feature here at Gold Harbor.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I kept waiting for a chunk to break off.  Didn't happen.

 

[twangster]

Kelp gulls.  One of the only gulls found in South Georgia.

 

 

[twangster]

Our hour is up and it's time to make our way back to the Silver Wind.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[twangster]

8 hours ago, kgoodman16 said:

Fabulous photos.  What’s it been like bringing cameras and tripods ashore?  Can you bring camera bags, or do they have dry bags to use?.  Flying down on the 3rd for the departure on the 6th.  Can’t wait.

Boarding the zodiacs tends to be splashy.  Even on good weather days the platform can become submerged and the zodiac is bumping up to it with any sort of swell so my camera gear is always in the water tight bag provided by Silversea.  Some of the zodiac rides at high speed are also splashy.  My good camera stays in the water tight bag until we’ve slowed down to explore.  
 

On shore the only thing that can touch the ground is the bottom of your boots and a walking stick.  No kneeling, no placing your backpack on the ground.  
 

I’ve yet to experience a situation where a tripod would be required.  It’s unusual to stay in one place for long.  You tend to move around a lot.    In my mind a tripod would be more of a liability and with the luggage weight restrictions it was one the first items removed.  
 

I chose my camera kit with light weight, ease of holding and portability in mind.  More on my kit later.  

[twangster]

The ships position having anchored at Gold Harbor.

 

[twangster]

As we left Gold Harbor I visited the Panorama Lounge for a beverage before the daily recap.

 

You can see why it's so popular.  It's also the bar that is open at this time of day so there is that.

 

 

It's easy to pop outside from the lounge to take a quick picture.

 

 

Weather changing again, we got lucky.