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Anitra is back Home in Greifensee....you can contact me on, Anitra's Mail

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So this will be my last entrance, it is time to go bakc home!! Before I hurry off to the airport in Uhshuaia,  I would like to say thank you guys for that wonderful X-mas present! Wiebke, Stefan and Tommi that was such a nice surprise. Jimbo and I had a toat on you guys and a lot of memorable thoughts about our first trip. Our first trip was so different. For me the social contact on our interactions which each other were much closer. We had a lot of fun and many good games and lots of laughter. on this trip, the wildlife and the tours were so much better, but with the majority of the people I hardly had any contact. so it was a total different trip. But I didn't loose my enthusiasm for the Europa and the sailing. Hope to do my next trip pretty soon.
See you all soon. little brother and Joos, Jantje, Jurrien + Family, Yo + Family in Februar, my A.C friends in May at Wiebkes birthday and all the others next week when I m back home. lots of love, looking forward to c u. Beat until saturday :-)

hi everybody, back on shore!! today we arrived in Ushuaia. I am very sad to leave my wonderful second home, but I am also looking forward to see everybody again. My trip has given me a lot of time and I hope I used it well. Saw the best wildlife ever, had some great swims in icy water, had beautiful long walks on South Georgia, Orkney and especially on Deception Island. Took so many photos. enjoyed all the watches I had. hèèèèèèèèèè and I never got seasick :-). sick of my clothes however. they smell, even though they did laundry almost every 4th day, but somehow the salt water, the penguinpoo, the smell of the furseals gets to it. After almost 7 weeksof wearing the same T-Shirts and thick trousers, the thermo underwear, I am looking forward to the milder temperatures and a bigger variation in clothes :-) Yes I hope I have enough to wear :-). I will leave most of my stuff on the Europa, so my bag won't be taht heavy. Tomorrow I go ashore and the day aftr tomorrow I'll be flying home. on Saturday evening I will be back in Zürich.

Hope all of you had a wunderful Xmas. We celebrated Xmas a on the 27th (Fred's birthday), because we were sailing from South GEorgia to the Orkney Islands. we had quit rough weather, but it wasn't as bad as the water we got on the Drake!!!

Happy New Year to all of you as well. eventhough I am a bit late, that doesn't matter does it?? We went on anchor in a small harbour on the 31 of Dez. Beautiful. Icebergs and Pinguins everywhere. beautiful susnsset and sunrise. A leopardseal gave a ten minutr show in front of our boat, showing us what REAL SWIMMING  and diving is. But it wasn't much of a party, because everybody was too tired because of the watches. well we had a nich party last night, with singing and photocompetition.

Just imagine, we had 2 photocompetitions with 5 different categories and I won twice. the firts time in the categorie Wildlife (a beautiful white Furseal) and last night in the categorie Free. A picture taken off a high cliff on which you see a lot of nice icebergs with penguins on it.

you'll see them when I get home.

Well, this is it for now, I am off to the Europa again, oh no not true, I go for awonderful dinner and after that I'll get the zodiac to bring me "home" again. Last night on the Europa, but I hope only for this time, hope to be back again.

looking forward to see you all again, looking forward to see all "my kids " again. Looking forward to see Beat again :-)

lots of love from Ushuaia

Das Segeln von den Falklandinseln bis Süd Georgien war der 2te Teil der Reise und wiederum eine wunderbare Erfahrung. Es gab erneut Wachen, aber das Mal war unsere blaue Gruppe leider etwas grösser, damit war die Chance auf das Steuern recht reduziert.  Aber im Laufe der Tagen nahm die Begeisterung vor allem von unseren weiblichen „Wacher“ stark ab, zum Teil erschienen sie gar nicht mehr J und das bedeutete mehr Helm für Anitra. Die Zeit während des Segelns vergeht sehr schnell, es gibt die Wache, dann das Helfen beim Setzen oder Ändern der Segel, Schlaf nachholen, Musik hören, lesen und dann natürlich essen. Das Essen ist super an Bord, aber das habe ich schon vorher erwähnt. Möglichkeiten für Spielen gibt es natürlich genügend, nur müssen wir mit bestimmten Spielen warten bis die Wellen sich legen. Backgammon zum Beispiel ist eine schier unmögliche Sache, da die Steinen sich von einer Welle bis zur nächsten Wellen freiwillig meistens nur zur einer Seite bewegen.

Nach 6 Tagen kam dann Land in Sicht. Na ja Land… das erste was wir sahen waren die Shag Rocks. Mir war sofort klar wieso die Felsformation Shag Rocks heissen. Simon war ganz schockiert als ich das laut sagte. Die Felsformation ist so genannt worden, weil so viele  Shags hier nesten und nicht weil einer der Felsen aussieht wie ein riesigen …. Phallussymbol. Ich werde versuchen einen Foto ein zu fügen und dann wird die Bedeutung vom  „Shaggen“  (BumsenJ) klarer. Sorry Simon, I was just saying what everybody was thinking.

sorry can't load down the photo (10.01.2012)

The first thing we did when we arrived at South Georgia, was taking a Zodiac Tour. I got l ucky, cause only 4 people went on to Grey (our grey zodiac) and our excellent guide Mike was on Grey. So we had a lot of space, to turn around, to stand up, to get the best shots, while Mike was telling us all about the habits of all those birds and seals. Excellent Trip!!!

But it is getting better. Das Wetter spielt mit, wir haben Sonne, wenig Wind, fast keine Welle und das gibt uns die Möglichkeit echt lange Spaziergänge zu machen. Süd Georgien ist fantastisch. Im Vergleich zu den Falklandinseln und die Antarktika  gibt es hier das 20 fachige Wildleben. Pinguine soweit das Auge reicht, Kingpenguins, Gentoo, Macaronni, tausende von denen!! Seals unbelievable, furseals; puppies, mummies, big mean daddies, teenagers, they are fighting, feeding, swimming, sunbathing, fooling aoound, playing or screaming for their mummies. Unfortunately there are big bad birds as well and we have to watch that nature is taking care of everything. Those big birds do attack the weaker ones, kill them while eating them, not a very nice sight. It takes me some time to get used to wallking through all those furseals. At some beaches the males are really territorial, they seem to think I might steal one out of their harem, so they attack viciously, but by putting out my arms, making noises, and look them really in the eyes, I can make them turn around before they can take a bite out of my leg, raintrousers or my brand new boots. Very good boots J!! It took me a couple of days to get used to their behaviour, but by now, as we go onshore two or three times a day, I am a bit more securer and wander of all by myselve. It’s great just to sit on the beach, watch those furseals, look at the Penguins and listen tot he noises those Elephantseals are making. Life is great here. I’ve spend some very special moments on this Island!  Taking  wonderful hikes, Climbing up and down to very secured places. Swimming in the icecold lakes, I did that once after our little break, cause I wasn’t prepared for swimming. I had to swim naked, but I didn’t want to do that while everybody was watching. So I just waited until everbody was gone, quickly undressed and took a nice cool bath. After my first swim, others decided that that was an excellent idea, so on our next trip, their were already ten of us swimming. Some of them had tucks on (Gordon, a real Scott with the most english, English Accent I’ve ever heard,) Jimbo, ofcourse in his underpants and T-Shirt, Jeri and Norbert in their underwear, but Debbie and Adam went skinny dipping as well, so it wasn’t only me! Feels great to swim in that icecold water, makes you feel clean and totally refreshed. On the Europa we have don’t have too much water at the moment. That means that showering is restraint and no washing is done. I seem to have less clothes as many others, but what can I do, everybody is having the same problem, well………. problem is a too big word. Some of us don’t take this too serious and do take their everyday shower, (thank you, that is probably why they can’t do our loundry) but I am happy as long as I can take an occasionall swim, even without showering.

Second landing on the 2nd of January

03-01-2012 10:00

Coming back from two fabulous walks on Devil Island, we depart for our second landing of the day at Brown Bluff, which lies on the Antarctic Peninsula. After some very exciting close encounters of the ice kind, our anchor was put down around 5 o’clock. To enjoy the most of our next landing, dinner was served an hour earlier and soon after 7 o’clock, blacky and grey were heading out to the main land.

Finally main land! Some people really got excited about stepping on the real Antarctica, but to me it felt like a "normal", good as usual landing. Landings are always a bit of a hassle, because you are never quite sure if you are wearing the right gear or taking the right equipment (did you get your camera, sunglasses, gloves?). Occasionally I tend to forget one or two of those items, so I usually end up running up and down the stairs to my cabin to fetch everything, until I finally end up in the zodiac probably without my hat or head.

Of course our guides tell us exactly what we are going to expect, wet landing, rough landing, short walk, nice flat walk, wear your wet gear, wear boots, take your hiking shoes with you...but still you’re never 100% sure. On our first walks I ended up wearing so many layers that I almost suffocated on our ways over the hills. So even though they say that wearing different layers is the best thing to do, you still have to take off those layers and carry them with you, which can be a bit of a pain, when you stumble around on the not so flat beach or climbing the not so flat hills.

Walking along the beach there were 100s of penguins. Somehow you never seem to get enough of those little funny guys and even though your fingers are freezing off, you take picture after picture and you sit and observe all their funny habits and listen to all the peculiar noises they make. Wildlife stays fascinating even after so many landings.

After Mike’s short but very interesting geological talk, we took another way down. This way was much more fun as we slided down on our feet, a couple of us on our bums and this same guy was laughing his head off all the way down. That was so funny.

At the end of our walk, some are so excited about getting on the glacier, that they decide to cuddle and roll in the snow (don’t worry, they are married), while others are so overheated, that they decide to take a dive in the not so very cold sea, while still others are just too happy to get in one of the zodiacs and return to our ship.

I got back on our ship and spent the rest of the evening in the lounge drinking hot chocolate (yes! Thank you Dan) warming up my feet and winning all the games we played. Ok, that might have been a small exaggeration.

Just another wonderful day on the Europa. 

Thankfully there are still many to go.

Hi to everybody I know!

Anitra Xx

Frohe Festtage..

We wish you all ... 

watch the video => http://sendables.jibjab.com/view/uKVDI1SxKPjDAcRT

A & B

Moonlight night (13.12.2011)

Moonlight night

13-12-2011 10:00

We had a beautiful night last night. Sunset was fantastic, a lot of us were standing outside and watching it. I was on watch so I didn't even have to get out, I was already enjoying it. When I went for my break, the moon stood not too high in a bleached white color.

After a 30 minute break, when I get back at lookout there is this bright orange ship miles in front of us. "Did you report that" I ask innocently,The answer is NO, why? Wellllll, my eyes were bad a long time ago, luckily for me they laser nowadays, but the bright orange ship hidden behind some clouds at the horizon was the moon. It slowly rose higher and higher until It found it's own place in the sky again. While watching this spectacular phenomenon, suddenly, the lights of the ship get turned on. Action-time.

We are about to set some sails,tie them up, turn sails to the other side, a little workout during the watch. I am putting on my gear, am allowed to help to fold the sails in front of the ship, I like that part, because you are standing in the net above the water and it is a bit exciting, even though it is not dangerous at all. After that part I try to help as good  as I can, but most of the time I am either too slow, or I am in the way. One day I get there and then I won't be standing there like furniture (nice furniture though) because I will know exactly which sails has to be set, what to brace or hoist. One of these days.............

Luckily for me I still have some time to be at the helm, (I really have to fight for that place, all those new guys want to do it as well )  before I have to go and wake the next watch. 
Waking everybody up is good fun........... you get nice compliments :-) Then it is time for a good long sleep, I am soooo lucky to get all the night-watches, but I don't mind there's a lot to see and to think about while being on watch. hi to everybody from the Europa

Anitra