26 Feb 2014

Ice in Many Guises

The last few days have been busy but very rewarding. Today however the weather has finally caught up with us, so we will have a day without a lot of activity.

Since last writing we have visited the Ross Ice Shelf. We arrived late in the evening and the twilight really highlighted this fascinating and intriguing geographical phenomenon. After some time there we departed for Terra Nova Bay where we tried to approach Inexpressible Island only to be beaten back by extremely strong Katabatic winds, so we sailed into the lee of the Northern Foothills where we were able to make a landing on the Antarctic Continent. Yesterday we continued north through some amazing 'refreeze', then encountered extensive fields of 'grease' ice which eventually formed into 'pancake' ice. We later pushed through heavier sea ice into Cape Hallet where the beach was packed with 'push' ice which unfortunately meant we were unable to land. We are still in awe of the scenery which in this part of Antarctica is without equal - it is quite simply breathtaking and I find it difficult to find words to describe it adequately. I doubt even the many hundreds of photos taken will capture the beauty, you have to be here to truly appreciate the scale of this environment. We had planned another attempt at Cape Adare this morning but a strong NW weather system has put paid to that. We have now set a course for the Balleny Islands.