14/5/2/08 15:00

Gabriele, Steve and Paulo were the first shore party exploring for a couple of hours in the dinghy.  When they came back they dropped the mainsail and Paulo began the repair.  Nik and I went off in the dinghy and were frequently absolutely dumbstruck by the sheer beauty of what we were seeing. At times we agreed is was better not to attempt to say anything, but simply to try and take it all in, in silence. I would turn off the outboard and we sat quietly lost in our thoughts.

The light is continuously changing; colours, hues, shadows and reflections ever shifting…one lighting cue after another …a lighting designer’s ultimate fantasy. 

My new bi-focal sunglasses from Ushuaia make all the blues look even richer than they really are, so it was a disappointment when I took them off. It’s like looking at the world through a piece of full colour correction gel.

There is a family of seals and chin strap penguins and an assortment of birds. One of the little adjacent islands has several ancient wrecked whaling boats lying forlornly on the rocks in the snow.

The sun lasted until midday when the clouds reappeared. There is no wind whatsoever.

It is very still and beautiful. Actually as I type this, the sun returns.  Briefly.

The mainsail took several hours of patient stitching by Paolo, and of course dropping and re-rigging it with the 5 vertical battens is no small chore, however by mid-afternoon all was well.

When we were in Rio, our Brazilian friend, the other Paulo, gave us some “Antarctica Beer” which we brought all the way down here and today we thought it appropriate to break it out.  Steve fancied a game of golf and took his clubs and caddy to the nearest iceberg.  And afterwards Nik had an attack of Finnism.

15/2/08  10:00AM

Easterly wind this morning and the mist is back, yesterday’s glorious sun already seems a distant memory.   We are planning to, move on later to the next stop although it’s very cozy here.