Wedding bells and angry gods

While the snow is falling down, two people are dancing tango on deck. The same circle, over and over again. Tango music sounds from the speakers, the teacher counting and watching as their steps improve. The captain is writing his speech, the galley busy baking the sweetest of wedding cakes. Champagne is brought up from the dry stores. An old shower curtain is converted into an elegant wedding gown.
Petermann Island is a snow-covered and domed island rising to a rocky summit. Along the rocky coastline there are many bays, decorated by the most beautiful of ice sculptures. The island is inhabited by Adelie penguins, blue-eyed shags and south polar skuas. As we land, snow is still blowing around our heads. We gather close to a refuge hut, overtaken completely by a gentoo penguin colony. When the couple approaches, the wedding tune sounds from Jan’s Uruguayan native instrument accompanied by Esther and Sabine’s lyrics. Surrounded by white and penguins, the whole scenery is somewhat odd. The bride in her lovely white curtain, the groom with his black top hat and the Belgian flag around his shoulders. After the captain has spoken, Shirley and Pepijn promise each other eternal faith, dedication and love at No-men’s Land. Then the group dissolves to climb up to the Adelie colony. It offers beautiful sights, penguin heads covered with snow, remaining on their nest, until their partner comes back from the sea. We set course for Lemaire channel again and as soon as the wind and iceberg permit it, one sail is hoisted. Without engine we’re doing 8 knots. The wind changed direction 180 degrees since yesterday and for the second time we’re sailing through Lemaire Channel.
The sun is shining, it’s a beautiful scenery. In the distance a leopard seal is spotted, resting at an ice floe. Occasionally snow petrels are passing pretty close to the ship. We’re crossing the southern part of Gerlache Strait with its beautiful snow-covered islands. Later the wind dies and the engine is started to reach Goudier Island. Late in the evening we drop anchor close to the most southern post office in the world: Port Lockroy.

Port Lockroy turns out to be a popular place today. In the morning zodiacs from the vessel Le Diamant are even approaching Bark Europa for its ‘antique’ touch to photos of the glacier surroundings. A thick layer of ice is covering the path along the coast. Weather conditions did not improve much and it is pretty cold in the zodiacs as we make our way to Dorian Bay and Damoy Point. From the shallow waters we can watch penguins take their morning bath, a necessity after a night in the dirty overpopulated colony. There’s a lot of activity and we kind of expect to spot a leopard seal looking for a warm-blooded breakfast. But we only see a couple of crabeater seals sleeping on the beach. And skuas eating… another dead skua.

In the afternoon we’re invited to visit Port Lockroy, the post office. As we land, just aside the zodiac, a leopard seal rises from the water to curiously check on us. She’s huge and very close. Female leopards are bigger than males, Rick, the station manager tells us later on. His post office used to be an Operation Tabarin Hut and has been restored and opened to public. Wandering through the museum, it feels as if you step back into the old days. Rooms breathe the atmosphere of long gone days, woollen underwear is drying above the stove as if somebody left it there yesterday. The room where Rick and as he calls it, his harem, live, could have been taken from an old fairytale. Except for maybe the high-tech sleeping bags lying on the bunk beds.
The post office is surrounded by an enormous gentoo penguin colony, making it quite impossible to apply the IAATO rule of 5-meter distance here. They are nesting right next to the door and some sheathbills don’t even move from the doorstep. Most of us also take the opportunity to send a message to our beloved on the other side of the world and the post office souvenir shop has good clientele today.

Our last visit is to Jougla Point, only hundred meters away from Goudier Island, at Wiencke Island. She scares our zodiac driver Diven to death, but the leopard seal seems to be determinant to follow us. Also to Wiencke Island. Unfortunately the whalebones are still mostly covered under snow. But the packed and mixed gentoo and shag colony is happily awaiting us. We try to avoid leaving deep footsteps in the snow, but it is kind of hard with all the fresh snow that has fallen recently. Luckily enough penguins have created their own web of penguin highways, brown-coloured by the mud, very recognizable and easy to avoid. On the top we get a closer look at the blue-eyed shags. They’re sometimes called flying penguins for their resemblance to penguins. During breeding times you can see a bright blue ring around the eye that will slowly fade away. We stand still and enjoy the view before we head back t the ship where preparations for a party are being made: it’s B.B.Q time!


It’s a lovely evening, with splendid food and music by D.J’s Woody and Ruud, who, for the occasion, put on the aluminium silver fire brigade jackets. It’s also Nel’s birthday, so there’s homemade apple pie for desert! And of course there is a lot of dancing to keep ourselves warm and because it’s simply good fun! Early in the morning – daylight still accompanying us as if she doesn’t want to say goodbye – the music stops. It is time to get some sleep.

Only two hours later the winds starts ravaging the protected Port Lockroy Harbor and even with two anchors and eighty percent of our engine power we can barely maintain our position. It is time to move to towards Neumayer Channel. Most of us had heart about them, but the real sight of them is impressive.: catabatic winds. The rest of the morning and part of the afternoon we are heaving on, going up and down, waiting patiently for the furious winds to quieten down. When they finally do, we cross Neumayer Channel to see how the weather gods are treating us on the other side. Without the engine, just on bare masts we still make over 7 knots. Although forecasts are not very promising, we continue, even encountering calm waters in between depressions on our way. Our last stop at Melchior Islands with its narrow channels is cancelled due to bad weather conditions. And also, the forecast for Drake Passage urges us to move north as soon as possible: Drake, here we come!