Wild Point and Elephant Island

Elephant Island where Shackelton sailed to on three small lifeboats after the Endurance sank. 

This is Wild Point where he left his first mate Wild and the others while he went for help.

They were stuck here for months (behind that black rock)!

Goodbye Elephant Island.

Bruce, John and Chris or 'Patch'.

The beautiful blue of icebergs.

Lookout Point, Elephant Island

Wednesday, November 6^th.

Elephant Island

We were woken this morning by an announcement that we were approaching Elephant Island. We got dressed in our winter clothes as it was -4 degrees on deck and went out. There is was with clear visibility! Elephant Island. This is the island that Ernest Shackelton sailed to in 1915 with 25 sailors in three wooden row boats after their ship the Endurance was trapped in the ice and sank. It took them seven days and nights to row here as the pack ice was breaking up. This point is names after the man he left in charge: Frank Wild. He left 19 men for months as he and five of the strongest, healthiest ones sailed and rowed for eight hundred miles over the frigid, dangerous Southern Ocean to South Georgia Island for help. What a dismal and foreboding place! An incredible story of adventure, survival and endurance. If the men were still here, they would be amazed at us sailing up in the Expedition, coming out on deck to take photos and then retiring inside for a buffet breakfast. What a difference a 100 years makes! We approached Wild Point where the men were camped under two overturned wooden boats all through the Antarctic winter. As we stood on deck taking photos we were buffeted by 42 knot wind gusts that threatened to blow us off. I’ve read the book, but to see the actual spot where they were stuck was beyond belief or comprehension. How they survived here for that long and not even knowing if Shackelton survived or not and was even coming back, is beyond incredible!

We could not land or go out on the Zodiacs because of the winds and the swell.

After breakfast we sailed around Elephant Island to Lookout Point, but couldn’t disembark there either. The conditions were just too rough and dangerous. But, we enjoyed a lot of amazing views of mountains covered in ice, glaciers and icebergs. Stunning views and exactly why we are all here.

Keith Mountain lecture:

The Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans.

The details of this lecture are at the end of the post.

Then they showed a stupid American movie ‘The Big Year’. I watched about ten minutes and retired to our room to do some work on photos.

At recap and briefing John gave us a short history of Shackelton’s early life. Tomorrow we will be in the South Shetland Islands.

Dinner was an Italian buffet. Afterwards we had a choice between the second half of the whaling documentary Britain’s Whale Hunters, The Untold Story or a concert in the Polar Bear Bar with Blaise. I figured I could watch the movie on uTube later, so I went upstairs and sat and talked to Mike and Jackie while having a beer. To bed by 11:00. Bruce and John watched the movie and poor John is still feeling poorly.

Keith Mountain lecture:

The Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Oceans.

Simply defined it is cold, dry and windy, just about everywhere which is caused by circumpolar current and the convergence of the polar front and the warmer oceans of the Atlantic and the Pacific. These two conditions established a kind of physical barrier between the 40 and 60 degree south latitude. There are rapidly changes in temperature, caused by the strength of the eastward flowing Antarctic Circumpolar Current. The Circumpolar Current is very deep and is the largest of the global ocean currents. It moves 135 million cubic meters of water per second!

Later discoveries would recognize equally significant changes in salinity, nutrient loading and aquatic species and the like. The average height of Antarctica makes it the highest continent in altitude!

The sun spins around the continent at 23 degrees on the horizon for the summer and not at all in the winter. The ice is so cold it reflects all of the solar heat and maintains the freezing temperature. The interior of the continent is very dry and is the driest area of the whole world. It is a desert. Very little precipitation ever falls but it doesn’t melt and stays forever.

Wasn’t studied scientifically until 1957-58 where they set up 5 stations around the continent to measure temp, wind, pressure, etc.

What is the polar front?

A persistent belt of low atmospheric pressure surrounding the Antarctic continent.

High pressure over the continent, globally persistent high pressure over the poles.

Low pressure winds are strongest and most intense.

Coldest day on record -89 C July 21, 1983

Inland -40 to -70

Coastal -15 to -35

Peninsula is the warmest summer temp can reach 15