a sun sighting to ensure that his chronometer was rated. Shortly after the start of the voyage, the James Caird, which, in addition to Shackleton and Worsley, also carried McNish, sailors John Vincent and Timothy McCarthy, as well as the experienced Tom Crean, encountered the ice but Worsley found a way through and into the open ocean. The crew set up two watches for the journey, which eventually took 16 days in heavy seas to reach South Georgia. For most of the voyage, the weather was so stormy and overcast Worsley was unable to take more than a few sightings with his sextant. He described one sighting as "...cuddling the mast with one arm and swinging fore and aft round the mast, sextant and all..." and he would "...catch the sun when the boat leaped her highest on the crest of a sea...". At times the sea conditions were so rough he was braced by the other crew members when taking his sightings. On occasion, the temperature was bitter and each man would spend one-minute shifts chipping away ice that coated the top surfaces of the James Caird, affecting its buoyancy. The heavy seas meant there was considerable risk that a man could go overboard. After two weeks, Worsley began to worry about the lack of sightings and advised Shackleton he could not calculate their position to less than 16 km (10 mile) accuracy. As a result, Shackleton opted to aim for the western side of South Georgia which meant that, with the prevailing winds, if they missed their target they would be carried onto the east coast of the island. The next day they began to see drifting seaweed and seabirds circulating overhead, indicating the presence of land. On 8 May, through mists and squalls, the crew sighted South Georgia's Cape Demidov, precisely in line with the course calculated by Worsley. He saw a "...towering black crag, with a lacework of snow around its flanks. One glimpse, and it was hidden again. We looked at each other with cheerful, foolish grins." Sea and wind conditions were such that they were unable to make their way to the Norwegian whaling stations 238 km (148 miles) away on the east coast. Instead they made for King Haakon Bay. Now out of drinking water, they were forced by the high seas to approach the rocky coast with care and heave-to for the