Russian Antarctic Expedition
Warm days have come to Tierra del Fuego. We now wear jackets, but no hats. Delighted by the sunshine, the dusty calafate berries have ripened and swollen, giving our young sailor’s smile an even richer black hue. Yachts are constantly arriving around us or departing in different directions. Some come from Antarctica, some from the Beagle Channel, some from the Falkland Islands... Almost no one arrives from Cape Horn through the Furious Fifties of the Pacific Ocean. Those who round the Great Cape in three days during a weather window don’t count.
Yesterday was all about meeting the Russian Antarctic Expedition led by Dmitry Kuznetsov, who, as I only discovered later, is also chairman of the Commission on Sport, Tourism and Youth Policy of the Moscow Civic Chamber and vice-president of the Moscow Judo Federation.
In Search of Russians
In our previous report, we wrote that eight people from Russia had arrived aboard Pelagic Australis, the expedition sailing vessel of renowned seafarer Skip Novak, to rediscover Antarctica in honour of the 200th anniversary of its discovery. We arranged with the boat’s crew to come and meet them the following day. We decided to go towards evening and found the expedition vessel empty. So we went for a walk. We bought some fruit and met two Englishmen, Steve and Charlie, who had also come over to take a look at the world-famous yacht.
After that, intuition led us by the nose: first the captain suggested going up to the main street. As we passed a little building in the centre, Nastya hinted that it was a café. I suggested we take a look inside. The captain couldn’t open the door because it had been a very long time since he had read Little Red Riding Hood. But our young sailor and I had read it recently. And Lada advised him to pull the string, and the door would open. The captain disappeared into the depths of the café for a moment, then poked his nose back out and said a single word: “Yes!”
Handsome, strapping men in cool striped sailor shirts with a penguin on them looked us over from behind a long table. Gradually, we got talking, went outside for a group photo, shook hands and parted until tomorrow. We’ll be expecting at least one of the expedition members in the morning—the namesake of our captain—who will jog over to us as part of his morning exercise routine :).
Greetings and Farewells
In the morning, our young sailor put on her best sweater and began waiting for our guests. At about twenty past nine, she visited the yacht club and found Andrei there. We chatted over a cup of coffee in Lady Mary’s wheelhouse and then saw him back to Pelagic Australis. The vessel was due to cast off at around noon.
But an hour later, two more members of the Russian team turned up at the yacht club: photographer and videographer Anton, and the youngest participant in the expedition, 16-year-old Sasha. We gave them a quick tour of Lady Mary, then set off in an orderly crowd to see the guys off to Antarctica. We were really looking forward to throwing flowers and waving handkerchiefs to our compatriots departing for the Ice Continent.
So we reached their berth in Puerto Williams’ main harbour armed to the teeth with handkerchiefs. But it was too early to wave them. Although this is the southernmost part of Latin America, it is still an integral part of it. And so the law “If you’re told the pilot will arrive by twelve, be happy if he turns up at four” remains firmly in force. And we were happy together with the guys, who had grown somewhat bored waiting. We passed the time with a delicious lunch and a tot of tea. Little Lada won everyone over with her sunny nature, ran 16-year-old Sasha ragged, almost beat expedition leader Dmitry—who also happens to hold a doctorate—at “backwards words,” and received from him the coolest little flashlight we had ever seen as a gift.
Our crew was presented with another valuable commemorative prize, but we’ll tell you about it only after the team returns from the Ice Continent.
The Expedition Yacht
Pelagic Australis, 23 metres long and displacing 64 tonnes, is not permitted to enter the Beagle Channel without a pilot escort. The latter takes the form of a pilot boat that leads the yacht for about 500 metres along the fairway and charges $2,000 for the service.
But the pilot probably doesn’t care whether he gets his hard-earned money in the morning or closer to sunset; alternatively, there may be a whole crowd of vessels in other bays wanting to be led by the hand into the channel, and he simply can’t keep up. We have long since grown accustomed to the pace of life where “don’t rush anywhere and everything will work out,” but it wasn’t easy for travellers arriving from the hectic rhythm of Moscow to switch into “eternal mañana” mode. On the other hand, thanks to the wait, both they and we managed to film a few things about each other, find out how people come to join expeditions like this, take another look around the expedition yacht, and ask the guys about the motives that inspired them to undertake the voyage.
Of course, for the second day running, we keep coming back to this meeting in conversation. Perhaps our paths will cross again, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves :).
About Our Plans
And tomorrow, another Russian-speaking group of travellers will fly to Puerto Williams, the southernmost town in the world, from northern Patagonia—trekkers from Chișinău! The guys will be hiking across Navarino Island in the Tierra del Fuego archipelago. And we’re really looking forward to seeing them too.
The date of our departure from the blessed Chilean yacht club for Ushuaia is becoming more or less clear. It will be at the end of the week. At the Argentine port, we need to buy 100-metre lines so that we can secure ourselves between the shores in the Patagonian fjords. Some coves are so tight that anchoring is impossible: the wind and currents will swing the boat around and drive her onto the rocks. The future course of our expedition will be decided in Ushuaia. And at least two more amazing encounters with Antarctic sailing crews await us there.
It looks as though this report won’t have many photos for now: the internet is more dead than alive and shows absolutely no intention of stirring. But new photographs have already appeared in the previous report from Tierra del Fuego! If there is no link to them here, it means this post was uploaded via email, and all the reports from Cape Horn, Patagonia, the Roaring Forties and the Furious Fifties should be sought on the home page.
Friends, we thank you for your support and for your bright letters sent to the ends of the earth. We shake hands with every one of you!
Our entire crew would like to express special gratitude to our shore team—to all the wonderful people who sustain the expedition and inspire the first mate to find more gaps in her schedule so she can write reports and inspire people just like you and us to make their dreams come true! Thank you to Nikolai D., Mikhail B. from Spain, Dmitry S. from the Leningrad Region, and Dmitry K. from Moscow.