Wake up at 1am. We are stopped. Looks like we won't be getting very far south today. Good news: no need to wake up for the Antarctic Circle celebration.
Wake up at 4am. Look out... everything is shaded green... beautiful ! Something to do with the sunlight and the water... I guess. I take a picture. Go back to sleep.
Woken up at 6am. Breakfast will be early, followed by a zodiac cruise through the ice floes. I dress quickly. Only to find that I mis-heard. Breakfast is not as early as I thought. When we do get to breakfast -- I have to rush my eating to catch the zodiac schedule. Sigh.
7:45am. We're all lined up for the zodiacs. Deb & I are in the last.
It's only a short trip till we're out again -- onto an ice floe! A big (40mx40m) floe. Flat, suitable for 50 people to mill around... And, occasionally, to sink to our knees in the snow.
I do try to make a snowman. The snow is so light and powdery that it doesn't work at all. We're all wandering round, enjoying the snow, enjoying sinking and sitting in the snow. One woman needs help pulling her boot out. Others fall right over, or just sit or lie in the snow. Great fun :-) And penguin signs: I take a photo of footprints and poo.
And then...
And then... Two penguins hop up and join us on the floe !!
They waddle, they slide. They look us over, approach within a couple of metres of some people. Wild adelie penguins, joining the visitors on their ice floe ! Magic !!
There's a complete hush. We're standing all across the floe. All looking in the same direction. Pointing cameras. Absolutely thrilled :-)
Aaaahhhh... :-)
Finally, we leave the floe. The penguins stay. We spot a seal on the way back. A flock of shearwaters. Ho hum. Five penguins do their popping-out-of-the-water trick onto another floe. Excellent :-) My camera batteries go flat. Doesn't matter. I have photos of two penguins on an ice floe :-)
Back to the ship. Now we're sailing east, hoping for an opening in the ice to the south. Deb says that we are not in Commonwealth Bay. Oh well. Wherever we are, we just saw a humpback whale -- just the top -- just ten metres from the ship. Deb saw it. I saw the pattern on the water after it had dived.
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Afternoon: In brief -- nothing much happens.
We sail east, looking for an opening in the ice to our south. I spot a penguin on the ice, Deb spots a seal on the ice. That's actually pretty exciting -- it's great to spot wildlife before someone else points it out :-) Apart from that, the sea is calm, weather fine and sunny, nearly all the ice on the decks has melted.
I read a bit more of Mawson's Blizzard book. That's a mistake. It's the bit where they eat the dogs, his feet fall off and everyone else dies. Not what I want, this close to Antarctica.
Mid afternoon: We're all called to the front deck... It's a group photo shoot, followed by hot chocolate. Which is delicious, though some spoil theirs by adding a tot (or more) of rum. Why spoil a delicious drink?!
Two people are late for the photo shoot. They need to be called over the p.a. It's Ms X and Mr Y who were -- so they claim -- "preparing the hot chocolate". Shucks... :-) I can almost hear David Attenborough's hushed tones, And here we see the courtship rituals of the local Kiwis...
I've almost completed my own photo collection, of the people on the ship. I have all passengers, all expedition crew, all first names. Just a few home cities missing. Quality is variable... some are definitely blurry -- but recognisable at thumbnail size. Which is all that I want.
Excitement for the evening: an expedition briefing...
At 9:15pm there is a briefing on plans for the next few days. Nathan and the captain have looked at winds, ice, maps, ice maps, to decide what is best.
Plan A: There is no Plan A. We will head south and -- if we can get to clear water -- we will make Plan A.
Plan B: In the likely event that we can't get through the ice -- or if it seems likely that going forward will mean that we can't get back -- then we return north, turn east, head for the Balleny Islands. (From a guide to Antarctica: "the shudder-inducing icebound coasts of the Balleny Islands".) Current weather at Balleny includes gales, zero visibility, but no ice.
My own priorities -- things that would be nice to do... if possible -- are: Get inside the Antarctic Circle; Set foot on Antarctica. If neither happen, no worries. Not after seeing this morning's penguins on the ice floe :-)
10:30pm: The ship has stopped. The captain is getting some sleep. Ready for an early start -- hopefully, heading south -- tomorrow morning.
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