Part I: Seals teeth and whales ears - Scott Polar Research Institute ...

all morning and intermittently during the afternoon. The edge of pack stretched from
Reid Island to Paal Harbour. Next morning the temperature was -9°C and it fell to -
10.7°C at noon and to -12°C at 8 o’clock, in combination with a sustained wind from
the south. This was the coldest sustained weather we had yet experienced. In
addition the pack was now completely blocking Normanna Strait, and stretched as
far as the horizon. Several large new bergs had moved in to the Robertson Islands.
New ice was forming in the cove and after lunch Derek and I rowed out to Bare Rock
and then poled the dory back through the pancake ice.
The air temperature had dropped to -13.7°C overnight; it rose to -11°C at noon
and remained there for the rest of the day. As a result of the low temperatures the
bay was now covered with young ice about 1 in thick with about 6-8 ft of open water
round the coast at most points. Low cloud and high wind made it uncomfortable to
be outside. Fog during the night deposited delicate loose crystals on the wireless
mast-stays and aerials and the new ice in the bay was covered with beautiful ice
flowers 1 ins. diameter.
There were several leads in the pack, the water mirror-calm and glassy clear.
Penguins were wandering about on the ice and swimming in the open leads; one
group fall into a lead when the ice they stood on collapsed. Later the fog dispersed,
and the sun shone from a clear sky, transforming the landscape. The banks of fog
along the shores of Coronation Island were particularly beautiful but eventually they
too dispersed. The sun lit up the ice flowers and imparted a sparkle to snow and ice
that had been lacking earlier. One of the most striking qualities was the complete
silence that prevailed. It lasted for perhaps half an hour in the sunshine before the
rumbles of avalanches on Coronation Island began. In this time even the penguins,
which had been squawking to each other, were hushed as though they too were in
silent contemplation of the loveliness around. The fact that such days were so
infrequent served only to enhance their beauty when they did come. One's
appreciative faculties are sharpened by a period of fasting.
Walking over Observation Bluff that afternoon I enjoyed a superb sunset - the ice
and pack a restrained pink and the leads of open water to the east reflecting applegreen
from the sky. As the sun went down a very bright moon arose casting long
shadows. It was now very bright outside with the moon's golden track over the floes.
I went out from time to time trying to absorb it in all its beauty. It is difficult to
convey the magic of the Antarctic, difficult to do it justice. It is really many times
finer than I can describe and there was a sense of isolation, which I never felt
elsewhere. In truth we were very isolated of course and there were only three of us.
The silence enhances this feeling of isolation, although in fact it is never really silent
because there is always some movement of the ice, and avalanches perhaps or the
bellow of an elephant seal in one of the bays.
We thought that we were now firmly in the grip of the pack, but then on 23 April
the temperature rose to -1°C and it continued mild all day. A gale came through,
gusts were up to [70] knots and the wind generally at force 10 (c.50 k). The strong
wind had blown most of the pack eastwards, but the new ice in the bay was intact.
The air temperature remained around -2.8 °C all next day but the wind-chill made
the cold really ‘bite’. The pack was still in more or less the same position, but some
large bergs were parked off Robertson Islands that I had not seen before.
One day at the end of April, when the air temperature remained between -
176