ICE ICE BABY

5pm Friday 29th March

Well my friends I don't really know what to say. Things have been magical.

We are in the sea-ice now...

The past two nights Gwen and I have put on lots of jumpers, hats, scarves, gloves and big padded boiler suits and gone stargazing up on monkey island. The moon has been close to full so actually the sky is a bit too light to see the full milky-way but the stars are clear and bright. Poor Orion is upside down but still looking his magnificent self. I have seen several constellations which could be the Southern Cross.... I am going to get one of the guys from Oz to point out which one it actually is if things are still clear tonight. The full moon lights up the icebergs around us and it is only when we can no longer feel out fingers or noses that we tear ourselves away. Up on monkey island you are far from the engines, and with the ships going slow through the ice it seems really quiet.

During the day there are ICEBERGS and PENGUINS.... and penguins ON icebergs! This morning dawned bright and beautiful and surrounded by broken sea ice and lager icebergs. Apparently the sunrise was spectacular and the clear blue skies and glistening ice was captivating all day. The water around the ship was teeming with shoals of chinstrap penguins. (really must find out the collective noun for penguins!) When they swim they dive out of the water in arcs and the air is filled with their boisterous squawking! Penguins are such endearing creatures. On land they are like little toddlers staggering about the place with their arms out. Then as I have said they are like bullets in the water! We also saw a few solitary seals hanging out on some of the icebergs.

But what completely blew me away today was the inquisitive humpback whale who nosed around the ship for about an hour. Magical moment for me. I was photographing penguins on one side of the ship when Phil from the US came running and shouting about a whale. So I rushed over to the other side and could see nothing. For a full five minutes I stared helplessly at the water convinced that that was it, I had missed my chance, number one on my bucket list would not get ticked today. Then came the huge noise of the whale blow and there he was, back breaching the surface. The water round here is so clear and he was so close to the ship that you could look down and see his full form under the water. Huge, slow and graceful. For the next hour we all just followed him about the ship as he surface every minute or so, sometimes sticking his nose right out of the water to say hello. Honestly I was a bit startstruck. But we all were. Everyone just kept looking at each other and not really saying anything other that 'wow'. Eventually we moved off to the next mooring and I only felt slightly sorry that I had not seen him do the iconic tail flip. But not to worry there was another whale at the next stop who would pop up, hang around for 5 mins or so, then with a massive tail flip disappear for 10 mins before popping back up. I only took a few photos because really I just wanted to enjoy the experience. But I do have a few beauties to show you when I get back.

Today we have also been surrounded by Snowy Petrels (I think) and Giant Petrels. Wonderful birds. This morning as I was on my way up to monkey island a Snowy Petrel landed just a metre away and then studied me quizzically while I took photos.

Obviously there is still lots of work to do, and sampling in this cold while the snow falls is pretty tough. I have a trapped nerve in my back which has been nipping me all day but I am off for a hot shower and a bit of a relax before dinner. I think we will be doing another CTD this evening but I'll wrap up warm and if the moon is out it might be alright!

Honestly my dears I wish you were here with me to see all this. But not to worry I shall bore you silly with stories and photos when I return!

Peace and love x x x x x x x

NB: Fear not dear Emily! On the Falklands the penguins are pretty lucky. They are too small to set off landmines but their beaches are protected from us nasty humans who would set off the mines. Apparently sheep are fine too... though there has been the occasional incident with a cow.....

There are about 23 scientists and technicians on the cruise doing various different things. There is 6 of us looking at the tracer, two groups using what look like a pair of giant yellow toilet brushes to measure the micro-structure of the water column (small eddies and currents), a group of guys looking at a range of hydrographic properties, such as the temperature and salinity, Gwen and a couple others mapping the bathymetry and a few general other folk who muck in. Most people are from BAS or NOCS but Pierre is from a French university and Xinfeng is from MIT. Both have mostly been doing modelling of this type of data and are here really for the experience.

There are roughly 23 crew members who are all really friendly. There are the officers, engineers, stewards and the able-seamen who work on deck with us, operating the CTD winch etc. The ship is pretty old fashioned in that the officers eat with scientists not the crew, and there is a bar for scientists, officers and the engineers... but the rest of the crew have a separate one!