Gold Harbor and Whale Cruising off South Georgia

In the morning we had been told that there would be a 4:15 AM soft wakeup call if the weather was good to see the sn rise over Gold Harbor. Fortunately or unfortunately, the weather was snowy and overcast so that call never came and we got to sleep in a little bit longer. The clouds would clear and the snow covered mountains the King Penguin colony were soon in view. We decided to stay on the ship in the morning to take in the scenery from there since we'd been in several King Penguin colonies. The harbor was gorgeous, and very much how we will remember South Georgia. A fresh coat of snow covered the mountains and also collected on the deck.

Gold Harbor with icebergs in the distance

After lunch we tried to go to a different harbor where the ship might be able to land us but the winds were too strong so we went cruising the coast of South Georgia looking for Whales, and we found a lot! We saw Humpbacks, and Fin Whales and Blue Whales . Blue Whales were very heavily impacted by the whaling in the area and are making a comeback so it was extra special to see a Blue whale and calf swimming by the boat. They are the largest mammal in the world. We are lucky to have several naturalists on board who specialize in whales.

Blue Whale - which can be identified by the mottled skin

Towards the end of our whale watching session a group of 5or 6 fin whales were feeding off the Starboard side of the boat. They didn't come up out of the water very much but there was an impressive amount of splashing and thrashing around.

After we stopped watching the whales, we headed out of South Georgia and towards Antartica, which will take us a couple of days to reach. We noticed loads of large icebergs out of the windows and remembered that one of the naturalists had described a phenomenon that the Antartic Peninsula sort of whips these icebergs off the Antartic ice shelves and up towards South Georgia where they are collected by land and shallower water.

Tomorrow on our way to Antartica we will see the worlds largest iceberg A23a when they ship passes right past it. It calved, or broke off, from the Filchner Ice Shelf in Antarctica in 1986 but got stuck on the seafloor and then more recently was trapped in an ocean vortex.

Finally, in December, it broke free and is now on its final journey towards South Georgia and warmer waters where it will eventually melt and cease to exist.