22 Jan 2018

SOE: One of the Best Runs South in Memory

Our expedition to Ross Sea has been blessed with some amazing weather and sea conditions.  We had to sit out a bit of a storm at Macquarie Island. On our first day the wind picked up to 35 kts with rain and poor visibility, so we enjoyed a day aboard with lectures from the Rangers and staff. Next morning the wind had abated and by midday the sun was shining. We started early and spent a long morning with the Kings and Royal Penguins at Sandy Bay and then in the afternoon we were hosted by the Australian Station and enjoyed a visit to their base.  We sailed that night for Ross Sea. Sea conditions were forecast to be good. There were a couple of small course changes to make it a bit more comfortable, but it has been one of the best runs south that I can remember. We have enjoyed a comprehensive lecture series, run a competition to guess when we would see the first iceberg and celebrated the crossing of the Antarctic Circle.  This morning we arrived at Cape Adare, heavy ice prevented us landing but the weather was magical, the seas were like glass so we zodiac cruised amongst the ice and had great views of Giant Petrels, Wilsons storm petrels, snow petrels, Adelie Penguins and some Minke whales.

We are now headed south, with the current ice conditions the team have decided to head south to the Ross Ice shelf first then explore Ross Island and work our way slowly north and hope that the ice thins out a little bit in the northern Ross Sea.