Day 17 Saturday 7 February South Atlantic Ocean

The ship continued its journey towards Antarctica.  Icy waters now with some large icebergs passing us by.

This large tabular iceberg appeared this morning.  This monster is 5 nautical miles long (about 9 land miles) and is about 400 metres deep.  This information came from the Captain, so presumably he had some instruments to validate these measurements.

There was the launch of a weather balloon at about 9.00am.  There was some delay due to computer problems!  They had to restart it.  We were all huddled on the top deck.  It was very cold.  Only a few minutes without gloves on and your hands were numb and tingling.  There was Baileys and hot chocolate provided.  Unfortunately we did not find out about that until later.

The launch was quite exciting with the balloon quickly disappearing into the atmosphere.  Apparently it is completely biodegradable.

After dinner while sitting in the Living Room, Elephant Island appeared.  This remote, ice-covered island in the South Shetland Islands is off the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula.  It is famed for being the refuge of Ernest Shackleton's crew for four months while he was seeking help to rescue them.

Viking knickknacks in the Explorers' Lounge.