The Antarctic Peninsula

No blog post about an Antarctica Expedition would be complete without a mention of Shackleton’s voyage on the Endurance (1914-1917).. Much has been written about it and the story told in documentaries, including one I saw at the IMAX theater in Boston a long time ago. So I will be brief. 

The Endurance was trapped in pack ice and crushed in 1915, more than a year after the voyage began. 

Shackleton and his crew found their way on lifeboats to Port Wild on Elephant Island. There, most of the men camped out on the beach in two lifeboats. 

With five of his men, Shackleton made the 800-mile crossing of the southern ocean to South Georgia Island on the remaining lifeboat, the James Caird (having done this crossing with all creature comforts I cannot imagine this), reaching the uninhabited side of the island. 

Shackleton, Tom Crean, and Frank Worsley completed a hazardous 36-hour trek across the island to a whaling station. With the help of whalers Shackleton made several failed attempts to rescue the remaining crew still on Port Wild (more tales of courage and endurance here). 

Finally, with the help of a Chilean naval ship, the Yelcho, Shackleton rescued all the men marooned on Elephant Island. Remarkably, all of them survived! 

Elephant Island was our first glimpse of the Antarctic Peninsula. We tried to make it to Port Wild, but weather intervened. We had a very clear view of the island though. 

The scenery and vistas - the  glacial walls with their crevasses and blue ice, floating ice flows and ice sheets - are unbelievable.

And the wildlife, of course.

We saw lots of whales, penguins and seals. Yes, more penguins and seals. While we saw king penguins on South Georgia Island, this time we saw gentoos. And a leopard seal, with spots and all. 

No photo can truly capture the awe-inspiring wonder of this land. Yet, I have some below:

Blows from whales near Cape Valentine (not far from Elephant Island). These blows look like they're just water or water vapor from a distance. But they are murkier than that. I will spare you the details. 

View of Elephant Island from the ship - we couldn't get close on our first attempt due to weather. So we went to Cape Valentine and then came back. The weather cleared so we could get a good view. Port Wild is on a different side of the Island. 

Photo with Indira and Fernando, friends from Brazil. Yes, she is named after Indira Gandhi (her mum was a fan) - Elephant Island in the background. Photo Credit: Allan Fernandes, aka "The Antarctic Photographer" - he was the Photo Studio manager on our ship - from Mumbai. Lots of staff on the ship from Mumbai and other parts of India.

A Gentoo pengiuin with a chick. We were lucky to be there when these little guys were being hatched.

A leopard seal hanging out on the ice. If you look carefully, you can see his (her?) spots.

Yawning / stretching on the ice

View from our balcony one everning

Close-up of balcony view

Another view from the balcony

                                        

The Explorers

The Explorers with penguins and glaciers in the background

                            More Gentoo penguins - glaciers in the background

Panoramic pic with glacial mountains in the background - Paradise Bay. It's the day we did the Polar Plunge! The water is so still. It is beautiful with the glacial mountains reflected in the glassy water.

Reflection

Sunset (such as it is) from our balcony - the days were practically 24 hours of sunlight

Icebergs

Glacier with crevasses. A crevasse is a deep crack in an ice sheet or glacier. All around, we heard ice "calving' from the glaciers. We tried to steer clear . In this glacier you can see where the spot where a glacial avalanche might have happened.

Glacier with cove and still, glassy waters

The Master of all I survey

Hanging together

Two flukes of humpback whales - apparently each has a unique set of markings used to identify a whale. It was really tough to get pictures of these tail fins (flukes). First you see the blow, then the dorsal fin, then the fluke.

More flukes! 

Dorsal fin of humpback whale

    Wreck of the Governoren. A drunk sailor knocked over a lamp which caught fire and wrecked the whaling ship! 

We were told to keep at least 16 feet away from wildlife. But this guy had other ideas. Obviously, he didn't get the memo. We had to back away when the penguins came close and didn't stay in their lanes. Yes, they do have lanes known as "penguin highways". See pic below.

Penguin Highways (yes, really, but they often wander over to the human lanes).

Puerto Williams where we got on the ship and disembarked for the LONG journey home