At Sea, The Southern Ocean
Through the night, yesterday’s blanket of opaque fog gave way to clear skies and a dark blue sea tossed with whitecaps. Pintado petrels danced on the wind around us, dressed in their dapper contrasting patterns. Our ship rode steady on her course to the southwest, retracing in reverse the tumultuous path that Shackleton and his men had so perilously traversed in the tiny James Caird. We, by contrast, are blessed with ample food, drinking water, and a large sturdy craft complete with stabilizers to ease our path across these unsteady seas. Only on larger waves did the wind spray sea water across our ship’s bow as the beaming sun decorated the mist with brief rainbows.
During the day there were sightings of whale blows spouting between the swells. Several of these were thought to be fin whales, as well as brief views of southern bottlenose whales. A variety of tube-nosed birds, ranging in size from the great albatrosses to medium-sized petrels, prions and small storm-petrels, were seen throughout much of the day. We also all took part in another session of boot cleaning and pocket vacuuming in an attempt to thoroughly rid ourselves of any seeds or spores that might be accidentally traveling with us from South Georgia. This is a small, but important step to help avoid unintentionally introducing any plants or microbes from South Georgia to the Antarctic.
As a fun replay of our experiences thus far, we all enjoyed a group photo show of images taken during this voyage. Now, as we approach Antarctica, we are all eagerly awaiting the first sighting of ice. By late evening we expect to be arriving at Elephant Island and a view of Cape Valentine, where Shackleton and his crew first made landfall in April of 1916. From there, they moved to Point Wild before beginning their epic journey across the open ocean that we have just crossed with comparable ease.
