February 21 McMurdo Sound

This is the NZ station where stands Ross Hut.  Sir Edmund Hillary was based there in the mid 1950s when he led the New Zealand component of the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition; he was the first person to arrive at the South Pole by vehicle

Aleksandr, our Captain, actually got the ship so close we touched the ice shelf - this is the McMurdo Ice Shelf. He had his Chief Mate hanging over the side shouting instructions. It was thrilling! Nobody could take their eyes off it.

This is the edge of the McMurdo Ice Shelf.  We found lots of seals, penguins and other birds along the edge of this large body of ice.  we also saw whales diving close by looking for food presumably, or maybe just having fun.

The surface of the sea was fascinating, freezing into smallish disks which gradually bound together and so the sea ice grows. In the distance is the US base, McMurdo Station and way off to the right is a runway stretching for what seems like miles.

Heavenly

A lazy ol' Leopard seal watched us from a huge plate of last years pack ice. In the end he decided to get out of the lime light. Watch him go!

We cut a swathe through the ice and it closed up behind us. In the foreground you can see the 'footsteps' of Emperor penguins who took to the sea long before we got there.

Mt Discovery. There are other huge volcanoes on Ross Island - Mt Erebus and Mt Terror; named after Ross’s two expedition ships. He discovered the sea and a number of islands in the sea which were named in honour of him - not to mention the huge Ross Ice shelf.

We cut a crazy pathway through the ice sneaking up on a group of Emperor penguins.

Emperors - they are huge and very beautiful. We watched them for what seemed like hours and managed to get a video of a larger group further on.  They hung around for a while but then like the Leopard seal, they head for he safety of the water, I guess the ship loomed pretty large and we were close.

We sailed on further around Ross Island in McMurdo Sound passed the NZ base and spent the rest of the afternoon and evening sailing close to the McMurdo Ice Shelf looking for wildlife. We saw Adelie and Emperor penguins and Weddell and Crab-eater seals and a few Minke whales plus others.
The sea was slowly starting to freeze forming tiny disks then pancakes which was no problem for our little ship but there was still some of last year’s ice which was much thicker - we munched through it. The captain who was having a wonderful time and didn’t stop smiling the entire time, nudged the ship right up the ice shelf so close we felt that we could reach out and touch a pair of Emperor penguins preening on the edge of the ice.
The evening was glorious so we stayed around that patch of sea for hours photographing and videoing. We dined pretty late again that night.
Incidentally about 10 days later, that whole area of sea north from here and passed Terra Nova Bay was frozen. Terra Nova Bay is a polynya - an area of unfrozen water surrounded by pack ice. It is prevented from freezing by strong Katabatic winds screaming down off the plateau at cyclonic forces.