Peter I Island – March 7, 2017

Tue
7 Mar
2017

We had been wai­ting for this day with gre­at curiou­si­ty, when the famous island of Peter I would rise abo­ve the hori­zon. Well, the first thing that was to be seen today was not the hori­zon, not to men­ti­on any island, but low clouds and snow. Any hope to make a landing today on Peter I Island was redu­ced by strong wind and poor visi­bi­li­ty. But as always, hope the best and be pre­pared for the worst!

Then we saw it, it took a while, but then we saw the island through the clouds. A rather hosti­le impres­si­on, the­se inhos­pi­ta­ble, steep cliffs of rocks and ice. Strong winds gus­ting up to force 8 and 9 were the wel­co­me that the island had for us. Com­bi­ned with most­ly poor visi­bi­li­ty, it was clear that we would not be able to make any kind of landing or flight here. Well, that is life in the wild Sou­thern Oce­an, deep in the screa­ming six­ties.

Gal­lery – Peter I Island – March 7, 2017

Click on thumb­nail to open an enlar­ged ver­si­on of the spe­ci­fic pho­to.

The moun­tai­neous island actual­ly crea­ted a hole in the clouds on its lee­ward side, so the sun – a sight that we had been miss­ing for some time! – was shi­ning on the ice cap, whe­re it was reflec­ted like on a mir­ror. We even found a calm spot in the shel­ter of the island and quick­ly the zodiacs were orde­red to be made ready.A landing was not an opti­on on this steep coast on the sou­the­as­tern side of the island, but a clo­ser look would be gre­at, wouldn’t it? But alas, as soon as the zodiacs were on the water and ever­y­bo­dy rea­dy on deck, sno­wy gusts and white caps came from both sides, so we made sure we got back on board again quick­ly … not today, that was the clear mes­sa­ge, and not tomor­row eit­her, that was the clear mes­sa­ge of the wea­ther fore­cast.

So we went and set cour­se for the Ant­ar­c­tic Pen­in­su­la.