RWSE Day 13: Ice and Penguins

Back from our helicopter flight and iceberg landing, we grabbed a cup of hot chocolate and a biscuit, and headed out on deck to “have our snack with a view.”

While the rest of the groups took their turns flying, we enjoyed the icescape … wandering from deck to deck … from side to side. When we weren’t focused on the ice, we were scoping out the wildlife. Crabeater seals were numerous … asleep on ice floes passing by the ship … waking up to check out the ‘big blue thing’ that is Ortelius. An eroded iceberg, seesawing on swells that went unnoticed on the ship, revealed a surprise … a couple of Adelie penguins going through their annual catastrophic molt.

We took a break for lunch … a quiet one since some of the passengers were still flying. And then back outside for more ice and wildlife. By 2:15p, heli ops completed, Ortelius was on the move. Plowing through the pack ice, we got into a channel of open water between the pack ice and the Riiser-Larsen Ice Shelf.

EL Sara’s announcement that there was a group of emperor penguins on the ice brought out on deck a rush of people. It wasn’t just one group … there were three of them … emperors mingling with Adelies … preening this way and that … some tobogganing as though they were trying to keep pace with the ship. The water was dead calm, making it easy to see the emperors swimming serenely in the icy sea … diving briefly only to pop up and continue swimming. The late afternoon sun was filtered; rays slipping through the clouds to spotlight distant bergs … some of them with the deepest of blue inner cores.

And then we came to the ice shelf. Ortelius could go no further. Just as we thought, “well, that’s it,” EL Sara’s voice came over the PA. Zodiacs were being put in the water!Læs mere