18 Jan 2013

More Ice

There is ice as far as you can see and scattered around on the ice floes and in the water are Emperor Penguins, Adelie Penguins and Crabeater Seals. We have also seen a good number of Minke Whales. Overhead are beautiful Snow Petrels, Antarctic Petrels but surprisingly few Southern Fulmars. We came into the ice yesterday afternoon and are making good progress, although the ice map suggests we might have slightly easier conditions slightly to the east. We expect to be in ice most of tomorrow breaking out into the open waters of the Ross Sea sometime on Monday morning. Everybody is extremely happy as it is very calm deep into the ice. We are just passing 4 huge tabular icebergs and there are a lot more where they came from. We are nearly there!