Antarctica
A rainy day crossing the Gerlache Strait, Neumayer Channel, and landing at Jougla Point and Port Lockroy
Rain, cloudy skies, and yes, strong winds again hit the entrance of Andvord Bay and the Gerlache Strait, which we crossed in an east-to-west direction in the early morning. Our first goal was to get into the scenic Neumayer Channel and sail south towards Port Lockroy. By breakfast time, Europa hides from the 35 kn that blow outside, just behind the islands that sit at the northern entrance of the waterway. The Neumayer stretches for 16 nm in length and is about 1.5 nm wide, running between Anvers, Wiencke, and Doumer Islands in the Palmer Archipelago. The channel welcomes us with lighter winds blowing from aft and quite open waters, with just patches of bergy bits, growlers, and brash ice scattered here and there.
The Dallmann German expedition first saw its southern entrance already during their explorations here in 1873–74. The Belgian Antarctic Expedition under Gerlache (1897–99) sailed through it for the first time and named it after Georg von Neumayer. Among the most Antarctic-relevant of his achievements was the establishment of the German Commission for South Polar Exploration in 1895, a committee that organised the First German Antarctic Expedition in 1901 aboard the ship Gauss.
And then again, Jean-Baptiste Charcot sailed along the channel during his first Antarctic quest aboard the Français(1903–05) and found a safe harbour on it: Port Lockroy.
A scenic and picturesque route, though veiled today by grey low clouds. Visibility is not great and precipitation keeps falling.
Past mid-morning we pass in front of the small Goudier Island and the tiny Port Lockroy facilities, towards the large glacier front in its background, where we plan to drop anchor at the foot of the so-called Harbour Glacier, to which we access through a narrow and shallow channel between Goudier and Wiencke Islands. Goudier, home to the historical base and post office, seems—and it is—really small, with the look of a bare, polished rock. Unlike Wiencke Island, which is much bigger and hosts Goudier and Lockroy in one of its bays.
Wiencke has its name after Karl Wiencke, a Norwegian sailor aboard the ship Belgica (1897–99). The story goes that while he was trying to clear the scuppers of loose coal in a storm, he was washed overboard. He miraculously grabbed a line and was dragged behind the ship, but efforts to bring him back aboard failed and he was lost to the frozen seas. Gerlache chose this most dramatic mountainous and glaciated island to honour his name. And mountainous it is, climbing steeply up to the 545 meters above sea level of the serrated Jabet Peak. Probably this conspicuous and spectacular mountain that dominates the whole scenery was first sighted in 1898 by Gerlache, but it was first mapped by Charcot, who named it for Jacques Jabet, boatswain of the expedition ship Français.
For this calm though rainy afternoon, a split landing is planned, using as well the rocky outcrop of Wiencke Island, Jougla Point. After a good time at the museum/post office and at Jougla, the groups swap locations. The facilities at Lockroy are not ready to accommodate more than 20 people at a time, and Jougla offers an excellent landing site just a few minutes away to enjoy a Gentoo penguin rookery, a colony of imperial shags, and all the scattered whalebones left on the beach from the whaling times.
Actually, the sheltered natural harbour of Port Lockroy was used by whalers as a mooring place just a handful of years after its discovery and charting in 1904.
Here was also where Charcot had to seek refuge and a suitable place to do some emergency repairs to the Français when, on 27 December 1904, they had left their winter quarters located further south at Booth Island and pushed through the ice further south, with the misfortune of hitting a rock, causing important damage to her false keel. It took until February 1905 before they could leave the area, and they had to head north to South America. The ship was sold there to the Argentine Government, and the crew made their way home, where Charcot was welcomed as a national hero. He had mapped and charted over 600 nm of the Antarctic coastline. Many of the places along the Peninsula that they mapped still retain the names that Charcot designated.
But Port Lockroy as a base would have to wait until 1944 to be built here by the British during WWII, as part of Operation Tabarin, with the purpose of tracking enemy activities in the Antarctic Peninsula. Following the end of the world conflict, it was handed to the British Antarctic Survey scientists, who used it until 1962. A time of abandonment and disrepair followed until 1996, when it was declared a Historic Site Monument and a small team was sent here to restore it. The present-day care and maintenance of the base started in 2006, when the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust took over the conservation of this interesting historical site. A team is sent here every summer, also to mend whatever damage and run the heritage trust post office and souvenir shop.
And right after an early lunch, two members of this team boarded Europa to introduce us to their activities and life here, before splitting our group and starting the afternoon activities ashore.
At Lockroy we can only use the reduced walking space available (even half of the island is closed to visitors due to a research project on their impact on the Gentoo population and their breeding). Multitudes of Gentoo penguins are everywhere, making it difficult to believe that this location for the base, back in 1944, was chosen because there were no penguins breeding here.
Our time there is about an hour and a half, enough to land next to large mooring chains wrapped around the coastal rocks, visit the museum buildings (former quarters of the Navy and research teams that operated here since the establishment of the station), the well-assorted souvenir shop, and the immediate surroundings.
At the same time, we spend time too at Jougla Point, enjoying the great scenery under heavy rain and strong winds: the gentoos taking care of their wet chicks, giant petrels feasting on the younger ones that couldn’t make it this far in the season, and the large piles of whalebones on the beach, witnesses of the whaling past of the spot.
The personnel of the base are invited on board to join us after dinner and share the evening with us—always a good opportunity for them to get off the station, meet people, and share experiences with the group of the United Kingdom Antarctic Heritage Trust that we have on board.
