Weddell Sea
More to come was a promise given yesterday, but not in our wildest imagination could we expect to have almost everything in 24 hours! In Antarctica you can make up many plans the day before, but as you finish up late evening next day you will find that things have changed. This makes every single voyage to the area a challenge and an expedition.
If you start the early morning with a perfect sunrise, the sea like glass, covered with sea ice and huge icebergs cluttered into the ocean, find an emperor penguin sitting on one ice flow, later take a Zodiac around one of the largest adelie penguin colonies in the world and a place that is very rarely visited, continue with perfect sunshine and even more ice and after dinner a busy day that ends with a perfect sunset, including a green flash… would you be very happy? If all this came true on a single voyage it would be a bonus trip, but if it happened in 24 hours it is unfathomable! Well, today we did everything and even more!
The early morning risers who ventured outside on deck were almost hit by a sharp glittering sunshine and the ocean filled with majestic tabular icebergs; in between were drifts of multiyear sea ice. As we approached the rarely-visited Danger Islands, some ice flows were literally covered by adelie penguins. On one we even found an emperor penguin!
All the drifting, hard multiyear sea ice made for a slow approach into the area. The group of islands was named by one of the early explorers down south, James Clark Ross, in 1842. They are located at the north-easternmost point of Erebus and Terror Gulf, named after Ross’ two ships which left their names in the Ross Sea of Antarctica as well.
The area does not have any good soundings. For most of the summer it is blocked by all drifting sea ice carried by the Weddell Sea gyre. The group consists of several islands; our Zodiac outing was mainly along the shore of Heroina Island, which houses by far the largest penguin colony in the Antarctic Peninsula. Our Oceanites crew of two penguin-counters was dropped ashore to estimate the size of the colony. They were totally overwhelmed. Heroina Island alone houses on the order of 300,000 breeding pairs. As we cruised between ice flows we also saw that the nearby islands probably hold similar numbers - at least 600,000 pairs all together in the Danger Islands. The true number will be hard to tell as the area is too hard to reach on any regular basis. The National Geographic Endeavour has been able to approach this isolated area only once in the past nine years, so it was a great bonus for us onboard!
It was hard to leave this unique opportunity, but in the late afternoon and through the evening we slowly cruised between huge icebergs and sea ice. The bridge officer had a challenging time to find open leads to push us further south. Along the ice flows we spotted three species of seals, crab-eater, fur and Weddell. What can be more appropriate than to find Weddell seals in the Weddell Sea?
After dinner we gathered in front of the bridge to see the sun slowly drop behind huge tabular icebergs. As always with a bright clear sky, a lot of excitement was generated by the green flash. Those equipped with binoculars saw a green and even bluish flash. For some non-believers the flash was properly documented by several cameras! Time to catch a few hours sleep as the next sunrise is only a few hours away.
More to come was a promise given yesterday, but not in our wildest imagination could we expect to have almost everything in 24 hours! In Antarctica you can make up many plans the day before, but as you finish up late evening next day you will find that things have changed. This makes every single voyage to the area a challenge and an expedition.
If you start the early morning with a perfect sunrise, the sea like glass, covered with sea ice and huge icebergs cluttered into the ocean, find an emperor penguin sitting on one ice flow, later take a Zodiac around one of the largest adelie penguin colonies in the world and a place that is very rarely visited, continue with perfect sunshine and even more ice and after dinner a busy day that ends with a perfect sunset, including a green flash… would you be very happy? If all this came true on a single voyage it would be a bonus trip, but if it happened in 24 hours it is unfathomable! Well, today we did everything and even more!
The early morning risers who ventured outside on deck were almost hit by a sharp glittering sunshine and the ocean filled with majestic tabular icebergs; in between were drifts of multiyear sea ice. As we approached the rarely-visited Danger Islands, some ice flows were literally covered by adelie penguins. On one we even found an emperor penguin!
All the drifting, hard multiyear sea ice made for a slow approach into the area. The group of islands was named by one of the early explorers down south, James Clark Ross, in 1842. They are located at the north-easternmost point of Erebus and Terror Gulf, named after Ross’ two ships which left their names in the Ross Sea of Antarctica as well.
The area does not have any good soundings. For most of the summer it is blocked by all drifting sea ice carried by the Weddell Sea gyre. The group consists of several islands; our Zodiac outing was mainly along the shore of Heroina Island, which houses by far the largest penguin colony in the Antarctic Peninsula. Our Oceanites crew of two penguin-counters was dropped ashore to estimate the size of the colony. They were totally overwhelmed. Heroina Island alone houses on the order of 300,000 breeding pairs. As we cruised between ice flows we also saw that the nearby islands probably hold similar numbers - at least 600,000 pairs all together in the Danger Islands. The true number will be hard to tell as the area is too hard to reach on any regular basis. The National Geographic Endeavour has been able to approach this isolated area only once in the past nine years, so it was a great bonus for us onboard!
It was hard to leave this unique opportunity, but in the late afternoon and through the evening we slowly cruised between huge icebergs and sea ice. The bridge officer had a challenging time to find open leads to push us further south. Along the ice flows we spotted three species of seals, crab-eater, fur and Weddell. What can be more appropriate than to find Weddell seals in the Weddell Sea?
After dinner we gathered in front of the bridge to see the sun slowly drop behind huge tabular icebergs. As always with a bright clear sky, a lot of excitement was generated by the green flash. Those equipped with binoculars saw a green and even bluish flash. For some non-believers the flash was properly documented by several cameras! Time to catch a few hours sleep as the next sunrise is only a few hours away.
