Today we had our 3rd sea day and we were waiting to get
onshore after two quite rough days in the Scotia Sea. In the morning there was
time for Bridge visits and in the afternoon, Fram would try, to sail as close
as possible to Elephant Island, Point Wild, where 22 marooned members of Sir
Ernest Shackleton’s fabled Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition spent four and a
half months while they awaited rescue. The sea was quite calm, the sun up and
shining and we were all out on deck, watching the rough glaciers and the tiny
place, where Shackleton’s men lived beneath two overturned lifeboats.
From far
we have seen our first tabular icebergs. And the conditions looked good, it was
so tempting and so the Expedition Team went into the Polar Cirkel boats to try
a landing at this tiny beach, with quite some swell coming in! But we managed!
And everyone who dared the little bit “rougher” landing went ashore and set
foot on Elephant Island! What a day!
The Chinstrap penguins were quite
surprised, as they probably don’t very often get visitors at this place! We
managed to get everyone safe back into the Polar Cirkel boats and back on board
it was a thrilled atmosphere, we landed at Elephant Island and seen the bust
from Luis Pardo from close, the brave captain who finally came to pick up the
22 men of Shackleton after four and a half month.
