Sophie Faille is an emergency doctor in Ile-de-France. In the winter of 2023, she was selected to be the doctor at the French scientific base Dumont d’Urville in Antarctica for 15 months. Franceinfo gave her a microphone to tell the story of this extraordinary experience. The first episode tells the story of the boat crossing to Terre Adélie.
Published
Reading time: 5 min
It was in Tasmania, south of Australia, that Dr Sophie Faille embarked with about twenty scientists and technicians, bound for Adélie Land, the eastern coast of Antarctica. There, is the French scientific base Dumont d’Urville, in which the emergency doctor will stay for 15 months, in the middle of the ice.
The boat, the Astrolabe, is a polar ship of the French Army that makes five rotations per year with the Antarctic. The crossing lasts six days during which we observe the landscape with binoculars, do crosswords, play cards… After a while, we watch for the first patches of ice floes and some are already starting their scientific experiments. At the bottom of the boat’s hold, Sophie watches the scientists launch probes into the water to measure the temperature and salinity.
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As the boat passes 60 degrees South, it gradually enters the ice, which requires an additional person alongside the watch leader, the “ice pilot”. Before the crew’s eyes, the first icebergs, the first penguins, and finally Antarctica, a “breathtaking” landscape, appear.
“My life in Antarctica”, an original franceinfo podcast by Solenne Le Hen, broadcast by Thomas Coudreuse, to be found on the franceinfo website, the Radio France application and several other platforms such as Apple podcasts, Podcast Addict, Spotify, or Deezer.