Today, we follow in the wake of Sir Ernest Shackleton, Frank Worsley, Tom Crean, John Vincent, Timothy McCarthy, and Harry McNish. Their amazing 800 mile boat journey from Elephant Island to South Georgia Island took James Caird sixteen days under almost impossible conditions. It will take us about two and one half days. The sea conditions could not be more radically different. We have gentle following winds compared to the violent storms that they somehow endured. We have, well, luxury, compared to the almost unimaginable discomfort that they lived through. Afternoon tea, anyone?
The six men took shifts. Three stood watch while the others tried to rest, cramped into a tiny, soaked space in the bow while the ocean tossed the twenty-two and a half foot vessel like a cork. Much of the time all six men were working, desperately scraping ice and bailing to keep their boat afloat and to prevent capsizing.
Throughout the day our staff shared presentations on ice and “Shackleton’s Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition.” Our photo team presented “Editing and Digital Workflow” to help us start to address the issue of the thousands of images that many of us have taken over this first leg of our three leg journey. Late afternoon was time to gather in the lounge for a briefing about our next destination, South Georgia Island.
Today was a time to begin to digest some of the extraordinary experiences that we have shared aboard National Geographic Orion over the last week. Trading stories and images, looking back at the exceptional beauty expressed in so many varied forms – icebergs, the Lemaire Channel, glaciers. Penguins (gentoo, chinstrap, Adelie), seals (Weddell, crabeater, leopard, elephant, Antarctic fur), whales (humpback, fin, blue, minke, killer) and a variety of sea birds have been added to our memory banks. We sailed in the wake of great explorers and scientists like Gerlache, Charcot Nordenskjold and Shackleton.
We were not lacking for wildlife. Sea birds accompanied National Geographic Orion, playing on the wind. Black-browed albatross’ and a variety of petrels were with us almost constantly. Fin whales put on a fine show in the afternoon.
After a festive “Antarctica Blue Ice Dinner” put on for us by the hotel team, the fine film “The Endurance: Shackleton’s Legendary Antarctic Expedition” aired in the Lounge. To set the mood, we had a wee dram of “Rare Old Highland Malt Whisky,” distilled to match the 1907 whisky that was Shackleton’s beverage of choice.
