After almost two weeks at sea, the final Blue watch of Sunday 27th November is the 16-20:00 shift. The sea temperature has slipped under 2 degrees and the wind chill is really biting. Taking one’s gloves off for more than a minute is bone-numbingly cold. We’ve sailed without engine assistance the last few days and the peace is welcome. But off to port the first icebergs are sighted. They drift past like ships in the English Channel, except they are glowing white and turquoise. Brittany Ferries are certainly not that attractive!
To starboard are the mountains of the northern end of South Georgia. A crescent shaped island 100 miles by up to 24 miles wide with no permanent inhabitants, this looks for the world like someone has chopped the top of the Alps and dropped them in the South Atlantic. Remote is an understatement. We are now 900 miles from the Falkland Isles and 1,270 miles from Cape Horn. Any incident is pretty much game over as help is simply too far away. Ice and snow reaches the waterline; there are no trees and barely any grass. Most vegetation is lichen and moss, so the exposed land is a dark grey rock and shale. There is no warmth about the scenery but boy, it is dramatic. Hard to believe this is the same latitude as northern England.
Seals swim around the ship as we nose into Bay of Isles, tuck into Rosita Bay and drop the anchor. It’s only blowing 30kts in here, so we are sheltered…relatively. Calmer than what we have just sailed through ! At 35m deep, you would not do this at home, but then there are a lot of things you would not do at home here. I learn later in the week that there are few places that offer good holding here. Klaas, our captain, is a master of his vessel and often lets Europa drift rather than anchor for a daytime visit. Experience counts for much in this place.
Last night the ‘voyage crew’ (i.e. us tourists) were so relieved and excited to be here, the bar was full and our glasses empty ! For most of us that was the end of 2 dry weeks ! The passage only took 2 days longer than expected, but to a man we were all relieved to stop the constant rolling and lurching that goes with life at sea. Now we are able to sleep without having to hold on with one or often both hands. South Georgia is a strictly controlled habitat and we cannot stay ashore. Indeed there is nowhere to stay, so the ship is our refuge.
Next morning brought a dusting of snow, rolling mists and fog. Technical kit comes into it’s own here and I feel like Mrs Blobby. Landing for our first hike ashore, it’s bliss to stretch our legs and breathe the fresh (really clean) air. We have our first introduction to the now ubiquitous fur seals. Since the whaling industry blew itself out through decimation of c150m (yes!) of these majestic creatures, the Antarctic fur seal has more than flourished on the whale’s primary diet of krill. Every beach is littered with them, huffing and puffing, crying and emitting the most appalling stench, which can be picked up miles away. They are truly smelly and the males aggressive. At this time of year the males occupy a patch of shore as theirs and defend it vigorously from other males and passing humans as they wait for the females to arrive, pup and mate again. This is not a ‘shall we have a baby, darling’ moment, but their ’raison d’être’. The females don’t seem to get a say in the matter. As a competitive business, it’s location, location, location and grab as many ‘ladies’ as possible for your harem. To a beach full of Antarctic fur seals we are just a technicolour nuisance.
Elephant seals, by comparison, have huge shiny eyes, silky looking fur and a cheesy smile that is quite simply irresistible. They also occupy beach space, but do so relatively calmly, albeit with more personal volume. Endlessly photogenic, they will look at you with the cutest puppy-dog eyes, and the camera clicks way too many times. But they are also the masters of flatulence; loud, fabric-ripping flatulence that cannot be ignored. However much you try, you cannot help but laugh out loud every time. And then they look at you with those big black gobstopper eyes as if to say ‘What? Meee?? Never!!!’.
You have to love them.