I met Dirk (Alfred Wegener Institute logistics) this morning and we found out we might be flying in a few hours time instead of waiting until tomorrow as originally planned. Panic stations all round as we quickly packed in anticipation of being told the decision and given a short window to get to the airport.

We met with the pilots an hour or so later only to be told, after much deliberation, that no, the weather is not good to land. Punta is windy but otherwise a beautiful sunny day; we were shown the webcam at Teniente Marsh (King George Island) and it is a completely different story there – grey fog and snow and, basically, not much to see at all – and with strong winds at 90 degrees to the landing strip this could blow us off when trying to land. After hearing the weather updates I was relieved when we were told we would not fly today after all but will wait to see what the next few hours bring. The next flight update will be with the pilot at 0730 tomorrow, potentially leaving at 0800 – weather permitting …