lat: 62 52.13S
New Year’s celebrations had only just ended when we were told that night shift was beginning again that night as we were departing for the buoy run! So here we are, second night in, after finally getting sleep during the day after holding matchsticks in our eyes for our first shift and smiling as the sun dips in a perpetual sunset and rises again in a sunrise. As we crossed out of the Polar Circle, a line in the clouds that have just formed seemed to mark end of Neptune's kingdom and the start of the High seas.
Watching the icebergs is like watching one of the last tree fellows, worn and weathered and incredibly wise, sailing on one last, lost journey.
Something happened tonight that almost made Seb, our team leader, jump over board! Remember we inexplicitly lost two UCTD's on the way down? We had another probe flown down to us, and started using it today. After running 4 dummy runs the actual underway UCTD was dropped into the water, as it descended below the surface, a seal rose up next to it and swam towards it with an open mouth as though it was about to eat it! Before diving below the line! If we had lost the UCTD to a seal, NOBODY would have believed us!
I saw a whale today! I was standing on the deck staring at to sea when there was a swoooah and a whale surfaced 2m from the ship! it was incredible. I think it was a pygmy right whale.
The birds too are accompanying us, trailing in our wake and soaring off our flank.
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