South Georgia III.a

Suspecting it was a vaccuum, I was cursing the efficient Russian hotel staff thiis morning when a high pitched whirring noise woke me. Turns out is was the wind. It's picked up and from my vantage point now in the lounge it looks like we could have a modified program today. There are white caps. The kind where the wind blows the top off of them.

There is a bit of fog, a bit of cloud and a bit of sun. The windows are fogged up on the port side where the land is so I can't tell if we are moving...forward that is. The boat is constantly rocking. The wind hasn't disuaded the penguins. As with the past 2 days, you can see see a dozen heads bobbing in the water with just a glance out the window. We are seeing Adelie penguins now - the pretty little black and white ones with completely black heads.

I believe that I'm going to need a holiday from my vacation when I get home. The days are quite full on board with landings, lectures, briefings, recaps and and lots and lots of food. There is a dedicated mud room on board were the boots and life jackets are kept. It's rather like watching an excited group of kindergarten students get dressed at reccess. Everyone is struggling with their boots and snow pants. Inevitably someone is missing a glove or a sock and the two Robbies stir up a bit of trouble...

From here onwards I have my layers worked out - you really do have to be dressed prepared for gale winds no matter how calm it is. Because it's cold on the butt sitting on the zodiak pontoon I wear silk ong johns+ thermal long johns under lighweight expedition pants under wind & water proof pants. I have liner socks, thermal socks and gortex socks and then the mandatory rubber boots. I managed to slip my orthotics in between my thermal and gortex layers so it's been quite comfortable walking.

Our complimentary parkas are so well designed that I have just needed a long sleeve under shirt + and long sleeved overshirt + vest under it. I'll add another thermal layer + a balaclava when the temperature dips a bit lower. My fingerless "Bob Cratchet" gloves are perfect as far as photography goes - I haven't had need for the full glove yet.

We get checked out before heading down the gangway to the zodiacs and get checked back in on return. Also on return we have to do a thorough boot cleaning in a pan of disinfectant with brushes and scrappers and then hose down the boots. It's going to get challenging if we hit some minus temperatures!

Well there's the 7a good moring call - looks like we are heading for a more sheltered cover this morning but a landing is doubtful. No biggie, there is no bad view here!


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