MS National Geographic Endeavour
Drake Passage and Elephant Island
Tuesday, January 20, 2009

    I was up early again today. The sunrise yesterday was 05:11. Today, it was 04:15, but I waited until 6 am to get started. It is another gray day in the Drake Passage, but that often is a sign that we will see birds and sea mammals and that prediction held true. There were lots of petrels and albatrosses flying around the ship and it wasn’t too long before the bridge reported whales in the water off the port bow. It was a pod of five or six fin whales and the ship slowed and very slowly circled around to stay in their vicinity without scaring them. We later observed chinstrap penguins porpoising through the water 150 miles from the nearest land. We also saw a Southern Bottlenosed whale, and several fur seals.

    About 15:00, we arrived at Elephant Island. The ship made a close approach and navigated around part of the island. Since it was an overcast day with fog clouds obscuring parts of the island, it made for an excellent opportunity to get some very moody pictures showing the fog, glaciers, and jagged rocks. The captain then anchored in the cove near where Shacklelton’s crew awaited rescue in 1914 and we launched the Zodiac boats to get an even closer view of the rocks, ice, and penguins. The island is covered with chinstrap penguins with their loud vocalizations and the pungent smell of guano. There is no real way to land on Elephant Island, so this was to be just a close inspection from the boats.

    Because of all the activities of the day, dinner tonight was delayed 30 minutes. Tonight, I was invited to dine with Tim Laman, the National Geographic photographer, along with five other guests. We were just starting our appetizers and occasionally looking out the windows when we saw a passing snow and ice covered island shining with the low-angle sunlight peaking through under the overcast. Tim and I were obviously chomping at the bit to run grab our cameras and the rest of the guests gave us permission to leave. Grabbing our cameras from our cabins and rushing outside, we were able to capture some wonderful images – although it was mighty cold on deck without my jacket or gloves.

    We were also given some other good news this evening. We are sailing tonight into the Weddell Sea on the eastern side of the Antarctic Peninsula to the rarely visited Danger Islands. Almost no one gets to visit here because of time constraints. We are ahead of schedule because of our fortunate luck of good weather in the Drake Passage. Scientists, by radio, have reported so many penguins on the Danger Islands that when we land in the Zodiacs tomorrow, we will be right in the middle of huge colonies, but probably won’t be able to hike much since that would interfere with the penguins; that’s a no-no. The weather also promises to be bright and sunny so the prospect of some good close-up penguin photography is very likely. But then, no one really knows what the weather here will be more than a few hours ahead.