We headed north out towards the Polar Front after leaving the sea ice and because of stormy weather, we did not stop for two days.
When the weather did finally calm down we had the opportunity to core the sea bed. Out in the deep ocean we are able to deploy a piston corer (a weight is used to push the core barrels down into the sediments on the sea floor).
In this way we are able to recover an 11 meter-long sediment core, which enables us to look at up to two million years of sedimentation at the sea bed that has a cyclic nature reflecting the advance and retreat of the Antarctic Ice Sheet linked to ice ages and warmer periods back through time.
Recovering cores of this length is quite an operation, particularly when the sea is a little "bumpy". Once recovered they have to be capped, cleaned, sectioned, measured, labelled, measured for magnetic susceptibility, split (a nasty process that involves a very loud router and lots of bits of hot flying plastic), photographed, logged, sampled, repacked, relabelled and placed in the cold store.
This whole process takes around two 12 hour shifts. However, we are a well oiled machine now and can process several cores over any given time.
Unfortunately, disaster struck one night. Even before the piston core came up we knew that there was a problem because of the tension on the winch used to lower the corer down to 4,000 meters water depth.
Indeed when the corer came up we had what is referred to in the business as a "banana core". As the name suggests, if the corer hits something hard on the sea floor the whole 11 meters of steel core barrels get bent into the shape of a banana and looks rather impressive.
Getting it back on board the deck then also becomes difficult. In the end the crew had to use one of the ships cranes to get it back on board.
Even though we are hundreds of miles from the nearest land we still see penguins and lots of sea birds – although no more whales. I have to say that of all the animals I have been lucky enough to see out here, my favourite has been the Snow Petrel.
Not an obvious choice but I have immense respect for this small white bird. Even this far out to sea and in the most extreme conditions when there is an absolute white out and hurricane force winds, the Snow Petrel can be see flying next to the ship. They also live up to 350km inland on the Antarctic continent. The fact that anything can live in an environment like that is incredible.
Albatrosses are good to watch too, they have a very long wingspan and they never flap their wings they just glide inches above the waves carried by the thermals.
The short Antarctic summer is now drawing to a close. Daylight has decreased drastically, in Pine Island Bay it started to get light around 4:30-5am. Now it is not fully light till 10:30am.
When it is foggy or overcast it reminds me of Aberdeen in December. The gloom sets in and everything outside look rather grim but I like it, I feel cosy looking out from my cabin porthole.
We are now heading for Rothera, which is the main British base in Antarctica and I am rather excited about the prospect of being able to actually set foot on the continent. Although I am not sure how I am going to be able to cope without the continual rolling movement that helps me get to sleep and walking on a surface that does not move – I hope I don't get land-sick!
Benedict Reinardy, 27, from Aberdeen, is a marine geologist, currently in the third year of his PhD. He obtained a BSc Hons in Geography at St Andrews University and an MSc in Quaternary Science at Royal Holloway, University of London before coming to join the Swansea Glaciology Group in the School of Environment and Society. Benedict’s research involves the analysis of the detailed glacial record within marine sediments around the Antarctic Peninsula. His data will contribute to research into whether the past changes within the Antarctic ice sheet can be used as modern analogues for the changes that are currently being observed.