During the night National Geographic Explorer sailed slowly southward from the Lemaire Channel past the Argentine Islands and into the Grandidier Channel. Several inches of very fine snow fell, leaving a fresh blanket of white on our ship, the drifting pack ice through which we were pushing, and it even accumulated on the surface of the sea. Because the temperature of the sea water is slightly below freezing the new fallen snow did not melt but floated, giving the appearance of “grease ice” which is the term given to the very first stage in the formation of sea ice.
A little before breakfast the snow stopped falling, visibility improved, and we were able to see quite a few crabeater and Weddell seals scattered about, asleep on their own private ice floes. Eventually we emerged from the seemingly endless band of drifting sea ice and our eyes were drawn to the many massive tabular icebergs, spawned from ice shelves farther south that dot the seascape in this region. In the mid-morning our guest speaker, Admiral Geoffrey Chesborough, regaled us with stories garnered from his long career working with the U.S. Navy on and around the Antarctic Continent. As he finished his talk we once again heard the now familiar sound of ice scraping against the hull and found that Captain Skog had driven the ship deep into some sea ice that was still frozen fast against the shore. This afforded us the opportunity to walk down the gangway and out onto the frozen sea, much to the bewilderment of a pair of curious Adelie penguins.
National Geographic photographer Kevin Schafer inspired us all to improve our own photography skills, with an afternoon presentation of many magnificent photos that he has taken of wildlife while on assignment for the Society. No sooner had Kevin finished his talk when Captain Skog had some more spectacular ice cruising lined up for us. He navigated the ship amongst a cluster of huge icebergs in a place called Collin’s Bay, which was choked with brash ice calved off from the Trooz Glacier.
And so with recap and another delicious supper behind us we ended another superb day in the comfort of our happy ship, wondering what new and exciting events tomorrow will bring.
