First impressions
We're in the roaring forties! It's actually calmed down today, though we hit 5m swell yesterday, and a bitterly cold wind which froze our hands to the incubator.
I burnt my arm with acid today - not pleasant, don't plan on doing that again! It's quite an experience working in a lab on board a ship. Even with ties and rubber work surfaces, everything moves! Especially meniscuses and machine readings! We get to go into the engine room, every 2 or 4 hours to collect the water samples we are analysing! It’s really cool, as no one else, but the ships engineers are allowed in there.
Even with the hectic work (which I'm loving). I'm finding working here really relaxing. The sea seeps through to you. One can stand by the railings and stare out at this tranquil never ending blue, I cannot help thinking of Catherine from Wuthering Heights' words: "runs like wine through water and alters the colour of my mind".
We have seen whales twice! Can you believe it? We had land birds flying with us well into the second day of sailing! I have decided that I adore albatrosses! They must be the most aerodynamic creature ever created, they make flying truly beautiful.
Even with the hectic work (which I'm loving). I'm finding working here really relaxing. The sea seeps through to you. One can stand by the railings and stare out at this tranquil never ending blue, I cannot help thinking of Catherine from Wuthering Heights' words: "runs like wine through water and alters the colour of my mind".
We have seen whales twice! Can you believe it? We had land birds flying with us well into the second day of sailing! I have decided that I adore albatrosses! They must be the most aerodynamic creature ever created, they make flying truly beautiful.
Another first
First ice bergs spotted!!!! They are spectacular castles gliding across the seas! I was woken up at 4am for the first one by the night shift. It was stunning, it even had a tower for an ice princess! The second one was closer, bigger and even bluer. Apparently we should see even more than usual due to the route that has just chosen. Originally we were sailing down the meridian to the base. However, satellite images show that the pack ice round the base has not even started its summer melt, so there’s no passage for us. But, a passage has opened up for us to the West and we are heading for that. Exciting news though, the new "passage" isn’t open to the sea yet. So as of tomorrow 8am, we will be ice breaking! YAY!
It’s been snowing on and off for 3 days now. But not yet collecting. The weather has weakened, the wind has dropped and the swell is even less then when we sailed out of Cape Town.
Antarctic glitches
Ok, so those who knew the original route and have been watching the ship on the SANAP base's bay. So we can't go straight to the SA base as the iceberg is in our way, and the captain obviously doesn't want to get between it and the ice shelf. So using satellite images a melted "lake" has been spotted to the west of the Neumeyer (the German base which is been decommissioned by a team on board). We are in that melted passage now. We're aiming for a section of pack ice that is 8m thick, as we need that to unload the cargo (as we are no longer building a ramp due to the collapse of last year’s one). Unfortunately, due to the earliness of this cruise, the ice around that section is still 5m thick. The Agulhas can only break through ice of 1.5m thick. But we are aiming for it anyway, as it is currently our best option. The helicopter pilots (being typical pilots) know exactly what is going on with the charts and the weather and are our source of updates-with predictions of outcomes. If we offload at Neumeyer the drivers will have a 24-40 hour drive to the SA base. So we might sit there a while. But, as the trip down has now been extended, looks like we will still have everyone on board for Christmas, and it’s not guaranteed that we will have the day off anymore. But no matter what, we are still dressing up and exchanging secret Santa gifts.
As we are now in the equivalent of a lake, everything is still. And the water is almost black. We pass the 66' line tomorrow at 2pm, and so as we cross into the polar circle King Neptune will be coming aboard. The announcement for tomorrow’s initiation (it’s for EVERYONE on board who hasn't done the trip before) was done really well with a poem of the official exchange between Neptune and the Captain interacted over the intercom.
We have some terrifying data emerging on the CO2 flux from the Southern
Ocean.
We had our boot washing ceremony today. So we are all ready! Fingers crossed
that we are allowed on the ice!
