1. Recovering instruments from the sea floor

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2. Another scenic island

3. Unloading cargo

4. Weddell seal

5. Adelie penguin stretching its wings

6. My snow penguin

From: Graham Quartly
Date: Sun, 21 Dec 2008 23:45
Subject: Sunday + the end

Suddenly the end of the trip is upon us. Collection of samples stops; people abandon the night shift, and the cameras come out as we glide past some majestic scenery.

However, it does not mean everyone is left off the leash, free to party all night long. We've had to complete the salinity analysis of our samples, process all the data we've gathered while measuring profiles of temperature, salinity and oxygen concentration across the Drake Passage section.

And then there's been the packing! This has been quite a hurried affair, given that we were warned we could be leaving within hours of reaching our destination.

In the end we have had nearly 20 hours at Rothera, the main UK base in Antarctica. Once there, the ship has been unloading its heavy cargo -- food, fuel and a large lorry trailer with caterpillar tracks.

These supplies are the chief reason for the James Clark Ross regularly plying this route down to Antarctica. We have been glad of a few hours ashore, enjoying the fact that it's snowing on a day in midsummer, and that we have time to visit the local seals and penguins.

Ross and I have been exercising our sculptural skills trying to make "snow penguins". Fortunately, we were able to find a couple of Adelie penguins that let us come quite close, so they could act as models.

Actually walking around the coastal path at Rothera has been quite a challenge as the snow has melted a lot, and although one follows the path (roughly), there were places where I sank into the snow to my knees or deeper. Trying to complete the route following in the footsteps of those who had gone before, I was much reminded of the King Wenceslas' page in the seasonal carol.

Graham