Reported by E. Isla; written during the Antarctic Scientific Expedition ECA55 (IDEAL-ICM, EDGE project) during his stay at the “Chilean Antarctic Scientific Base Yelcho”, in March 2019
The end of the expedition arrived! This year, the ship of the Chilean Navy “Aquiles” was commissioned to collect personnel and equipment of the “Yelcho” scientific base. The arrival of the ship implies that we had to stop samplings in the bay and in the snow near the base (carried out by two microbiologists from the University of Austral of Chile) two days before the arrival of the ship to have enough time to collect equipment, pack materials and label boxes, empty warehouses, clean the base and present everything in the loading dock to expedite closing the base. The day arrived and the base closure process took all morning and part of the afternoon what let us leave South Bay with an spectacular sunset. We started the way to the north along the Neumayer Strait again. This time, the orange and yellow tones of the sunset on the frozen summits replaced the morning white that greeted us on the way in and together with the gray and low clouds put an end to the expedition.
The Chilean Navy ship “Aquiles” in Doumer Island’s South Bay.
Dusk in Neumayer Strait.
Dusk light over the glacier in Doumer Island’s South Bay.
Dusk colors over Anvers Island from Neumayer Strait.