03.02.2016: Cuverville Island

Cuverville Island

Our long wait finally came to an end last week and we left the protective bay at Cape Horn late in the day on Monday to master the Drake Passage. The crossing to the southern Shetland Islands took close to four days, whereby we could always count on ideal weather forecasting. This led to a relatively fast crossing. Our destination was Half Moon Island, a small sickle-shaped island which represents the crater rim of an old volcano.

From there, under increasing winds, we reached Deception Island where we took the opportunity of visiting an old whaling station. From 1910 to 1931 this was the southern-most whale oil station in the world operated by the Norwegian Hector Whaling Company.

Last evening the winds increased and with gusts of over 50 knots and wave heights of 4-5 meters it was rough going once more – we were strongly shaken about. But it became clear once again that the “Dagmar Aaen” is a seagoing vessel and she has a super crew that works excellently together.

The scenery here is spectacular. All around us we have glaciated mountains and in addition to that, we were delighted at having three hunchback whales beside the “Dagmar Aaen” we could marvel at. They seemed to totally enjoy the stormy weather and jumped up time and time again – fascinating.
It is now 11:10 pm – it is slowly getting dark and there is a total lack of wind. Some of the mountain peaks are red in the sinking sun. We are on our way to Cuverville Island in the middle of the Gerlach Strait – we hope to arrive at 8 o’clock UTC.