22.01.2013 (Tuesday). As a
consequence of my sunburns, I am loosing the skin of my face like a snake. At
08:00, The Polarstern is finally leaving Punta
Arenas. Just the time to take some last pictures, and
the great adventure on the southern seas is starting... Exceptionnally the
Polartsern crosses the Strait of magellan by
the west side. We have fantastic views of moutains with patches of snow. It is
a bit windy; large clouds are drifting
across a blue sky. At 09:00, we have a briefing concerning the helicopters in
the conference room (unfortunately this will probably concern neither me nor
Marie). 10:00 : we have an informal discussion in the blue saloon (the room for
important meetings), concerning the area to explore. Indeed it is now
definitely clear that it will be absolutely impossible to access the Larsen
area due to the important ice coverage of the Western
Weddell Sea. No plan is fixed at this stage, but it seems that we
will sample somewhere around the tip of the Antarctic
Peninsula. Maybe near Joinville island or a bit farther west.
13:00 : I have an appointment to see if
it is possible to saw the lander in two parts and to solder it afterwards
without compromising its functioning. After examination and discussion with the
chief engineer Olaf Zieman, this seems possible. However I send an e-mail to
Belgian colleagues, to have their approbation. 15:00 : we have an exercice with
the life jacket on the helideck (i.e. the helicopter deck). In the afternoon,
the landscapes of the Strait of Magellan are
becoming wilder and wilder, as we enter its narrowest part. Absolutely no trace
of man. Savage mountains, sometimes almost totally rocky with scarce
vegetation, sometimes with dense woods of the subantarctic beech Nothofagus antarcticus, often with snow
at their top. 18:30 : we are approaching the open sea and I can see quite a
number of albatrosses from the window of my cabin. In the night, as we are
leaving the coast, the ship starts to pitch.
The Polarstern in the western part of the Strait of
Magellan.
The western side of the Strait of Magellan.
Testing life jackets.
(Cédric)
That's it : the
Polarstern is heading to Antarctica with a
whole bunch of enthusiastic scientists on board. The floating giant is moving
faster than I expected. Everyone is gathering on the deck for most of the day
because the landscapes are indeed very spectacular in the Strait. Long
stretches of untouched mountains and islands, sometimes green, sometimes rocky,
sometimes so high that a cap of snow is covering the top. It seems a bit unreal
to me, it looks like synthetic images in
an animation movie. We all take a lot of pictures of course. Tonight, we should
leave the protected channel of the Magellan
Strait to enter the
rougher open-waters.
We have a security
briefing about helicopter safety for those who will get the chance to fly over
the Southern Ocean with the whale watchers. During the afternoon, an evacuation
training is organized. The loud emergency alarm is heard in every part of the
boat. It means that we have to dress warmly, put our lifejackets on and gather
on the helideck for counting of the people. Somebody has to put on the survival
suit for demonstration: a thick, waterproof suit which covers the entire body
and is designed for surviving about 8h in 2°C water. Then we head towards our
designed lifeboats.
Many discussions
concern also the planning of the expedition. The Larsen areas where we were
initially planning to go are indeed completely inaccessible due to the ice
condition. We’ll have to concert and reach a compromise about a B-plan. Some
propositions are made: to the border of the ice on the east side, or on the
west side of the peninsula which is ice-free.
In the evening, the
movement of the boat is clearly getting more intense: we reached open-water! I
need some time to adjust to this perpetual movement and sometimes wish it would
stop for a while, but I finally find it quite nice to fall asleep, gently
balanced by the waves.
(Marie)
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