Polar Bird, Saturday, 24th November 2001
A great sunny day today. The first real bergs passed by and at 10.40 the ship entered the first "brash ice", broken fragments which had blown together by wind action. Antarctic petrels and brilliant white snow petrels were in profusion. A crabeater seal looked up nonchonantly from it's ice sun bed. The ship juddered as it crashed through, leaving a distinctive film of red (paint or krill) on the ice. The swell in the patches of ice free water was almost nonexistant, though there was a fairly stiff breeze coming from the NW.

We thoroughly sorted out our medical kits for the rest of the afternoon. After dinner we got stuck into an enjoyable session in the bar which lasted well into the night, dancing away to old eighties favourites. The Glenlivet was broached and a group of us ducked onto the poop deck to savour the 2 am twilight as the thickening ice passed by. Adam and I were the last to leave the bar, well after closing time at about 7 am.

Position at 10:40 local time (UT +7hr) S 61°32'37" E 88°41'32"
4319km SW of Hobart

Photos

First Iceberg
... and again ...
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