Para­di­se Har­bour – Port Lock­roy – 28 Janu­ary 2018

Sun
28 Jan
2018

Sai­ling into Para­di­se Har­bour is a slight­ly mono­chro­me dream of land and sea, moun­ta­ins and gla­ciers, ice­bergs and islands. Ever­y­whe­re seals on the ice. Some wha­les here and the­re. The wha­lers gave Para­di­se Har­bour its name for a good reason.

The Argen­ti­ne sta­ti­on Almi­ran­te Brown was built in 1951 but only spo­ra­di­cal­ly used after a fire in 1984. The­re is now a team the­re and the plan is to reno­va­te it com­ple­te­ly for poten­ti­al year-round use in the future. Well, we’ll see. What is more important to us now is that we get an invi­ta­ti­on for an spon­ta­neous visit, some­thing that is going hard over my very rudi­men­ta­ry know­ledge of Spa­nish lan­guage. But we make it work and it is fun. The high­light is, of cour­se, the pan­o­r­amic view from the hill behind the sta­ti­on and the famous slide down after­wards.

Gal­lery – Para­di­se Har­bour – Port Lock­roy – 28 Janu­ary 2018

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

Click here for the pan­o­r­amic views of Para­dies Bay from a pre­vious Ant­ar­c­tic Tour.

Our pro­s­pec­ted ancho­ra­ge just around the cor­ner is alre­a­dy occu­p­ied, and the­re is real­ly just space for one boat the­re. So we set cour­se for Port Lock­roy, which takes a good cou­ple of hours. It beco­mes quite win­dy as we start crossing the Ger­la­che Strait. We turn into Pel­tier Chan­nel, which is avo­ided by lar­ger ships as it has some shal­lows. A spec­ta­cu­lar pas­sa­ge! And icy cold in the wind. Some bra­ve souls spend the who­le pas­sa­ge of Pel­tier Chan­nel out­side on deck.

The­re is a strong bree­ze at Port Lock­roy and lots of bits and pie­ces of gla­cier ice are drif­ting around, but it is shel­te­red from waves and the­re is good hol­ding ground for the anchor, and that’s all we need for tonight.