During the stay at Rothera Base, an iceberg was drifting towards the ship from behind and threatened to damage the rudder. Fortunately, the danger could be turned away and Polarstern left Rothera as the last ship in that summer.
The mail plane has left the station at the same afternoon towards the Falkland Islands, carrying our postcards and the last letters of the overwintering crew in that season.

The laboratory in the foreground burned down in a fire in late September 2001.