Tuesday 28 February 2012 - Frei Station & Bellinghausen/ King Island

With a change to the program there was an opportunity for a sleep in until 07:30.  After a leisurely breakfast I sat in the observation lounge with Aussie friends for three hours enjoying the magnificent view from the large scenic windows.  At 12:45 we entered the harbour at King George Island (Maxwell Bay) and by 13:15 the first boat was ready to go ashore to the Chilean Base, "Frei Station".  Malcolm and I followed in the last boat at 15:15.  The harbour is shared by both the Chilean and Russians bases, the Brazilian base having burnt down the previous day.  "A fire in a room housing energy generators led to an explosion that killed two navy personnel, injured one person, and left 80 percent of Brazil's Comandante Ferraz Antarctic Station incinerated on Saturday. Located in Admiralty Bay, on King George Island, in the South Shetland Islands near the tip of the Antarctic Peninsula, the station was Brazil's only permanent Antarctic base."   When we arrived the Brazilians were clustered on the beach awaiting evacuation and we were requested not to approach them as many were still in shock with the loss of friends. With the Antarctic being the driest continent on earth any moisture in the air freezes immediately and the threat of fire is extreme.  Malcolm and I visited the Chilean base and were shown around by an air-force flight lieutenant who did his best to explain the base functions in broken English.  This station was also involved in the rescue operation of the sinking cruise ship MV Explorer which sunk on 23 November 2007 after being holed by an iceberg.  With plenty of time on our hands we wandered around the base first looking at the Chilean church which was made from a number of old shipping containers joined together but very nicely fitted out and then walked over to the Russian side of the harbour and the lovely wooden Russian orthodox church prefabricated in Russia and erected on the hill overlooking the base.  This little church is manned all year round by a couple of Russian Orthodox priests.  On return to the ship I had a hot shower and then went down to dinner at 19:00 and joined Lynn McN and friends to say farewell before she was evacuated by boat to the Chilean base hospital at 20;00.  Tonight everybody was a bit flat although there were complaints from some of the other passengers that they had missed out on another landing in the Antarctic because of the changed sailing plan.