Commonwealth Bay and pack ice

Tuesday, January 19

Breakfast is an hour earlier today. Something's afoot. We are told that the staff tried to start up the all terrain vehicles they'd unloaded, but had mechanical problems and hat to bring them back on board to be fixed.

Suddenly, Rodney announces that ice has moved in behind us and because the captain doesn't want us to be stuck, he has decided to start moving - like a holding pattern - but the noise level on the bridge has gone out of hand and the crew can't work like that, so he calls for the bridge to be cleared.

A bit later on, Huw gives us a presentation on Shackleton, that expedition where he lost the ship, left the crew behind on Elephant Island and went back to England to get help and never lost a single member of the crew.

Sometime after lunch, Rodney calls us down for a briefing. With the help of some drawings on the whiteboard, he shows us what the situation is and then tells us to get our gear on to go traipsing around the ice with the penguins for an hour or so.

The penguins are coming in from their day's fishing and start on the long trek across the ice skirt to their colony. Some of the poor fellows are already limping.

Mawson's Hut is just over there............about 14km away.

The landscape and light are just fantastic, so I take a few shots for future reference - they might be turned into paintings, who knows.

In a briefing after dinner, Rodney outlines what we could expect to do tomorrow. The idea is to walk behind the Argos - 28km return, in about 10 hours. Clearly something for tall people with big feet only.

Oh to have a pair of cross-country skis! I'd be able to cross the ice like Xavier Mertz.

Wednesday, January 20

Rodney calls just after seven in the morning to tell us that the ice has packed in around us again in the night and that Captain Igor wants to break out of it and start moving.

We all spend a lot of time either on the bridge or out on deck to watch the maneuvering out of the ice. The weather is glorious and it just looks like fairyland out there.

We are literally just inching forward. It's an amazing process. We spot plenty of penguins and even a Ross Seal, well and truly out of his territory.

Somewhere through the afternoon, our cooks Matt and Connor bring out some hot chocolate - some of it even laced with Vodka and Baileys.

At dinnertime, Rodney announces that we have come 10 nautical miles in the last 12 hours, but there is still a fair bit to go.

What a glorious day it has been!

The Screaming Sixties and crossing the Antarctic Circle

Sunday, January 17

The sea is reasonably calm and the weather pretty good.

Huw is giving us another one of his brilliant lectures this morning. It's called 'South with Mawson' with lots of photos by Frank Hurley.

When Mawson lost his two companions Ninnis and Mertz and dragged himself back to the hut, he fell down a crevasse. His sledge stopped him from falling any farther than the length of the rope of his harness into which he had tied knots at even intervals. This enabled him to eventually climb up hand over hand. It was a long and arduous process, fraught with setbacks. Mawson who liked reading poetry later said that during this ordeal, there was one line which he kept repeating to himself over and over:
'Just give it one more try - it is dead easy to die; it's the keeping on living that's hard.'

Huw keeps apologising for going over time but he needn't, as everybody loves his lectures - and the way he delivers them. I for one could listen to him for ages.

There is great excitement around eleven o'clock when we sight the first ice berg in the distance.

It even shows up on the radar!

In the afternoon, we're shown a BBC documentary called 'Of Ice and Men'. Disappointingly, the likes of Mawson and his men, incl. Frank Hurley, don't get any mention at all. Never mind. We know better.

Later on, we are approaching beautiful big ice berg and many of us go up to the bridge for quite a while before happy hour and dinner.

Oh what a glorious moment! I feel quite elated.

Monday, January 18

I briefly wake up at 03.30h and can just see the sunrise on the horizon through the port hole. The sea is remarkably calm.

When the breakfast call comes, we're told that we are now at 65°35' and would be crossing the Antarctic Circle sometime later in the day.

Needless to say that I climb up to the bridge straight after breakfast. There are more and more ice floes. It's just incredibly beautiful.

I have to peel myself away from it all because Rodney wants us down in the lecture room. He shows us various weather maps and tells us a little bit about what we can expect to see and do over the next 6 days.

This is followed by the quarantine measures for our gear and another trip to the bridge.

 Sometime in the afternoon, we watch the documentary 'Ice Bird' which is on the life of the Adelie Penguins.

We are now getting closer and closer to the Antarctic Circle and currently floating alongside the famous B9B iceberg. We have to circumnavigate it to get into Commonwealth Bay. It is never ending and I was beginning to think this must be the mainland.

It is 18.40h when we cross the Antarctic Circle.

As if to welcome us, we suddenly spot a large pod of Minky Whales - Rodney estimates around 50 of them - all blowing, looking for all the world like a giant fountain. All we need is the music to go with the display.

As the ship maneuvers slowly closer to the whales, we start seeing them jump everywhere around us; at times they are joined by Adelie penguins beautifully complementing the display.

Lots more penguins - Emperors as well as Adelie - can be seen on the ice around us as we are steadily advancing toward Cape Denison in the Commonwealth Bay.

We are finally rounding the end of B9B and heading for the ice shelf in Commonwealth Bay.

Closer and closer we get to the shelf, until finally, Captain Igor 'parks' the ship on top of the edge of the ice. Naturally, she slides backwards into the water and there she is to stay for the night, just floating.

It is now 21.30h and the sun is still very much up.

Rodney tells us all to come to the bar in half an hour to toast the achievements of the day with some of the mulled wine our cooks have brewed up for the occasion.

Rodney makes a moving speech that nearly has me in tears, ending it with the following pledge which we are to repeat after him.