Sea Ice

Friday 14th was a sea day and everyone was quiet after a very rough night when it was a challenge to stay in our bunks. How on earth did Shackleton survive crossing this angry bit of sea in an open boat?!!! It calmed a bit as the day wore on and we learned about ice from the geologist on board and about some of the less famous explorers of this area as well as spotting some whales. We're testing ut our hydrophone as we're hoping to find orca as we get into Antarctica proper.
An early night for all in the hope that the sea might not move quite so much. An early call at 6.00am as we were approaching the South Orkneys and driving into lots of sea ice - a spectacular sight, and now a very different and postitively antarctic landscape with icebergs all around, ice on the water, seals basking on lumps of ice and adelie penguins shooting in and out of the water. Still loads of cape terns and albatross circling the boat too, so plenty to see and photographs to take.
We were hoping to land on the South Orkneys but the captain sailed up and down, trying to find a way throught the ice and couldn't so we cirled for a while and just enjoyed the cruise and the fantastic scenery on a relatively calm sea. After all we didn't want to end up like the Endurance.
We are now heading towards Elephant Island through this surreal sea/landscape and the tossing about on the ocean a couple of nights ago was undoubtedly worthwhile.