Elephant Island -- Or Not
Cruises have the advantage of being consistent. You have a schedule, know when and where you’re going to stop, when meals are available (not quite 24 hours, but pretty darned close) and how much effort it is going to take to participate in the various activities.
Except when something changes.
So let’s back up to leaving Ushuaia. We were supposed to cross “Drake’s Passage”, which takes somewhere between 24 and 36 hours. The important thing to note here is that we aren’t traveling with it, but rather crossing it as one would do for a major highway.
Once you cross it, you are heading toward Schollaert’s Channel. Think of this as the sidewalk that parallels the major highway, with maybe a bike lane or small median (which happen to be islands, in this case) in between. We crossed Drake’s Passage, then entered Schollaert’s channel at Paradise Bay, where we first saw Antarctica.
Once we were in Schollaert’s channel we made a left (roughly Northeasterly) and went toward Elephant Island, where Shackelton’s crew spent some five (5) months waiting for rescue after their ship the Endurance got trapped and broke apart in the ice.
Our experience was that we turned up Schollaert’s Channel exactly on time on Thursday and spent the better part of a day steaming up the passage to get to Elephant Island by 6:00 p.m. on Friday only to find that the spectacular weather we had enjoyed in Paradise Bay had completely disappeared and we could see nothing of the island due to the fog.
Not to be deterred, everyone spent the time roaming in and out of the various lounges onto the deck – where gale force winds once again made everything not attached a potential projectile.
Disappointing, but just another part of the adventure. I’m sure there is a Discovery Channel show about Elephant Island that will provide an up-close view.
Except when something changes.
So let’s back up to leaving Ushuaia. We were supposed to cross “Drake’s Passage”, which takes somewhere between 24 and 36 hours. The important thing to note here is that we aren’t traveling with it, but rather crossing it as one would do for a major highway.
Once you cross it, you are heading toward Schollaert’s Channel. Think of this as the sidewalk that parallels the major highway, with maybe a bike lane or small median (which happen to be islands, in this case) in between. We crossed Drake’s Passage, then entered Schollaert’s channel at Paradise Bay, where we first saw Antarctica.
Once we were in Schollaert’s channel we made a left (roughly Northeasterly) and went toward Elephant Island, where Shackelton’s crew spent some five (5) months waiting for rescue after their ship the Endurance got trapped and broke apart in the ice.
Our experience was that we turned up Schollaert’s Channel exactly on time on Thursday and spent the better part of a day steaming up the passage to get to Elephant Island by 6:00 p.m. on Friday only to find that the spectacular weather we had enjoyed in Paradise Bay had completely disappeared and we could see nothing of the island due to the fog.
Not to be deterred, everyone spent the time roaming in and out of the various lounges onto the deck – where gale force winds once again made everything not attached a potential projectile.
Disappointing, but just another part of the adventure. I’m sure there is a Discovery Channel show about Elephant Island that will provide an up-close view.
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