Monday 5^th April

Happy Easter from the James Clark Ross, just east of the South Orkney islands. Since leaving Rothera a week ago, we have had a week of hard work and are now progressing well round our cruise track. We should accomplish our hundredth CTD station within the next 3 days.

The social highlight of the week has been 'race night', organised by Roy, one of the catering staff. This took place in the officers' bar on Monday night. Six small wooden horses moved along a mat laid out along the floor, with some fences and a water jump. We shook dice to determine which horse moved and how many spaces. If your horse landed on a jump, it had to go back a few spaces, rather like snakes and ladders. Horses cost £1, and the names chosen were inventive! We also bet on the outcome of the races. It was hilarious and very noisy! About £100 was raised for charity, and a good time had by all, even if most of us did lose our money.

On leaving Rothera, we were hopeful of a scenic steam through the 'inside route', between various islands and the peninsula. However we were beset with bad weather, first fog and then rougher seas, which meant that the inside route was not feasible. As a consolation, we visited Deception Island for a few hours on Tuesday morning. (The Captain announced at Race Night that he would not allow a visit to Deception unless there was a good showing at breakfast. Accordingly there were more than the usual number of bleary eyed scientists munching cereal at 7.30 am. Strangely however the Captain was not to be seen …). Deception is a caldera, a volcano with sea in the middle. Apparently the water is warm enough to swim in, although we didn't have time for such an in depth exploration. Slowly the JCR slipped through the very narrow gap through the rock cliffs to get inside, crew standing by on the foredeck in case we began to drift onto the rocks and had to drop anchor. Most others were on Monkey Island or on the Bridge taking photos. It was a lovely calm and bright morning. Inside there is an old whaling station, rusty hulks of the containers they used to store the whale oil in. On the beach were dozens of fur seals gambolling about. They look like bears, because they stand on their hind flippers. Very furry and appealing but definitely rather nasty. We stayed at Deception for about an hour, while the ship took advantage of the calm seas to test the launching of both life boats.

There has been a good range of wildlife this week. Fur seals leaping through the water alongside the ship, hourglass dolphins and sei whales. Dozens of chinstrap penguins frequently arrive when we're on station or sampling, and porpoise along. They look so small and vulnerable to be so far from land. We are often followed by various kind of albatross and petrel, including an attractive light-mantled sooty albatross, and some Antarctic petrels.

Tuesday brought us the bad news from Myriam in Stanley that we will not be flying home to the UK on Saturday 24^th April as planned, because the RAF have cancelled that flight. Instead we have a prolonged visit to the Falklands and return to the UK on Thursday 29^th. This created a subdued atmosphere for several days (and emergency chocolate rations were broken into), now replaced by a mixture of resignation and determination to get out of Stanley and make the most of the enforced stay. A number of us are still hoping that we might be able to escape through South America, if any air links to the Falklands resume. As of 1^st April there is no longer an air link with Chile because of the Pinochet situation.

CTD stations began again on Wednesday at the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula. It was our calmest day yet, with almost glassy seas. The stations were shallow, only about 500 m, so progress was fast. By Friday we had arrived at the South Orkneys. By coincidence, the other BAS ship, the Bransfield, had just relieved their base on Signy, and was leaving to return to the UK. We were able to meet up with her, and the 2 ships steamed side by side for a few miles, each ship crawling with people waving and taking photos. Some fur seals came and porpoised along in between us. Finally the JCR sounded her horn, brash and loud, and there came from the Brannie a deep throaty response. The 2 ships 'talked' for a few minutes and then we swung away to turn east again. It was strangely emotional meeting the other ship, and she seemed too small to be going all that way on her own!

The weather on Friday was excellent and we enjoyed seeing all the icebergs grounded around the South Orkneys. One was covered with penguins, so many that from a distance it looked like the whole iceberg was covered in a black smudge. In the evening we did a survey of the ocean depth in the Orkney Passage east of the South Orkneys, so that we could decide where best to place our stations, and also to give Fiona some extra time to fix some problems with her SF₆ kit. By Saturday morning the wind had got up and we were struggling through heavy seas. Stations began again and proceeded eastwards. Unfortunately Fiona's kit suffered what she described as 'meltdown' and she is back to square one. She is remarkably sanguine about it.

The chemists have discovered a new chemical compound, ¹³⁷Tedium. They are measuring its concentration daily and have a plot showing its variations. There is a positive correlation between the number of CTD stations per day, and the concentration of Tedium determined by their sensitive equipment. Very little Tedium was observed at Rothera or during Fiona's meltdown.

Much excitement this week when we saw 2 ships nearby, their lights clearly visible. They were Polish fishing vessels. It is strange to see other ships and realise that there are other people in the world. Easter day was celebrated with turkey and Christmas pudding. Don't ask us why. For the last couple of weeks there has been a dire shortage of chocolate, but suddenly the ship was awash with chocolate as people brought out their hidden supplies. Bill the engineer has started bribing Karen and Dave with Mars bars to allow a visit to South Georgia. Easter Day was Sally's birthday and a party spontaneously erupted during the small hours in the crew bar.

We are now past the halfway point and will soon be turning north to repeat the A23 stations we did almost exactly 4 years ago from the same ship. If all goes well and we are lucky with the weather, we should be writing next week's newsletter from the vicinity of South Georgia. In the mean time we are looking forward to a break from the CTD stations, to recover a bottom pressure recorder for our colleagues at the Proudman Oceanographic Lab in Birkenhead. This has been moored for the last year just east of our first A23 repeat station.

We have run out of corny penguin jokes so this week a corny whale one instead.

How do whales weigh themselves ?

They go to a whale-weigh station.

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