Merry Christmas!

Lat: 70 02.50S

The ship brought out all the stops this year. We have a tree on the bridge, in the lounge, in the dining hall, in our lab AND in the engine control room! We had a proper Christmas lunch with crackers, hats and excellent food. We dressed up both for Christmas eve (cocktail dresses and collared shirts) and today, and received a special thanks from the captain for the effort. As we were working yesterday they kept the dining hall open later for us for supper. We also sent Christmas presents to everyone who has gone out of their way to help us in the last few weeks, and the bridge sent us all presents too :-).

We had such good weather for offloading that we have finished already and are now sitting at SA Bukta to offload the fuel and fly the teams out to the SANAP base. But the weather closed in and we are getting hit by another cold front tomorrow, which means everyone but the drivers are still on board. Six of the SANAE 49 guys (last year's team) arrived on the last of the good weather days and are now spending Christmas with us. It is amazing to see them again - they all look slightly mad with long hair and wavy beards.

We were also visited by the Captain and Head Scientist of the Polar Stern. The Captain towers above our tallest driver (all of whom outstrip the rest of us). They invited us to a goodbye party on the ice before they left, but unfortunately the wind changed direction pushing the ice back up the shelf so we couldn't get back to the shelf to join them. They circled us on their way out instead. Our captain says he wants to be an icebreaker when he grows up. They have a scientific team of 55! We have 14! They are doing some unique work on whales, birds and this thermo-thing to track them.

The Polar Stern did break break up the ice for us, but even so, we could not reach the shelf as the broken pieces were flowing and we could not risk it building up against us while we offload. So we sailed to the other side of the bay just so that a polyna would open, laughing at us as we disappeared (so we sailed back to that!). We did see some Weddell seals while packed on the other side of the bay.

Today the penguins swam in full force towards us, and we have been fortunate enough for them to steer some of their towering colonies towards us as we haven't seen many huge icebergs up close. This made today extra special.

It is so cold that all around us ice is forming on the water surface, we glide through it sending ripples through a solid surface.