The Ross Ice Shelf - WOW
Sunday, 20th December - at sea in the Ross Sea: The outer door to deck 5 is banging every few minutes. It’s 1:30am, & with the sky incredibly light, people are rushing outside to capture the midnight sun. I’m enjoying sleep, but still wake at 5:00am. I’m reading “Water Ice Stone,” a book by Bill Green, a US scientist who has studied nutrients in the McMurdo Dry Valleys, an area we were hoping to visit but see as unlikely. It’s good to take the opportunity to read for an hour before getting ready for the day.
From the Bridge we see penguins running in tight circles as the KK bears down upon their ice floe. What they thought was a safe and quiet place is now under significant threat. It’s hard to imagine what this huge noisy metallic thing must look like to them, particularly since it’s likely to be the first time they’ve ever seen a ship.
We’re told that we’re now about 5 hours from the Ross Ice Shelf, and should be there by 2pm this afternoon. Assuming the weather holds, and there’s good visibility & no wind, we’ll fly up and land.
Our heading is 220o (SW) in very calm seas. The ship is meandering through the sea ice, rather than tackling it head on. Our “Bow Brigade” is out – 6 of us routinely meet on the bow, a great place to see the bird and sea life more closely. It’s cloudy and the sun is trying unsuccessfully to get through, so the temperature remains low.
But a dark cloud is looming ahead, and soon big fat flakes of dry snow are floating out of the sky. We’re trying to catch them in our mouths, but the wind over the bow makes them fly upwards and out of reach. It’s all very beautiful, but not a good situation unless it clears before we reach the Ross Ice Shelf. And with the passing of the front, the wind has picked up to a steady 25-30 knots.
After an hour or so the weather starts to clear, and a Skua is doing its best to land on the rotating radar above the Bridge – I’m trying to imagine what the attraction is when there are so many other non-moving parts to the ship.
We are getting closer, and after lunch, Cheli joins us on the bow to see who can spot the Ice Shelf first. It becomes visible on the horizon about 10 miles out – it’s very high, and its breadth increases dramatically as we come closer. Shades of grey and white, and various textures along the front become more visible.
Finally we’ve arrived, and the 2nd helicopter is pulled out onto the helideck and its blades are attached. The engineers and pilots go through the necessary checks and we watch the first of the Expedition Crew climb into the blue chopper and fly off to find a suitable place to land.
Then the remaining Crew take flags, boxes of glasses and champagne, and fly up to get everything in place before we join them. This is our first heli-ride, and what a sight! We fly over the edge of the Ice Shelf and along it for a short distance before landing on the ice and snow.
The Ross Ice Shelf is approximately the size of France, and here we are, standing on the edge of this enormous natural wonder about 250ft above the sea. We can see the KK anchored off the “coast”, with sea-ice in the distance. We raise a glass of champagne to the old explorers, and to James Ross in particular, after whom the Shelf is named. We then take the opportunity to wander around, staying between the flags. There are crevasses in the area, and being an ice shelf, the front edge actively calves from time to time – not a good place to be at that moment!
It's wonderful to finally be off the ship, and a privilege to be one of few people in the world to stand on the Ross Ice Shelf. What a beautiful day – and it’s not over!
The ship starts to move west along the Ice Shelf soon after everyone is back on board, and when we enter the dining rooms for dinner, we see that the elves have been busy – Christmas is underway on the KK. The best places to be to watch the edge of the Shelf and take photos are on the Bridge or the fly bridge. Others have a similar idea, and the Bridge is reasonably busy this evening.
It’s 10:30pm and we’re passing Mt Terror when someone sees a pod of whales in the distance. They’re not easy to spot, but then I see them and realize that with their high pointy dorsal fin, they’re probably Orca. So we call the two cetacean scientists, John and Bob, and within 2 minutes they’re on the Bridge, confirming that this is indeed a large pod.
The pod is moving quite quickly across our bow, well ahead of us. Bob and John try to persuade the Captain to turn the ship to follow, but he’s not interested. Soon we see another pod; the Captain turns the ship to follow them, and then we see a third pod. Shutters are clicking, tripods are being set-up, the Chinese contingent are soon running across the port and starboard sides of Deck 8 and everyone is oo-ing and ah-ing as we watch these magnificent animals slowly moving though the water.
There are around 120 whales in the 3 pods – adult males and females, and some calves. They are the smallest genus of Orca, classed as type C, and of great interest to the cetacean scientists. Unfortunately we’re not going to stop to tag them – that would have been fantastic.
What a glorious day it’s been, with three “firsts” for me – flying in a helicopter off and on an icebreaker in the Antarctic, standing on the Ross Ice Shelf and seeing my first pods of Orcas!
And it’s now time for bed. Tomorrow we’ll be going to Shackleton’s Hut at Cape Royds and Scott’s Hut at Cape Evans.