Where did the storms go?! - by Isa R.

The weather has been surprisingly great. The forecasted storm patterns changed just that bit that we've been steaming in between two of them, with favorable currents. This allowed us to navigate an uneventful and fast course, so far. We even reached speeds of 13.1 kn!!! EEE-HA!!

I really enjoyed the sunrises during the first days of the transit.. with the water painted in gold and the dance of "early-bird birds" (i really don't have a better word in english, but you can learn the italian: "uccelli mattutini"), the mornings have been quite magical.

I almost don't recognize the Southern Ocean… Where's my beloved angry-looking vastness of waters? If it wasn't for all the fronts that we crossed on our way (the subtropical, subantarctic, and polar), the surface water temperature of 1.1 C and an outside air temperature of -3 C, I would think that we were in some subtropical ocean. But a look at the location on the map brings me back to reality: we are now at 59.5 S, 26.8 E, and fast approaching the Antarctic shelf, which we will reach in about 2 days.

Black-bellied storm petrel

A ping-pong tournament keep us busy after lunch (which for me is dinner, giving that I wake up at 11PM), and I made to the semi-finals, after beating Chief Alex 2-0!!! :-D I might have just won his stateroom hahaha!!
Uh!! I almost forgot: we "saw" our first iceberg! Still a bit far to see it well with naked eyes (even with my eagle-like sight) or with my 200 mm lens, since it was 17 nm away. There will be definitely more to come, and my camera and I are ready for that!
Approaching our first CTD station.. ``we are anxiously waiting for the beginning of our science!'' (cit. Jess)

Update: at 04:26 AM UTC (or 6:26 AM local time) we crossed 60 S!!!!!

 

Queen - A kind of magic

One dream, one soul, one prize, one goal
One golden glance of what should be
(It's a kind of magic)
One shaft of light that shows the way
No mortal man can win this day
…

The waiting seems eternity
The day will dawn of sanity
It's a kind of magic
…