Date: Mon, 12 Jul 1999 15:43:50 +0100
Subject: Day in Charlotte Bay
Pictures: Charlotte Bay

We are right now crossing the Drake passage back toward Punta Arenas, and since last night, we have been experiencing a good deal of rocking and rolling.. and I doon't mean we're dancing!!! However, we managed to slip in between two storms, so it could have been a lot worse. And patches work REALLY well to combat nausea.

As I said in my previous message, we had very rough seas the past few days, which forced us to abandon the few last stations, but also prevented us from visiting Palmer station, where we had hoped to go ashore. I had been looking forward to seeing what the station itself was like, as well as to getting on skis and following Ray on the glacier, but the swell was too strong for the zodiacs to be safe. So we headed north on the eastern side of Anvers Island, in the Gerlache Straights, which we had also used when we first arrived. There, the weather was a lot calmer, and we finished packing and tying down everything.

Since we had some time before starting our return trip, we went into a bay named Charlotte Bay, and it was magnificent. Saturday night, the sky cleared and stars were visible, as well as a great many snow petrels flying in the ship's light beams, and giving us a magical show of sparkling white dots fluttering all around.

Yesterday, we woke up to clear skies and the promise of a beautiful sunrise. It was a good thing that a lot of the work had been done earlier, for nobody wanted to do anything but be out on the deck, admiring the view and taking pictures. Charlotte bay is absolutely gorgeous, surrounded by tall mountain peaks and glaciers which tumble into the sea. Their edges were of a surprising green color, different from the blue of the icebergs which floated all around us. We slowly advanced into the bay until we were in the middle of ice again, re-capturing the magic of the pristine world we had left a few days earlier.

After lunch, the whole group gathered on the deck, and we took group pictures, not an easy task when out of 31 people, at least 25 want to take a picture with their own camera! The deck was covoered by snow, probably the most we had had so far, but the temperature was just below zero, and it felt comfortable. Around 3pm, we watched the sunset, which was as beautiful as the sunrise had been, then reluctantly went back inside to finish the remaining tasks. By midnight, we entered the Drake, and in my sleep I started feeling the ship being tossed around by the waves, which this morning were high enough to come wash our porthole windows on the main deck.

I just looked at the weather map, and it looks good: ahead of us there seems to be a rather calm area, and before the turbulences start again, we should have reached the Straights of Magellan, where we will be protected. Our planned arrival in Punta Arenas is Friday morning, July 16, but we may be there earlier, since we left the Palmer area ahead of schedule. Friday will be used to disperse all the equipment toward its various destinations, return the extreme weather clothing we were given before departure, and then relax, have a big dinner in town with all the participants and ship crew, and get ready to head home on Saturday morning.

I probably will send a last message tomorrow or the day after, before becoming disconnected from my computer... we've become good friends over these past five weeks! A few figures: during this adventure, I will have written about twenty web pages in English, and about the same number in French... I have taken 300 pictures with the digital camra, and a few rolls with the regular one, and I have processed 600 vials of chlorophyll! See, I'm starting to think in numbers... does that mean I'm getting a scientific view of things?