10 March, 2001

-067 31 Latitude

075 29 Longitude

Iceberg

I was working in the microscope room looking at my diatom slides when I heard the door leading outside the ship slam several times. This usually means that something especially worth seeing is out there. I left my work, grabbed my camera and polar gear (clothing) and went to see what it was.

Out I went, firmly shutting the outside door as the others did so I could "dog" it. What that means is at each corner of the door there are latches that you turn that clamp the edges to make the shut door watertight. There are several things we do on board out of habit as you never know when a storm or wave may hit sending water against the door making a mess for us to clean inside. Once done, I went out to the edge of the deck to join some of my friends. Before us was the most beautiful iceberg right next to the ship! We were close enough that every detail was visible. Unlike other icebergs this one had stripes of denser translucent blue ice throughout. These stripes were especially bright when the sun shone through them from behind. Amy, our chief scientist, called the captain to see if we might stray off course for a minute and circle the berg. Kim, the "MST", called it a "wonderful playground" filled with caves arches and cracks. Every turn we made offered views of different structures and each angle reflected the ice in different shades of white and blue. I never knew there were so many shades of white. I can only describe the experience as a visual feast. Several of us stayed outside ignoring the cold till the iceberg was well behind us.