Wed. 15th Jan saw us moving on once more with the destination for the day being Trinity Island. Sailing from Deception the island was wreathed in fog so there was little to be seen and, as we progressed southward through the day, the going was slow due the large amounts of sea ice and growlers which had to be avoided. It was a long day with us only arriving at our destination at the south end of Trinity Island mid evening.
After having dinner onboard, we went ashore on a small island in the bay, Mikkelson Harbour, where we were anchored. This island was home to a small hut owned by the Argentinian Navy and a colony of Gentoo Penguins. This may well have been the smelliest location that I have ever been. In places the ‘nest’, a slightly raised platform of peddles, were surrounded by guano slurry. I felt that the chicks from these nests probably had a much reduced chance of surviving to go to sea. Crossing to the other side of the island there was more evidence of past whalers and a view across to shear ice cliffs of the main island, Trinity Island. In addition to the Gentoos there was one lone Adelia Penguin, the first we had seen, and a single Chinstrap.
As we were now well into the islands and anchoring every night we had gone from sea watches to an anchor watch system where each member of the voyage crew did a one hour watch during the night, with the main purpose being to fend off any ice that came near. The permanent crew were on 6 hr watches from 6am and sailed Tecla between locations whilst we rested and, when at the destination, we went ashore to walk and observe the wildlife.
Thursday 16th started for me with a 4am anchor watch. There was a mist hanging around the islands but, through openings, the early sun was providing illumination of very levels to the snow and ice turning it to myriad shades of white. With no wind and flat seas the surface was like a mercury mirror only broken by porpoiseing penguins. The air was still and the quiet absolute except when broken by the not very melodic song of the Gentoos or the deep rumbles coming from deep inside of the ice masses indicating their growing pains.
Raising the anchor at about 05.30 we started heading yet further south into the Gerlache Channel with the ultimate destination for the day being Curverville Island. When going back on deck at around 08.00 the mountains of the Antarctic Peninsular could be seen off to Port, thus my first glimpse of the peninsular and the mainland of the continent and the many impressive bergs passing us along the way.
As the day progressed, we found ourselves battling into an increasingly strong South Westerly which rose to about force 6 and was severely hampering our progress. To avoid this onslaught the skipper took us into a side channel between two islands, Challenger and Bluff, to find some shelter. As this passage has not been fully surveyed the charts only have very sketchy depth data so Will and Enky went ahead in the RIB to sound the channel and guide us through. When emerging from the lee of Bluff Island it was obvious that sea conditions in the main channel were still very broken and consequently the decision was taken to go back a short way and then anchor at Murray Harbour for the night.
