Ice breaking and transhipping

The past few days have been busy. We finally encountered some ice on our way to the German Neumayer station. There we met up with the South African research vessel. Some vehicles were transferred between the two vessels and the shore. Then on our way to Halley.

During our stop at Neumayer, we did some maintenance on one of the ship's gyro compass'. See pics

Two tabby bergs

Multi year open pack

SA ship

Multi year pack- noisey going!

Inside this magic ball is two gyros set at 90° to each other, as these are spun up it maintains a constant direction with the ship moving around it.

Inside the magic ball

This is the casing that the gyro ball sits in, it is filled with a special electrically conductive liquid, so the ball is free to move and current can also pass through it to keep the gyros spinning