but at least visibility was much better than it has been. This
excitement was short-lived, as the fog soon descended once more, but
I'm content with a few hours of relative good visibility. Luckily
this fog-free period coincided with times at which we were bashing
through some high-concentration ice areas, allowing sightings of more
Adelies and even a few Emperors. I even nearly saw an Adelie get
squashed by the ship as it attempted to get out of the water; you
will all be happy to know that the Adelie got to safety, just in the
nick of time! I also captured an Emperor having a poo on camera; to
be fair, I think it was literally shitting itself as the ship went
past - rather amusing.
Not much other excitement to report. If you remember a few weeks
back, I mentioned seeing small black birds. Well today I think I saw
them again - I'm not 100% sure if they are of the same variety, but
these ones were Jesus Petrels - I can't remember their proper name
now (major mental blank) - something something petrel, a persons name
I think...Anyway, they are called Jesus Petrels as they apparently
walk on water; pretty impressive non?
I also remembered something that I was going to blog about a few days
ago, but completely forgot. During my usual stints outside on the
front side of heli deck, overlooking the ships bow, I heard this
almighty loud crashing noise, similar to the sound of an avalanche.
Now earlier on in the day, we were told to be careful on deck as all
the ice that accumulated on the ship was melting, and falling in
pretty massive (and dangerous chunks). After hearing this noise, I
thought I was about to be bombarded by huge chards of ice falling on
me, and threw my hands over my head to protect myself. After a few
seconds of nothing, I looked up to see that I was not about to die,
it was just the noise from the windscreen wipers on the bridge! I
felt like a right idiot, more so than when I slipped on deck; luckily
I was on my own this time too.
We are heading due south now after proceeding around B-9B. This is
actually the furthest south we have been, and hopefully we will get
further still so I can have another shot at seeing the continent,
weather permitting of course.
Current Latitude: -67.2123
Current Longitude: 146.4120
Current Air Temp: -0.1C (wind chill of -8.4C)
Current Ocean Temp: -0.68C
Wildlife: Adelies, Emperors, Snow Petrels, Jesus Petrels
Sea sickness: none
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