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1. James Clark Ross in Stanley harbour

2. King penguins

3. Fur seal

From: Ben Ward
Date: Mon, 26 Nov 2007 08:52
Subject: Pause for penguins

Hello,
my name is Ben and I'm a marine science student at the National Oceanography Centre. I'm writing this entry from the James Clark Ross, a 6,000 tonne ice breaker, based in Stanley, capital of the Falkland Islands. I've never been this far south before, and although it is the start of summer, it is very cold.

But the bracing climate is not because of our high latitude. In fact, Birmingham is further away from the equator than we are here. There are two reasons why it is so much colder here than at home in the UK. Firstly because here we are on a very small island and there is always a strong, cold wind blowing in from the ocean. And secondly, at home in the UK, we are warmed by the Gulf Stream, a large ocean current that brings lots of heat with it as it flows up from the Caribbean.

The Falkland Islanders are not so lucky. The Gulf Stream is part of a larger system known as the Ocean Conveyor Belt, but in the South Atlantic the flow is different. The surface waters flow up from the very cold Southern Ocean, so the climate is a lot colder here.

It is the Southern Ocean that we have come to study. The Southampton team are made up of our lead scientist Graham Quartly, Croatian researcher Marko Pavic, Gerrard, who you have already met, and myself. We are planning to head out on the JCR to take measurements from the Drake Passage, which is a very rough bit of water between South America and Antarctica.

We hope to set sail in a few days, as we are delayed by a small problem with the ship and are awaiting repairs. In the meantime we have been killing time, and the best way to do this in a remote and beautiful place is to get outdoors and enjoy the scenery and wildlife. A couple of days ago, a small group of us went on an off road expedition to Volunteer Point, home to a small colony of penguins.

It was a rough ride, with nearly two hours spent traversing a very bumpy and boggy peat marsh. It was certainly worth the discomfort though. A pristine beach populated by stunning King, Magellanic and Gentoo Penguins. They were pretty much unconcerned with us humans. As long as we were sensible and didn't get too close, they let us watch them at leisure. Some even posed for a few photos.

Tomorrow the repairs to the ship continue, and all the scientists will be helping out the crew with that. After we have done that job, there are plans to make a boat trip to visit a Rockhopper Penguin colony, and hopefully to see some Sea Lions as well.

All being well we should be ready to sail on Thursday. I'm looking forward to a 2 week voyage with some of the roughest seas, but also some of the most beautiful scenery anywhere in the world, across the Drake Passage and on to the Antarctic Peninsula. There should be some exciting science thrown in on the way, and fingers crossed we won't end up like the cruise liner that sank off down there last week!

Gerrard and I will be writting every few days to tell you what has been happening, and hopefully explaining some of the science we do.

Goodbye until then,

Ben