Hercules Bay and Grytviken - 1/20/2025

sridgway38
Jan 19
2 min read

Updated: Feb 9

In the morning of the second day in South Georgia we woke up to an early wake up all as we passed the area where Sir Ernest Shackleton finally reached South Georgia about 7 months after he and his men had to abandon their ship in Antartica, King Haakan Bay. He had left mot of his men behind on a small island realizing that they couldn't all make it, and he and 4 of his men set out in a modified lifeboat that they had scavenged from their original ship. The three landed on South Georgia here but still had a 34 mile walk across the island to the Whaling station where they would finally find help and be able to launch a rescue mission for the rest of the men.

Next we passed an abandoned whaling station on the shores of South Georgia.

We them made our way to Hercules bay where there was a lot of wildlife including a colony of Macaroni Penguins which we hadn't had a chance to see up close. There was no way to land here so we did Zodiac Cruises instead.

Macaroni Penguins

After our Zodiac cruises we move the ship to the site of Sir Ernest Shackleton's arrival to civilization, Stromness Bay Whaling station and Grytviken where the remains of the whaling station now sit alongside Shakleton's gravesite, a museum and shop, and nearby the British Antartic Survey station where 2 of our ships expedition team had spent time doing research.

Ezra beside Shackleton's grave where we did a toast

The church as it stood when the Whaling station was in use among the remains of the station

Some members of the British Antarctic Survey station joined us on board and had a good meal with us before we pulled uut of the harbor, I'm sure a treat for them since their last supply ship would have been in November. Tomorrow we will spend another day in South Georgia.