Antarctic Waters

South of Elephant Island
Big Ice Bergs

Day 12: Tuesday, January 15, 2002

12:15 PM

12:20 PM

By noon, we're getting close to the Antarctic Peninsula, seas were calming, and we were seeing icebergs pretty regularly.

1:02 PM

1:18 PM: The parade began.

It's 1:18 PM. We're getting close to the continent. These odd-shaped icebergs have been floating for a long, long time melting as time goes on. They have turned over in the water many times.

These icebergs are born in the Weddell Sea, south of our position. The strong currents in that sea are clockwise. We are in Antarctic Sound, which separates the mainland of the peninsula from some large islands to the east. This sound is an escape route for the icebergs pushed in that direction by the current and the winds. This very well could be Iceberg Alley.

Land!

Look on the horizon very carefully, you should see a dim outline of mountains on the horizon.

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