On February 8th, the weather is favorable to leave Marguerite Bay. We therefore leave the anchorage of Lagoon Island and sail up along the west of Adelaide Island as we did on our way down; the Gullet passage still being blocked by compact ice. A SW wind force 3 then increasing to 7 allows us to cover the 190 miles under sail in just over 30 hours. Night returns for a few hours after two months of permanent daylight, and we are very glad to have installed a spotlight at the bow of Libertaire, which helps us avoid some growlers in rough seas. We thus sail back above the Antarctic Circle and anchor for dinner at Flounder Island, where we spend two nights.
On Sunday, February 11th, we head to Lippman Island, 40 miles north, and motor up the Grandidier channel while weaving between numerous icebergs; we arrive just in time before visibility becomes too poor. The next day, snow falls continuously, Nina has a fever, Diane injures her index finger: 3 stitches... In short, some days are less fun than others.
On February 13th, we are driven out of the anchorage by ice and therefore weigh anchor for the Berthelot anchorage. We ultimately decide to head directly to the Ukrainian station Vernadsky; a heavy westerly swell making anchoring complicated. We moor alongside the French sailboat Le Boulard. It’s amusing to see how the landscape has changed in a month (we were already at Vernadsky in mid-January); the melting snow and ice reveal many rocks, and the sea lions have invaded the "beaches"... We are once again warmly welcomed, and Alex, the station doctor, offers us fresh fruits and vegetables, which are very welcome after more than 2 months of travel. Nina and Diane are delighted to observe the solitary king penguin that has been wandering the island for 2 weeks! It’s a real stroke of luck—in 15 years, only 3 king penguins have come to molt here, their colonies usually inhabiting the sub-Antarctic islands.
We arrived yesterday at the Pleneau site to meet our friends from the sailboat Petrouchka and should leave tomorrow to head to the Chilean station Videla, 40 miles north.