At sea, Coronation Island to Elephant Island
Yesterday evening we departed from Coronation Island in the South Orkney group bound for Elephant Island located far off the eastern end of the South Shetland Islands about 275 nautical miles away.
We awoke to beautiful forms of sculpted ice and thick fog in the Southern Ocean as pintado petrels accompanied us on our voyage. As we continued our expedition to Elephant Island, we could not help but think of Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition aboard the Endurance. We could easily imagine the challenges of such an expedition in the Southern Ocean as we watched Captain Skog and his mates skillfully maneuver us through the huge tabular icebergs, bergy bits, and growlers in some thick fog.
The day was full of extraordinary experiences. For some the highlight was the sighting of marine mammals. Minke whales, one of the smallest of the rorqual whales, can grow as long as 33 feet. This species was not targeted in the early days of whaling because of its small size. Today there may be as many as 500,000 to 1 million ocean wide. We were about 7 nautical miles from Elephant Island when a pod of as many as 18-22 killer whales were sighted close to the ship. Killer whales are second only to humans in their worldwide distribution.
As our expedition continued we approached Cape Valentine which was the first landing place and camp for Shackleton and his men. After dinner we visited Point Wild, the place where Shackleton and five companions set off in the renovated lifeboat James Caird. They sailed nearly 800 miles in very rough seas for 16 days to reach South Georgia and eventually effected a rescue four months later of the 22 men left behind at Point Wild.
We also had some excellent presentations during the day. Harold Stowell talked about Glaciology and Karen Copeland discussed survival in the harsh Antarctica environment. Wayne and Sue Trivelpiece with Oceanites talked about their project and the importance of having baseline studies.
As we pushed our way through the ice today and enjoyed our expedition it became clearer to everyone the challenges and amazing courage that Shackleton and his men possessed. As we head for Deception Island we know that tomorrow something extraordinary will happen. We just don’t know what it is yet! The magic of Antarctica is starting to have a profound impact on all of us.
Yesterday evening we departed from Coronation Island in the South Orkney group bound for Elephant Island located far off the eastern end of the South Shetland Islands about 275 nautical miles away.
We awoke to beautiful forms of sculpted ice and thick fog in the Southern Ocean as pintado petrels accompanied us on our voyage. As we continued our expedition to Elephant Island, we could not help but think of Ernest Shackleton’s ill-fated Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition aboard the Endurance. We could easily imagine the challenges of such an expedition in the Southern Ocean as we watched Captain Skog and his mates skillfully maneuver us through the huge tabular icebergs, bergy bits, and growlers in some thick fog.
The day was full of extraordinary experiences. For some the highlight was the sighting of marine mammals. Minke whales, one of the smallest of the rorqual whales, can grow as long as 33 feet. This species was not targeted in the early days of whaling because of its small size. Today there may be as many as 500,000 to 1 million ocean wide. We were about 7 nautical miles from Elephant Island when a pod of as many as 18-22 killer whales were sighted close to the ship. Killer whales are second only to humans in their worldwide distribution.
As our expedition continued we approached Cape Valentine which was the first landing place and camp for Shackleton and his men. After dinner we visited Point Wild, the place where Shackleton and five companions set off in the renovated lifeboat James Caird. They sailed nearly 800 miles in very rough seas for 16 days to reach South Georgia and eventually effected a rescue four months later of the 22 men left behind at Point Wild.
We also had some excellent presentations during the day. Harold Stowell talked about Glaciology and Karen Copeland discussed survival in the harsh Antarctica environment. Wayne and Sue Trivelpiece with Oceanites talked about their project and the importance of having baseline studies.
As we pushed our way through the ice today and enjoyed our expedition it became clearer to everyone the challenges and amazing courage that Shackleton and his men possessed. As we head for Deception Island we know that tomorrow something extraordinary will happen. We just don’t know what it is yet! The magic of Antarctica is starting to have a profound impact on all of us.
