We woke this morning to 32 degrees, misty rain, heavy fog and heavy winds and only 1 hour until we arrived at Point Wild, Elephant Island. Unless conditions improved we would not be able to do the zodiac trips around the point where Shackleton left 22 of his men to wait while he and a crew of 5 men took a 20 ft. lifeboat 800 miles to South Georgia Island to mount a rescue mission.
True to the good fortune we've had, by the time we arrived the conditions had improved enough to launch the zodiacs and have a look at giant glaciers, the site and monument of where Shackleton's crew stayed and observed Chin Strap Penguins. They are named that for the helmet looking dark feathers on their head and forming a "chin strap" under their beak. It looks a bit like an Eng. military helmet. These hearty penguins nest on rock cliffs and like their cousins the macaroni's, manage to climb to the top of the craggy ridges. They need to ride the waves to the rocks and then come flying out of the water hoping to land on one of the ledges. It was fun watching their try-try again attitudes. It was all a glorious site and hard to imagine 22 men existing for 135 days on this rocky spit. They lived beneath 2 upturned life boats. The monolith with a bust of Piloto Pardo, commander of the Chilean navy cutter "Yelcho", commemorates the rescue on August 30, 1916.
As an added treat as we left Point Wild, we saw several icebergs in the distance as well as pods of Fin Whales close to the ship They are second in length to the Blue Whale. Quite a sight!
What a morning! Now we are back at sea working our way on to the Antarctic Peninsula.
Enjoy the pics! Rick and Paula
Sorry, the Internet cut out and I was not able to finish this yesterday.
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| Chin Strap Penguin. Black feather "helmet" with black "chin strap" under his beak. |
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| Chin strap penguin |
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| Zodiac ride in Pt. Wild. The ice in the water is from the glacier in the background |
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| Glacier ice that was floating in the water. Crystal clear and no salty taste |
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| Chin strap colony on rocks |
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| Chin straps all the way to the top |
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| Chin Straps |
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| Chin straps all the way at the top |
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| Close up....love the one on top of the rock |
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| Amazing to watch them climb these cliffs |
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| Monument at the site of the Shackleton crew's camp |
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Monument and land mass where the Shackleton crew camped.
You can see ice floating in the water. |
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| The penguins have to ride the wave in then hope they land on a ledge to climb up |
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You can see the switchback walkways
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| Chin Straps in the water. They come out of the water like dolphins. |
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| Elephant Island when the sun came out. |
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Our first fin whale! One of a pod of around 30.
This one was right out from our veranda. |
Awesome pictures!! Carter loved the one of the "leader" penguin up on the rock!
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