Point Wild and the Scotia Sea
Increased winds and seas interrupt our early morning slumbers. Our Expedition Leader’s announcement only confirms this a little later. The ship is heading around Elephant Island from the east and en-route sails past Cape Valentine where Shackleton and his men made first landfall, after 495 days, on the 14th of April 1916. During that period they had spent many months locked in the grip of the ice and once the Endurance had sunk they camped on the sea ice in the Weddell Sea until finally breaking free from the ice’s grip headed into open water in their life boats. After several days in freezing conditions, wet through and close to exhaustion they made landfall on Elephant Island. However they soon realized that Cape Valentine was not a suitable place to set up camp and so after Fran Wild’s reconnoitering they moved to their new location a small spit of land along the northern coast and which was to become known as Point Wild.
We sight many Fin Whales, their blows being instantly dispersed and scattered in the strong winds. Our Captain confirms patches of krill on the ship’s depth sounder, which explains that the whales are feasting on this abundant food source.
Just after breakfast we head into a little cove between Point Wild and Cape Belsham the weather was gloomy, cold, wet and windy. Point Wild did not look that inviting a place today and the weather is kind of appropriate as we consider and remember what it must have been like for Shackleton’s party. The little spit of beach that they landed at has changed quite a lot since it was visited by the Shackleton Expedition, the beach has mostly been washed away leaving large boulders exposed.
For the rest of the day we are at sea, in the Scotia Sea, and once more we are fortunate to have a following sea which makes the passage more bearable despite the 30 knot winds and 3 to 4 meter following swells. Seabirds are once again our companions, mostly Pintado Petrels, Wilson’s Storm Petrels and many Prions as well as glimpses of Black-browed Albatrosses.
Our next destination is South Georgia, that far flung island discovered by Anton de la Roché in 1675. The island was firmly placed on the charts in early 1775 by Captain James Cook at the end of his remarkable second voyage, the first to circumnavigate the earth at high southern latitudes. This remarkable journey was accomplished on two small adapted Yorkshire colliers.
