Day 17, Monday, November 21, 2016, San Eutiquio, 21 ° 56 S, 36 ° 31 W.

The thin red line along the sea horizon that separates Earth from Hell rotates the same as when we flip a coin in the air. Heads or tails: today it is heads and the image of Neptune on the coin, minted in bronze, has winked at us. The research vessel Sarmiento de Gamboa continues its course dodging a huge storm that meteorologists have forecasted one hundred miles to the South.

The stream of waves that besieged us yesterday halted the course of the ship, even with the engines at full speed, and we are now almost 40 miles behind where we should be at this stage in our trip. The captain has slightly changed our route, and we have deviated from the imaginary straight line that one can draw on a map between the Canary Islands and Buenos Aires, and now we are sailing along the Carioca coast of Brazil. But we will not see land, perhaps a buoy here and there and lights afar. But nothing will prevent me in my imagination, from inviting aboard a Garota de Ipanema beauty, so we can contemplate together, from the bridge, these celestial sunsets, like the one we had today that has filled my soul and my eyes with beauty and serenity.
This delicious peace was broken at dinner time by an argument between two crew members. On from a place named Beluso and the other one from Bueu. The argument was about whether the fried fish was sole or brill, a debate that still continues to these hours in the hangar, and we are not hopeful of a resolution.

As if it wasn’t bad enough to have a disagreement on board, just twenty minutes before the sunset, the capricious sea was like this:

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by Horizonte Antártida