Elephant island..and it is completely fogged in, with visibility down to 20
yards or less. We are moored off Point Wild. We can see the shoreline and
hear the penguins – and we are going to try for a landing! The
disappointment of not being able to land at Peggoty Bluff surfaces again.
Niall tells us that our chances of making a landing are about 1 in 20. We
load into the Zodiacs; we have Danny as well as our driver. Almost
immediately we are into “brash” ice. Danny leans over the bow of the RIB,
calling a way through. Chunks of ice belt off the rubber. We turn and run
parallel to the shore – into huge rollers that threaten to swamp us. We lose
sight of the ship, and blunder around before find her again. We can hear the
booming of glaciers calving, and again we wonder..“how did they live here?”

The captain steers towards Lookout Point, and we try the Zodiacs again.

We cannot land; there is nowhere to go. The rollers are huge, and for the
first time.it’s a bit scary. The place is HELL. The terms “forbidding” and
“inhospitable” are weak and cannot convey the awful, dreadful beauty.