At Sea on the Douglas Mawson

We are in the midst of about 3 days at sea crossing the Southern Ocean towards the Ross Sea.

Here the map is bisected by one of the numerous handrails helpfully placed around the ship to steady one as the ship gently pitches and rolls on our southward course.

Today’s excitement: we spotted our first ice berg about 800 miles from Antarctica.

You’ll need to expand the photo to see it, I’m afraid.

We also heard interesting lectures on the climate of Antarctica and the history of the Southern Ocean. It seems that there existed a continuous land bridge from South America across Antarctica to Africa just a few hundred million years ago.

I took a turn around the deck this afternoon in bright sunshine, a stiff breeze and with temps in the 40s somewhere. Bracing.

(Sorry I posted the same picture twice. I gave up after spending 15 miserable minutes trying to delete it.)

Passengers are invited to stop by the bridge, and I found it an island of calm tranquility high above the waves.

The ship has a small upper deck restaurant that Lester,Leonard and I repair to some evenings. We are seated with other guests affording opportunities to meet people. Nice view!

The ship has numerous interesting photos up on the walls. Here’s Douglas Mawson, his ship and a bunch of penguins from 1913.