Grytviken, South Georgia

March 2

This is another post I have been meaning to write for a few days, but did not get around to.
On Thursday March 2 a lot of us not sampling on the islands got a chance to go to shore and be tourists for a day. And oh my god was it an amazing day.

The storm was approaching, but still quite ways behind us and sheltered by a little bay we had the most perfect day one can imagine. It was warm, almost windless, sunny and gorgeous when we landed on South Georgia around lunchtime. We walked along the beach toward Shackelton grave. We were greeted by the locals:

King penguin

Antarctic fur seal 

Elephant seal

Some locals were more open to a dialogue, while others were less pleased and roared on us. 

The ones that roared do not get a privilege to be part of this blog ;)

We then continued on to visit the Argentinian helicopter crash site. I was walking with my favorite helicopter engineer Ian, whom I mentioned several times in this blog as he has been super helpful with launching SOCCOM floats and finding creative solutions to fix  various things that needed fixing. Ian was quite keen to visit the crash site, as he was in the Navy during the Falkland war and remembers it quite vividly. We found the helicopter in a despicable condition - even Ian couldn't fix it anymore.

Ian at the crashed helicopter site with Tryoshnikov in the background.

After visiting the site, we had to hurry back to the main pier - we were due back on the ship in a couple of hours and I was keen to visit the post office and send some postcards. They were ridiculously expensive, but who cares, I spent all the UK pounds I borrowed. Due to the time and price limitations, I only managed to send a few, but hopefully within the next few months some of you will get them.

The weather started to turn as the storm was catching up with us. It got worse and then worse and then much worse during the following days. I already published a post out-of-order about the rolling we experienced on March 5. By then we were banned from going outside onto the deck.

Here's a little visual for you.

This was the view of South Georgia in the morning of March 2nd

And this is the view the following day.

We are still in the storm, but the worst part is hopefully over for us. We are still rolling somewhat, but nothing compared to the angles we experiences all last night and through the day. We have big plans to continue work tomorrowas all ocean work was suspended due to bad weather.