17 Feb 2016

2 Feb Voyage: Shokalskiy Remembering Scott

The temperature outside first thing this morning was -10 degrees – decidedly balmy compared to yesterdays -19!  The sky was a crisp blue and the floating ice had dispersed along the coastline of the Ross Ice Shelf, so we were able to sail quite close to it all the way to Hutt Point Peninsula. Mount Erebus and Terror came into view in the early afternoon. We could see the occasional small puff of smoke billowing from Mount Terror as Killer Whales and pods of other species passed right in front of the bow. Marcus Thomassen gave an excellent presentation on Robert Falcon Scott, highlighting the devastating end to his expedition when he discovered Amundsen had reached the South Pole before him. He talked about the fateful return journey which was dogged by chilling -40 degree temperatures and a shortage of fuel and food.  The expedition’s fuel stocks were depleted by around 40% due to evaporation because they used leather tops on the containers. The last words in Scott’s diary on 29th March 1913 were “For Gods sake – look after our people”. The sixth and penultimate episode of 'The Last Place on Earth' was shown just before dinner, then plans were announced for activities at McMurdo and Scott Base tomorrow.