Hi Everyone,
Today was the second day of our move towards the M3 mooring and the ice today was getting more frequent. It was still just the odd iceberg, with a few going past every hour, but often worth going out on deck to see. This will likely increase as we approach the M3 mooring and we are very much crossing our fingers that there will be some space in the sea ice. Our last satellite data suggests the moorings should be ice free but there has been cloud cover and a southwesterly wind for the past few days so the ice could have moved across the moorings. It really reminds you how little information we can have in some situations, despite all of the satellites and modern technology aiding us.
One of the highlights of the day was the wildlife. We have still been surrounded by the usual seabirds, often lots of cape petrels and prions, but there have been some more exciting bits and pieces. When we went on deck to sightsee we were surprised by one of the biggest albatross I have ever seen, flying very close to the ship, though unfortunately moving too fast to get a good photo. We also saw some penguins on the nearby icebergs which was incredible. I got some photos with a good zoom lens but the quality isn’t really good enough to determine the species, probably chinstrap or king penguins given what we have seen around.
Finally towards the end of the day we began to see signs of bits of sea ice on the horizon. This can be observed in two ways, partly via observing a thin white line on the horizon but also via a faint white glow in the sky over the ice where the ice reflects the sunlight up, increasing the brightness of the sky. This was very cool, but is hopefully just smaller pieces as our ship is not ice strengthened and if the ice gets too concentrated we will have to turn back and avoid the moorings. Wish me luck with the ice!
17/01/23
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