Ship's Position at 12:00:
- 67°15.6' S 76°07.0' E
- Course 75°; Speed 14 kts
- Air temperature 4°C; Wind 12 kts; Direction 100°
- Weather: Fine; Visibility 10
- Ice Cover: 9/10
- Distance covered past 24 hours: 297.3 nautical miles
Today we haven't done very much except putt along through ice and then through open water, back south-eastward toward the last-chance activities mentioned yesterday. With the small wrinkle that we've arrived within helicoptering distance of
Amery Ice Shelf at 20:30 instead of in the afternoon, with the ship making slow progress now in pack ice too far from the ice shelf to allow even a brief landing (
very disappointing), which makes for a late night. Here's the schedule for the next few hours:
21:00 Commence helicopter flights to ice shelf and back; flight is 20 min there, 5 min along shelf, 20 min back. Group 5 starts; I'm in 3, so will go out around 23:15 and return at midnight
During night: reposition ship near
Amanda Bay (which is not on the maps, at least none I have: it's about halfway between the ice shelf and Davis; Amanda Glacier goes into it).
[Ed note: the useful AAD Gazetteer knows all.]05:30 Commence helicopter flights to landing area at Amanda Bay. Group 1 starts. No schedule yet; probably every 45 minutes or so another group goes out. Plan is for about 5 hours total at the colony; they allow about an hour to walk to it and another to walk back, meaning 3 hours of penguin visiting.
Shocking, sad fact:
At the emperor penguin colony at Auster Bay, most passengers stayed only an
hour.
One hour. Did they get
cold? Did they not dress properly? Got bored? I have
no idea. The staff expects that to happen again at Amanda Bay.
Return flights begin around 10:30 and happen sequentially by group after that, sometimes people can go on an earlier flight if there is room. Get everyone back on ship by around noon I think.
Reposition ship to
Davis Station. Landings via helicopter (too much ice for Zodiacs, and ice is too rotten to walk on) begin around 14:00. Group 1 starts. At Davis, three hours allowed to tour station (much bigger than Mawson!) walk to "scenic point", have cup of tea and scone if one wishes, visit post office which they
swear will be open this time. Passengers are all back at ship by 18:00 and ship is on the way out. If weather, time, and Davis's
own flights schedule permit, we might get a scenic 10-minute helicopter flight on the way out.
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poletopole's journal
Makes me pang for Wonderful Son, who was out here for a week visiting, first time for Christmas in three years. It was fabulous, and Nephew was here as well, really tall and deep-voiced, and Son's childhood friend, now a Creative Writing Professor with amazing beard and chocolate corduroy jacket (I assume the female students write "I Love You" on their eyelids.
And also Bookmama's Darling Daughter, doing brilliant things in amazing ways in the Big City. Our Adorable Daughter is smart, ironically sociable and tolerant of my fashion sense (most of the time) - snorts less these days.
And there you are, so tiny on the maps, so incredibly present with your beautiful photographs and writing (yay for making it to Mawson Station, boo on no scone), your mom must miss you so much and be so fiercely proud at the same time. This Christmas and New Year's, "pang" has a sound and a soul-dipping buoyancy like the rumble of an airplane's take off through the soles of your feet, so solid on the linoleum, as the snow swirls in.
Stay safe and many, many hugs. Give a wave to the penguins for us ;-)