April 14th
The sea state was excellent this morning and the British officials were able to come aboard and they quickly completed the required formalities enabling the expedition to continue onto Inaccessible Island.
Map data: Google, Maxar Techologies
With the ship anchored off Inaccessible Island, we were informed that a landing was going to be attempted on one of the only two possible landing locations. Members of the expedition team managed to land and a handful of guests from a zodiac also managed to get ashore but were almost immediately told to return to their zodiac as despite the calm conditions, the height of the surf hitting the landing beach was assessed as too dangerous for a landing. This meant that the chances of seeing Inaccessible Island Rail, the endemic flightless rail that inhabits the island were extremely slim. Three members of the expedition team who managed to land saw one and grippingly, obtained photos. One guest who was on the lucky zodiac that also landed was within feet of the bird before being called back! Eventually the news got back to the ship that in order to get off the zodiac and onto the beach we would be jumping in to surf that would have been up to our chests in height. Some of the bird guides suggested that we swam from the zodiacs to shore but needless to say that idea was not taken further.
So the next best option was a zodiac cruise which itself is something that cannot always be achieved when visiting this island. It took over two hours for the first zodiacs to start the cruising and after the long wait to see if we were going ashore I had been feeling progressively ill and had to return to the cabin to rest. I just didn't feel well enough to attempt even a zodiac cruise. I fell asleep and awoke to a final announcement for the last zodiac cruise. I felt so much better and gathered all the gear I needed and made it to the last zodiac.
Two Inaccessible Island finches
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