Southern Ramblings: 2015

Another Season South completed:

Weddell Sea - South Orkney's - Adelaide Island - Lamaire Channel - Antarctic Peninsula.

The Shackleton has just completed the 2013-2014 season south. The ice conditions this year in the Weddell sea were very difficult and the vessel spent several days trying to get through initially delaying arrival at Halley by about a week. The vessel was offloaded in double quick time and soon on her way north again. The ice conditions had not let up and once again we struggled to break through eventually getting clear and heading towards South Georgia and on to Stanley in the Falkland Islands.

The vessel was duly loaded with cargo and three helicopters for our trip to South Georgia in support of the Rat Eradication Project being undertaken there. This was the second such mission, the first being completed in 2013. The helicopters are used to disperse rat pellets via a bucket suspended beneath the helicopters that sprays them out in all directions, following GPS guided routes to ensure that the entire area is covered. Fortunately on South Georgia the open land areas are separated by Glaciers which the rats do not cross and therefore the areas can be covered in steps in the safe knowledge that the rats cannot enter from other areas. For more information please go to go to the South Georgia Heritage "SGHT" Habitat Restoration site.

What harm are the rats? They feed off the young nesting birds that have no defense against this alien onslaught.

In the south Indian Ocean on the South African manned Marion Island Research and Weather station a similar problem exists which has come to prominence in recent years. Assessments of the situation and the damage done are being monitored. Hopefully a similar solution will eventually be achieved there.

After all the equipment and aircraft were offloaded in S. Georgia the vessel headed back to Stanley to load for second call Halley.

The trip down to the Weddell Sea pack was pretty uneventful and the seas relatively calm. Once the ice was encountered it soon became evident that the pressure had not eased and conditions were even worse than before. It being late in the season (late March) it was deemed prudent to hang back to see if the winds changed to ease the situation. During this time a Twin Otter Aircraft stationed at Halley was deployed to recce the route for us. Although they did find a shore off the ice shelf they let us know that the pack ice between us and the lead was very heavy. In the end we sadly did not make it in and the personnel were evacuated by aircraft via Rothera Base.

On our return to Stanley we stopped off at Signy base in the south Orkneys for final call to shut the summer base for the season. We were treated to some spectacular mountain scenery whilst there.

Stanley to Rothera and back: The trip across the Drake passage was thankfully quite smooth and we arrived at Rothera on Adelaide Island in good time. Cargo work commenced immediately and was still going up until we departed four days later. A few social evenings were organised on the base and ship before departure as this was last call for the season. The dinner on board for the Winterers being interrupted by an ice berg approaching the ship. So we we had to throw everybody off and move away while the berg did its thing. It was gone by morning and we came alongside again prior to departing.

The weather while we had been there had not been too good. Very dull and grey. However on departure day it started improving and by the next day as we approached Lamaire Channel it was flat calm and blue skies. What an absolute treat it was to glide through this narrow channel in such perfect conditions, everybody out on deck just gawping at the amazing views. Needless to say the cameras went into overdrive. What a fantastic day.

Once we cleared the tip of the Peninsula we went hunting for an errant Glider buoy that we miraculously found and were able to recover after several attempts. Locating such a small item in the sea even with the aid of GPS is more luck than anything else. I guess it was our day.

Back to Stanley to offload the cargo and 50 odd passengers before heading back to South Georgia to recover the rat project personnel and their equipment. We were lucky enough to have some good weather there and a few of us managed to climb one of the mountains overlooking the old Grytviken whaling station.

The vessel then returned to Stanley and after further cargo work was prepared for her trip north back to the UK.

Another season South completed.