March 1, 2008 - Lagoon Island, off Antarctic Peninsula
by Kate Laird

We have entered another world, or so it seems - we are through the Gullet and into Marguerite Bay. What an incongruous name: Lagoon Island. This place is perfect shelter, but nothing like the image of a Pacific lagoon. The colors are shades of gray, dark rock, pale whites of the snow slopes and glaciers, slate green water, and onshore, an abundance of wildlife......junior fur seals, teenage male elephant seals, Skuas and Dominican gulls in the sky, and a sprinkling of Adelie penguins over the snow slopes.

Last night was quite an Antarctic experience, lying ahull, waiting out the night in thankfully calm seas and winds in a three-mile-wide circle of water in the lee of Adelaide Island. The night was punctured by the booming of calving of glaciers and the sucking, sighing, swish from waves compressing under nearby growlers that appeared threateningly out of the murk. Drifting rain turned to sleet and by morning the boat was slick with a coating of wet, rapidly freezing snow.

The gods were kind. Huey allowed us passage of the Gullet, a narrow, winding, 18-mile passage between Adelaide Island and the mainland peninsula. At times the thick ice looked impossible, but there was always a way through. The wind stayed northeast and for a while we had a fast 8 knot sail with only a genoa pulling us along on a broad reach.

At the end of a long cold day, we sailed past the unseen BAS (British Antarctic Survey) base at Rothera and onto a 360-degree shelter amongst of a group of islands 3 miles to the southwest. As we bumped our way through the shallow entrance, the lifting keel cable snapped. In record-breaking time, lines were run ashore to stabilize the situation and a new cable was run and secured. With the keel halfway up, we moved into the lagoon, repositioned the lines, and were safe and snug for the night. After a walk ashore, we are having another great dinner with plenty of wonderful Argentinian cabernet sauvignon, while the "smelly-ellies" snort and burp and the fur seals whimper onshore. It's after nine pm, but it is still light and around our Eden, our little oasis, the mountains of Adelaide Island merge into the pale white sky and are defined only by glimpses of rock face and cliffs. (posted by guest Tony.)

For more about Seal see http://www.expeditionsail.com.