First Landing on Possession Island

Day 14. Friday 24 January - Evening landing on Possession Island

We left Robertson Bay and rounded Cape Adare at 11.40 and continued southwards along the Adare Peninsula, towards the Possession Islands, where Henryk Bull’s expedition in 1895 set up a message post. 

In the bridge our Captain was keeping a close watch on our passage through the ice, breaking through the thin pancake ice when necessary.

A belt of pack ice could be seen to the west. 

Late in the afternoon Rodney briefed us on making a landing on Possession Island with its large colony of Adelie Penguins. There is some doubt as to which island is Possession and which is Foyn Island; as charts vary!

By 6pm two Zodiacs driven by Samuel and Katya, were shuttling us to a boulder beach on Possession Island with an interesting wet landing on the rounded shingle cobbles that rolled beneath our feet.

This was our first experience of the Adelie penguins at close quarters, with chicks at various stages of development amongst interesting volcanic landscape. 

Gaggles of chicks in various stages of moulting huddled together for protection while waiting for a parent to return with a feed of krill.

When the parent arrived, he or she set off running with one or two chicks in hot pursuit,  until the parent relented and regurgitated its crop-full. By that time hopefully any interloping chicks would have given up the chase.

Some late nesters were still gathering pebbles for their nest,
















and calling hopefully for a mate.


Apparently some pairings made this season, although they do not breed this season may get an early start for next season.

Chicks from these late nesters were unlikely to make it :(

Sadly, there was a lot of evidence of loss of life in the colony.

Ever curious about those strange other-two-legged creatures staring at us!

Cast high up on a beach ridge of the spit, was a wrecked wooden US landing craft still with its engine. This was lost from USS Edisto during a storm in the 1960’s and was rediscovered by Rodney in 1995.

We had a late but sumptuous dinner, with seafood chowder, venison on rice/pork belly followed by a gorgeous desert with Black Doris plums, crumble and ice cream (for the non-gluten free). 

Late in the evening HMNZS Otago on fishery patrol was sighted.

Antarctica at last - Cape Adare

Day 14. Friday 24 January - Cape Adare

Noon position: Latitude 71^o 15.632’ South; Longitude 170^o 17.427’ East , 
Air temperature: 8^o,  Water temperature: 0^oC

119 years ago today a landing was made on Ridley Beach, Cape Adare, (24 Jan.1895) from the ship Antarctic, during Henryk Bull’s whaling expedition.

We made an early start this morning in anticipation of a landing on Ridley Beach, named by Sir James Clark Ross for his friend Viscount Adare, MP for Glamorganshire, Wales.

We awoke to a slightly rough sea from a stiff westerly overnight and were soon passing through scattered areas of brash ice, bergy-bits and floes with occasional ones occupied by Adelie Penguins. 

As one floe passed and the obligatory penguin photo was taken, a passenger announced “Put there by the tourism board”. 

Great photographs were also captured of a hovering South Polar Skua.

Land Ahoy!  Cape Adare on the northern tip of Antarctica.

                 

By 7.30 am the peaks of the Transantarctic Mountains were sighted with great glaciers descending between peaks below the cloud to the sea. As we neared the Adare Peninsula we could see it was capped by a ‘whale-back’ cumulus cloud. Rodney pointed out many prominent landmarks, beginning with Cape McCormick in the south and the Downshire Cliffs of reddish brown volcanic rock, dramatic Mt. Herschel (3,335 m) near the Hallett Peninsula, first climbed by the late Sir Edmund Hillary’s expedition in 1967. The mountain was named by Ross after John F W Herschel, a noted English astronomer (not the chocolate baron). 

We rounded Cape Adare heading westward, and entered Robertson Bay. The westerly had dropped so It was a beautiful calm sunny morning, and around us were nearly 50 icebergs of various sizes, many of which were along the coast and further north. 

As the cloud base lifted great peaks on the Admiralty Range were revealed in all their glory: Mt Minto (4165 m) named by Ross after Earl Minto First Sea Lord of the Admiralty, and Mt Adam (4009) to the right named after a senior Naval Lord, and Mt Sabine (3718 m).

Unfortunately we could not make a Zodiac landing on Ridley Beach because of a built up of ice blown in by the westerly along the north and south shores. We had to be content with using binoculars and camera lenses to look at Borcrevich’s hut and the remains of a hut from one of Scott’s parties in the midst of a large Adelie Penguin colony, along with the location of Nicolai Hanson’s grave. We hoped to be able to visit the huts on our return north.

We also spotted our first crabeater seal basking on an icefloe,

Many on deck were interested in the blue ice within small caves of a berg. 

The reason for the colour is as follows: Firstly, snow appears white because air trapped between ice crystals making up the snow scatters and reflects all wave lengths of sunlight back into our eyes. Compacted glacial ice from which many icebergs are derived, retain smaller ice bubbles which allow penetration of sunlight deep into the ice. Ice crystals absorb six times as much light at the red end of the spectrum as at the blue end. Since the ice absorbs most of the red light, only the blue end of the spectrum is reflected back at us to see. Very old multi-year ice, viewed in sunlight are the most spectacular, although under certain conditions including with no sunlight present, younger bergs can be rewarding.