February 7, 2006

Day 33 of our cruise. We awoke to heavy fog. Visibility was only about ¼ mile. We were cruising in iceberg alley and got a glimpse of a few very large bergs within our visibility limits. The bridge narrator told us that we were sailing a slalom course as we dodged icebergs which appeared on the bridge radar. Of course we could not feel these gradual course corrections as we moved about the ship, and we had no frame of reference due to the poor visibility. We moved at only 7 knots because of the ice. We spent most of the day sailing southeast across the Bransfield Strait to get to Hope Bay, but when we arrived there we found it so thick with icebergs that the Captain decided not to enter the bay. Plan ? had us changing course and sailing back across Bransfield Strait in a northeasterly direction. Visibility gradually improved and we were able to see many large icebergs within a mile or two of the ship. We also saw a lot of smaller "bergie bits", and were accompanied by several varieties of petrals throughout the afternoon. About 3:00 we sailed near a large iceberg carrying about 80 penguins. The captain again made 2 passes very close to the berg to allow everyone his Kodak moment. While we were at dinner we reached Elephant Island, in the South Shetland group. Visibility was about 3 miles and we sailed about 1 mile offshore to get a nice view of this very rugged island. Its coast is a continuous string of massive volcanic headlands alternating with glaciers which move massive amounts of ice and snow from the higher interior volcanic slopes. It looked very gloomy and formidable with the fog screen behind the coast and heavy skies above cutting off the tops of the mountains. This island was the location of Shackelton's last camp during his unsuccessful 1914-1916 expedition. We sailed past Point Valentine, where he and about 20 of his crew made land in lifeboats after 14 months at sea and the loss of their ship. We watched the coast of Elephant Island recede behind us in the very late Antarctic evening as we set our ship's course across the 10 foot swells of the Southern Ocean on our overnight journey to the South Orkney Islands.


Barney warming up