Leaving Antarctica -six days at sea: bergs and birds

Day 20. Thursday 30 January  –  Tuesday 4^th Feb: Heading north

We spent six days at sea after leaving Ross Island with only glimpses of a few islands as we navigated almost due north out of the Ross Sea, back across the Antarctic convergence and Circle across the Southern Ocean towards the sub-Antarctic Campbell Island (NZ). How did we fill in six days, apart from eating and sleeping well, without any Radio, TV, Internet.mobile phones or email??

The Expedition made up for the rough seas on the way south to catch up on a few lectures – we had about 4 lectures or films most days! We continued reading from the extensive library collection, about Antarctic exploration and the wildlife (especially Penguins), listening to our IPods, editing pictures, doing cryptic crosswords and Sudoku, writing diaries (which I subsequently lost so I have been editing the ‘official Expedition diary’ sent to us afterwards), and any spare time when it was not too rough we spent on the Bridge watching out for icebergs, whales and seabirds. Many were spotted by many people, but of course not all by us! Drew saw a sperm whale that I missed and I saw some others that he missed, but we all saw the last but not least, tabular iceberg (see below). And I spent lots of time learning how to identify the many species of albatross from the other experts among the passengers. I even used a lot of frames trying to photograph them but could not produce anything as good as Chris, the Parks Ranger from Alice Springs or Eric, the Expedition doctor, who did these trips just so he could photograph birds with his veritable blunderbuss of a camera telephoto.

Thursday 30th Noon position: Latitude 75^o40.129’ South; Longitude 167^o57.93’ East; Air temperature: -1^oC, Water temperature: 2^oC

We woke to a gentle rolling of the ship caused by a south-east wind. Only a few birds and whales were about. 

During the morning we watched the final episode of ‘The Last Place on Earth’ and then Samuel gave us a lecture about Penguins. At 3 pm David presented his lecture ‘A Charismatic Hero’ which focused on Ernest Shackleton’s second expedition to Antarctica. Their achievements included the first discovery of the South Magnetic Pole and the furthest south yet achieved for the South Geographic Pole. This lecture was followed by another from Katya regarding the ‘World of Contrasts’ which looked at the differences between the Antarctic and the Arctic.

A light fall of snow had occurred during the night, our first serious snow for the trip.

By early afternoon it was snowing steadily, leaving a white blanket over the deck, steps, red life boats  and black anchor winches. 

Friday 31 January: Noon position: Latitude 71^o 16.18’South; Longitude 172^o02.8’East; Air temperature: 2^oC; Water temperature: 0^oC

The previous evening apparently all the ice went out from in front of Scott Base so that the passengers from the other Russian cruise ship, Akademik Shokalskiy , following a week behind us would be landing from the Zodiac in front of the base rather than on ice.

We woke to a fairly rough sea with thin layers of foaming white and white horses on the larger waves. A 35 knot southerly was pushing us along and we were doing nearly 11 knots. Below a layer of grey cloud, we had a good view of the two island groups making up the Possession Islands.

More seabirds were seen than yesterday, mostly giant petrels including a White Morph, several Antarctic Petrels and a Wilson’s Storm Petrel. We followed the Downshire Cliffs away to port and visited Robertson Bay from which we viewed Borchgrevink’s huts (1899) along with remnants of the Northern Party Hut (1911)

In the morning David gave his lecture entitled ‘Triumph and Tragedy – Scott’s ill-fated expedition 1910-1913’. This was a very complex expedition with various field parties including the Northern Party that wintered in the ice igloo on Inexpressible Island. Next we watched a documentary called ‘Blackfish’. This grim film focused on the aberrant behaviour displayed by Orcas kept in a captive in aquaria. It was admitted that little is still known about the biology of these magnificent creatures in the wild. (I actually walked out before the end it was so awful). At 3 pm Geologist Jane gave a very interesting lecture regarding ‘Antarctic Geology – Field Mapping in South Victoria Land’. She described the five main rock units for the region – Basement of metamorphosed sediments (480-650 m.yrs); Beacon sedimentary rocks 200-420 m.yrs); Ferrar Dolerite sills (180 m.yrs); McMurdo volcanics (0-20 m.yrs)and the ‘Cover’ or ‘Drift’ consisting of glacial, freshwater and marine deposits  (also 0-20 m.yrs). This was supplemented by wonderful photographs and a description of life in the field. For the final lecture of the day Trudie Baker , a New Zealand Government Representative, gave an overview of Antarctica New Zealand, its structure and functions and international collaboration in logistic support and science.

The sea was beautiful when seen in sunbursts which made it look like burnished metal as we made 12.3 knots across the Southern Ocean.

After a superb dinner Rodney indicated that we had 1034 nautical miles to go before Campbell Island. At a speed of 11.5 knots an ETA was expected on 4 February. 

Day 22. Saturday 1 February –last iceberg

Noon position: Latitude 66^o 33.3’South; Longitude 172^o37.3’East;  Air temperature: 0^oC; Water temperature: 1^oC

It was a fine day with a small amount of cloud and a few more birds were beginning to appear. This included a large number of Snow Petrels, Campbell Island Albatross, Light-Mantled Sooty Albatross, a few Antarctic Petrels and possibly the first Southern Fulmar. It was decided that a large gathering of brownish birds on an iceberg were probably Antarctic Petrels. There seemed to be thousands of them.

We also were delighted to see a large number of ice bergs. The latter included a tabular berg calculated to be three and a half to four nautical miles long. Sadly, it was the last one we would see.

This morning David gave his last lecture on the ‘heroic-era’ of exploration, called ‘Fortunes and Misfortunes’ and focused on the generally little known Ross Sea Party of Shackleton’s Imperial Transantarctic Expedition (1914-1916), including the saga of the Endurance. Samuel talked to us about his 2005 winter-over at the French Station Dumont d’Urville in Terre Adelie, East Antarctica. He told us about the one week sea voyage from Hobart on L’Astrolabe (nicknamed L’Gastrolabe for obvious reasons) and his work on ornithology and the Weddell Seal. The day continued to be beautiful with the deep Prussian blue sea and more birds about,

 


Our borrowed blue Antarctic jackets were handed in after lunch since we had now crossed back over the Antarctic Circle.  Then part one was shown of the documentary ‘Longitude’, about John Harrison’s obsession to construct the first chronometer to aid mariners. In the early evening Rodney presented a lecture on ‘Pelagic whaling in the Ross Sea 1923/24-1932/33; A decade of shame or ignorance’. This lecture began with a biography of the pioneer of whaling, the Norwegian C.A. Larsen in Antarctica, but more so that in the Ross Sea. In the Ross Sea a total of 10,487 whales were processed by James Clark Ross and C.A. Larsen in the 1923-33 decade, with perhaps 9161 whales taken by other companies.

By 9 pm we were under the influence of an easterly and beginning to roll a little. Our speed was still 11.5 knots with 750 nautical miles to go to Campbell Island. The weather forecast looked good for the next two days although was expected to swing to the west. 
Two Fin Whales and three Minke were seen today.

To finish, the following quotation was found in The Last Explorer, an excellent biography of the great Australian Sir Hubert Wilkins by Simon Nash (Page 314). It is attributed to Apsley Cherry-Garrard of Scott’s last expedition.

‘Exploration is but the physical expression of the intellectual passion”.

Day 23. Sunday 2 February – Antarctic Convergence

Noon position: Latitude 62^o14.485’South; Longitude 171^o18.621’East;    

Getting warmer: Air temperature: 4^oC; Water temperature: 3^oC

We had a comfortable night with the ship rolling a little and got up to a calm sea and light grey cloud; a spell of light rain; fog coming and going and air temperature at 3^oC. By 11 am the fog had become quite thick and the sun was trying to break through but not doing very well.

A few birds seen included numerous Sooty Shearwaters, a Grey-headed Albatross and a prion (and these Cape Pigeons).

At 10 am David gave a lecture entitled ‘Icons of Exploration’ about  the formation of the Antarctic Heritage Trust; work achieved; conservation problems along with the work by Australia’s Mawson’s Huts Foundation and the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust; Chile; Argentina and the United States at other sites. At 11.30 the film ‘With Byrd to the Pole’ was screened and focused on the first flight made to the vicinity of the Geographic South Pole by Admiral Richard Evelyn Byrd during his United States Antarctic Expedition 1928-1930.  Then the final episode of ‘Longitude’ was screened.  At 6 pm Rodney held his Antarctica quiz. This was a lot of fun and was won by OUR TABLE, scoring 29 out of a possible 32, A great achievement which netted us two bottles of wine. There was no team leader and as Andrew said “we were very egalitarian - it was all for one and everyone for himself”!

 Day 24. Monday 3 February – Rough weather in Southern Ocean 

Noon position: Latitude 57^o48’South; Longitude170^o16’East

And warmer still: Air temperature: 8^oC; Water temperature: 7^oC

Very few of us had a comfortable night. With a westerly air flow, the ship rolled, pitched and we surfaced to a grey morning on a rough sea. Some of us braved breakfast, however most then retired to the bunk and then resurfaced for a light lunch. By early afternoon the sea had begun to calm, although this did not necessarily mean we had a good afternoon. Many of us continued to catch up with sleep, or at least staying horizontal, looked at our photographs or read in the library.

We were passing over the South-west Pacific Basin with water depths approaching 5304 metres. 

Day 25. Tuesday 4 February –Land Ho

Noon position: Latitude 53^o’50.897’South; Longitude 169^o30.280’East

Heat wave: Air temperature: 10^oC, Water temperature: 8^oC.
Many of us had another uncomfortable night and in the morning the ship was still rolling with lots of whitecaps as we were encountering waves from the north-west, so we had another lazy day. Our expected arrival at Campbell Island around 7.30 in the evening. We looked forward to calmer waters once we arrived in Perseverance Harbour.

With the rough sea and occasional light rain, there were only a few observers on the bridge. A small pod of perhaps three Long-finned Pilot Whales was seen by some off the starboard bow.

 As we neared land, bird species were increasing, including six species of albatrosses (White-capped or Shy; Campbell (a mollymawk); Black-browed; Southern Royal; Wandering and Grey-headed). All of these species, plus the Antipodean Albatross (not seen today) breed on Campbell Island and some of the smaller outlying islands. Petrels included White-chinned, Cape and White-headed. A few shearwaters were also seen. Chris (NT Ranger) was a great help identifying the species. It marvellous watching these magnificent birds as they soared over the waves with a wing-tip just a few centimetres above the water surface, then rising with the occasional wing flutter, before swooping, rising, changing direction and gaining height, as they picked up speed to soar on air currents around the ship.

With the sea getting rather choppy with scattered white caps and the occasional wave breaking over the bow due to the westerly conditions, many of us rested after lunch. Our speed at noon had slowed to 8.5 knots over water around 470 m deep.

Just before 6 pm Rodney announced we had 21.7 nautical miles to reach our way-point at the entrance to Perseverance Harbour, followed by 40 minutes to the anchorage. We had the first visual sighting of the main island as it loomed in the mist, at around 6.15 pm. when Mt. Honey, the highest point (558 m), was seen with Mt Dumas (500 m) beyond. On the bridge Andrew asked Rodney “Are there any teal here?” As Rodney replied “Yes!” some teal took flight right in front of us so there were laughs all round. On the bow the Bosun was preparing the anchors and used a hand crank to release the ‘Devil’s claws’ which hold back the anchor chains.

At 7pm we had an interesting view of a Sea Lion just below the surface with something in its mouth. By now we were at the harbour entrance. We were escorted into Perseverance Harbour by a pair of Southern Royal Albatross along with numerous Giant and Cape Petrels. As we turned into the harbour with Erebus Point to starboard and South Point to port we had good views of vegetated lava flows, old glacial terraces, ice sculptured landforms and olive-green scrub reaching up from the water’s edge and merging with tussock higher up. To starboard was a ‘haul out’ area, on which three Sea Lions lounged. The anchors went down in 22 metres of water and dinner was served in the calm waters (vegetable and meat Borsch, followed by a main with fillet steak or chicken, then a desert of Tiramisu ).

The volcanic island has a magnificent natural history along with a rich human history. There is very little on this island that Rodney is not familiar with. He has spent a lot of time here over many years. In 1975 with New Zealand’s former Wildlife Service, he re-discovered the Campbell Island Flightless Teal on 26 hectare La Dent Island on his first visit there. This small duck was thought to be extinct. Campbell Island is also important for the breeding or presence of several species of albatross, the endemic Campbell Island Shag and very important species of ‘mega-herbs’ that have flourished since the pest eradication program. The human history has included early scientific Antarctic and Subantarctic expeditions, whaling, farming (initially 2000 Leicester-Merino sheep, 8 cattle and 2 horses), the World War 2 Cape Expedition, former manned meteorological station (closed 1995 then replaced with an automated system) and pest eradication since 1990. An early night preparing for a 6.30 am wake-up call.