RWSE D15: At Sea Along Brunt Ice Shelf

“Having an adventure shows that someone is incompetent, that something has gone wrong. An adventure is interesting enough — in retrospect. Especially to the person who didn’t have it.” ~~ Vilhjalmur Stefansson ~~ (from the Daily Program)

We woke up to more of the same as yesterday. Overcast skies; snow and ice on the open decks. And cold … -6C (21F) when we woke up … very slightly warmer later in the day. The wind was a-blowin’ strong as well. There was good news, however. Despite encountering ice overnight, we were in open waters and still heading south at full speed … aided by the wind that was again coming at us from the ship’s stern.

With conditions being what they were, it was clear that this would be another day at sea.

Gary started off our day at sea with a lecture about the “Life Story of Emperor Penguins.” His words were accompanied by images from his time with these delightful creatures … at a colony 20 NM offshore from Australia’s Mawson Station. He shared information that, in some cases, blew out of the water some of the generally-accepted thoughts about penguin behavior.

For example, penguins are not as monogamous as they are believed to be. Amongst the different species, the emperors have the worst ‘divorce’ rate … 85%. This is because they form their colonies on the sea ice … which breaks up by the time the next mating season comes around. There are no landmarks at which the ‘couples can arrange to meet’ … so to speak. One fact remains infallible however … they have the cutest chicks!

EL Sara followed Gary with a short presentation entitled “Behind the Scenes on M/V Ortelius.” She talked briefly about the history of the vessel, which was built for the Russians in Poland in 1989. She also showed us photos of the engine room and galley since tours of those areas are no longer possible. With all the ‘dancing’ Ortelius has been doing, we were happy to hear that the ship can right itself from a maximum angle of heel of 60 degrees. I hope we don’t have to find out first hand if that is true or not!

Just before the afternoon lecture, we started seeing some giant icebergs. Though quite eroded, they could still be identified by their shape as being tabular. Heavily-compacted remnants of other bergs showed their blue interior … though they looked more green than blue.

After getting our fill of the scenery, we joined Allan for his presentation about “Sled Dogs: Unsung Heroes of Antarctic Exploration.” I knew that dogs had been used in several polar expeditions, but I had no idea the extent to which they were part of sledging operations. Thousands of them served man in his quest to unlock the ice-bound secrets of the continent … a number of them died while doing so. They have been removed from the continent as of 1994 and are not allowed to return because they are a non-native species.

With the weather showing some improvement, we went back outside after the lecture to check out more icebergs that were eroded into fantastic shapes that reminded me of meringue peaks. Though they were frozen solid, they gave the impression of being soft.

At the pre-dinner daily recap, EL Sara started out by giving our latitude 77.1° S. The navigation chart showed us along the Luitpold Coast in Coats Land. It is her hope that we reach and perhaps get a degree or two beyond 78° S before we are stopped by fast ice. The forecast is looking exceptionally good — but bitterly cold.

As part of her recap presentation, EL Sara flipped through 10 years’ worth of ice charts for the same period that we are in the area. Interesting to see just how much ‘red’ was in the charts. It wasn’t until she got to 2023 that there was even a glimmer of hope of getting into the deep Weddell Sea … with 2024 offering a better chance. Our conditions are the best thus far.

Tennessee was up next. He’d been asked to overlay our route with that of the Endurance, which was beset by ice in 1915 in this part of Antarctica. In fact, not far from where we are at present. Not an exact duplicate of the route, but eerily close.

Gary followed Tennessee … first answering a question about why we don’t have a cat onboard if it is an expedition tradition. Of course, the simple answer is that it is a non-native species. His main topic, however, was the sleep habits of penguins … they can sleep deep; but more usually microsleep

Gary also spoke about penguins and their sleep habits. Apparently they can do deep sleep on shore, but they also do microsleeps … meaning that they sleep in 4 second increments up to 10,000 times a day … which accumulates to about 11 hours of sleep! They are also capable of uni- or bi-hemispheric sleep on shore, but at sea it is always uni-hemispheric.

Chloé concluded the recap by telling us about Observation … an iNaturalist type of app, but hosted in the Netherlands … which puts it under the stricter Dutch and European laws. I’ll look into it when I get home.

Tomorrow is going to be a busy day … time to chill and relax!Read more