| Revisiting South Georgia (1)- Falklands Departure |
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Falkland Islands Departure & Shag Rocks - Blog 1
I elected to go early in the season because I wanted to observe the arrival of the Elephant Seals and their establishment of territories and harems. I also hoped to avoid beaches overwhelmed with fur seals making it difficult to impossible to get through their aggressive midsts to go inland. Going inland was important to find and photograph Wandering Albatross chicks on their nests, if there were any this year, before they began fledging.
Flying from Los Angeles to Santiago, Chile, then on to Punta Arenas and the final leg to Mount Pleasant airport in the Falkland Islands seems to get longer and longer until we sight the Falkland Islands when my enthusiasm and excitement mount. Over the years I have come to know a number of people in the Falklands, especially in New Stanley, and they have always greeted me like a returning family member. They stock my books, when they are available, or buy the new DVD, but more importantly they remember me and greet me by name. It is a small place with very big hearts and warmth of relationships that I genuinely value. Everybody seems to know everybody else.
New Stanley is not a sprawling metropolis, but a walking distance-from-everywhere-you-might-want-to-go sort of place. The Golden Fleece was tied up to the community-landing pier and Jerome was standing there to greet us as we got off the bus from the airport. I have never owned, or desired to own, a boat of my own. However the Golden Fleece is special and even though it is a hard-worked older-no-frills motor sailor, it transmitted a warm emotional and welcoming message of a home away from home and more important to where we were going, safety. Likewise with Captain Poncet: A confident warm greeting like we were adventuring companions for many decades that had just been out of touch this past year.
Soon after stowing our gear below a New Stanley friend from previous trips put in an appearance and we set off to see Alison King and deliver some of my new DVD’s about South Georgia for her Waterfront Gift Shops. It was cold, windy and snowing as we trudged through town, but it was the South Atlantic and we were going further south into the Southern Ocean, I was certain that this weather might just turn out to seem a bit tame and tropical to what we might encounter. We returned to the warmly glowing Golden Fleece and nearly ran out the pier the aroma of dinner smelled so good. The pre-departure meal is like a celebration of the events to come. Jerome says we will leave early in the morning and hopefully find wind to run with the four plus days it will take to reach South Georgia. After dinner we securely stow our gear, as this will be the last day we will have with the Golden Fleece in calm water. I always try to go to bed early this first night as it may be the last night to sleep through soundly for the same reason.
It was still dark around 6 am when we went up on the snow dusted deck to cast-off and begin the journey. The Golden Fleece came alive. Jerome had the diesel warming and sounding smoothly through the hull. Light in the East announced the soon appearance of the rising sun. We moved slowly through the harbor. Before we cleared the lighthouse point a sliver of the sun’s coming broke the horizon. I said my silent goodbye to New Stanley, I always wave in case someone is watching. I took a look to the south and the waves before us and wondered what it would be like this time and since that is unknowable I went below to have a cup of coffee, read the local paper, The Penguin News, and work over my camera gear before the ocean took over making almost anything normal impossible.
A half an hour’s time shooting on deck under these conditions requires about an hour or two of cleaning the camera gear of the sea water spray, salt and mists-to-snow. But the anticipation of arriving off South Georgia tomorrow is exciting and our hopes are high for better, clearer weather.
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There are several differences this time that may have an impact on the journey. (1) We are being captained by one of the noteworthy Southern Ocean sailors and adventurers, Jerome Poncet, the owner of the Golden Fleece. Our previous captain was his son, Dion, an incredible sailor in his own right. (2) It is late winter in Southern Georgia and the weather has not broken. It has been reported to being a very tough winter.
Penguin colonies would also be in transition and I hoped to fill in some missing sequences in the lives of South Georgia penguins. There was also the hope of shooting some spectacular winter landscapes of the all the places I had been in late spring or summer.
Storms came up soon after our departure and we ran the four days to Shag Rocks through fog, wind, rain and snow. It is a relative thing to say I did not think the sea was as rough as the last trip and I found myself not suspended between the deck and the overhead nearly as often. But the weather was also more socked-in and darker. On the last trip Shag Rocks stood out clearly in the bright sunlight and this time we needed radar to find them and even up close could barely make out their peaks. The resident birdlife was still returning from their wintering habitats. We could see formations of shags and other birds flying in as we circled the rocks. These six rocks are the smallest “islands” in the Southern Ocean, but when the birds have all returned one might think they are the most densely occupied. 
Geologically these rocks are similar to the sedimentary formations of South Georgia itself, another day’s sail south. A geologist lowered from a helicopter to collect samples made the first landing in 1956. 
