January 31/February 1 Ross Sea

Mt Terror

Beaufort Island

We’ve lost a day crossing the International Dateline, when and where I’m not sure so today is either 31 January or 1 February. No matter we have entered and are now navigating the Ross Sea, sometimes referred to as the ‘Last Ocean’.  It, and a large volcanic island, were discovered by James Clark Ross around 1840; the two large volcanoes – Erebus and Terror, are named for two ships in Ross’s expedition.  Ross also discovered the gigantic ice shelf 600km long and up to 50m above the water extending out to the open sea – many huge icebergs have broken off the ice shelf over 100s of years and some have run aground at the mouth of the Ross Sea. The sea is a very rich, productive marine ecosystem and that led in 2016 to it being determined a marine protected area, the world’s largest. 

It was very cold!

Mt Erebus

There is more ice around than when we were here in February 2020. It is stunning and almost always in view is Mt Erebus trailing streamers of steam. The plan was to visit the historic expedition huts dating back to the Golden Age of Antarctic Exploration. 

We had company in fact we saw two other ships

First attempted at landing at Scott's Cape Evans hut

Early that evening we reached Cape Evans, the site of Scott’s second expedition base. The sea ice was too thick around the shore to get zodiacs safely in and out – a team of guides made the landing but had great difficulty in getting back to the ship. (Why we didn't move on to attempt a landing to visit Scott's hut at Discovery Point remains a mystery as other ships visited there while we were in Ross Sea.) Instead we did a ship cruise further south past McMundo base as well as Scott Base. It was a glorious evening and reflections breathtaking in mirror-like water.   We anchored that night close to Cape Evans in the hope that the weather would allow a landing the following day.

I’ll leave you to enjoy the stunning sky and sea ….