So we’ve nearly reached 60° South and I was woken up At 6am with the first bangs and crashes as we found the edge of the sea-ice. Most of the ice is only a metre or so thick and the ship crashes through or pushes it aside. This is of course really noisy, but at least it has meant the sea is a lot calmer, so everyday living is a lot easier. We’ve made a few sightings of seals and penguins on the ice, but too far off for any pictures yet. Quite a few birds also follow the ship…. a bit like a premiership football team. I’m not sure what they all are yet, but as I find out, I’ll let you know.
As we head south the nights are getting shorter; its dark from about 10.30pm – 2.30am, and soon we’ll have our last sunset for a few months.
The other big highlight of the day was the Sunday room inspection carried out by the Captain. Luckily, the rooms are too small to keep perpetually messy, and James (who I’m sharing with) and I soon had the room hovered, and the en-suite cleaned. I’m not sure what the punishment is for an untidy room……… the cat???
With the sea now calmer we will soon be having the occasional health and safety, first aid, or site operation lecture; with a least 8 days before we get to base there’s a lot of time to kill. Still time for the gym though, oh …….. And I’m on “gash†again tomorrow… happy days!
Series - Antarctic Painting
- Polar Painting
- Journey South
- The Journey Continues; Iceberg Ahoy!
- Ice Ice Baby
- The Weddell Sea
- Nearly there!!
- Halley 6 : On The Ice
- All Work and No Play
- Different Shades of Grey
- Racing Penguin
- The Move Begins
- Moving Postcard from Antarctica
- Winter approaches
- The Halley Marathon
- The Final Week
- The Journey North
- Antarctic Painting – Year 3
- Antarctic Demolition
Who’s the dude with the hair?
What’s Andromeda doing on the boat with you?
Why is the land blue and the sea white?
Oh my god – so many questions – it’s all so exciting!
I’ve just looked agian but I can’t see Andromeda – oh, yes, she is sitting here on the table next to my laptop 🙂
…I don’t think we’ll see her unless Ian leaves his room un-gashed. 😉
PS: check out the webcam:
http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/images/webcams/rrses/index.php
The ship does look very tidy, except that one rogue piece of paper on the table. Amazing – considering there’s only men on board – but the guy with the hair… 😯 😯 😯
Hi Tish. Gary is the guy with all the hair.. meal times last a long time for him as he’s always finding a bit later on. :yum: :yum: We have 4 females on board: one BAS member, 2 ships crew and the doctor. And of course Russell the steward, who likes to be called Rachel when at sea 😯
Forgive the geeky-ness, but it’s interesting that your IP address is a UK one! :geek: The BAS people must be routing traffic from the ship (via satellite) back to the UK… I wonder what will happen when you make land? The same I’d guess from the BAS base. But will you comment from any other non-BAS bases?
I’m told the routing is via Cambridge.
It all reminded me of a council flat in Peckham :geek: … you remember the one… low ceiling, men with crazy hair :alien: … can’t believe you’re really crashing through the ice… SO EXCITING… loving the reports and comments… thanks pete for ‘facilitating’… or something! 😯
The Last Sunset… sounds like an Eagles’ song from 1977 :freeze: Hard to take that in … it must be incredible to be so far away from normal life that the sky behaves completely weirdly :alien: wonder what it will be like with no night… 🙄 much better than no day, I guess…. :geek: