We’ve been incredibly lucky so far — except for a few hours of moderate seas after leaving Stanley’s harbor, it has been extremely smooth sailing on our passage to South Georgia Island. This is where we cross the Antarctic Convergence Zone, a notorious breeder of bad weather and nasty seas.
The Convergence marks the edge of colder water and a change in direction of the current circulating the continent of Antarctica. The drop from 4 – 5 degrees Celsius to around one degree is enough to produce mist or fog as well as spawn strong winds and storms. It also produces an upwelling of oceanic nutrients and is a often a great area for concentrating seabirds and whales — something we’re really looking forward to.
The exact location of the Convergence varies, so we’re not really sure when we cross it until we do. But it will be sometime before we make South Georgia later tonight. Satellite indicates some strong cold fronts doing their own form of converging on the island over the next day or so, giving us a bit or worry about our planned landings.
In the meantime, we’ve been photographing the multitude of seabirds circling the ship, including the first wandering albatross (below), one of the world’s large birds with a wingspan of up to 11.5 feet. A real modern pterodactyl.
Next, South Georgia!