Coming soon to a forum near you, Ross Sea Expedition onboard The World

[bPeteb]

Thursday 26 January
Temp 0C. Position at 07:40 76 06’ S 168 12’ E.

Happy Australia Day!

We were woken by the sound of the anchors being dropped and wound up the blind to find ourselves looking directly at Franklin Island.



By the time we’d had coffee and breakfast and got ourselves organised the first groups were already walking along the beach between the penguins.



Franklin Island is what this was all about. It is home to a huge colony of Adélie penguins and they were everything we could have hoped for and more. After a gentle landing on what we have seen can be a very rough beach, we were given instruction on how to manoeuvre between the thousands of penguins and dozens of seals that filled the area between the beach and the steep hill/cliff.



Stay five metres clear, give way of they are going to cross in front of you,



don’t get too close to the seals



If you sit down and they come to you the five metre rule is off the table. The smell was nowhere near as bad as we’d been led to believe that it would be. Al thought the worst smell was from the seals right next to the landing spot.

 

[bPeteb]

They were fantastic! So comical.



They look at you with such quizzical expressions as if to be asking “what the hell are you?”



They seemed much more comfortable coming up to you if you stood still rather than knelt down. They’d come a bit nearer if you were sat on a rock or just the pebbles. There were adults, chicks and tweens who were losing their down.



Sadly there were also hundreds, maybe thousands of dead or near dead chicks.



We were told that it is very late in the summer for chicks to have not lost their down and the majority of those on the beach won’t survive.

 

[bPeteb]

That didn’t stop the mums and dads coming back with bellies full of food for their squawking chicks.



They looked so funny running in front of a frantic chick.







I was surprised to learn that they often have two chicks but only the one to get to the parent first will usually survive. We saw thousands who won't make it into the sea before winter arrives.

 

[bPeteb]

Ok, some more penguins

 

[bPeteb]

After taking a gazillion photos and movies we headed back to the ship but could never have said that we were penguined out.





Now not getting to Borchgrevink’s Hut by missing Cape Adare was nearly ok because a penguin colony could now be crossed off.

As we sailed away the captain announced that there were some whales off the bow of the ship. Up we all went and over the course of the next hour we watched two pods of killer whales (not the Sea World publicity driven orca name!) move around in the seas off Franklin, one with a weird droopy dorsal fin.





Erebus continued to tease us



Lecture by Peter McCarthy – Antarctica in My Blood. How amazing that your grandfather was one of the six who sailed with Shackleton to South Georgia in an attempt to save the 16 left behind on Elephant Island.

Photo workshop – I took three photos and two of them were reviewed. Best part was they were Al’s photos. The only negative was that we need to compose a bit better but apart from that he should be very proud of the two photos that I put up.

Dinner at Tides. More mozzarella, more tuna tartare

 

[bPeteb]

Thursday 26 January again as we crossed the date line during the night but the ship is ignoring it…

Friday 27 January
Seas 2.5-4 metre rolling swell. Position at 09:24 77 43’ S 179 02’ W. Speed 9.9 knots. Temp -1C

The day was spent sailing along the Ross Sea Ice Shelf towards the Bay of Whales. We decided to spoil ourselves with room service breakfast.





The enormity of this mass of ice could never be adequately described by words or even pictures.


Started sunny


Ended cold and windy with snow squalls

You just need to see it. It stretches in both directions until it disappears. Some penguins. Some seals. Lots of ice!



Lecture by Graeme Ayres – Hell Bent for the Pole. This jaunt was Al’s favourite discovery before we came away. Sir Edmund Hilary (or Ed as all the Kiwis call him) was responsible for laying the depots across Antarctica for the Commonwealth Trans-Antarctic Expedition. The expedition leader Sir Vivian Fuchs was supposed to reach the pole first but Ed had other ideas and using his excellent Massey Ferguson tractors decided to go himself. What a laugh and good on him!

Lecture by Jessica Farrer – Life on the Sea Ice. A compilation of photos and videos of Jess’s life in Antarctica, both at McMurdo and out on the ice. Cooking, heating and bathrooms. Wow!

Dinner at Portraits Bistro with some fellow guests, a couple who are on The World for the sixth time through Exclusive Resorts. On the second last day they were advised they would be back onboard next year for the Svalbard Expedition. Jealous LOTS!!

 

[bPeteb]

Saturday January 28
Seas 2.5-4 metres. Position at 08:16 78 43’ S 163 43’ W. Speed 1.1 knots. Temp -9C

The first part of the morning was all about breaking the world record for the furthest south that a ship had sailed.



They sent the fast rescue boat out to find that furthest ice-clear most southerly point and then the ship followed it.



At approximately 10:30 we edged up towards the ice sheet. The fast rescue boat was down under the prow of the ship making sure that the bulbous bow didn’t hit the ice jutting out under the water.

Three officers, severely under-dressed in their short sleave whites, GPSs in hand, confirmed to the bridge that we had made it to 78 43.997’, a new world record!



Everyone was invited down to the lobby to celebrate the event. The champagne and Bailey’s hot chocolate were flowing by the time we got down there and an hour after the record was broken a huge cake depicting the whole Antarctic continent was brought our into the Town Square for Captain Dag to cut.



How amazing to be part of such an incredible achievement.

 

[bPeteb]

Once the festivities wound down Rob announced that they would be looking for somewhere for us to get off and walk on the ice and also somewhere sheltered for the polar plunge. The fast rescue boat stayed out and went in search. Apparently they looked at 14km of ice edge but found nothing that would sustain 100+ people wandering around on it so we reverted to plan E and went looking for a clear patch to polar plunge in after a zodiac cruise.

Captain Dag announced that there was a number of emperors on an ice flow off the port bow. We went out onto the balcony and there they were! Finally the port side had won the lottery – 12 emperor and one adélie on a large slab of pack ice less than 100 metres from our balcony. Talk about amazing.



They were fantastic. They wandered backwards and forwards and the adélie looked like it was directing them at some point.







Al spotted another three out in the distance looking a little worried about the size of the flow they were stood on.



Then we saw seals. It was a feast of Antarctic wildlife.

 

[bPeteb]

They were very careful not to disturb the emperors and unloaded all of the zodiacs using the starboard winch.

It was seriously cold out on the balcony so would be even colder out on the water in a zodiac. We put on pretty much every layer that we had. I double-thermalled legs and arms, double-socked fleeced, gortexed, merino neck buff and beanie and double gloved. Al did pretty much the same. My fingers were freezing by the time we got back to the ship because it was much easier to take photos with a single pair of gloves on, or none at all for iphone pics. My neck and face were freezing – merino buff does not cut out wind as well as synthetic.

But gee did we see some great stuff. More emporers



more adélies, more seals – crabeater and I think Weddells





and then finally a leopard seal who put on a great show for us



Add to that beautiful blue ice and more sparkling icicles



and it was the perfect afternoon out in the Bay of Whales. No whales though…

 

[bPeteb]

Due to the delay in getting the zodiacs out, and back in, the polar plunge was rescheduled to 5pm. It was cold out on the zodiacs so the thought of standing on the marina platform with next to nothing on and then jumping in to that freezing water had zero attraction. But we did it in any case.

Vodka shots to warm your insides, or give you some Dutch courage, or both. Then it was out onto the platform.



Possibly foolishly we’d not brought robes with us so it was super freezing waiting for our turn to jump. We’d intended to jump together like we had in Greenland but things got a bit mixed up. Al jumped and then I followed him in.



We even had to have ropes tied around us die to the strong current!!

OMG it was cold. I’ve since found out that the temp on the platform was -9C and water temp was -2C. I was wearing the Sony action cam and Al looked like he’d just been brought back to life when he climbed up that ladder. I have no idea what I looked like but I know I couldn’t feel my toes when I got out of the water. We towelled off super quick then were given robes and walked VERY quickly back inside. Marina now has glass panels across the back so it was warm inside the restaurant. We jumped into pool with the rest of the plungers, had some Bailey’s hot chocolates then went back to the apartment to warm up. North and South polar plunges tick.



NEVER AGAIN.


seal beside the ship wondering what these weird animals were doing.

 

[bPeteb]

We had dinner in East with Heather and Chris, the lovely couple from Melbourne we met on the shuttle into Hobart – Chinese New Year. We’d booked a while back so it was a bit disappointing to be seated out in Tides where it was freezing.



That the food was underwhelming, the first time so far on this cruise, was equally disappointing.


Looked good, as always, but tasted a bit pre-prepared...

 

[SuePa]

Hi Pete,
I sailed on the expedition ship, 'Spirit of Enderby' in 2015 and there are cabins with private bathrooms. The ship is very basic and I can't even imagine how it would compare to 'The World', but I loved it!
We didn't make it into Cape Adare either, but we got to visit the other huts and both bases at McMurdo.
Loved your trip report and photos. Thanks for sharing.

 

[bPeteb]

Hi Pete,
I sailed on the expedition ship, 'Spirit of Enderby' in 2015 and there are cabins with private bathrooms. The ship is very basic and I can't even imagine how it would compare to 'The World', but I loved it!
We didn't make it into Cape Adare either, but we got to visit the other huts and both bases at McMurdo.
Loved your trip report and photos. Thanks for sharing.

Thanks Sue.

Basic doesn't bother us but I draw the line at shared toilets! I'm too old and grumpy for that. We'd have to be on Ponant or Silverseas to compare to The World. We're only on the ship due to the generosity of a friend and will graciously accept that generosity while ownership continues. I definitely want to go back to the Ross Seas to see the huts and the bases in McMurdo but we think we'll do peninsula and SG before then.

Still a few more entries to come. I haven't even finished my word doc to post here. Working today so no time to get them posted. Maybe a couple more later this afternoon.

bpb

 

[Lemon_Party]

What an unbelievable trip and set of photos! Thanks for sharing and look forward to the remainder...

 

[bPeteb]

Sunday January 29
Seas 1.25-2.5 metres. Position at 08:02 77 05’ S 158 55’ W. Speed 11.1 knots. Temp -6C

We rolled up the blind to find ourselves surrounded by huge bergs so we rugged up and headed up to deck 12. Lots of snow had collected on the upper decks and the decks themselves were very slippery where the snow had melted then refrozen into ice.

 

[bPeteb]

We stood up on the blustery deck with a couple of super lovely residents and Jessica, one of the naturalists as we entered Bartlett Inlet in King Edward VII Land. Rob had said it was usually sealed up with pack ice so we were very lucky to get into the inlet. It was SPECTACULAR.











Somehow I managed to spot a whale and more amazingly Jessica managed to get pictures of it as it skirted the edge of a large slab of ice. We sighted it, or another whale, a couple more times, once when it surfaced right in front of, and heading directly at, the ship.

I’d spotted some seals the day before that no-one else had noticed. These new sunglasses are good!

 

[bPeteb]

The ship kept turning down the next opening between the towering ice cliffs then the next then the next. What had looked from deck 12 like a solid plateau of ice was big bergs or the sheet punctuated by bays and inlets.





Then Pat spotted what he thought were some emperors at the end of a small bay. He put an extender on to his already humungous lens and there they were – a whole bunch of emperors, plus even more seals.


The wind whipping snow of the bergs and ice sheet

It was darn cold up there and despite it being spectacularly beautiful, we eventually surrendered and moved indoors.

While we were having lunch Rob announced that the fast rescue boat had been out scouting for somewhere to us to make a final landfall and that they’d found it.



It was where Pat had spotted the penguins and seals.

-4C is cold and the zodiac ride was long so we rugged up sufficiently and made sure our waterproofs were our outer layers.

It looks like they had manufactured the zodiac landing stage.



They must have climbed up onto the ice then cut away with who knows what to make a nice square, firm pad of ice for us to walk up on to. The ramp up off the zodiac was slippery but as usual the crew and expedition team got us all onto terra firma (ok, ice-a firma) unscathed.

 

[bPeteb]

Rob gave us all very clear instructions not to stray anywhere off the very clearly marked path.



Anything marked with crossed poles meant danger (usually a narrow chasm) and you had to step over it.



Larger ones had planks over them. Of course we’re on The World so they had also set up a fantastic ice bar stocked with champagne and Bailey’s.

We bypassed the bar and went for a wander. I reckon the pegged track was about a kilometre. At the far end was a group of three upright and live emperors. With them was a large grey ball of fluff/feathers, a juvenile that hadn’t made it



View attachment 90917


Giving the emperors some space!

 

[bPeteb]

Up behind them were seals spread out up the ‘valley’.



The team had surmised it was a breeding colony. We could see heaps but there were apparently a lot more we couldn’t see down amongst the pressure folds in the ice. We were beside one of the residents who stepped a single stop off the path to let someone pass and fall straight down to her knees through the ice. Al said the chasm looked quite deep. She wasn’t hurt, more surprised.



Back closer to the bar was a seal down in a shallow chasm.



It had come up out of a hole in the ice that obviously led down to the water. It rolled around and had a great old time while I laid on my belly (as instructed) and pointed my camera down over the edge.



Mike, another of the expedition team, decided that was too risky and got us to scoot back from the edge. We could kneel or stand but definitely no laying (lying?) on the ice.



I could just imagine it giving way and sliding head first into a very shocked seal!

Hahahaha!

 

[bPeteb]

The ice bar was calling for us.



Mia and Pam looked the part and did a great job keeping everyone topped up.





As we stood chatting about our day the wind started to come up and the snow was being blown over the ridges and down into where we were standing. By that stage I reckon we’d gone through a bottle so to me it was a sign to get in a zodiac and get outta there.



We got the last dry zodiac back!