We are heading back north after our failed attempt to reach the still elusive continental shelf in front of the Admundsen Sea. We were bogged down by the snow on the ice, since the ice itself was not very thick. The Palmer would have been able to cut through had it been pure ice, but the snow creates more friction on the bow of the ship and ends up stopping it. Larger icebreakers have different techniques for dealing with this problem. The Swedish icebreaker Oden, for example, has water sprayers on the bow that work as lubricant and reduce the friction between the ship and the snow.
A picture of the Swedish Icebreaker from a cruise in which Jim Swift participated a few years ago. You can see the water sprays lubricating between the snow and the bow. Picture by Swedish Polar Research Secretariat
There is no swiss army knife equivalent for oceanographic ships. Some are better than others for certain task, but worse for other tasks. For example, the Oden is not a good ship for doing CTD casts while navigating in open waters, like we have been doing mostly on this cruise, since the rosette is lowered from its bow. The big waves that we have encountered render the process impossible. You could try to do hydrography on the Oden on a pinch, which is sort of what we attempted with the icebreaking and the Palmer.
The mates kept looking for what are known as 'leads' on the ice. Leads are naturally occurring ice fractures on which the Palmer could navigate more easily. They reminded me of the carpool lanes on busy highways. We would be bogged for hours on a mile stretch until a lead was found. We would then cruise past the snow and ice, making more progress in a few minutes that in the past two hours.
The challenge is that there is no 'Lead Oversight Antarctic Commission' that would plan the leads ahead of time. Leads can be misleading and end up sending you in the opposite direction you want to go. Here is an image I took from the navigation monitor showing the ship's trajectory. It was no longer a straight line.
A picture from the navigation monitor showing what appears as randomness in our trajectory.
It became clear two nights ago that we would not be able to make enough progress towards the continental shelf and that we would be better served by returning back to the 67 S line. That is why we spent an hour and a half on the ice for a much needed respite for everybody, after all they have been working 12 hours a day with no weekends for seven weeks. We did a station to make sure we were not missing any amazing opportunity of mapping an unknown oceanographic feature, and headed back north.
We were back in open waters by the time I woke up. We will arrive at our next station at 6:00 pm today. People are still talking about the ice party, sharing stories, pictures and videos.
As I was seating down to write these lines a deep voice full of urgency came from the radios, kind of a emergency responder dispatcher, saying 'iceberg alert, iceberg alert on the port side with penguins'. I grabbed my camera thinking of a very close iceberg peppered with penguins at a good picture range. At this point on the trip, penguins need to be very close to the ship to rattle the cameras. This is what I found. Can you find the penguin?
Where is the penguin?
I am glad Mike sent us to the decks with his radio announcement. The iceberg was gorgeous, and even though the penguin was not near by any means, it was a novel view. A tiny little speck of a penguin on a large iceberg under the sun staring at us from the distance. When I amplified the image on the computer it appeared to be a strapchin penguin. Definitively not an Adélie nor an Emperor. The questions is, since penguins do not fly, despite what the very convincing video on Youtube by the BBC would make you think, how did he get that high? I am sorry to say I do not have any idea, except for the elevator on the back of the iceberg. Maybe your aunt that works at Sea World taking care of the penguins could help us out on this one. Write to me if she does.
A solitary penguin, what appears to be a strapchin, on a large iceberg. How did he get there?
And I have not forgotten the entry I said I would post about Alex's talk. I am concerned he has not given me the feedback. Perhaps what I wrote was incorrect and he does not have the heart to tell me… or perhaps he is a very busy researcher sleeping few hours a day figuring how to make the rest of the cruise work when the storms and snow on the ice does not help our task. A rainbow I just saw to finish today's entry.
A rainbow in the southern oceans
P.S. I beat Chris Measures on my first ping pong game. He has a killer serve that I cannot return and a nice backhand, but has not played in years. I predict the next game will be a lot harder now that he has warmed up. Hey, at least I won a game!