At Sea toward an beyond Elephant Island

Today was one of those expedition days when our discoveries came from quarters we never expected. National Geographic Explorer intended to sail north from the Antarctic Peninsula toward Point Wild on Elephant Island, the site where Shackleton’s hearty men camped after their long journey escaping the ice; and the place from which Ernest Shakleton, “The Boss”, sailed away toward South Georgia on his epic boat journey, seeking help so the men could be rescued.

We approached Elephant Island accompanied by a glorious, mixed flock of seabirds, including pintado petrels, Wilson’s and black-bellied storm petrels, light-mantled sooty albatrosses, prions, and Antarctic fulmars. The birds were undeterred by the foul weather complete with rain, fog, and winds; similar to conditions described by Shakleton’s men who spent over four months on this ragged point of land living under their overturned life boats.

Ultimately, we could maneuver no closer to the island than 14 miles because of the huge amount of pack ice surrounding it. This has been a season of considerable ice flowing out of the Weddell, another reminder of the odds that faced Shackleton and the men of Endurance.

Then, the unexpected…two humpback whales were spotted from the bridge. These two “humpies” fed on a school of krill right off National Geographic Explorer’s bow delighting all with a display of these powerful animals dining habits.

Continuing east, the sun appeared, the swell began to dissipate, and late in the afternoon another unexpected surprise: an encounter with 4-5 immense fin whales, the second largest of all the baleen whales. Their length can be 88 feet (27m) and they can weigh as much as 90 tons.

For more than a half hour, these glorious creatures rode with us, at an eight-knot pace, regularly ejecting 20-foot-tall blows as their heads breached the surface and, then, showed their dorsal fins as they rolled their backs through the swells. “Finners” are the most frequently encountered on our deep ocean crossings, and this time they put on quite a show for all of us who packed the bridge and outside railings.