Post the Seventh

Preamble:  it occurs to me that it might not be obvious to the casual reader, but...  if you want to see a bigger version of each picture, just click on the picture itself.  Each image on these pages is a link to a larger version of itself.

And now, on with the show!

 

After  the best part of a fortnight spent plying the southern seas, we finally reached a milestone of note – the pack ice. 

Indeed, the pack ice would have been reached a day earlier had it not been for the most unwelcome interference of an intense low pressure system imposing itself between us and Davis.  Rude!  As the captain did not want to find himself (and the ship too, I suppose) trapped in fast ice during the course of the impending storm we turned tail and ran northward to hide from the storm.

So, hide we did, and the storm passed us by the south.  But it added an additional day to what increasingly seemed to be a neverending journey.  (Cue Limahl).

So it was, in the early evening on the following day that we entered the pack ice proper.  There was much excitement amongst the expederati as they gathered on various vantage points on the vessel to take in the spectacular scenery.  I found myself with many others on the fo’c’sle, right at the pointy end.  There was much clicking of cameras and  up there, with a good many millions of pixels being devoted to capturing the event so that uninterested family and friends could be assaulted with them in the months ahead.

Here my Sister-of-the-Slush, Hannah, demonstrates how excited she is to bear witness to the Aurora breaking though the ice.

Excitement.  And warm clothing.

Thrilled to pieces, she was.  Indeed, it was lucky she was so well contained within her clothing – otherwise the pieces might have scattered all over the deck!

During the course of the storm the previous night parts of the Aurora were coated in a thin veneer of ice.  Most of it melted the following day, but some endured until the evening.  Here are a couple of photos of that ice on the forward mast.  Note in particular the windsock under the Orca weathervane – there was very little (if any) breeze when I took the photo.  It’s just that it had frozen solid the previous night!

Awww... Just like fairyland.  But with added hypothermia.

Windsocks.  Useless when stiff.

While I was preparing to have the blogpost-opening headshot above to be taken, Hannah snapped this one of Swim-Swim and me, and has given it to us.  He and I both liked it, so we’re including it here.  No narcissism involved at all, I assure you.

Narcissism?  Can't even spell it.

One of the delights of travelling through pack ice is that a number of the locals haul themselves out of the water for a rest on it.  Unfortunately for you, my photographic acumen is minimal (to say the least) and I have not managed to get anything approaching a worthwhile  photo of an animule.   This emperor penguin did manage to stay put long enough for me to wave my camera in its general direction.

See that black bit?  That's a penguin.  Take my word for it.

I have also seen whales (humpbacks and minkes), Adelie penguins, numerous crabeater seals and an assortment of albatrosses and petrels.  Their lack of appearance in this blog (to date) is testament to my lack of photographic skills.  However many others have got great shots, and it is my intention to sneakily steal some at some point.  I may even post them on this blog.

A last couple of images that I thought worth inflicting on you sharing with you.  The first was just one of those lucky moments.  Not long before Swim-Swim's and my bedtime I happened to look out over the ice and see the most beautiful crepuscular rays shining over the ice.  Too good not to point my photomographic equipment at.  (Naturally had the photo been taken with a top camera by a top camera operator, it would have been much better).

And secondly is this shot of the track the Aurora was making through the ice.  Cool.  (As ice).

That night I went to bed thinking that Davis was just around the corner.  Alas, the Antarctic gods are a capricious pack of bast... uh... fellows.  Soon after my eyes were shut, so was the ice.  The ship got stuck, briefly.  After some back-and-and forth to free us, the captain turned the vessel around 180° and headed back out of the ice in order to look for an easier passage further west.

And so, the neverending journey continued.  Where’s that Limahl bloke?