13 December 2009 CINI's Final Dive

As I stated in my last journal entry, Friday was SCINI’s last dive of the season and took place near the sea ice edge. We actually had to travel further along the edge as the pack ice had moved in at our original destination, and the plan was to be able to put SCINI in off of the sea ice edge to look for krill and to see if we could see bottom. 

If you’ve read journal accounts of the early explorers, you know how pack ice was the bane of their existence...well, one of many anyways. They would have nothing but open ice as far as the eye could see, and in just a matter of a few short hours, they would find themselves surrounded by the blasted pack ice. And, as quickly as it would come in, it would move out…or not. Today was a "not” day for us, but we wouldn’t know it at the time.

We had several visitors upon our arrival, but the adelies were most comical. They are CLEARLY the ADHD penguins of the penguin world and with an insatiable curiosity that is much greater than their 12 inch stature might suggest, especially when running to check out the jolly, red giants.

The adelies were quite curious about the laddle I was using to scoop slush and ice out of the nav holes. They were so curious that they got within a foot of me, stared intently at the laddle, pecked at it and tried to jump over it. Each one tripped! That’s when I discovered we shared something in common—a lousy vertical leap!!

I can’t even tell you how incredible it was to have a bird’s eye view—no pun—of these funny little creatures with Paul Newman blue eyes. My heart was in my throat the whole time, and I really thought I was going to come out of my skin! But, we had work to do, and they had afternoon siestas to take.

As we were preparing to get this final dive going, the pack ice was creeping in but it wasn’t very obvious.

I actually stood at a nav hole a couple of hours after we’d arrived, looked out across the horizon and began to doubt if we’d had open water when we started. You saw the pictures…we did. But, this was the view as we moved through the afternoon.

As the pack ice cut us off from open water, the adelies likewise began to move out; although a few stayed behind as did our buddy for the day. And, I agree with Francois: "They are so distracting.” It is very difficult to work and stay focused when they skedaddle over to you because they forgot they visited you a couple of hours ago. And why so distracting??? They are so darn cute and amusing…and photogenic. I kept telling them that they were going to get me in trouble, but they didn’t seem to care much about that.

Throughout the afternoon, the area underwent a transformation…at least in my eyes. We even had a skua touch down for a brief moment…looking for food no doubt.

Not only did the landscape take on another personality, but the pack ice had overtaken us. As a result, we were unable to launch SCINI from the sea ice edge, so Francois prepared to put her in the hole closest to the edge—her last dive of the season.

Unfortunately, the krill had moved with the open water where the light penetrates, so we were unable to see them in the water column—nary a one! I can tell you that we had all of SCINI’s 1, 100 feet worth of tether was out and we were also unable to see the bottom…very deep and brooding waters indeed. Waters that have frustrated men and women for decades…some things never change.

While we packed it in, Koru took the opportunity to step foot on the ice once again.

And, I couldn’t help but be drawn in once again by the magnificent volcano that has watched over us many a day.