16 - This season finale?

Where should I go next?

These days were great!

We left Vernadsky and after a stop for a little swim -you heard me right! Except I didn’t  swim- Dad, Tio Ro, and Scott jumped into these freezing waters, -thanks a lot Elsa- After that,We stopped in a beautiful place, Plenéau, and stayed for the night, some dingy rides around and a Movie Night! We watched the documentary about the Polar Route, a INCREDIBLE journey our Capitan did in 2022 where he sailed with Beto Pandiani, a famous Brazilian sailor, thru the Northwestern passage from Alaska to Greenland on a small catamaran without motor! Scared me to be honest :)

Next morning we’ve tried to head north but the wind was strong -greek god fanatic talking here; thanks a lot Zephyros!- and we ended up heading back to Port Charcot, so we could hide from strong NE winds. We stayed in almost the whole next day due to bad weather… The only ones out were Mom, that wanted to go all the way up to another mountain where there is a kern -Aka this random stone pile with a light mechanism thingy on it on top of a mountain- and my Dad, Tio Rodrigo and Igor because they wanted to hike a tall mountain nearby. Guess What? They ended up butt sliding down -Aka ski-bunda- hahahah

We were actually lucky, because next day there was a group of whales feeding very close to the boat since there was a lot of Krill in there! We went on dingy rides to see them and it was AMAZING! We kept getting close but it was like the whales were toying with us, every time we got to it, the whale would dive under! Arghhh so annoying!! But the tails were beautiful :)

At night, our Capitan decided that the wind  was calm enough for us to head north and we finally reached Port Lockroy, were there is a British “base” that was transformed into a tourist museum / Shop by the - British  Antartic Heritage Trust.

Annoyingly… the weather was bad again and they couldn’t have us there, but we managed to do a quick landing -cooooold- nearby to see a Whale Skeleton and after we got back to Kotik we played WAR!

A Whale Skeleton at Port Lockroy

If you don’t know war, its a game where you conquest the countries and complete missions! It was fun but Igor ended up winning and I got eliminated

-I was told Igor never lost, he has a way with the dice-

Today, our last time we get off the boat in antarctica, -probably- we did a small hike at Dorian Bay, a place very famous to the Brazilians since it’s were Amyr Klink, the famous sailor spent a whole winter around 35 years ago.

We first went to an old little shed for lost people, still in use im guessing. It was amazing and my dad told me he had once slept here for fun!

Damoy Point Hut

After that, we hiked a mini mountain of snow. We had perfect timing because it stared to wind after we got down. But back to the hike- Once we got to the top, Tio Rodrigo surprised us with SNOW CONES! Theres a flavoring juice thats really sweet called “Granadine” that he pulled out of his backpack, and then a cup, and we made snow cups right on the mountain! (The snow was clean don’t worry!)

Kona Ice - The REAL one!

During the hike me and Marina made up a game called “Rock scotch”! Named after hope scotch, where we couldn’t step in snow, only on rocks! It was fun and we had a lot of fun! Now we are in the sailboat sailing to our last stop before the Drake Passage back - Palmer, where there is an American Scientific Base, that we can’t visit. Boomers!

Palmer. We are going to spend the night here so we can prepare the boat to 5 days of crossing, But right before that we had a mini outdoor snack/sunset session party! Music, sunset that lasts 8 hours lol, it was great! Plus Igor climbed the mast to take our photo WOW!

Our Capitan IGOR - THE BEST

Also my dad took a video that i don’t know what the heck means (at the end I said “whats that” and it was so funny)!

This is probably the end of my time in Antartica since tomorrow (01/18) we start our crossing - Here come The Drake again, but… Is this the end of the blog? Hopefully not! I want this to become my sailing blog so I can post every sailing trip I do, but who knows when my next sailing trip will be? 

If I even do a next post in the Antarctica section, It’ll be about the return trip. Of course its sad to imagine, but at least I’ll be back home! -and for some people reading this- see you at school!- 

See you soon!

So until my return post, have a great time and  I’ll see you after the drake! Pray for me and for calm winds on the Drake haha :)