8-Feb Sculptured Icebergs

8-Feb Sculptured Icebergs

We are making slow progress, finding our way through the pack ice and progressing in a zigzag pattern at a slow 2 knots. Down below, the noise is amazing as chunks of ice clunk against the ship’s hull. The ship momentarily stops as we come up against a big one. It gradually gives way and lets us through, or else the ship managed to slice through it.

More icebergs - the sight is amazing - one can stare at these ice islands for ages. The ice blocks come in all forms, shapes and sizes - thousands of exciting sculptured shapes. The Ross Sea is in fact like a huge Henry Moore sculpture garden. I am enjoying the shapes of them and inspired by their varied colours and lighting. They come in brilliant shades of white, grey, blue and turquoise. The cabin studio is in full swing each evening now. The long light means that I can paint late into the evening.

I have fun plans to take the watercolours outside to try to paint, but I know this will be futile, as I know my palette will instantly freeze up on me.
More penguins and seals. I query Bob about the turquoise stains underneath the pack ice. He tells me that this is algae, part of the diet of krill - the source of life for all baleen whales, most penguins and seabirds.
Antarctic krill are shrimp-like invertebrates (fish without back bone). They can grow to a length of 6 cm, weigh up to 2 grams and live in large schools, called swarms, sometimes reaching densities of 10,000–30,000/m3. They are actually designed wrong in that they weigh more than seawater and spend their lives swimming upward. They feed directly on the minute phytoplankton in the top layer of seawater. A year of light ice means more sunlight reaches the sea, more photosynthetic diatoms, and more krill and hence more whale and penguins etc. Krill are the key species in the Antarctic ecosystem. They can live up to 6 years and the female lays about 1000 eggs a year. They are supposedly the world's most abundant life form.
I have taken a few photos of our l’il penguin in the engine room giving us a hand. Actually I just saw a genuine penguin standing on an ice island, looking all confused - head bobbing from side to side as he watched us slip past. Someone yelled out “Whale”. But by the time I got there it had sounded.