Waiting.....

Hi, this report is coming from Heidi, the third guide on this expedition. Our 9 am weather check from our local outfitter, Antarctic Logistics and Expeditions, did not bring us the news that we were waiting to hear.

The weather forecast for both the route we will be flying, as well as the landing conditions at Patriot Hills, our destination, is not good enough for us to continue our journey at this time. We have been given a 24 hour weather delay, which means that we will not be looking to fly again until 6 am Thursday morning.

As some of you may know, for the next leg of our journey, we will be landing on a blue ice runway. This runway is formed by adiabatic winds that blow off of the nearby Patriot Hills. It is these winds that enable us to land a wheeled plane there on ice in the first place. However if the visibility is poor, or the crosswinds are too strong, or there is too much snow falling, then we will not be able to land and we will have to return to Punta Arenas. Needless to say we are anxious to get moving, however we will patiently wait for the weather to allow us to continue onward.

So right now we are waiting for a forecasted weather window that will allow us enough time to get to out of the hotel, board the plane, fly 4.5 hours to Antarctica, and then land safely at Patriot Hills, I'm guessing that is about 8 or so hours total.

In the meantime we are planning a trip out to see the penguins on Magdalena Island. We will go later in the day once the winds have died down for the ferry crossing and also because there will be more penguins to see later in the day, as they tend to go out hunting for food more during the morning hours.

So keep your fingers crossed that the winds will turn in our favor, and that by this time tomorrow we will be on the ice!!!!