Weddell Sea
A beautiful sunny day greets us in the Weddell Sea. Throughout the morning we sail south, Seymour and Snow Hill Islands are visible off to starboard. On the crest of the northern end of Seymour Island we catch a glimpse of the Argentine Station of Marambio. Some of us take advantage of the cell phone signal from the station to get in touch with loved ones from Antarctica!
The morning was all about being bowled over with exquisite icescapes and emperor penguins. The scenery was dominated by tabular icebergs which have calved off the ice shelves coming off the continent. They rise vertically out of the water, often showing banding, and are easily recognized by their very flat tops. There is also a lot of sea ice about; by the end of the morning we had encountered loose pack ice and then large extensions of jumbled more closely packed ice and last of all large expanses of fast ice.
On the sea ice we were able to enjoy a respectable number of emperor penguins. What a privilege to be able to see this, the largest of the penguins. It is not that easy to see these birds and we were thankful to have caught sight of them. There were adult birds as well as juveniles. We also enjoyed close up views of a good number of crabeater seals as well as a few Weddell and leopard seals dotted about on the ice.
During lunch, the Captain parked the ship into some fast ice. After some surveying by the staff we are able to go “ashore” for a walk on frozen water. It was an opportunity to wander about, get a photo by the bow of the ship, catch a close up view of a few crabeaters hauled out on the ice or simply take in the wondrous scenery all about us.
Our furthest south for the east side of Antarctica was: 64º 26’S and 56º51’W, just over 120 nautical miles from the Antarctic Circle. The ice all about us reminds us just how challenging it is to get south and we spare a thought for those intrepid explorers who ventured long ago into these waters: Nordenskjöld, Weddell, Ross, Bruce, D’Urville to mention a few. Off to the east of where we spent the day, was where Shackleton and his men were able to finally break free from the ice’s vice after some 440 days and head off to Elephant Island.
