(South) Georgia on Her Mind (updated with pix and video)

From Mindy, dated 2 January:

Tight folds (click to enlarge)

We are ready for a landing today!  We are now sailing in the least inhabited time zone on the planet.  The ship was sailing at a steady 12 knots when we woke up in the morning.  There was a 20-25 knot wind, the air temp was 2 degrees C, water 2.9 C, and barometer at 995.  We are extremely lucky to have such calm seas and it is allowing us to come into the west/south side of the island.

Ship in King Haakon Bay
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Mindy at Peggotty Bluff
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King Haakon Bay (click to enlarge)

Burnett (click to enlarge)

Our landing site is near Peggotty Bluff, and is where Earnest Shackleton finally reached land with his small crew in a lifeboat (while the rest of his ship's crew were stranded on Elephant Island).  He landed on the beach and had to hike across the mountains for 36 straight hours to get to the other side where a small whaling station was located.  It took him 10 months to get back to Elephant Island to rescue his crew, but every member of his ship survived!

Pegotty Rocks

Tic-tac-toe-XOs (click to enlarge)

Desert Varnish
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At Peggotty Bluff we were greeted by shags nesting in the Tussock grass. About half of our group went on a geology hike up into the Cooper Bay turbidite rocks (mostly greywacke and some shales) (I'm pretty sure she's just messing with us now - Ed.), and the other half walked along the beach over to a glacier.  I, of ourse, went on the geology hike.  Almost all of the rock outcrops have glacial striations on them (grooves carved in the rock by the underside of glaciers).  We also found some interesting dark surfaces on certain rocks that looked like a shimmery oil sheen.  There was much debate between different geologists as to whether this was "desert varnish" or not.  I was in the camp that thought it was desert varnish.  I was thinking of my good friend Dan Gilewitch and the great group of cadets we had looking at desert varnish and desert pavement in Death Valley back in 2008.  They were all with me in spirit today!

Braided Glacial Outwash
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Glacial Striations
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Leading away from one large glacier was a wide, flat expanse of light grey sediments (small gravel and mud) with a braided stream running through. This is very characteristic of the terrain in front of a glacier. The meltwater feeds the stream, and the sediments have filled in the terrain to the point that the valley floor is flat (the stream is "braided" because it isn't strong enough to be cutting out a single stream bed) (there's a hairdresser joke in there somewhere - Ed.).

King Penguins (click to enlarge)

Fur Seal (click to enlarge)

Nearer to the beach, we saw king penguins, fur seals, elephant seals, gentoo penguins, and shags.  All in all a delightful day, great views, great company, fresh air, and cool photos!

Gentoo Penguins (click to enlarge)

Elephant Seal (click to enlarge)

Then it was back to the ship for a good night's sleep while our trusty crew sails us around the south/east tip of the island to see some awesome (are there any other kind? - Ed.) ophiolites (ancient ocean floor that has been sloughed up onto the surface by tectonic processes).

Fur seal at Peggotty Bluff
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This fur seal reminded me of my dog
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