11 February
Today, the ROA met up with the USCG Polar Star, a heavy icebreaker from the US Coast Guard, for a "cross deck" operation. ROA launched two sea boats, carrying a total of 12 people, to transfer some crew members to the Polar Star and bring some of its crew back. The first group went in the morning, had lunch aboard the Polar Star, and then returned. The second group went in the afternoon and stayed for dinner before heading back.
The Polar Star crew onboard for lunch were excited at the sight of fresh fruit – it was clear they hadn’t had fresh food in quite some time. In the afternoon, Peter and Andy (the DPA photographer) went over to the Polar Star and stayed for dinner. When Andy returned, he was extremely hungry and immediately headed to the canteen to grab some snacks to get through the night.
Also, we had been a bit light on science tasks, which meant Oscar had fewer activities, so he ran a marathon—on a treadmill!
After the meetup with Polar Star, ROA headed up to Franklin Island.
We started sailing up the eastern side of Franklin Island and passed along the western side after lunch. It was a beautiful, sunny day with blue skies and no clouds. At around 1400, we lowered both sea boats into the water and headed closer to the island. There were over 60 seals sunbathing on the beach, and it was absolutely covered in Adélie penguins! We saw quite a few that were still shedding their baby fluff. We could also see tracks leading up the island, where the penguins seemed to be walking to reach the top.
After dinner, it started to snow. A few people headed outside, and it was gray—so gray it was hard to make out where the sky met the sea. Ahead of us was ice! We sailed slowly through it. On a large, flat piece of ice, we spotted seals and groups of penguins. Word traveled quickly throughout the ship, and soon many of the ship's company were headed to the bow to stand in the snow and watch as we passed through the ice.
-Sara
