• Petrel

  • Sun set

  • Track of the ship, showing the extent of the sea ice (red and yellow).

  • Breaking through the ice!

  • Life around the ship

Ice Ice Baby

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.

Track of the ship, showing the extent of the sea ice (red and yellow).
Breaking through the ice!
Petrel

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.

Sun set

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???

Life around the ship

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

  1. Polar Painting
  2. Journey South
  3. The Journey Continues; Iceberg Ahoy!
  4. Ice Ice Baby
  5. The Weddell Sea
  6. Nearly there!!
  7. Halley 6 : On The Ice
  8. All Work and No Play
  9. Different Shades of Grey
  10. Racing Penguin
  11. The Move Begins
  12. Moving Postcard from Antarctica
  13. Winter approaches
  14. The Halley Marathon
  15. The Final Week
  16. The Journey North
  17. Antarctic Painting – Year 3
  18. Antarctic Demolition

11 thoughts on “Ice Ice Baby”

  1. 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! :mrgreen:

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  3. 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 😯

    1. 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?

  4. 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! 😯

  5. 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:

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