South Georgia 2018

We signed up for a South Georgia Island in-depth trip, November 2018 with One Ocean Expeditions who have a well deserved excellent reputation.

The trip began in Punta Arenas, Chile. The company flew us to the Falkland Islands on the regular LATAM (Chile) weekly flight. We had the afternoon to wander around Stanley before boarding our vessel, the Akademik Sergey Vavilov which is a comfortable Russian research vessel, manned by a very competent Russian crew. The Vavilov provided a huge amount of outside deck space and the comfortable lounge is at the bridge level. Our cabin was comfortable. The One Ocean staff (largely Canadian, American, British, Australian) briefed us and did safety reviews that evening as we set out on the passage to South Georgia (3 nights and 2 days).

We had some calm seas that allowed us to watch the pelagic birds follow the ship in between lectures on board. Guests were also allowed on the bridge during much of the day. The majority of the 65 guests were from USA, Canada, Britain and Australia, primarily in the 45-65 year old range. Although it was not a "photographic journey", there were a number of photographic enthusiasts on board. In addition, there were 2 film crews with their own particular agendas. The meals on board were very good, sometimes buffet style and dinners were often from a choice of items from the daily menu. Bar prices in the lounge were quite reasonable, especially during the daily happy hour.

Once we reached South Georgia, we settled into a routine of shore visits on sturdy zodiacs. There was great attention to the safety of loading off and on the ship to the zodiacs. Although, we preferred the shore visits, there were a couple of instances when beach landings were not feasible so we toured by zodiac. The winds blow hard around South Georgia Island and on a few occasions, we simply couldn't land or board zodiacs. So, although we visited some spectacular penguin and seal colonies, our two attempts to land at Salisbury Plain were unsuccessful.

The guests were provided with outer wear including sturdy, comfortable boots. Typically, a staff zodiac would land first, establish the landing and develop a safe pathway through the territorial fur seals towards the penguin colonies or other points of interest. It was all spectacular and bursting with life. The staff also briefed us on specific aspects of the landings and provided background information at lectures. The expedition leader was focused on good communications and we were regularly advised of events, meal times, etc on the public address system (including a morning wake-up). As we were a relatively small group, we all made the same landings and usually had generous times ashore.

After a week or so, it appeared that strong winds were heading for South Georgia, so the expedition leader made the decision to leave early (as landings would not be possible) and head back for an unscheduled stop on Falkland Islands (rather than head directly to Ushuaia). It was three long days back to Stanley where we had our passports stamped again. So we had another day in Stanley and a trip to Gypsy Cove (moderate interest).

However, the following day, we were able to visit beautiful Saunders Island and West Point Island, where the penguins were of interest but the black browed albatross colonies were truly amazing. It was a long 2 nights and one day further passage to Ushuaia, where our ship journey ended and many of us flew to Buenos Aires and then home. It was quite a journey!