Day 8 - 60 Degrees south

25 January 2014

We finally made it to 60 degrees as we head further and further south. We were averaging 12.5 knots today and at times were up at 13 knots making the most of north westerly winds.

I had a blob day reading my book about shackletons journey to cross Antarctica from one side to the other which really put things into perpective of how hard and miserable it was for those early explores with every minute of there time on the white continent being a struggle.

A went to a few lectures about the history and human impact on Macquarie Island and another about photography. They have had some very extensive predator control programs to get rid of introduced pests such as rabbits, rats, mice, weka and cats.

Talking to Nathan the ice in the Ross sea has all cleared out and normally they have three days of ice breaking in and out of Scott Base where this year we might not even see any ice. So fingers crossed we see some ice and manage to get to Scott Base aswell.

We started a competition today to see who can guess when we will see our first iceberg the size of a double decker bus.

I thought we would have reached the Antarctic convergence by now, but not yet.......

We reach 60 degrees south. This is the extent of the sea ice during winter.

We are making good time down south

We had times of a few times where the boat had a bit of rolling action making going for a pee and having a shower a little interesting : )