It is nippy outside- later I see on the computer screen that for the first time we have temperatures below freezing. Later, during the evening meeting, Harry reports that we crossed the circumpolar current and have reached the Weddell gyre. Another 24 hours, and we are in the ice!
When I go up to the bridge about half an hour before lunch, we are moving towards two icebergs that lie like twins in the calming sea, probably broken apart only since a short while. We will travel right through the middle and reach them probably in about three quarters of an hour. Every now and then, the sun is breaking through the clouds, and then it makes the blue giants shimmer. “Oh, I better go and get my camera after all...” says Volker, who is standing beside me and who has most likely seen a lot more icebergs in his life than me. At some point the oh-I-have-seen-it-all mood with which you deliberately ignored the first icebergs leaves you, and then the magic of the ice takes hold of you again. While we approach the two icebergs, we begin to discover tiny black dots on them. Once we are so close that only one of the icebergs fits on a photograph, the dots turn out to be hundreds of penguins, most likely Adelies.
The clock is working against us — if we show up in the mess after twelve o’clock, chances are that we will fall from grace! One last photo, and then quickly down two decks! To celebrate the special date, we have wild boar, and later for tea there is Stollen and cookies. Thoughts wonder to the loved ones at home, their faces in soft candlelight... It is good that the beauty of Antarctica is waiting ahead, helping us to get over the nostalgia washing over us in short quiet moments!
B. Ebbe, Senckenberg
Photos: B. Ebbe