Thursday 3rd February
Today's contributor: Jon Copley
Overnight, we finished our last deployments of the CTD probe at Hook Ridge, collecting samples for geochemistry and microbiology, before our final megacore drop completed the work in the Bransfield Strait for this trip.
At 1000h local time we got underway for our next target area: the East Scotia Ridge. The ridge is a chain of undersea volcanoes where one of the plates of the Earth's crust is rifting apart. It also hosts the world's southernmost known "black smoker" deep-sea vents, which we pinpointed in 2009 and sampled for the first time last year.
The ridge is around 800 miles from the Bransfield Strait, and our passage to the area will take around 3 days. For fuel efficiency, the RRS James Cook cruises at 8 to 10 knots, which is similar to a moderate cycling pace.
Elephant Island
In the early evening, we passed along the southern coast of Elephant Island, named for the elephant seals that inhabit it. In 1916, the crew of Shackleton's Endurance expedition also lived on the island under upturned boats for more than four months while they awaited rescue. Today its cloud-topped cliffs and crisp glaciers shone in the sunlight as whales and seals escorted us along its shores.
PhD students photocall on the foredeck
Thar she blows! (can you spot the whale?)