Antarctica III

Day 3 and we pass through a narrow icy channel (the Lemaire channel, left) and arrive at "Vernadsky Base", as far South as we are going to go. This is a "proper" scientific Antarctic base, still manned, now by Ukrainians. It was "Faraday Base" until 1996 when the British government sold it for one pound ! (to save themselves the demobilisation & "cleaning" costs, part of the 1957 treaty). This base was the first to discover the hole in the Ozone layer, in 1970.

We land at the base and the personnel there most certainly give us odd looks. Turns out later that we are the very first outside people they have seen for 8 months !!! (since March this year), and we have women, and they don´t !

Well, for me (who always wanted to join British Antarctic Survey) this is absolutely fastinating !! The base is large and comfy inside. They have a bar and lounge, with pictures and souvenirs from yachts (and others) who have made it this far.

 

We have a quick tour around, & see some of the science. A lot is legacy from BAS. A low frequency radio for measuring the ionosphere height. A Dobson Spectrometer for solar radiation (how the hole was found).

I have a vodka (the real thing, Russian) in the bar ! send a few postcards (they will be posted from the Ukraine, might take a while to arrive, if they ever do !!), and have my passport stamped like the sad tourist I am !  We get sheperded out fairly quickly, shame, I could have stayed for days. I would have loved to have spent an Antarctic Winter in a place just like this (just the one Winter that is....).

We come close to the Antarctic Circle (66.6 deg South) to over 65 deg South (pic left), but we don´t actually cross it. It´s light nearly all the time, even in the middle of the night it´s a little gloomy, but not that dark




That afternoon it´s Zodiac Cruise time again ! This time "Iceberg alley", notably we see a Leopard Seal. This is not a (typically) cute and cudley member of the seal family, it´s a fearsome beast with a huge slavering mouth, you would not want to go swimming with one....   And we are told that the sea temperature here in MINUS 1.8 degrees Centrigrade !! as cold as sea water can get !! one more good reason for not going swimming.....