The call at the Crozet islands / my trip to the French Southern Lands (1/16)

<BODY BGCOLOR="#000000" TEXT = "#ABCBBE"> <BR> After 5 days of navigation, and almost 2900 km covered at an average speed of 15 knots, our first stopover is the archipelago of Crozet (46S / 51E), and its scientific base " Alfred Faure ", located on the "Possession" islands.<BR> With 300 days of precipitations per year, these islands are the field of raging winds, coldness and rains : no tree can resist their combined actions.<BR> The operations of unloading always starts with the transport of the mail, in the helicopter, if the weather is good !! <BR> If there is not too much swell, the remainder of the supply is unloaded using the small barges of the Marion Dufresne, if the principal occupants of the island want to leave the place free...<BR> As on all the french southern islands of the TAAF, there is no indigenous population on Crozet, but only the personnel of the scientific base, which is relieved every year. The research programs budget being increasingly reduced, there are today only 16 residents in Crozet. </BODY>