I think this was the 3rd try (at least 3rd attempted day) and we finally stepped foot on the 7th Continent!
We awoke to nearly clear skies and nearly calm water conditions. At 730am when we looked outside, we could see the crew taking out the zodiaks to scout and to bring supplies to the the landing location. We watched as the submersible and dive support boat was out and about getting positioned. We grabbed a bite to eat, and then we prepared for our landing!
We rode over with Yens, who is from Denmark, but lives in Canada. He is also a fighter pilot. Last year was his first time as a guest to Antarctica, and in fact his first zodiak cruise last here was at this location. He brought us to the landing location where we had to swing our legs over the zodiak, and Tara and Joel assisted us from getting from the zodiak to the rocks. And then other crew helped us navigate to the stairs they had carved out of the snow.
Mom was a trooper, and did make it up the stairs. There we found Dave, from Scotland, who carved out a seat for mom to sit and catch her breath. I took her picture with the flag, and she decided she would hang there. Bee and I went up to the ridgeline where we took some pictures. We could see the dive support boat and the sub across the bay. Then we headed back to mom to discover that she had made her way back down (with assistance from the crew) and was headed back to the ship. We then headed to the point where we chatted with Kata who explained that this location is an Argentina research, but it hasn’t been occupied for several years. She said in the 70s, there were 4 women researchers who had to push hard to come down here to conduct primarily oceanography and meteorology research.
Bee and Mom are scheduled for the sub later this afternoon. Now we are off to deck 6 where they have a BBQ lunch waiting for us!
