Polar Bird, Thursday, 22nd November 2001
Neptune's Day. An eventful day for all sorts of reasons. The first real iceberg was spotted, looming out of the early morning fog. A real pearler, 350m long and 50m high (the 1/9th of what is supposed to be visible), we passed it by at a safe range of 8 km as the fog started to lift. Gary the birdman won the berg sweep, deservedly so ! The remainder of the day was sunny, but deceptively cold, the mercury exactly at zero in and out of the water, with a biting 20 knot WNW wind. Giant petrels glided around the stern and at about 1.30 p.m. we crossed the legendary 60° latitude South. Another smaller and smoother berg passed by at a range of less than 2km. All of us non-Antarcticans were summoned to the mess at 4.45 for some meeting. What we thought would be something like a citizenship ceremony turned out to be somewhat different. King Neptune (the viking chief engineer) in all his mop and foil finery accompanied by his ice queens Aphrodite (our veteran lady expeditioners) proclaimed our citizenship of the Great Southern Ocean and without further ado we were summoned in groups down below the sea into Hold number three for the ritualistic initiation which involved tabasco sauce, fish and the ordeal of ordure. It was good fun for most ! The laundry is booked for the next week. A whale was spotted, spouting to port. The evening was spent watching "The Sixth Sense" with Bruce Willis, a suprisingly good flick.
Position at 22:42 local time (UT +7hr) S 60°10'43" E 100°27'46"
3669km SW of Hobart, (and 1419km ENE of Davis)
Photos
Initiation
Initiation - Anya
Initiation - Richard
Richard - Ordure
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