66°33′ South

There was snow-globe snow falling when I went to bed last night. It was partially responsible for the jaw dropping view above that I saw when I first woke up this morning.

We made our way south overnight thru The Gullet passage to Stonington island at 68 degrees south where the water was practically glassy calm…in the morning. 

This facilitated off boat activities: a hike on Stonington Island to explore US and UK historic research stations, followed by a zodiac cruise thru the iceberg sculpture garden that is Antarctica.

Most notable:

Stonington was where women first set foot on Antarctica. The leader of a private US research expedition in 1947 brought his wife, Jackie Ronne. This raised some concerns amongst the men about “a lone woman” so someone came up with the brilliant idea of bringing another woman – a pilot’s wife. The two women did not get along. Must have been a long year for all…and we never found out the name of the pilot’s wife.

Outside the Adelies were standing about moulting like grumpy old men.

A light dusting of snow softened the look of rusting detritus.

The afternoon’s attempt to do a true continental landing at Red Rock Ridge just slightly south, was thwarted by rising winds.

Our boat retreated to the sheltered area near Stonington to undertake the polar plunge. I passed on this in spite of having my snorkelling kit with me. (They even said defibrillators were standing by (seriously!)) It was fun to watch though – our balcony was centered above the port side plunge-point.

What a stunning setting for such  a crazy-assed thing!

Prior to the plunge, JR put on a slide show chronicling his work over the past 25 years monitoring ice and rock movement  on the West Antarctica Ice Shelf. Lots of dicey flights over dodgy snow&ice. In recent summer seasons, rivers appeared on top of the ice. The data seems to point to a natural trend of warming accelerated by an unknown degree by human activity. He has fossils that he collected (before the ban on collecting) that date from when Antarctica was forested.

The day’s recap – they are very good at disseminating information – followed another delicious dinner. Tomorrow, flight seeing!