Day 7 arrival in Antarctica

Chris here. At 7 o'clock this evening we sighted land and are now anchored
safely in the Melchior Islands. As you can also guess we have found a calm
spot to anchor therefore I am suddenly recovered from the effects of sea
sickness. In fact we are all sitting in the saloon celebrating our arrival
with champagne, swapping stories and enjoying the first opportunity to chat
as a group for the past few days. After a fairly torrid few days for Alan
and I it is a great relief for the yacht not to be moving around randomly.
The effects of sea sickness wear off immediately the motion stops. We are
assured that the voyage across was relatively calm. However it seems to me
that we were still a small boat in a big ocean and 2 meter swells are not
small.

The Melchior Islands look on the chart like just specks of rock compared to
Brabant and Anvers Islands just to the south of us. However now we are here
the scale of Antarctica is beginning to sink in as we are surrounded by
rocky outcrops topped with 500 foot thick ice caps and mini glaciers. The
Melchior Islands are clearly not just specks of rock but a substantial
archipelago. The scenery is spectacular with grounded icebergs in the bay
and ice cliffs showing many, many layers and therefore years of snow
accumulation. We can also see green and brown coloured snow. This is due
to algae which survive on top of the snow. There are small colonies of
penguins on the beaches and seals in the bay. A massive increase in wildlife
activity compared to the crossing. All in all everything we expected from
our arrival in Antarctica. Despite the rain (yes rain - just like a dreek
day on the west coast of Scotland) we were all up on deck to admire the
view. All the climbers were excited but this was clearly uncharted
territory for the crew of the yacht who took great care to find a safe
anchorage.

Tomorrow we will be leaving here at 4am to sail to Port Lockroy. This will
take approximately 6 or 7 hours depending on the ice in the Gerlache
Straight. If the weather is good the scenery promises to be fantastic. We
plan on spending a couple of days at Port Lockroy stretching our legs and
practising basic skills starting tomorrow afternoon. Everyone on the trip
is very excited by getting on to land and getting some exercise after the
enforced inactivity of being on the yacht. We'll let you know tomorrow how
our first day in on Antarctica goes.