Polarstern / CAML expedition: crossing of the Weddell Sea
Clarence Island in the clouds
© G. Chapelle / IPF / Alfred Wegener Institut
Finally, our journey from the East to the West of the Weddell Sea is coming to an end ... 8 days since we left Neumayer, the German station, 8 days in a sea ice light enough to avoid complex maneuvers, 8 days in the "grey", except for the day before yesterday, when we saw a bright sun above a sea as flat as a lake, perfect conditions for our whales specialists who seized the opportunity for numerous sightings.
Yesterday, we came out of the sea ice, and welcomed the return of birds less dependent on the ice, such as Southern Fulmars. Unfortunately, the swell, from which we were protected by the ice for the last two weeks, made its come-back as well.
Today, we finally reached Elephant Island, the northernmost of the South Shetland archipelago, itself situated north of the Antarctic Peninsula and the polar Antarctic Circle. Volcanic like its neighbors Clarence and Gibbs, Elephant Island marries the black of its rocks with the white of its glaciers and blanketing snow.
Add some blue icebergs passing by, some low cloud ribbons and a visiting flock of a hundred Cape Petrels and you can imagine the scene. Elephant Island is also famous in the polar world for having harboured Shackleton and his men during the long months after the sinking of "Endurance" and their trek across the ice, at the beginning of World War I. All of them were rescued what remains one of the most incredible sagas of Antarctic exploration. Finally, Elephant Island is also the epicentre of the fishing campaign which began this afternoon and will last for two weeks, providing material mostly for the ichtyologists (the fish specialists).
