Report 3 February - Team B on board Pelagic at Bellingshausen Base - King George Island

Wednesday 3rd Feb 22.25pm

The wettest and mistiest day so far. Although it is summer over here, it feels like a bad mid winters day in scotland. Last night we had a windchill factor as low as -13c. Our last full day at Bellingshausen. The bases around here were very busy with a visit of a big chinese delegation, including the chinese ambassador in chile and many scientists. At the moment a delegation of our team is visiting the Russian headquarters to say goodbye to Doctor Konstantin. Tomorrow we are off, on our way to the volcanic Deception Island, 70 miles from here.

We think we did a -as adrian would put it- 'a grand job' here. We fulfilled almost all the tasks that were on our list and we made some very interesting contacts with people from several bases on the island, that we can use for the Mission Antarctica education project.

Amongst those we met were two young Chileans, Ignacia (11) and Javiera (8) who think they will have the adventure of their lives on Antarctica. Heather and Kirsten met them at the school on the Chilean base, where their parents, Enrique Barrios and Ana Maria Diaz, are the two teachers. We did an interview with them helped by Mambru (real name Claudio Montiglio!), the doctor of the base who acted as translator.

After ten years of teaching in the Chilean countryside, Enrique and Ana Maria decided to do something new and volunteered to go to Antarctica together with their two daughters. Ignacia did not mind to leave all her friends behind, but her little sisterl Javiera said she was a bit sad because she had to leave the rest of her family behind in Chile.

The school is modern and has three computers with internet-connection. We hope to contact them when we get back in Europe, because they have much interest in environmental education and new ways of teaching. When we left, the family gave us a very warm goodbye, with kisses and hugs, although we had only talked to them for an hour. We wondered whether chileans in general would be so friendly and open as these people or whether the Antarctic environment creates .

Some people consider that the Chileans have too many people and facilities on Antarctica because the more people, the more waste is produced and the more severe the human impacts on the environment. The Chileans see that different. They have to bring whole families to Antarctica if they want good quality personnel, because no one will come as a single person to stay for one year. They need good quality personnel in order to be able to protect Antarctica. As a result they have a school, a hospital, a bank, a supermarket and even a little chapel. The Chilean antarctic brotherhood that we met at the base today is actually very keen on raising awareness about Antarctica and preserving this unique environment for future generations of humanity. The men of this brotherhood have all served several years on Antarctic bases and are now giving lectures for Chilean schoolkids. We exchanged email adresses with these antarctic champions to maintain contact in our common endeavour.

As I finish this report, the team delegation just returned from saying goodbye to the base-commander. They brought eight bars of english chocolate that Colonel Konstantin gave as a goodbye present! They don't want us to leave yet and even offered us another sauna-session, but if the weather is right we will have to leave first thing in the morning. Off we go again, on to the open sea.

Kirsten Kuipers