Sunday 15 March 2020

February 25 One last try!

We discovered early this morning that there was another ship in the Bay. And that’s a first on this voyage - everyone else is over visiting the Antarctic Peninsula, lucky us! Our Expedition Leader was keen to make a landing on the beach to see Borchgrevink’s hut so we were called to an early breakfast in order to maximise the time we could spend in Robertson Bay before heading north to Macquarie Island.
Samuel got two boatloads landed through the surf but then called it off as it was proving just too dangerous. But they took all the zodiacs out to cruise around the beach later.

Check out the wave rolling into the beach. One zodiac got swamped and waves were breaking over people - no wonder they pulled up stumps and retreated to the ship

The mighty polar plunge. This zodiac was there to guard the jumpers and also to take pix. Note the ice in the water. Chilly!

Samuel at the bottom of the gangway - there to help!

That splash was made by Al, one of our chefs who jumped off from deck 4 where we all were hanging over the edge. Brave crazy boy.

The long awaited Polar Plunge took place before lunch and 11 stalwarts leapt in. In spite of my intentions, I decided against it - I had a cold and the weather was icy. And Lindsay. in view of his recent surgery, was advised against it by the ship’s doctor.  And we were being stalked by a Leopard seal - they have been known to attack humans particularly if they are wearing black!!! That would have been me - a good decision for me!
We spent the rest of the day after lunch taking pix as we sailed NNW towards Balleny Islands on our way to Macquarie Island.

Mammoth iceberg and rough sea. The stripes are formed as the glacier develops. They would have been from land slides or heavy dust in the air thousands of years ago presumably,  This iceberg would have broken off that glacier and has obviously rolled over a little at some stage so that the dirt stripes are now diagonal. It's possible that this iceberg is grounded as we would still be over the continental shelf.

The sea became quite rough once we left the protection of the bay and massive icebergs. Also we are crossing the circumpolar current. That and the wind created large swells. (By that stage I was sporting a 'patch' against sea sickness - very effective.)

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