Maybe I'll Be Fast As You

Friday morning the captain rammed the ship into fast ice to get us stuck.  Intentionally.  Fast ice is an ice sheet that holds fast to land and builds and builds.

As we got ever closer to the fast ice, which was off the Panola Strait, we could see crabeater seals on ice floes, with a huge leopard seal to boot.  Leopard seals are the ones who eat penguins (google search “leopard seals and penguin photos” if you want examples of the gore).

Once the crew determined the fast ice was safe enough to walk around on, we disembarked shortly after breakfast.  The heavy snow made it hard to walk on, and every so often a foot dropped down through the slushier bits of snow, which were a bit of a struggle sometimes to extricate the foot from.  For the most part, the walking around went well.

We could see the island (not sure of the name, may be able to backfill in that info) off in the cloudy distance – probably 3-4 kilometers away.

First we all posed in front of the ship, then went on a walk toward a crabeater seal that was hanging out on the ice.  Because there was some potentially dangerously thin ice, we halted, and then went in the other direction, where we were alternatively entertained by a couple of crabeater seals and two-three penguins (one went off after a bit).  The penguins had a lot of personality – running hither and yon, sledding on the snow, calling to each other, seeming to head toward the water, and then toward the ship.

Meanwhile, the hotel staff of the ship had set up a tent on the ice and served mimosas.  Neither Carol nor I are morning drinkers (I make an exception for football tailgates), so we skipped, but the concept was pretty impressive!

We also posed for some pictures of us using the ship’s rope to “pull” it (obviously the ship wasn’t going anywhere!), as well as taking pictures of others.  I stayed out for around ninety minutes to two hours (it was two days ago and a lot has happened!).  All in all, it was a very neat, unique experience.

Then, with all aboard (hopefully, anyhow), the captain backed the ship out of the fast ice.  I was on the bridge then, and they were clearly having some difficulties, so after a bit I left them alone.  Apparently the ice did some scraping of the ship’s paint,  so at the next stop in fast ice, they made some cosmetic repairs.

We were surrounded by sea ice, (spoiler alert:) but unlike Shackleton, we did not get caught in the ice.