Blown off Fortuna Bay after a morning trying to land at either Whistle Cove or Shackleton Hike to Stromness.
Afternoon at Stromness whaling station and walk to Shackleton Waterfall.

It is 04:00 AM when the anchor comes up from Prince Olav Harbour, on a day with strong winds and even stronger gusts forecasted.
Straight away, just as we get off Cook’s Bay, we find out that the forecast was right, and even underestimated the wind force.

It takes about three hours to reach the neighboring Fortuna Bay. Three hours of pitching and rolling, with the anemometer climbing easily up to 35 and 40 knots. Then the Europa drifts inside the bay. Now it blows hard, then all of a sudden calms down. With only about 5 minutes between the strong blows, she waits and is carried away by the westerly blasts. Low clouds over the mountains, but with gaps letting the sun through, offer dramatic scenery of the surroundings—a coastline that witnessed sealers during the seal-hunting times starting in the 1800s. Later on, with the start of the 20th century, the whalers came too. The Fortuna was a whale catcher, the first operating out of Grytviken when the station was built in 1904.

That is not all about the history of the place. The bay became most famous for being part of the epic crossing of the island from King Haakon Bay to Stromness that Shackleton, Captain Worsley, and Tom Crean had to climb to save their lives and the lives of the rest of their men after the adventures and hardships of the Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition (1914–1917).

But today, with winds at 30, 35, 40 knots and a couple of gusts making the ship heel over, blowing at 65 knots, plus the surge and breakers along the coasts of the bay, we thought twice before starting any zodiac operation. Nevertheless, a scout boat goes off to check the situation at a couple of beaches along the coast. Swell breaks there, and hard gusts blow in the bay. It was better to bring the boat back up on deck and make way towards Stromness Bay.

A site also related to Shackleton’s story, as it is here where he successfully found help and the end of his two-year ordeal after losing the Endurance in the depths of the Weddell Sea.

The few miles of open sea between Fortuna and Stromness proved to be quite a rolling part of our day. Out in the open waters, the wind kept blowing hard, and the swell had risen with it. But once the ship turned into Stromness Bay, at least the seas calmed down, though the wind still made anchorage difficult. Twice the anchor went down, and twice it had to be brought home after dragging. It was better to get as close as possible to the beach, drop the zodiacs for landing operations, and then stay drifting inside the ample bay. It is actually about 3 miles wide, with three coves indenting its coasts. In each one of them is a whaling station: Husvik, which began as a floating offshore factory site in 1907. In 1910, a land station was constructed and remained operational until 1960, with a break in activities between 1930 and 1945; then Leith Harbour (working from 1909 until 1965 and the largest of the island’s stations); and Stromness, our afternoon destination.

In 1907, a "floating factory" was put together in Stromness Harbour; afterwards, similar to what happened in Husvik, a land station was built in 1912 and operated as a whaling base until 1931. Then it was converted into a shipyard and repair facility for whaling ships until its closure in 1961—a change in its characteristics that we could easily imagine after landing right next to piles of huge iron-cast propellers, spare masts, crow’s nests, cables, and chains. Nowadays, these are used as shelter by Fur and Elephant seals, just outside the 200-meter perimeter of the no-go zone around the remains of the derelict station itself.

From there, a flat hike inland along Shackleton Valley leads to a picturesque waterfall, made famous by Shackleton as the last obstacle of his ordeal for survival after his two-and-a-half-year ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.

In 1916, he and a small crew of five landed on the exposed southern coast of South Georgia at King Haakon Bay after spending 16 days at sea, sailing from Elephant Island in the 22-foot lifeboat, James Caird, in what is considered even nowadays the most difficult and daring open-boat sailing crossing in the world. From there, Shackleton, Tom Crean, and Frank Worsley walked across South Georgia's high peaks and glaciated terrain seeking help on the northern shores of the island, where whaling stations were to be found in several of its embayments. After 36 hours of adventure and struggle, they reached Stromness Station and knocked at the Norwegian whaling station manager's door.

We couldn’t get a proper look at the manager’s house, as it lies inside the prohibited area extending around the station, but we walked the valley despite the snowy and windy weather and had a good look at the waterfall. We made a bit of a loop along the higher ground to return to the main beach. On our way, we passed a small Gentoo penguin colony half-hidden amongst the hill saddles and enjoyed good views of the whole site, half veiled by the snowy and windy conditions.

Back on board, it was time for the Europa to look for anchorage to spend the night, and what better option than heading straight to Grytviken, where we plan tomorrow’s activities.