Voyage on the Astrolabe
Our arrival at the base is planned in 1 or 2 days, so I wanted to give you
a summary of our trip to Antarctica on board the Astrolabe.
Unfortunatelly I can not enclose any picture with the boat satellite
connection, so you will have to wait a bit longer.
We first had 2 days crossing the world by plane (My trip was Brest-Lyon-
Paris-Hong Kong-Sydney-Hobart). We managed to go to Sydney downtown for an
hour, to enjoy the sunshine, people, cars, exotic birds, and the
theater...
After landing in Hobart we directly took a bus to the harbour and get in
the boat. After a security check we left Hobart late afternoon on Tuesday
23rd...
The weather was quite ok, some good waves though on a boat rolling a lot
made us do some acrobatic moves to get to the living room !
After 4 days we reached Macquarie Island where we dropped 7 Australians
and welcomed another one.
During these days in free water we had the chance to see a lot of
albatrosses, petrels, puffins...
On the 6th day at sea, in the evening we reached the ice. Since then we
ahve since a lot of crab eater seals, few whales, more and more penguins,
more and more icebergs, and dense ice pack. As a consequence we get stuck
quite often for several hours (it is the case right now as I am writting).
On the 11th day, I get the chance to take the helicopter and go to a new
emperor penguin colony just discovered with 3 other scientists. It was an
amazing trip and opportunity !
First direct contact with the species I will study all winter...
Today is the 14th day at sea/ice. We should see the base in the coming
days ! A new adventure will start.
