2025_26 Oosterdam, Antarctica Day 1...

The agenda for today was to navigate Elephant Island. The highlight of the day was being invited by Captain Kevin Beirnaert to the bridge for a viewing of our approach to Elephant Island. A very pleasant surprise was a reconnecting with the Ice Pilot Olav van der Waard on the bridge. I haven’t seen Olav since 2011, the last World Voyage on the Amsterdam with him as our Captain…Great reunion! Elephant Island, Antarctica, is named after the elephant seals that make their home there as well as for its elephant-like shape. The island is located 150 miles off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, in the outer reaches of the South Shetland Islands. Covered in ice and towering above the surrounding ocean, it’s truly a sight to behold. Our first siting was a large tabular iceberg that was calving as well a playground for penguins. Though it is summertime it was a harsh and unforgiving looking place, but beautiful to gaze upon. On our previous cruise, bad weather negated our stop at Elephant Island. We made our way to Point Wild where Ernest Shackleton and his crew were stranded for 4.5 months in 1916. The Captain got us quite close to the monument commemorating Shackleton’s Expedition. The monument stands alone…but not completely…Hundreds of penguins swarmed the exposed rock of the island along with a couple of elephant seals. We spent time motoring around the north end of the island and saw a number of fin whales in the water along with penguins, birds, seals, etc. As we headed south towards our next stop at Endurance Glacier you get a sense of the remoteness and wildness of Antarctica. The Endurance Glacier is a large glacier named after Ernest Shackleton's ship the Endurance. Coming out of the fog shrouded rocks and sitting at the water’s edge was the glacier, with a ragged face of different shades of blue and white. Elephant Island is home to hundreds of migratory Gentoo and Chinstrap penguins and of course has Elephant seals. The weather today was better than predicted with still cold, some wind, lots of snow and at times, almost warm in the shelter of the glacier’s bay. Looking forward to our next adventure tomorrow.