Ross Island, peering out from the cloud cover
I woke up this morning around 5:00am so that I'd be around for our first sighting of Ross Island and Mt. Terror and Mt. Erebus. When I went out around 5:15, it was very cloudly, extremely windy, and nothing was visible. I went down for the earlybird coffee and danishes at Raffles.
Around 5:45am, I noticed through the windows that the sun was just beginning to peek through the cloud deck, so I went back up to the Upper deck up front and found that the winds had dies down considerably. So, I went all the way out on the front deck to see what was up ahead. I was the only one there.
I noticed that the horizon was visible off to the left and the front. Then, I realized that what I had taken for clouds was at least partly the side of a mountain, completely encased in snow and ice! It was Mt. Terror, or at least the foot of the mountain. The upper parts were still covered with clouds.
Ross Island, peering out from the cloud cover
It was huge! I was able to find the east (left) side fairly easily now, but the western (right) side was still mostly covered. Since that was the body of the island and the beginning of Mt. Erebus, I realized that it wasn't coming down to the water very far. E.g., the island's land was very high.
More of Ross Island
As I watched, more and more of the island became visible. The mountains were really very high, and the foothills were now clearly visible in the reddish orange sunlight. Along the coastline, the ice shelf caught the sunlight on many of the vertical facets, making it easy to see how corrugated it was.
It was very cold, but the winds were not as strong as before, so it was bearable.
Shortly, Susan came up, and then a British woman. We stood and watched the clouds slowly rise, revealing more and more of the mountains. The eastern side of Mt. Erebus was becoming visible, climbing more and more steeply up into the sky.
Ross Island, slowly emerging from the clouds
I was looking off to the west for a moment, when I heard Susan and the British woman exclaim in wonder. I spun around quickly, and caught a glimpse of a huge splash in the rough water about 100 yard from the ship. They told me that it was a whale, skyhopping right up out of the water. The waves were about 6 feet high or more, with whitecaps everywhere. It was a very beautiful picture. We watched together for a few more minutes, then suddenly the whale appeared again, jumping straight up out of the water into the sky, getting about 75% out of the water, twisting slightly, then falling back into the water on its side. It must have been a Minke whale, since it wasn't very large, only about 20-30 feet long. It was as if the whale were greeting us on our arrival to McMurdo Sound. This was the first time I'd seen a whale of any type skyhop during this trip, and it was very exciting! The power of the whale, to be able to leap out of the water like that. And the idea that it would make such a jump is incredible. No one knows why they do this for certain. But I do find it significant that the only time I saw it happen was when the sea what quite high and choppy. It's very possible that the whale wanted to get a glimpse of us above the water, and the only way it could was to jump up over the waves.
We watched for a while longer, then, when it was clear that the clouds had risen as high as they were going to, I went down to wake Grandma up and to got get breakfast.
The most we saw of Ross Island's mountain peaks