Almost on cue, at the top of the hour, hourglass dolphins appeared off the ship’s bow this morning. The sun, out and shining and the winds, rather calm almost alluded to a more tropical surrounding with the waves appearing to be a more brilliant shade of turquoise as they rolled past. We have been making great time, continuing northeast towards South Georgia, thanks to the excellent work of the National Geographic Orion’s Bridge team and favorable weather. Massive tabular bergs appeared occasionally, usually remaining in view of the horizon for a considerable amount of time due to their size. Perceptions of size and scale can become so skewed while at sea. Regardless, there was plenty to do on this lovely day, including several more presentations from the Staff.
First, Photo Instructor, Doug Gould held a Lightroom Workshop in the lounge to present some insights and tricks of the trade using this powerful editing software. Just in the nick of time, a brilliant iceberg came into view at the end of the presentation and several people snapped a few shots to then later test out their photo editing prowess. Shortly thereafter, undersea specialist, Caitlyn Webster took her presentation beneath the sea surface once again to reveal the vastly unseen side of the marine plankton community and their many wonders. In anticipation of our arrival tomorrow slowly gaining, expedition leader, Shaun Powell kicked off the afternoon with a talk introducing South Georgia’s general features, species, and the unique wilderness that we can’t wait to explore. Naturalist and our favorite Wilson’s storm petrel savior, Conor Ryan, wrapped up the day with a fascinating presentation imploring us to take a whiff of the sea. Who knew that sense of smell could play such a vital role in the quest for zooplankton prey? After being even more thankful that the penguin rookeries were in particularly cold places (where smells tend to be less pungent), the evening’s special recap began with an expert photo critique from our National Geographic photo team panel of Doug Gould and Macduff Everton.
Given the current conditions, we all can’t wait to get to bed and wake up to find South Georgia just over the horizon by the end of tomorrow morning.
