After a long flight to Cape Town, followed by a night in a quarantine hotel, we finally boarded Polarstern on Thursday 22nd of December! For Adrien De Gerlache and his team, his voyage south from Antwerp back in 1897 took a bit longer, as they were sailing for over four months already before reaching their gateway to Antarctica, namely Punta Arenas (Chile). Whereas Belgica had loaded some more coal and freshwater, here on board of Polarstern, the crew has been working hard for the last few days fueling up, and loading cargo, as well as equipment for the Neumayer Station III. We should be finally sailing of tonight around 20:00… Fingers crossed!
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