Day 10 - FIRST ICEBERG SEEN, and Australia day

27 January 2014

I jumped out for bed and ran upstairs at 5am when it was announced that the first visual iceberg was right in front of the vessel and approaching fast. Nathan the expedition leader was the first to see it and 15 minutes later I was on deck as it passed the ship in all its glory. Its deep blues and holes, fissures and shapes were very unique and something I will never forget.

Then suddenly pack ice appeared that we navigated through for a few hours.

Later in the lecture room the sound thundered through the boat and felt like a earthquake as some pieces smashed and scrapped against the sides of the boat in the developing southerly swells.

Then as suddenly as it appeared late afternoon the ice was gone. The captain explained that the ice was unexpected and had blown in from somewhere else. The ship was back into clear deep blue ice free ocean. I had expected when I saw that first iceberg and then pack ice that this would be what we would see all the way to Cape Adare.
It was only after our lecture on ice that I started to understand what we had seen today and why it was happening. There are certain currents out of the Ross Sea so when icebergs and pack ice break out they follow a distinct path. It was interesting to see the changes in the ice at the same dates between years and seasons and see how wind direction and storms greatly change the Ross sea. It was weird to think that from 60 Degrees (where we have been travelling for the last two days) that this is where the ice extends to during winter. Compared to last year this year has been completely different with ice breaking out much earlier including multi year ice.

Felicity and Wieke had a little sing along tonight playing original tracks which was a good chance and great way to relax.

I spotted a whale (probably minke) dive beneath the pack ice. You only have a couple of seconds to spot them and normally they only surface once.

First iceberg of the trip and first iceberg EVER for me at 5am at 65 degrees.

The next two to pass within metres of the ship were spectacular. The larger one at around 400m wide by 20m high blew me away with its sheer size especially when you realise that 70% of the iceberg is below the surface which gives an idea of how big they really are. Another was the shape of a bowl with hundreds of ice bits around it. With everyone still in bed I felt quite proud to be one of the 3 of us on deck to experience the first icebergs.

It was by far the coldest it has been on deck as the temperature has plummeted and now only snow falls instead of rain. For the next two hours icebergs popped up all around us in varying shapes and sizes.

We had a lecture on icebergs, sea ice and currents. This shows why we came across the icebergs where we did.

These images show the early break up of sea ice from the Ross Sea

Suddenly the icebergs disappeared and chunks of pack ice suddenly appeared before my eyes. There were chunks everywhere sometimes really dense and we had to push through it.

More and more sea ice

Several bigger pieces of pack ice had crabeater seals on them and someone even saw a chinstrap penguin on one. It seemed so strange to see these animals just chilling on the ice in the middles of the hundreds of miles from the coast.

Akademik Shokalsky pushed away and smashed sheet after sheet of ice that we couldn’t avoid. I was very excited watching the ice from the bow looking down looking at some sheets smash into hundreds of pieces and waiting for the noise to rumble through the boat.

The russian crew were alert and all on deck as we navigated through the pack ice

I saw my first snow petrel today

Antarctic petrel

Campbell Island Albatross following the boat