26. Red Ruin

The chilly gray sky and sea merge at the horizon, where white islands line up.

The Melchior Islands, spanning about seven kilometers, are a group of small islands, each between one and three kilometers long. They are covered in tens of meters of ice, creating white domes that resemble large servings of rice.

Watching for uncharted reefs, I tighten my grip on the tiller and steer Aomi into the Melchior Islands.

Amidst the monotone white and gray of the Antarctic landscape, a red building and several steel towers come into view—an Argentine weather station.

Watching the depth gauge carefully, I guide Aomi toward a small concrete pier, bringing her bow to it.

The base consists of three red-painted buildings: a main residential building, a power generation building, and a third building that might be a warehouse. I walk around and notice that the buildings are all wooden, old, and badly damaged.

The outside wooden stairs leading to the second floor of one building are rotting, and the antenna wires strung between the towers hang broken and sagging. No one has lived here for a long time.

According to the British Antarctic Pilot book, it was built in 1942, though it's unclear when it was abandoned. Feeling the eerie atmosphere of the ruins, I walk around the corner of the building.

Suddenly, I come face-to-face with a massive seal, our eyes meeting just a few meters apart. Its dark bulk looks immensely powerful.

Startled and frozen with fear, I can't move. The seal looks just as terrified. Slowly, I back away, never breaking eye contact. Moments later, it runs toward the sea, emitting a strange sound from its mouth.

I venture deeper into the ruins. All the windows of the main building are covered with wooden planks, and as I peer through the gaps, there's nothing but darkness inside.

I go to the entrance and try the door handle, but it's locked. Next to the door, a small wooden box is mounted on the wall. Inside, there's a key.

I open the door. A dim, eerie silence awaits me. I return to Aomi to fetch a flashlight—after all, how would I deal with a ghost if it appeared?

Entering the main house cautiously, I find a room on the left that resembles a living room and a series of bedrooms on the right. Each room contains a sturdy cast-iron radiator, part of the steam heating system.

Beyond that is a medicine room, its shelves stacked nearly to the ceiling with supplies: medicines, gauze, bandages, and ampoules for injections. Further down the dim hallway, I find a bathroom, a toilet, and a kitchen.

The pantry off the kitchen is stocked with canned goods, spaghetti, dried onions, powdered spinach, and even a horrifying mass resembling a mummy—probably a very old, long-forgotten sausage. The canned goods are rusted over in a deep reddish color. It seems as though five to ten people had once lived here.

After a few hours, I reluctantly leave the base. It's the only place that still holds a human touch. Leaving it behind and returning to the cold, vast, white world feels lonely and hard. But staying there would be dangerous, as the water in front of the base is unprotected from the northern storms.

As I search for a safe anchorage, I guide Aomi through the Melchior Islands. I keep a sharp watch for reefs, leaning out to look ahead. Soon, the white domes on either side seem to close in, and the sea narrows into a tight channel.

The anchorage I have chosen on the chart is a tiny bay. But what appears before my eyes is truly unexpected.

Blue-white ice cliffs, tens of meters high, surround the small bay on three sides. The ice is cracked in places as though it could collapse at any moment. If a single chunk of ice, weighing several tons, struck the hull, Aomi would be shattered in an instant.

Even with the nautical charts, there's a lack of information about the bay—no mention of the ice walls and no details on the water depth. I set the engine to a low speed and carefully guide Aomi forward.

Suddenly, a whitish seafloor appears beneath the glassy, pale green water. A moment later, a dull thud echoes twice from the bottom of Aomi's hull. My body leaned forward, and I nearly fell as Aomi came to a sudden stop.

"Stranded!"