March 11 - Elephant Island & Icebergs

One thing that I desperately wanted to see on this trip was Elephant Island, where Ernest Shackleton’s “Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition” landed after their harrowing escape from having been beset in the Weddell Sea, and where the majority of the crew waited for months while Shackleton sailed (along the same route we are on right now) to South Georgia Island for help.  Coincidentally, today is almost exactly one year since the news that Shackleton’s ship, Endurance, had been found at the bottom of the Weddell Sea, 107 years after sinking.

I really thought that we would pass Elephant Island in the night, but when I got up early this morning and checked the ship’s position it appeared that we were right abreast of it.  So I threw on some clothes, went up to the observation deck at the front of the ship and was able to see Elephant Island clearly on the port side.  

Elephant Island in the distance

Mind you, the ship was pitching so violently, and the wind was so strong that I had to brace myself against the outside of the lounge to get any photos….then I started to go up to the top deck for a higher view, but about a quarter of the way up the stairs, the wind a freezing gale, I thought better of that and went back to the relative shelter of the side of the ship.  Very exciting!

Late in the morning, we passed these large “tabular” icebergs:

Also, we moved our clocks ahead an hour this morning, although no one seems to know if it’s because of Daylight Savings or whether we are sailing east into an earlier zone.  Our morning lecture was about whales in general, and specifically about the Humpback Whale, which we’ve seen a lot of on this voyage so far.  All very interesting and tons of great information.   By midday we were sailing under clear skies and much less wind, although there was still quite a large swell and the ship continued to rock and roll.

The afternoon lecture will be all about the famous Shackleton expedition, otherwise it’s a day at sea without much to do other than to soak up the incredible, changing oceanscape outside.