Ice shelf front at sunset

Well the Science section of our cruise duly came to an end and we made or way out of the Weddell sea pack ice towards Creek IV at Halley. The sea was flat calm and greasy looking as we approached the coast a pod of Killer whales crossed our path in the distance and the Halley base not normally visible for the sea miraged above the horizon.

Ships wake cracking sea

We surveyed the bay ice and tie up points we had previously used and all looked intact, the Captain opting to use the Igarka’s “berth” as the ice looked better for loading there.

Sea smoke

Once tied up arrangements were made for the back load cargo from the base to start trickling to the ship. We arrived a week early so they were not really ready for us but soon organised a plan to keep the cargo coming in a steady stream. The weather held and the work proceeded well.

Ice Shelf edge

It is amazing and perfectly understandable how the arrival of the ship acts like a candle to Halley Herbivores. There was no end of base personnel turning up with any excuse to visit. Mostly, it seemed, keen on getting stuck in to some fresh fruit, salads and vegetables. This of course inciting the ire of the catering department who were sometimes caught a little short.

Some of the Halley team came down to the ship for a dinner and a few drinks one evening and several of the ships personnel went up to the base for to be similarly entertained. This proved very successful and good break from routine for all.

The cargo kept on coming for the next few days and by Thursday evening the ships cargo spaces were packed tight with all manner of cargo and we wer more or less ready to roll.

RRS James Clark Ross

News from Halley is that they have made excellent progress with the new base and all the modules have now been fully clad with their outer skins. All that needed to be done was to shift the modules into winter positions and the stowing of all the gear and supplies. The project personnel are very pleased with the progress.

JCR tying up

On Friday 25^th we moved forward to the Shack’s previous mooring point to make way for the James Clark Ross which was due on Saturday morning. She duly arrived and proceeded to tie up with the help of base and ships personnel. Barely two hours later the wind picked up dramatically and proceeded to bash our two vessels against the fast ice. Sea-water flooding over the top of it as it pounded away. One of our moorings gave way snapping the pole clean in half and Capt Marshall decided it would be prudent to get out to sea. As we moved away thee rest of the mooring poles snapped and we headed out. We stood by while the JCR removed herself from her moorings and moved away from the ice. This bad weather interlude has put plans of an early withdrawal on hold.

Broken mooring pole

The JCR and the Shackleton are steaming slowly up and down the coast waiting for a break in the weather.

JCR in the rough

Words amd pics: Pat O’Hara

Next post Departure Halley – arrival Stanley

Icy Sunset

Our Science program kicked into gear quite smoothly and we have had a very high success rate with our buoy retrieval efforts so far.

Buoy recovery

Our first task was to attempt to raise several buoys tethered to the sea floor that had been deployed last year with various measuring instruments recording data. These include the ADCP (Accoustic Doppler current profiler) that measures current, CTD’s and temperature probes measuring temp. depth and salinity.

These buoys are released by hydro-acoustic signalling and then float to the surface, hopefully not under an ice floe. The buoys are then dragged on board and the instruments removed and the data recovered. They will be re-deployed prior to us leaving the area. We have so far managed to recover all except one buoy. This project is being conducted by the Norwegian contingent led by Svein Osterhuis and assisted by Lisbeth Havik and Kjiersti Strand.

Buoyancy Floats

ADCP, Temp and CTD Instruments

Personnel hoist

We are also deploying an instrument directly on to ice floes, this done by David Meldrum of the Scottish Association for Marine Science. His description below.

Sea ice studies on the ES

Sea ice has an important effect on the heat balance of the planet because it reflects solar energy back into space: when there is lots of sea ice the planet will tend to be cooler than when there is no sea ice for this reason alone. At the moment the planet is warming up and sea ice, especially in the summer Arctic, is disappearing. This will accelerate the warming trend. Unfortunately climate models do no accurately describe the changes that we are seeing in the Arctic, and this is affecting the quality of their predictions. The reason that the models are struggling is that we do not properly understand how sea ice grows and decays throughout the year and in different parts of the globe.

Driling

There is always a straggler

The object of our experiment is to improve that understanding and make the models better. We are doing this by deploying a number of sensor chains through small holes in the sea ice. The 120 tiny sensors measure temperature changes in the ice as it grows and decays, as well as in the sea under the ice and in the snow and air above it.

Rigging Temperature Probe

The measurements are sent back as e-mails to our lab in Scotland by tiny satellite transmitters. We hope that the equipment will work for at least one year before it melts out into the Southern Ocean. David Meldrum

Final Checks

Although it is only February the temperatures are already starting to dip a bit and the open water between the floes is freezing overnight. A sure signs that things are already starting to change.

Other than that life on board goes on its merry way. We have a month to go before signing off in the Falklands. As the trip trundles on and weariness sets in most are thinking ahead to some time at home. However there is plenty of work to keep us busy before then.

Once we are finished with the science work we will be heading off to Halley to prepare for the back load and to pick up the last of the summer season personnel after which we will head for Stanley.

In keeping with the Scientific theme of this weeks blog. Some little known Penguin facts:

Did you ever wonder why you never see dead penguins on the ice in Antarctica? Ever wonder where they go? Wonder no more. It is a known fact that the penguin is a very ritualistic bird which lives an extremely ordered and complex life. The penguins have a very strong community bond.

Penguin Wake

They are very committed to their family and will mate for life. They also maintain a form of compassionate contact with their offspring throughout its life. If a penguin is found dead on the ice surface, other members of the family and social circle have been known to dig holes in the ice, using their vestigial wings and beaks, until the hole is deep enough for the dead bird to be rolled into and buried. The male penguins then gather in a circle around the freshly dug grave and sing

“freeze a jolly good fellow.”

Words: Pat O’Hara, David Meldrum

Images: Andy Walder, David Meldrum, Pat O’Hara

Well Cape Town has come and gone and we are we are entering the pack ice once again after a rather rough trip down.

Antarctic Blue

Our trip North was largely uneventful and done in mostly sublime weather conditions. We timed it just right to go between the cold fronts and managed to avoid the worst of the sea conditions.

Minke Whales

The Stay in Cape Town was very pleasant. Those lucky enough to get some time off managed to get around quite a bit with visits to Table Mountain, Wine Farms and the Kirstenbosch Gardens and of course the endless choice of Restaurants and watering holes in the Waterfront itself.

A few hardened Rugby fans on board managed to wangle an invite to the Home of SA Rugby – Newlands Stadium to watch a warm up game for the forthcoming Super –14 season. They were well looked after by their hosts.

Newlands- Home of SA Rugby

Cape Town

Whilst  Cape Town we picked up three Norwegian scientific personnel and one from the UK for a research project that they will be running in the Weddell Sea.

Working Aloft

There was quite a bit of work to do on board the ships whilst in port. Not least of all the replacement of a GPS Antenna array that had come adrift during some bad weather in the Channel earlier in the trip. This job required scaffolding to be erected above the conning tower to the highest point in the ship. Cables were and repairs made to the installation to hopefully avoid a re-occurrence of this in the future.

We departed on Thursday the 28^th and headed out in good weather. Very soon though the Cape Rollers (huge swells) re-introduced to us the South Atlantic seas. The forecasts were not good and all the cold fronts we had missed on the way up were lining one after the other to make sure we paid our dues on the southward passage. For the next five days the weather was atrocious and we rolled and pitched our way headlong into the seas. The seasick pills and patches were in great demand from the Doctor. Finally as we headed into the sixties the weather calmed a bit. It is quite amazing to see the improvement in the general demeanour on board this has caused.

First Berg

Zebra Berg

We encountered our first pack-ice on Sunday the 7^th and started picking our way through. We are currently about one hundred and twenty miles from the Ice shelf heading due south. Once we reach the shelf we will follow the coast down towards Halley where the Norwegian Science project will commence.

In the Pack again

Once the project is finished we will be heading for Halley to pick up personnel and the final back load  for the season.

Next Post:  More on the science

Words: P.O’Hara

Images P’O’Hara