01 Feb 2015

Cape Adare Landing

The wind increased to around 25 knots from the south as we came to our waypoint 30nm off Cape Adare which was discovered by Sir James Clark Ross 1841 and named for his friend Viscount Adare. As the cloud started to clear we could make out the coastline.

Arriving at Cape Adare

It took some skill to get us through the ice towards Ridley Beach to see if it would be possible to make a landing. We had timed it to perfection – the beach was clear but we found only one or two places where there was gravel to land on. The group was briefed for a wet landing and the Zodiacs were launched to ferry everyone onto the cape. Each person was ready to hit the ground running to try and keep the feet dry and though some were not so lucky, everyone was happy to be ashore. It was the first time in three seasons that we had been able to land at Cape Adare which is arguably one of the hardest places to visit in the Ross Sea region.

Borchgrevink's Hut

The small amount of wind dropped and the seas became mirror-like as the sun beamed down on us while we explored. Everyone was having such a great time we stayed ashore for four hours before re-boarding the ship. The pack ice began moving in again as we steamed away from the ice edge off South Ridley Beach so it took some careful manoeuvring around the grounded ice bergs to return to more open waters. It has been the sort of wonderful day Expedition Leaders dream of!

Leaving Cape Adare

We are now pushing north through the ice and clearing the Ross Sea region in some of the best weather conditions (sun and calm seas) we have experienced in over 30 expeditions to this area.