February 26-29 Four days adrift on a vast ocean

Lots of ice gathering. Winter is approaching.

Another of the Balleny islands is half glacier. We wanted to get out in the zodiacs but the nature of this glacial face looked a bit unstable so no go.

The sea is starting to freeze. Beautiful to look at.

Sturge Island in the Balleny Islands. These island are not inhabited by man but lots of birds. Very bleak

I did say rough seas! Once away from the protection of the islands the wind took over.

The red line is our passage. The deviation part way up was us turning and tracking some Humpback whales - and a Blue Whale! They are the largest animal ever known to have lived. It was astonishing.

That wiggly blue line is the northern extent of the Antarctic Circumpolar current. The current has a major effect of the wind and the seas.

For days we ploughed through the huge swells and winds on the Southern Ocean much of which are generated by the Southern Circumpolar current which circles Antarctica for thousands of Km and beyond the Antarctic Circle in most places. As an aside, that current sets up a ‘local’ current in the Ross Sea which creates central rotating gyre of ice. We’ve passed snaking lines of broken ice chunks, seen large icebergs broken off both ice shelves and glaciers. Birds are our most constant companions although they have been relatively few. In places where we pass over deep trenches or mountain ridges in the ocean floor, there’s an upwelling of fish and krill which brings whales and sea birds feeding around the ship. Quite fascinating!
We are enjoying lectures on whales and sea birds, ice and icebergs, exploration history. But all of us would love to be getting into zodiacs and exploring. That will come once we reach the Subantarctic Islands in a day or so - weather permitting.