Day 25: Heading to the Drake Passage

By lunch time, everyone who was willing to brave the elements for a closer glimpse of Elephant Island was back on board. In the worsening conditions, getting the zodiacs back on the ship was a challenge … one that the crew accomplished while we were having lunch.

And then it was time to head north across the Drake Passage. We have two full days ahead of us to reach Ushuaia, Argentina to complete the expedition where we started.

Our afternoon at sea was filled with workshops … followed by Dr Amar’s presentation about “Cold Water Immersion.” Mui and I used the afternoon to rest before the recap.

EL Sara kicked off the daily recap by showing us a screenshot from the Windy app. The gist of what we were seeing … we’ll be heading into rough seas and strong winds. Mother Nature is not going to be kind to us … which means that we will have no time for off-ship activities on our way north.

Phil went first for the recap briefings, showing us what it takes to get something as simple as breakfast in polar regions … let’s just say there’s a lot of shoveling involved.

Clara was next … sharing with us the goals of an educational project in which she is involved — “Una Ventana al Mar” (Window to the Sea). The group is working on a web page that will provide online resources for free download, and hopes to expand the project to other regions by working with researchers and teachers.

Tennessee — who was still on a “I finally made it to Elephant Island” high — wrapped up with a topic apropos to today’s visit to Elephant Island. Using historic images taken by Frank Hurley, the photographer on the Endurance Expedition, he told the story of the rescue of the 22 men Shackleton left behind on the island when he and 5 others braved the Southern Ocean to go in search of help. I didn’t realize that there were three unsuccessful rescue attempts prior to the one aboard the Yelcho … which successfully evacuated the men nearly 4.5 months after they made land on Elephant Island.

After the excitement of the past 20 days or so, we are looking forward to some downtime … which will be punctuated with lectures and … hopefully some interesting sightings.Leggi altro