Initially, this was quite nerve-wracking, but after taking off from the ship deck, it was a stable and very exciting trip down to the ice. On January 1, 1915, Ernest Shackleton and his crew also played a soccer match on the ice. The final score of their game was 2-0. We decided to play scientists against the ship's crew, and the scientists lost 7-5! It was hugely entertaining because everyone was falling over on the ice. At one point, we even has a group of 20 penguins come over to watch us. The penguins are fascinated by the ship. They cautiously made their way over to the Agulhas II to inspect us all!
We are still waiting for the last members of our expedition to join us. This consists of the autonomous underwater vehicle (AUV) pilots and the chief scientist of the expedition, Julian Dowdeswell. Of the people on the vessel now, there are at least 15 different nationalities represented. This is an extremely international expedition, and I am so excited to be surrounded by people who speak different languages and represent a wide variety of cultures.
Happy new year from Antarctica and more to come very soon!
