southward to the German polar research station "Neumayer II". We will
supply the 8 overwinterers with food, fuel and equipment. It is still one
week to go, until we reach the edge of the continental shelf-ice. But we
will reach the sea-ice within the next couple of days.
Until then we will work on our samples from the first station and create
plans for Christmas. It really gets chilly outside even though we are at a
latitude similar to northern germany. We already passed the polar front
and entered the circumpolar current, which isolates Antarctica from the
world's other oceans. Water temperature sank to less than 5°C. Yesterday
there was the first iceberg I saw in my life! It was the first impression
of the ice-desert we will face the next weeks and it was beautiful! Today
I saw even six icebergs, and tried to get good shots of birds like "Sooty
Albatrosses", "Antarctic Prions", "Giant Petrels", "Cape Petrels",
"Southern Fulmars", "Blue Petrels" or "Antarctic Storm-Petrels". So far I
did not see any whales.
Last night my professor Angelika and a ship-mate called Ekki celebrated
their Birthdays in the ship's equipment-store. At the beginning it was a
very strange athmosphere, as there seemed to be still quite an inner
distance between scientists and crew. This wall broke and it became a
fest! There was dancing and loughing and "the ice" between scientists and
crew melted.
The increasing waves and the rum made the dancing a pogo soon and as food
and glasses were flying through the room and it became too dangerous Ekki
made an end.
On the one picture Lydia (right), Saskia (center) and me stand on the
aft-deck of RV Polarstern next to our gear, the epibenthic sledge called
"Meta" and on the other picture you see a Sooty Albatross.
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