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| Killingbeck Island |
With the recent cold temperatures helping to form and stabilise the sea ice around Rothera, on Saturday we decided to strike out for Killingbeck Island. There is a photo of Rothera Point in a previous
blog post, and Killingbeck Island is in the middle far left of the picture, about 2 km out to sea.
We started out from North Cove and made out way around the North end of Rothera Point. As we had drilled this area recently we could move fairly quickly. When we reached new ice which needed testing, two of the GAs struck out ahead so the rest of us could travel along more leisurely, admiring the icebergs and taking photographs. On our arrival at Killingbeck Island we were rewarded with a visit from three Adelie penguins who came running up to us. I am sure they thought we were penguins too as they ran very fast until they were about five meters away, and then stopped, looked at us with a disappointed expression, and then waddled slowly away. We also had a lot of fun getting on and off the island, as there was broken ice around the island caused by the tide lifting the sea ice up and down. It had formed chunks which we had to move across, a bit like lily-pads on a pond.
Killingbeck Island was at the limit of the current stable ice. The photo of the island shows the thicker white ice which was about 30cm thick, and a small amount of newer darker ice, which was only about 10cm thick.
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| Adelies Saying 'Hello' |
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| Doc On The Ice Lily-Pads |
