Plan A was to continue along the Ross Ice Shelf for further exploration, but plans changed over night. Winds gusting to 70 have whipped up the seas and we spent the night rolling heavily from side to side. As before, when the rocking and rolling really kicks in, elevator service is discontinued and the staff quietly positions these bags here and there throughout the ship in case one is, shall we say, indisposed coming or going from one’s cabin.
The seas have indeed been heavy duty, and I’ve been trying to get the camera to capture the huge swells.
They gathered us together this morning and explained that the ship’s captain considered it unsafe to try to proceed up the west shore of the Sound as we would be looking at 70 mph winds after which we would have to pass through the thickening pack ice. The ship cannot deploy its stabilizers in icy conditions,so the pitching and rolling would have been really something.
Long story short, we have wrapped up the Antarctic piece of the cruise and will be about four days at sea heading back north. They are hoping to acquire the permits necessary for us to pay a visit to Macquarie Island, a subAntarctic Island undulating with interesting birds,etc.
With a day “in hand,” we may visit either The Snares or Dusky Bay in the so-called Fjordlands of southwestern NZ.
The numerous guides aboard have delivered a number of interesting lectures on seals,birds, historical issues, etc., and yesterday was no exception.
A young lady employed by the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust lectured on a most interesting subject. It seems that a portion of the supplies Shackelton arranged for his 1907 Nimrod Expedition included a few cases of scotch and brandy.
In 2010 as part of the Trust’s hut restoration efforts Trust employees spent days chipping through the huge chunk of ice under Shackelton’s hut. There they excavated three cases of scotch and two of brandy.
The scotch was kept in its state of refrigeration and a case was sent back to NZ for further handling. There three bottles, still wrapped in their original paper and straw wrappers, were gradually thawed.
It seems the whiskey was distilled in 1907 by Mackinlay’s, a brand now owned by Whyte and Mackay. The owner of W and M flew the bottles in his private jet to back to Scotland where experts at his distillery and the Scotch Whiskey Research Institute (who knew?) analyzed rhe contents.
It seems the scotch had been seasoned in American White Oak sherry casks and flavored by Orkney Islands peat.The distillery’s master blender then proceeded to recreate the whiskey with its original taste.
Today, Shackelton’s Whiskey can be purchased in its modern recreation with a portion of all sales going to support the Antarctic Heritage Trust.
Small samples were handed out after the talk, and I’m telling you Shackelton could pick ’em.
I asked whether anyone had taken a good pull on the actual scotch as excavated. She allowed as how rhe master blender probably took a sip but no after action report was available as to its taste. Sigh.
Kenway Goes South 
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