Sherry Thomas goes chasing iceberg A23a

By Sherry Thomas

LW contributor

A very big iceberg broke loose from Antarctica in the 1980s and lodged on an ice shelf. Part of the Soviet research station named Druzhnaya was on this ice when it broke away.

Fast forward to 2023. The iceberg started to move again. A British research ship spotted it heading into the Weddell Sea in early December, 2023. On Dec. 1, I boarded a Princess cruise ship in San Pedro. We were on a 34-day cruise going down the coast of Central and South America. We were going to try spending time around Cape Horn. When we got to the Southern Ocean we were to spend four or five days crossing back and forth for views of Antarctica.

Large ships cannot land on Antarctica, only smaller vessels, usually under 100 guests and 100 crew can land on the continent. Larger ships carrying 500 can land in groups. Remember that is the total number of people on board, including crew and guests. Antarctic landings are mostly in Zodiac boats.

When we were finished with cruising back and forth above Antarctica we were to head east to the Falklands, landing at Stanley Harbor. We would then head back to South America, visiting Uruguay and finally disembark in Buenos Aires. The ship stopped at ports in Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Chile, Falklands, Uruguay and Argentina. In December we heard that the A23a iceberg had been spotted and was on the move.

The captain told us we had an extra day at sea because the weather conditions were too rough to land safely in Ushuaia. We could now try and find the iceberg.

On Dec. 26 we saw the iceberg. We had been chasing it for several hours from its last known location. We had an ice pilot and a very experienced captain on the bridge.

The iceberg was 40 miles wide, a trillion tons of ice and bigger than Oahu. It was absolutely amazing.

Wikipedia