 |
|
 |
Report 26 January - Team A at Bellingshausen
All well. Work on survey tasks continues with little time to write reports.
Report 26 January - Team B on board Pelagic
 |
 |
We are in Puerto Williams, Chile, celebrating
Burns Night. We eat traditional Haggis (a special Scottish dish that Heather
surprisingly brought in herhandluggage) and tatties. Together with whisky (two
good bottles) and real Scottish bagpipe-music this makes this evening into a
perfect ending of our first sailing day.
Heather adressed the haggis by reciting the Burns poem: 'Fair fa' your honest
sonsie face...Great Chieftain o'the puddin race...' This must be the most
southerly and most unusual Burns-celebration in the world.
There are lots of vistors that want to know who we are and where we are
heading. Today we had Germans, French and Argentineans aboard. While sailing we
are competitors: who is the fastest sailor? But ashore we drink together and
laugh about this crazy town we are in.
Downtown Puerto Williams !
Earlier today we left Ushuaia around noon.
Heather's bag did not arrive, so she went shopping and spent a few quid getting
new equipment. Now she has the best kit of us all. She will certainly be warm
in the Antarctic.
After the Argentinean immigration officials had checked us and the Pelagic, we
set sail through the Beagle Channel towards Puerto Williams. Nothing is better
than sailing when the sun is shining, the wind blows through your hair and you
are having the most wonderful views. There is just nothing more to wish.
We ought to be going to bed now, considering the plans for tomorrow, or better,
tonight. We have to get up at 3 a.m. to sail up to Cape Horn and to start our
route to Antarctica's King George Island via the Drake Passage. This day was
very calm compared to what lies ahead. Tomorrow we will learn what it is like
to sail on the open sea, the Southern Ocean.
Kirsten Kuipers, Netherlands