Somewhere in the Weddell Sea
If you’ve been following along thus far you are aware that yesterday’s report mentioned giant icebergs, treacherous sea ice, ship-wrecked explorers of yore, and the desperate lengths people in such conditions will go to survive. After our last dispatch was filed, we occupied the evening and wee morning hours by plunging ever deeper into the Weddell Sea, partly in hopes of catching sight of emperor penguins rumored to nest somewhere to the south and partly just to see how far into the Weddell we could go. Shift after shift, and on past sunrise, the officers of the Endeavour continued threading our way through a labyrinth of ice bergs and ice floes in search of fabled fowl and furthest south, until not even a trail of breadcrumbs could have guided us back out. It may have been the constant twisting and turning coupled with the occasional fog, or it may have been that the officer on the bridge just couldn’t resist the temptation to ram one of the offending pieces of ice any longer. Either way, the good ship Endeavour suddenly found itself stuck like an arrow into the side of an ice floe. Was that the end of our expedition? Did we curl up and await our fate like twenty-first century wimps? NO! We layered on our cold weather gear and piled out onto the ice with gusto and one big rope! “Heave Ho”! Cries our leader Tom. “Put yer back into it now”! And the red-coated crew replied with a lusty roar!
Dear gentle reader...of our fate you need not fear. We are safe and sound. Exactly how we extricated ourselves from near certain calamity (and a probable diet of penguin stew beginning around Valentines Day) I need not tell you right now. Suffice it to say that the rest of our day was filled with: yet even more ice of shapes, sizes, colors and hues you can’t easily imagine. The first warming sunshine of our trip thus far. Close looks at killer whales moving stealthily through the ice pack in search of their seal prey. Hikes among Adelie penguins and to the tops of both horns of Devil Island. And the continued good cheer of guests being treated to a classic each-day-tops-the-last-day Antarctic expedition. Regardless of whether you are trapped in ice or not!
If you’ve been following along thus far you are aware that yesterday’s report mentioned giant icebergs, treacherous sea ice, ship-wrecked explorers of yore, and the desperate lengths people in such conditions will go to survive. After our last dispatch was filed, we occupied the evening and wee morning hours by plunging ever deeper into the Weddell Sea, partly in hopes of catching sight of emperor penguins rumored to nest somewhere to the south and partly just to see how far into the Weddell we could go. Shift after shift, and on past sunrise, the officers of the Endeavour continued threading our way through a labyrinth of ice bergs and ice floes in search of fabled fowl and furthest south, until not even a trail of breadcrumbs could have guided us back out. It may have been the constant twisting and turning coupled with the occasional fog, or it may have been that the officer on the bridge just couldn’t resist the temptation to ram one of the offending pieces of ice any longer. Either way, the good ship Endeavour suddenly found itself stuck like an arrow into the side of an ice floe. Was that the end of our expedition? Did we curl up and await our fate like twenty-first century wimps? NO! We layered on our cold weather gear and piled out onto the ice with gusto and one big rope! “Heave Ho”! Cries our leader Tom. “Put yer back into it now”! And the red-coated crew replied with a lusty roar!
Dear gentle reader...of our fate you need not fear. We are safe and sound. Exactly how we extricated ourselves from near certain calamity (and a probable diet of penguin stew beginning around Valentines Day) I need not tell you right now. Suffice it to say that the rest of our day was filled with: yet even more ice of shapes, sizes, colors and hues you can’t easily imagine. The first warming sunshine of our trip thus far. Close looks at killer whales moving stealthily through the ice pack in search of their seal prey. Hikes among Adelie penguins and to the tops of both horns of Devil Island. And the continued good cheer of guests being treated to a classic each-day-tops-the-last-day Antarctic expedition. Regardless of whether you are trapped in ice or not!
