06-02-2026
After maybe the fastest Drake Passage, we anchored at Cape Lookout, on the southwest corner of Elephant Island. The main attraction on Elephant Island is Wild Point, on the north shore. This is the spot from where Shackleton left for South Georgia in the converted lifeboat. It was far too exposed for us to visit this time, so we opted for the macaroni penguins on the southwest corner instead.
The beaches were awash and full of fur and elephant seals, so there was no landing. We did, however, manage a great tour with the dinghy and even spotted a huge leopard seal. Just before heading off, we also spotted a Weddell seal, making it the fourth seal species in this tiny spot.
Our gaze then turned south as we heaved anchor: the mega Adélie penguin rookery at Hope Bay, one of the largest on the Peninsula. Hope Bay was also the scene of two stranded crew members of Antarctic, the ship that supported the Swedish Antarctic Expedition between 1901 and 1903. A good dinghy cruise and our first continental landing, just north of the station, marked our first day in “real Antarctica.”
The next morning we were off into Antarctic Sound, underway to Devil Island. Another large Adélie colony is basking on its north shore. As we passed through the sound, we were met by more and more sea ice. The weather was fine, which made this a pleasant cruise. The landing on Devil Island was a little trickier, as was the anchorage later that night. The Weddell Sea brings a lot of its sea ice north into the Erebus and Terror Gulf, and together with the strong tides, there is never a dull moment.
I noticed this early this morning when we were underway from Snow Hill Island north to Paulet Island. It became too dark to see the ice, so I stopped the boat in a relatively ice-free patch of water. A light breeze from the north would slowly drift us south… or so I thought. None of this happened. The ice I had passed earlier caught up with us, and to my surprise we were still moving north, at just under 1 knot.
It is great to spend time in this less-frequented area. So much history. Erebus and Terror were here with Ross and Crozier. Only six months ago, we sailed past both of them in their final resting grounds in northern Canada. The scattered bones that lie across the barren grounds of King William Island are a silent witness to perhaps the greatest tragedy in exploration history.
These past days we have followed the Swedish expedition that got stranded on Snow Hill Island. When their ship, Antarctic, failed to return the summer after they were dropped off, the Nordenskjöld crew quickly prepared for a second winter. Little did they know the fate of their crewmates. Two of them were dropped off at Hope Bay when the ship failed to penetrate the ice in Antarctic Sound. They were to bring the party back north to where the ship would be waiting.
Meanwhile, the ship, under the command of the famous Captain Larsen, was crushed by the ice, leaving the crew no choice but to abandon her and make for the closest land: Paulet Island. There, they also prepared for a winter in this inhospitable place by taking 1,100 penguins and storing them for the winter. Only one person did not survive to be rescued by the Argentines and was buried on the spot.
This remarkable triangle shows the ways of early exploration and set the standard for the expeditions to come in the Heroic Age of Scott and Amundsen.
All is Weddell
Gijs
NORDSKJOLT EXPEDITION
Paulet Island
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