Part III: Antarctica and Academe - Scott Polar Research Institute

upper storey to give a view, to move the de-salinator and the radar, possibly to
install hydroponics for growing vegetables. The building work seemed to be going
very well. Next morning we learnt that the aircraft had taken off for Punta Arenas at
c. 9 o’clock, ETA Punta 6 pm and conditions were good. The Endurance's ETA at
Palmer Station was 3 o’clock that day. The High Commissioner would carry out an
official inspection of the station. I went ashore after dealing with the signals and had
more talk with the BC. There was a general improvement in the weather although
the Peninsula was still cloud-covered.
After lunch I went over to Winter Island and walked up to the top of the ice cap
and then down to Wordie Hut. It was now used as a holiday hut by the base and
would be useful as an emergency hut if the base were to become untenable due to a
fire. It needed repair but looked comfortable. I went back to the shore and was
picked up by launch to be taken to Skua Island, which lived up to its name. There
were about 40-50 skuas roosting together on the rocks and I saw three nearly-fledged
chicks running around on the ground. We walked up to the top and then along the
shore, watching crabeaters on floes offshore. Then returned to base where the work
was going well - the Braithwaite (oil tank) repairs nearing completion and the frame
of the new generator shed rising. I walked to the top of Woozle Hill. The slate-grey
clouds obscuring the Peninsula cleared patchily and disclosed the gleaming white
peaks in the breaks - looking impossibly high. I had a good view of the island group
and the surrounding crowd of icebergs. The clearance in the weather continued, but
still Le Maire wasn't clear. I returned to the ship on the 5.30 pm launch, through
fantastically shaped bergs. In the strong sunshine the ship was surrounded by floes
and bergs.
Many of the floes had groups of crabeaters - each of up to 15, but more usually 1-
3. They lay in the sun, occasionally raising their heads to look around, rubbing their
backs from side to side on the floe, scratching with their fore-flippers, rubbing their
hind flippers together. The moult must cause a lot of irritation to them. Some were
playing in the water, swimming rapidly, porpoising, having play fights, hauling out
briefly. Several leopard seals were also hauled out or swimming. One lay on a floe,
repeatedly raising its head and neck and opening its jaws, while rubbing itself on the
ice. There were about 270 crabeaters in sight at any one time - all shades of silver,
gold, and various browns and greys. A number of gulls and skuas were near and the
seals were purposely chasing them off the floes at times.
Friday 2 March was dull but calm, with floes and seals all around us. I watched a
pair intermittently for over 2 hrs, from 7.30 to 9.30 am. They were circling the ship,
swimming from floe to floe, hauling out play-fighting, then in again with some play
in the water. One would leap out onto a floe and lie with its head under water, as if
watching; the other come up and nuzzled and bit it. When they came to a floe they
would ‘bottle' and peer over its surface. Sometimes they hauled out on a floe so
small that it submerged under their weight, a bit like children playing with a 'lilo'
inflatable. When swimming they went fast, just below the surface, creating waves
and leaving a wake on the surface. Sometimes they porpoised, or swam with their
heads raised out of the water, looking ahead, creating a bow wave - or occasionally
they almost breached, leaping forwards to fall on their chest. Other pairs were doing
the same and also chasing each other under water. I saw one with a large recent red
scar and there were several leopards in sight.
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