ICE FLOE, PACK ICE, ICEBERGS AND BRASH ICE

WEATHER: Overcast, snowing and 0C

HIGHTLIGHT OF THE DAY: Walking on my 7^th continent

BUYS OF THE DAY: Some internet at 50AUD for 30MB

WORD OF THE DAY: Ice, Ice Baby

Swans of weird shapes pecked at our planks, a gondola steered by a giraffe ran foul of us, which much amused a duck sitting on a crocodile’s head…All the strange, fantastic shapes rose and fell in stately cadence with a rushing, whispering sound and hollow echoes to the thudding seas.

Frank Worsley-Captain of ‘Endurance’ describing icebergs…..

Follow our journey at http://www.gadventures.com/marine/triplog-login/  where you can find our Daily Expedition Reports and other documents from our voyage.  It also maps our itinerary and stops along the way, so you may find this of interest.  You will need the following to get in:

Username: antarctica111107

Password: expedition

I have been setting my alarm 15 minutes prior to our official wakeup call.  I have been having my showers in the morning and Jules had been having hers at night time, so the system has worked well for us.  6.30 this morning was the ships wakeup call and I have to say I am feeling a little tired this morning.  Buffet breakfast was served between 7-8 and then we were on standby for announcements on whether we would get some landings done today.  The wind has died down, but there is a heavy fog this morning and it was snowing.  So not sure how this will impact on their decision making.  Susan was keeping her cards close to her chest on the mornings arrangements.  To be honest they probably didn’t know either as they waited for the fog to lift and see what kind of ice / water conditions were. 

After breakfast I ventured outside, as snow had been falling for the last few hours, I wanted to get some photos with the ship covered in snow.  It was pretty amazing and there weren’t too many people that had been on the decks yet, so it was still all powdery and soft and fluffy.  It made for some cool photos.  The deck was super slippery, and as I couldn’t be bothered changing into my sneakers I kept my crocs on and they surprisingly held up well on the wet decks. 

We are currently travelling the Gerlache Strait with the Antarctica Peninsular now on out port (left) side.  After breakfast an announcement was made that we would be entering pack ice to try and get us to our morning’s landings at Danco Island.  It soon became clear that the ice had not yet melted enough for the ship to get through, but the Captain kept us going in as far as we would go to let us get some photos and knowing we wouldn’t be getting off the ship this morning, was a small consolation.

The ocean freezes and forms sea ice.  Every winter the sea around Antarctica freezes, and every summer most of this new ice meets again.  Only the surface freezes to a depth of about 2m, but as today proves it is thick enough to stop the passage of most ships except true icebreakers.  It can be strong enough to allow bulldozers to drive on it or let even large airplanes to be landed.  Because of the salt content, sea water freezes at -1.9C and begins in autumn when the water turns into slush like ‘grease or frazil ice.  This then clumps into pancake sizes pieces of ice that all bump into each other.  This ‘pancake’ ice then solidifies and then becomes known as ‘pack ice’.  Pack ice is actually composed of many ‘Ice Floes’ which are large pieces of floating ice and this is the stuff that we were driving through this morning.  It looked like a big jigsaw puzzle that had just been pulled apart a little bit with gaps of water around each piece.  It was an amazing experience and it just about made up for not getting a landing in this morning.  It was just what was needed as people were starting to get a little antsy of not getting off the ship yesterday, even though we understood why, it has just reset us and got our enthusiasm back.  Susan was very smart to have not told us that we weren’t landing till after this event, as out care factor was lower than if she had of told us first thing this morning.  She is a smart cookie.

We could see a few seals in the distance, too far for a photo and at one point at the bow of the ship there would have been over 100 penguins making the most of the wake of the ship to swim further in land.  As we were parting the ice it gave them a free run to swim in the wake.  It was cool to watch as they swim above water with their little heads sticking out and jumping like a fish out of water and then they dive down and are below water for around 5 minutes before coming back up again.  It was funny to see their little head bobbing up each time.  They were making their way to Culverville Island which is home to the largest Gentoo penguin rookery in Antarctica at around 4,800 pairs.  I did get a good photo of a seal that was around 150m away and just before my battery went dead, so if nothing else I have one good photo of a seal.    

After standing on deck 7 (top deck outside) and then to the stern to see the penguins swimming, I decided to get to the bow of the ship as well.  This is a place I don’t get too much, but wanted to see the very bow (front) of the ship stopped in the pack ice and it made for a great photo to see the blue and red of the bow stopped in pack ice and the Antarctic waters around it.  This peeps is the furthest a ship has come this season and we were on it!!!

So we travelled for around 45 minutes till we literally hit pack ice and we could go no further.  It really was a treat for us, as it was out of the way for the Captain to do what he did and we basically just turned around and came back the same way we had come.  They just wanted us to experience pack ice and ice floes and I am so glad they did as it was an amazing experience.  All this and it was only 9.45am!  You could imagine our surprise when Susan made an announcement that once we were back in open water that they were going to get us into the Zodiacs and go for a bit of a cruise around the brash ice (smaller ice parts) and some icebergs.  This was great news and a plus for us as we thought the pack ice was going to be it for the morning. 

So at 11am our group was called to the mud room to boot up and board the Zodiacs for an hours spin around Antarctica.  We had Ozi as out driver and she was explaining to us about the brash ice and that the really clear ice is around 3,000 years old, so we were scooting around the edge of the brash ice trying to scoop in some large pieces and take them back to the ship to pop in our drinks back at the ship. It was snowing the whole time we were out there.  A lot of people were trying to cover their camera’s up as the flakes were actually quite large.  My main whinge is that my lens keeps fogging up and I have to keep wiping it with one of my 4 layers tucked in under my jacket.  We had some penguins swimming around the boat at one stage and then they followed us a little ways before heading to one of the nearby islands.  They are so cute when they swim and they cut through the water so quickly and fast!  We cruised around a few icebergs, but you have to be careful around them as you don’t know how stable they are under the water and all it takes is a piece to move or break off under the water and then the top could move and collapse and if we are too close it could be goodnight Irene.  We were just inside the hour and then we were all called back to the ship a little early.  It was starting to snow really heavy now so we guessed it was a change in the weather.  I am happy to report that I am keeping warm enough and I went the double socks on my feet and I took my ski gloves rather than the material gloves and I was fine.  It is 0C and I am warm.  AWESOME!!!!

We were back on the boat and by the time we had our boots scrubbed, washed and we were checked back in it was lunch time.  This is the first day I have been ravenous at lunch time, well we had a pretty busy morning so far, so it made sense.  The food on the ship has been exceptional and today was no different.  I am even having dessert at lunch time, no wonder I feel like a whale, but all my cloths still fit, this is my only gauge, so I can’t be doing too bad.  The chocolate mousse, dark and white chocolate varieties, were just delicious.  It was over lunch that Susan made the rounds to all the tables to let us know she was hoping to get a landing at Neko Harbour this afternoon sometime after 3pm.  This day will have turned out to be pretty awesome if we get a landing in this afternoon.

So we had a few hours to kill and I was running out of energy fast, so Jules and I decided to have an afternoon kip for an hour and a half till 3pm.  Well the kip turned out to be a solid 3 hours sleep as we didn’t get into Neko Harbour till 4.45pm.  Due to the brash ice it took us 45 minutes to travel 4 miles, but after getting to our anchor position we were called to the mud room for the second time that day to load into Zodiacs and get driven to shore.  Just before we boarded we had to wait about 10 minutes as some large pieces of ice had come in and were not permitting the Zodiacs from getting next to the ship, so they had to be moved.  Once we were in it was a little bit like running the gauntlet on which was the best way to get from the ship to shore with all the ice floating around.  It was surreal and at one point the motor hit a large piece of ice and made us all jolt a little before proceeding on.

Even though we have done a landing before, we were only biologically in Antarctica, but had not really set foot on Antarctica proper.  Today was the day that we got to do that.  We could all finally say we have walked on mainland Antarctica!!!  A pretty cool feat and not everyone has that claim to fame.  It feels good we are in a small select group that makes this journey to see a beautiful and unique part of the world.  Neko Harbour is named after the whaling factory ship that often operated in this bay between 1911 and 1924.  Once we had landed we were told not to stand on the beach for too long as falling ice from the nearby cliffs frequently sends waves washing over the shoreline, like a mini tsunami and a few times groups have had to rush uphill to avoid being knocked over or swept away.  No need to tell us that twice as we made our way up the beach and to a step that had been bought from the ship, a helping hand from Atilla and we found ourselves standing on Antarctica!  There were 2 ways we could walk, one was up hill to get to the top for an amazing view of the ice cliffs and the glacier, passing a few Gentoo colonies and the other way was along the shore line to another Gentoo colony in the distance.  The Gentoo colony is spread over several low ridges, and since the whole area is still covered in snow, there has been no chance for the penguins to build their stone nests.  Some were displaying love, some marking territories, and some chasing away other penguins that got onto their patch, but most were just waiting patiently in pairs for the snow to melt.  We decided to take the high road and started the steady climb to the top of the hill.  This was more hard going than the other day, as there had been a fresh dump of snow over the last few days, so even though there was a path that had been created with the first groups heading up there, when walking you would still find some soft snow and find your leg knee deep in snow and having to pull yourself out.  We were told if you made deep holes with your boots to try and fill them in a little by knocking in the wall, as penguins have been known to fall into our deep shoe prints and not be able to get back out.  The snow was pristine, beautiful, pure and so white.  Some people are having problems taking photos as the snow is just so bright.  We were also reminded to pop on some sunscreen this morning, as there are a lot of people walking around with raccoon eyes from wearing sunglasses and the rest of their face is burnt!

I’m not used to all this snow stuff, but I am warm enough, so that is all I care about.  Passing 100’s of penguins, stopping for photos of them and also of the bay and glacier, it was a magic walk and something I am sure that I will not ever see again.  This place was postcard perfect.  Once at the top, lot of us took a seat in the snow and just sucked up where we were and what it meant.  We had approximately 2 hours here till ‘last zodiac time’ so we made out back down and headed out along the shore line where there was a Weddell seal swimming around.  The water is so clear here and I could see the seal, but he didn’t come into land, so I didn’t get a photo, but the photos of the penguin colonies from here were also pretty specky and the whole landing was magic.  The snow was fresh and we were the first boat of the season to step on Neko.  It was here we got the earlier call to get back to ship.  The tide was coming in quite fast, so we got recalled back to the ship so as not to get stuck on Neko and the ice brash was also starting to close in. 

While we were there, you could hear the ice calving off the glacier, and it is quite a distinctive noise in the midst of a quite atmosphere.  Some of them we could only hear and not see but we did see 3 of them calve.  It really is something to see to see ice falling into the water and the noise is incredible.

As the water was so calm I didn’t fold my camera back into my jacket and was able to snap some photos as we left Neko and headed back to the ship.  There were some massive icebergs also floating around in the harbour, with brash ice also around, it was just a shame the sun wasn’t out as that would have just been magic, but we are all happy that we got off the ship and I am sure G Adventures are also happy to get us off and touching the mainland.

It turned out to be an amazing day and really this is TIA.  This is Antarctica.  It is so unpredictable, things so far, according to the itinerary, have not gone to plan and we really need to be flexible on where and what we do.  But the crew and Captain have been amazing and this is still a trip of a life time. 

Dinner was Indian themed tonight, we had a de-brief and a briefing on tomorrows proposed plans and as I was leaving the lounge they were showing Happy Feet as the nights movie.  I am stuffed, so I have come back to the cabin to finish off the day’s blog, read for a little while and then hit the hay.  If tomorrow does go to plan we have 2 landings and another big day ahead of us.

Tonight we fall asleep drifting around the Gerlache Strait and seeing what weather awaits us tomorrow.