Motoring at night our way to South Georgia.

Attention lookouts, tired as you can be after a whole couple of days on a sea watch schedule…, keep a good eye out there at sea: Not far from where we find ourselves today, lay the mythical Aurora Islands. Although nowadays considered a group of three phantom islets that were to be found between Falklands and South Georgia, for many they remain as one of the numerous mysteries of the seas. Others ponder whether they are not the remote and jagged Shag Rocks, though much smaller than the supposed 20 leagues (118km) long Auroras.

Amerigo Vespucci, during his voyage in 1501-02 which brought the world to finally realize that what Columbus stumbled upon was actually a continent new to Europeans (which he called the New World), already gave an account of islands encountered approximately in the area where we sail. Islands officially first reported in 1762 by the Spanish merchant ship Aurora while being blown off their course when sailing from Lima to Cádiz. Since then apparently, they were sighted several times again and even their position fixed by the Spanish ship San Miguel at 52°37'S, 47°49’W. And later on, when as part of the impressive Alejandro Malaspina scientific expedition from 1789 to 1794, the corvette Atrevida was routed to these latitudes to confirm them, they reported a location closer to 53°S 48°W.

For 60 years everyone sailed with great care in this region without seeing them again.

In 1820, on his first voyage in the area, James Weddell had surveyed their supposed position in fine weather and proved they did not exist; nevertheless, they continued to appear on maps of the South Atlantic until the 1870s.

Following the same windfield blowing from the southeast for the last days, we are overshooting South Georgia steering further north. Anyway, no phantom islands to be seen today, though spotting a bird that usually is more common close to the coastline, the Diving petrel, may indicate that we are not so far from them… or most probably from the well-known, though off the beaten track, Shag Rocks.

Wind blows from an easterly quarter although we sail in the prevailing westerlies region. Wind changes that have to do with the relative position of High and Low pressure systems around us. The main current system should run to the East, but the Antarctic Circumpolar Current along its northern edge also produces eddies and streams that flow in different directions. A current that actually came to being with the opening of the Drake Passage and Scotia Sea around 30 million years ago. In summer, it supports abundant life with its high productivity around Antarctica, South Georgia, and other subantarctic islands, although it isolated the southern continent from the rest of the planet, making for a plunge in the Antarctic temperatures and the growing of the ice caps and ice shelves that now characterize the Southern Continent.

A wind situation where we find ourselves that slightly veers to more southerly during the late afternoon and then starts to die down. By nighttime, a light breeze blows and the swell is abating too. The ship virtually stops and drifts with the currents for a while until we decide to take sails away, start packing them, and start engines. Ahead of us, approximately 250nm until reaching the northern shores of South Georgia. A distance that we will start making under engine. Who knows, if fair winds blow again during the next couple of days, sure we will set sail again.