Elephant Island
We swayed our way up to the bridge for a look at the day. White caps blew at their tips in the gusty wind. Our ship moves quite well through the seas and we reached our morning’s destination by 9:15am.
The last of the South Shetland chain of islands pierced the sea with its sharp jagged cliff face. Elephant Island could not be safely approached by zodiac this morning and it looked foreboding in the crashing surf. How could 22 men live for four winter months on a sloping bit of rock that barely seemed large enough for the chinstrap penguins now nesting there? How could anyone hold out hope to such dreary circumstances? Even the fur seals stayed in the water rather than haul out on the island amidst the spray of the waves.
Yet survival instincts have a way of bringing out the super-human in many of us.
We learned of the skills that the men possessed in navigation, seamanship, carpentry and the like. Just as Earnest Shackleton did at the beginning of his epoch voyage across the Scotia Sea, we turned the ship around and pointed her in the direction of South Georgia Island. Antarctica was off our stern now. We were leaving behind the magic land we’ve just come to know. Its massive icebergs, its snow covered mountains and its funny little creatures that looked at us with wonder for the past week or more were being left safely behind as we venture onward.
We swayed our way up to the bridge for a look at the day. White caps blew at their tips in the gusty wind. Our ship moves quite well through the seas and we reached our morning’s destination by 9:15am.
The last of the South Shetland chain of islands pierced the sea with its sharp jagged cliff face. Elephant Island could not be safely approached by zodiac this morning and it looked foreboding in the crashing surf. How could 22 men live for four winter months on a sloping bit of rock that barely seemed large enough for the chinstrap penguins now nesting there? How could anyone hold out hope to such dreary circumstances? Even the fur seals stayed in the water rather than haul out on the island amidst the spray of the waves.
Yet survival instincts have a way of bringing out the super-human in many of us.
We learned of the skills that the men possessed in navigation, seamanship, carpentry and the like. Just as Earnest Shackleton did at the beginning of his epoch voyage across the Scotia Sea, we turned the ship around and pointed her in the direction of South Georgia Island. Antarctica was off our stern now. We were leaving behind the magic land we’ve just come to know. Its massive icebergs, its snow covered mountains and its funny little creatures that looked at us with wonder for the past week or more were being left safely behind as we venture onward.
