Mel­chi­or Islands – 31 Janu­ary 2018

Wed
31 Jan
2018

The expe­di­ti­on roos­ter wakes us up a bit ear­ler than nor­mal­ly. The wea­ther fore­cast for the Dra­ke-Pas­sa­ge sug­gests an ear­ly depar­tu­re, but we do not want to miss the oppor­tu­ni­ty to step on ant­ar­c­tic ground one more time and to say good­bye in a pro­per way.

After a litt­le stroll up a snow field, we sett­le down on some rocky hills, enjoy­ing fan­ta­stic views of the Mel­chi­or Islands: small, ice-cover­ed islands with nar­row sounds, sur­roun­ded by the wide-open Dall­mann Bay. Ice­bergs are drif­ting here and the­re, and a wha­le is blo­wing in the distance. A moment of ant­ar­c­tic para­di­se.

Gal­lery – Mel­chi­or Islands – 31 Janu­ary 2018

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

Then the moment has come. The din­gies are sto­wed away and the ship is made rea­dy for the open sea. The anker is going up, and skip­per Heinz is stee­ring the ship out bet­ween the islands and into Dall­mann Bay, the open sea just ahead of us. The sun is shi­ning, the­re is almost no wind, just a mode­ra­te swell that reminds us that this is not a lake. Wide ice caps are shim­me­ring in the sun behind us, and some Hump­back wha­les come clo­se to wave us good­bye with their flu­kes.

We have got a good 500 nau­ti­cal miles bet­ween us and Cape Hoorn.