Peter Kinsella's Antarctic Voyage Diary
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Wednesday 31st January 2001, Franklin Island ( 76° 09.9' S 168° 19.1' E )
The weather gods were still kind to us and last night we sailed north heading for the "Great Ice Barrier" - the Ross Ice Shelf, a floating body of ice the size of France. Despite some fog conditions we managed an unscheduled stop at the rarely visited Franklin Island. At 0800 hours we were anchored in calm conditions with a heavy fog and a temperature of -7° C. We went in by zodiacs to the island which had a backdrop of high cliffs. The landing site was quite unique. The fascinating rock formations had resulted from ancient volcanic activity. This also was a highlight as the rocky, pebbly shores covered with 55,000 pairs of adelie penguins and a sizeable population of skuas were all in mist and the ice was like frozen waves which had been shaped by the wind. It was quite eerie. This afternoon we visited the engine room - actually it is four decks of engines, control rooms, electric motors, workshops, spares, pumps and other plant. At 1500 hours we watched an English documentary about Scott’s expedition to the pole. It was really heavily pointed to Scott (Englishman) being the main Antarctic explorer for that time. Previous documentaries on other explorers indicate that this was far from factual. At 1700 hours, Louise Crossley followed with another history lecture focussing on the early 1900s . All the lectures had been absolutely brilliant with each lecturer ( Susan Adie who was assistant expedition leader, Brad Stahl, Keith Springer, Fabrice Genevois and Mark Hindell) totally experienced in their respective fields. They all presented most detailed, interesting and sometimes very humorous presentations. A good night +2°C to -2°C and we still remained lucky with the weather in the Ross Sea. Doris’s (from Bendigo, in Victoria) birthday party was this evening and we sang Happy Birthday in English, French, Italian etc. The flu/cold was now in full flight around the ship through the air conditioning and both Tim and I haven’t been able to shake it yet. Gary has managed to avoid it, I don’t know how, must be the Italian garlic?
Thursday 1st February, Cape Hallett ( 72° 18.7' S 170° 11.0' E )
We woke this morning at Cape Hallett parked again in the ice in an adjacent Fjord. It was very cold here with a temperature of -6°C and a wind chill factor of -15°C. We walked over the ice to an adelie penguin rookery ashore and looked around the remnants of an old New Zealand / USA base first built in 1957.
There were four US and NZ environmentalists camping there in antarctic tents whilst carrying out a rehabilitation survey. Still a few buildings, tanks etc. to be removed. The four men had been there a week and still had one week to go, so they were invited back to the ship for a hot shower and lunch. The Cape Hallett area looked very stark with black mountains, covered with snow flowing down to glaciers with many crevasses. It snowed all morning and didn’t warm up so we had a BBQ on board rather than on the ice.
Having the helicopters on board was a great asset as we were able to go for sight seeing flights over Ironside Glacier which is in the vicinity of Mount Herschel. The surrounding mountains reared up over 3000 metres creating a magnificent scene. We flew along the fast ice and up the glaciers at a low level to look at the seals, crevasses and the glaciers. We left the area at 1330 hours. Later in the afternoon we cruised up along the Adare Peninsula and out of the Ross Sea. General weather conditions seemed to be deteriorating as we headed north at 170°. We had another lecture on seals.
Friday 2nd February, Approaching the Balleny Islands
( 68° 02.2' S 165° 44.6' E ) & ( 67° 34.5' S 164° 39.8' E)We were now at sea again heading north west, however still in the protection of the sea ice and icebergs. We were midway between Cape Adare and Balleny Island and navigating in a region of often dense pack ice and numerous very large icebergs. The scenery was just fantastic and every minute we were taking photos of a new iceberg, different coloured icebergs, seals and penguins on icebergs, all scurrying out of the way of the ship as it continually broke through the pack ice. It was overcast in the morning and -2°C without wind factor. At 1500 hours we sighted Sturge Island which is part of the Balleny group (and is the highest and largest of the group). These islands consist of three main islands; Sturge, Buckle and Young and numerous smaller islands located about 300 km off the Northern Victoria Land (a strip of the continent) straddling the Antarctic Circle in the northern Ross Sea. All of the Balleny's are of volcanic origin and rise sharply from the ocean floor with depths of 2000 meters occurring within five nautical miles off the coast. The current is very strong in a north westerly direction in this area. As a result the ice from the Ross Sea drifts towards the Balleny Islands, often becoming a solid ice pack between the islands and the mainland.
The ice pack shapes with the larger icebergs dispursed amongst it was another special sight. It was blowing south east and snowing heavily so visibility was poor at first. Within an hour the snow and wind stopped and the sun came out which enabled some good photography. We were about to leave the area when two humpbacks appeared, so we idled around the whales for about an hour in dead calm conditions with good sunlight and ice flows everywhere, another unforgettable experience.
While at Sturge Island, the captain made a run along the west side of the island, close to the island to fill in world knowledge on the soundings. No charts show any information in this area. With a rough steep rocky terrain and icebergs everywhere this is the sort of exploration which can only be attempted in a vessel of this calibre. The Balleny group is notorious for bad weather and thick pack ice, hence the lack of information on charts. While cruising beside Sturge Island we saw lots of crab eater seals and a few leopard seals on the ice flows. We departed for Mertz Glacier at 1700 hours.