Southern Ocean - Icebergs!

Days 10 – 12, January 20 - 22.  the Southern Ocean en-route to the Ross Sea. 

Monday 20^th : New Zealand’s Scott Base 56 years old today

Noon position: Latitude 56^o 48.38’South; Longitude 161^o 39.121’East ;  Air temperature: 11^oC, Water temperature: 5^oC

We were now on the Southern Ocean, en-route to the Ross Sea and Antarctica. The sea in the furious fifties was a lot less rough! Our days at sea were filled in with films and lectures, catching up on what we had missed during our early rough voyage.  The first was an excellent video about the pest eradication program on Macquarie Island, removing al the cats, rats and finally rabbits. I managed to get a complimentary copy of the DVD. Later Samuel delivered a lecture entitled ‘Seabirds of the Southern Ocean’, about the various species of albatrosses, petrels, prions and other sea birds that we expect to see during the expedition. In the afternoon Katya gave us an introduction to ‘Cetaceans of the Southern Ocean’.  Then was the first of David’s lectures on the exploration of Antarctica. This focused on Sir Douglas Mawson and his first expedition to the establishment of ANARE (Australian National Antarctic Research Expedition) including the founding of stations on Macquarie Island, and on the Antarctic continent Mawson Station, later followed by Davis and Casey Stations. Australia now claims 47% of the Antarctic continent (David is a NZ-lander, and NZ has a much smaller protectorate passed over by the UK!).

From our forays to the Bridge or on the Bow deck to get some very fresh air between lectures, some passengers sighted several King and Royal Penguins at Latitude 57^o 41’S 162^o 53.64E, a long way from home, although Katya said this is not unusual for these penguins.

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Tuesday 21^st : Crossing the 60^o South longitude and entered region of the Antarctic Treaty

Noon position: Latitude 60^o22.943’South; Longitude 166^o46.905’ East; Air temperature: 2.8^oC, Water temperature: 2-3^oC.  Temperature inside the ship was 22-23^oC now that we had turned on the heaters in our cabins.

During the night we had crossed the Antarctic Convergence (a temperature and salinity boundary of the Southern Ocean and usually an area of abundant nutrients and marine life), still evident in the morning with a little fog indicating the change in water temperature. It used to about 90nm south of Macquarie Island but has shifted south with the warming seas. This is causing problems for the King and Royal penguins on Macquarie Is as they have to swim further to feed, taking longer and using more energy, resulting in lower chick survival. We expected to observe more oceanic birds owing to the upwelling of nutrients, but they were scarce for some reason.  From the bridge during the day we saw several albatrosses including Campbell’s, Grey-headed and Southern Royals were seen along with a few Prions, Shearwaters, Mottled and Black petrels. The best sightings of the day were three pods of 20-30 black and white Southern Right Whale Dolphins: no dorsal fin, a streamlined body and short beak. A pod of ten Pilot whales were also seen to starboard.

Before lunch Part One of ‘The Last Place on Earth’, a film based on Roland Huntford’s book, entitled ‘Scott and Amundsen’, was screened. In the early evening Katya gave a further lecture on marine mammals, Pinnipeds:  explaining the differences between  the three families - True Seals or Phocids (Weddell, Crab eater and Leopard Seals); Eared Seals or Otariids (Aus and NZ fur seal and sea lions) and the Walruses.

During the afternoon our fine new blue Antarctic jackets were issued, as you will see in many photographs.

With the sea rising, we took the hint from Rodney to make sure all was secured in the cabin before retiring and, as usual, to have ‘one hand for the ship and one for your-self’ when moving about the ship.

Wednesday 22^nd  - First icebergs and ice floes; 

Noon position: Latitude 63^o 49’South; Longitude 172^o 05’ East;  Air temperature: 5^oC, Water temperature: 2.5^oC

We had a very comfortable night and arose to a calm sea, with a patch of sunlight emerging from cloud to shimmer on the Southern Ocean. At 5.20 am the Officer on Watch, picked up the first iceberg on the radar. This was soon visible as two towers and a beautiful deep blue band above the water-line, eight nautical miles to starboard. At 8am we were over 1370m depth of water and at Lat. 63^o09.036’S Long. 171^o15.989’E. Last year, the first iceberg was sighted on 17 January at 62⁰34.35’S, 172^o41.2’ E, about 30 nm further south. We saw further icebergs throughout the day, but did not sail very close to any. We had to be satisfied with looking at them through our binoculars and telephoto lenses. A number of Shearwaters and a Light-mantled Sooty Albatross and several pods of Orcas were sighted

This morning Part 2 of the ‘Last Place on Earth’ was screened. Samuel then told us all about Sir James Clark Ross who first navigated the Ross Sea in 1841, after first exploring the Arctic. After Antarctica, he helped in the search for Tasmania’s Sir John Franklin, who disappeared while searching for the NW Passage. Ross’s two 32m naval ships HMS Erebus and HMS Terror used by Franklin have never been found, although remains of his men and some equipment were.

The afternoon program included a lecture and briefing by Rodney on our route south; the Antarctic Treaty System and its governance; IAATO (International Association of Antarctic Tourism Operators) obligations. This was followed by the excellent documentary ‘The Last Ocean’ on the tooth fishing industry and the need for a marine reserve to be established to protect them in the Ross Sea.

During the afternoon three large Rorquals and more Orcas were seen and later a large male Sperm Whale accompanied by two other whales, was blowing as it moved along the surface. In the afternoon we sailed past three large tabular icebergs.

We passed a large berg to port, with a cave which had the most beautiful deep Prussian blue colour.  It took us 20 min to steam past the largest one at 11 knots (nautical miles per hour), so it must have been about 6.6 k long. These icebergs have broken off an ice shelf and all large ones are numbered and tracked by satellites for years until they break up into small pieces and melt. That evening the first beautiful, snowy white, black-eyed Snow Petrels were sighted along with three Minke Whales. At 11pm we had a lovely sunset together with a bright half- moon rising behind the end of an iceberg.