On the afternoon of Monday, 23 November, we slowly approached the island of Amsterdam - my new home for a year!
Around 2 p.m , we could see the vegetation on the island and the violent movement of the waves against the rocks. The Marion sailed west, so we followed the coast with the large cliffs that border this side of the island. Yay !
The cliffs are really steep and uneven.
We could see the via ferrata that descends the cliff to the Entrecastaux hut, which is next to the colony of yellow-billed albatrosses. This hut is the furthest from the base, and is about a 6 hour walk. It is widely used by ornithologists, especially for the study of yellow-billed albatrosses and rockhopper penguins.
There are thousands of yellow-billed albatrosses flying around the cliffs!
All the little white dots on the cliff are yellow-billed albatross nests!
The vegetation has a rather dull greenish color. We observed surprising shapes in the rocks, like scars.
Going around to the north, we could see Pointe Bénédicte, the hut where the instruments for atmospheric measurements of mercury and CO2 are located - in other words, my new HQ for a year!
We are two VSCs taking care of atmospheric measurements, Yaël for CO2 and I for mercury - the "air pumpers" team as they say!
Shortly after, we saw the base !!
Everything went very quickly, I was to debark on the island in the first helicopter rotation with the air pumper team and the doctor. This is it !!
We take off under the sun!
We were greeted by the VSC of mission 71 and the military staff of the 72. They welcomed us with a beautiful banner!
I met Laura, my predecessor, with whom I will be doing the handover for the next 4 weeks until OP4. As soon as we arrived, we left for Pointe Bénédicte to take stock of the instruments with Laura, Olivier (my program manager), Yaël, Rémi (Yaël's predecessor) and Marc (the CO2 program manager).
The rhythm promises to be very intense during these three days of OP to ensure all the logistical operations of supplying the base. The day after our arrival, I was on duty at the DZ with Laura. We were "playmobils", that is, we open and close the doors of the helicopter during its rotations. We got up (too) early, to be ready at 6am for the first helicopter flight of the day. We spent the whole morning receiving crates brought in by helicopter - extremely tiring, especially since I was already exhausted from the day before. But it's really great to be a part of this whole supply chain, I realize the enormous amount of work it all takes.
I also found my trunks, which I sent in late August! It's really great to have all my stuff, even things I had forgotten; haha.
The three days of the OP went well. At the end of the afternoon, on Wednesday, 25 November, the last visitors left on the boat. The doctor from the previous mission left the island after 2 months, and handed over to Camille who will stay with us for a year.
We said our good-byes under a beautiful sunset.
We watched the boat pull away little by little. That's it, life in Amsterdam begins!