Ice cold in Elephant...

6pm Tuesday 26th March

It is starting to feel much chillier now. While we are sampling our breath clouds in the air and our hands are numb by the end. The water is just over 1 degC now. Brr. Freezing fog again today and big seas and high winds forecast. Again. However I understand that things are pretty nasty in the UK weather-wise? So don't think for a second that I am complaining! I would rather have the opportunity to see ice-bergs than turn into one just trying to get to work in the morning!

I finished my shift today with a bastard of a headache and monster back pain. Luckily there is easy access to drugs on the ship. And one big bonus of a shared room is that there is plenty of floor space to do back stretches! The lights in the container are those nasty strip lighting that strobe at a very high frequency so the headache is not big surprise. Ben has been getting them loads as on the nightshift there is no daylight to dilute the effect. We had a CTD just after breakfast at the start of my shift which we ran through the machine* and still had a couple of hours spare. So it was back to long calibrations. Andy has the dreaded man-flu (or a wee sniffle as I would say) so I sent him off, put on some music and read my kindle. All you have to remember is to top up the liquid nitrogen every 20 mins or so and write up the results every now and then. So not too bad! Would have preferred a nice armchair to the lab stool but you can't have it all! And of course bang on the end of my shift was another CTD so I didn't really finish till an hour later. I think there is another around 9pm so its going to feel like a long day today.

While we were sampling there was a flock (? Group? Squad? Gaggle?) of chinstrap penguins doing beautiful synchronised swimming by the ship. They are lovely wee things. That make one hell of a noise! They have this really loud squawk that you think must be coming from a bird 10 times the size! This only slightly puts me off wanting one as a pet! I have been informed that the whale blows I saw earlier could be from a blue whale as the blow was straight up and hung in the air for ages. Or something like that anyway! Hopefully once we are near the sea ice we will see more than just whale blows!

* Oh how dreadfully rude of me not to introduce you earlier! Our wonderful contraption is named Electric Barbarella 3000. Honestly I don't know why... other than Marie-Jo wanted to give her a nice French name so Steve gave her a ridiculous one before she had the chance!

6pm Wednesday 27th March

We finished the Drake Passage section in the night and are steaming east towards the sea-ice and moorings. We have been steaming all day and should get to the moorings tomorrow. So other than run the last few stations we don't have much to do! So the next 10 days or so are scheduled for mooring recovery with only the occasional CTD so there will be much less work to do. I might actually have the time to read one or two of the 100 papers I brought!

At 6am we passed Elephant Isle! Unfortunately I was still tucked up in bed but when I got up an hour later there were still islands looming out of the ocean. And ICEBERGS!!!!! There was a huge tabular one in the distance and a sculptural jaggy one a bit closer. Beautiful. In the ocean around us there were small chunks of ice (maybe car-sized!) streaming past us. Paul (the moorings guy) and I ran up to get the best view... but it was mental cold so we didn't quite make it up to monkey island! We left the ice behind us during the morning but happily we are headed towards more!

Today has been mostly overcast but the sun is streaming down now. The ocean has been a steely grey all day with sharp white streaks where the waves break. But when the sun shines down the entire ocean turns into liquid mercury. Dark and shining. I really thought I would get tired of the endless ocean, but it is constantly changing and I can still get lost looking out the window. The waves have been pretty big today. When they break over the ship they are a clear turquoise that you expect from much warmer waters.

We seem to have left our rag-tag following of albatrosses behind in the deep ocean but they have been replaced by a cloud of Petrels. I think they are Cape Petrels (according to the book given to me by a friendly ornithologist - thanks Andy!) they are lovely wee patchy black and white birds.

I just nipped outside to watch the sun set. Glorious! It has been overcast most afternoons so this is the first beautiful sunset I have seen this trip. I got a couple of nice photos of the sunset with the petrels flying in front. Lovely. I am also hoping the the skies remain clear and I might get to see some stars tonight. I had been really looking forward to seeing southern stars but have yet to see one! 

Missing your beautiful faces! Is all well with you? x x x x x