"Welcome to the Ice"

We left harbour on the 12^th of November, and on the 14^th began to see small chunks of ice floating past. These days saw varied weather, from calm to fairly choppy. Life on board was not boring though, with film nights, a lot of darts games on a rocking ship, and a fire alarm and stowaway drill.

On the 15^th we woke up to huge icebergs, and were promised sea ice before lunch. We went up on deck straight after breakfast, and watched as bergs floated past, whales blew in the distance, and a slither of sea ice on the horizon came closer.

Everyone watched as we entered the sea ice for the first time

We finally reached the ice edge, and the JCR ploughed through. Everyone gathered on the bow to watch as ice shattered and was shunted out of the way. One of the experienced field assistants who I shared a cabin with turned to me, shook my hand and said “Welcome to the Ice”.

The ship was repainted a few months ago, and we watched as flakes of red were scoured off. The noise and vibration of hitting ice with a 100m ship is hard to describe. Later that evening we were watching a film in the dark whilst ramming thicker pieces of ice, and the closest thing I can think of, is when bombs are exploding near a bunker in a film, the noise and shaking scenery is very similar to that of ice breaking. Lying in bed whilst the ship rocks up onto an ice floe, reverses and then rams again is an interesting sensation, slowly angling backwards in bed until a sudden drop as the ice breaks.

Adelie penguins diving off the ice floe

Chinstrap penguins

As we moved forward, we started to see different species emerging, including adelie, and chinstrap penguins, snow petrels, weddell and crabeater seals, and Antarctic terns. We passed Inaccessible Island, and Coronation Island before finally catching a glimpse of Signy and the South Orkney Islands through the snow on the morning of the 16^th. I was eating breakfast as two cruise scientists came to find me, explaining that there was an elephant seal on the ice. I ran outside in a t-shirt and jeans into the snow, pulling myself up icy stairs to see the Southern species that shares a name and shape with double the weight of those that I worked with on the Farallones. The ship had become quite different overnight, not only was the ground covered in ice, but periodically ice fell from the masts.

Crabeater seal, with a scar possibly caused by orca.

Chinstrap penguin

After pushing through more ice, we came to a section of open water leading to Signy. We anchored outside of the bay, and two RIBs were deployed to investigate the state of the landing site. A few experienced people were dropped off on the ice for reconnaissance, and the RIBs returned later into a 30 knot blizzard to re-join the ship.

The next day, half of the ship’s personnel landed on Signy. We left at 7am in the cargo tender, and walked the short distance to base, which was the first experience of land in the Antarctic for many of us. It was nice to get ashore after a week on-board, do some work, and see my first BAS base (which has been running since the 40s). The priority for the morning was for the techs to get generators and boilers started after a long winter of being unmanned. Everyone else separated into work teams. I was in the food stores, breaking ice that had accumulated across the floor. Every tool possible was used, from pickaxes to crowbars. After a few hours this was clear, and cargo began to be stacked. Next door in the freezer store, there was another 3 inches of ice covered by 2 inches of water, which got tackled with a vengeance. We had a break for lunch, sitting on the end of the jetty with our feet resting on the sea ice, watching southern elephant seals fidget on the ice.

 

Next up was re-digging skidoo tracks and digging out snow drifts to make paths around the buildings. After a hard day’s work, we were quickly taken back to the JCR as sea ice was being blown into the bay. The occupants of Signy stayed behind, and rode out a 100 knot storm overnight in their newly warmed base.



 

The next day, another group went ashore to finish base relief, and said goodbye to the summer residents as we headed back North, through the sea ice towards South Georgia, and my new home on Bird Island. On the way, we were lucky enough to be joined by several humpback whales, which spent several hours close to the stationary ship as science devices (CTDs and nets) were deployed into the deep sea.