Southern Ramblings: RRS Ernest Shackleton 2017 Antarctic Season's end

Table Mountain ice berg - Signy

The RRS Ernest Shackleton's season south 2017 has come to an end with the ship docking in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Our team joined the ship hearing the news that the re-location of the Halley Base had gone extremely well and was finished almost a month ahead of schedule. Great news, however, once the base had been set up and re-commissioned a further crack in the ice shelf was discovered by one of the aircraft during a routine fly past of the area. Due to the unstable nature of the shelf it was decided to abandon Halley for a winter. So somewhat of Pyrrhic victory in the end. I can only imagine the disappointment at hearing this news of the scheduled over-wintering team.

From Mid-January the ship headed south towards the Weddell Sea where attempted to get through the pack-ice to the coast of the Ronne Ice-shelf. Pretty much as south as you can go by ship in the Weddell Sea. After a rather easy passage south we encountered the pack and started working our way further in. After a few days it became apparent that the pack was getting ever heavier as progress slowed to a crawl with long periods stationary as we waited for the winds to change and the ice to ease. During these periods the ships drone was deployed in attempt to look for leads and a potential way out. However, we were not successful and we turned north-east to look for alternatives. Satellite imagery was updated on a daily basis with not much encouraging news coming through.

Seeing as the winds were persisting it was decided that we should get all the personnel off the Halley base that were due to join later in the trip and so we preceded to the loading points on the ice shelf.
The personnel were duly picked up and we used the opportunity to back load some cargo. We then proceeded back into the pack and bashed away again for a few days but to no avail. The Captain, William Whatley, decided that we should give the shore lead a try as the imagery was suggesting it might just be possible. We headed south towards the Argentinian Belgrano Base and things went pretty well at first but eventually closed up and it was obvious there was no way we were getting through. It was at this point that we lost our satcomms completely. We were extremely lucky to be able to rendezvous with our sister ship, the James Clark Ross, which just happened to be in the area, in order to pick up some spare components that resolved our comms situation. After once again trying through the pack ice, to no avail, the task was abandoned for the season and we headed north west towards Signy Base in the south Orkney Islands.

We arrived off Signy and proceeded to do a mini relief operation plus a bit of R&R for the people we had picked up off Halley. We were on our again again within 48 hours and headed for Stanley.
The trip across was fairly uneventful and the sea conditions mostly generous. We bade farewell to the Halley personnel as we prepared the ship for the second leg of our trip. South Georgia, Bird Island. King Edward Point (KEP) , Grytviken and Signy final call.

Archway Berg - Off Signy

Once again the crossing was fairly mild and for this we were grateful. We arrived at Bird Island on a flat calm day and had all the cargo to and fro and personnel exchanged within a single day. We then headed for KEP but finally encountered some heavy weather and hove to overnight in one of the many bays along the northern coast of the island. KEP was duly reached the next day and cargo work commenced.

KEP is opposite the old Whaling station of Grytviken which houses a museum, an old preserved church and also the graveyard where Ernest Shackleton is buried, always a pilgrimage of sorts for the newbies. We had also picked up some scientific personnel at Bird Island who were collecting peat core samples from various parts of the island. They duly headed off in search of suitable sites and the next day, with the help of some ships staff, lugged all their gear over the Mayviken bay. A lovely walk despite the pack horse nature of the trip. They duly set up their coring equipment but were flummoxed by the hardness of the peat. Seems it was much drier than they were used to. This is where myself and the doctor were roped in. Well basically used as ballast to sink the corer into the ground. We did so well that we managed to bend their pole but managed to get the samples that they wanted in the end.

Once the work was complete at KEP we departed but not before being hosted ashore for a BBQ on the quay, which was enjoyed by all. We were then on our way to Signy for final call and base shut down.

Things went very smoothly at Signy and we had all the last cargo back on board fairly quickly. We also assisted with some hut servicing around the island with the aid of our Humber boats.
The Peat Lady also didn't miss out and was taken ashore to her thing at a few spots.
We once again rendezvoused with the JCR just prior to leaving Signy, this time to exchange a crew member and then headed back to Stanley.

A quick turnaround in Stanley and we were on our last leg down to the Peninsula and Rothera Base.
The trip down was also pretty calm and we passed through Neumeyer and Lemaire channels in fairly clear weather. Always a treat. Rothera was duly reached and our first task was to go to Horseshoe bluff which is a small old base on the mainland not far away from Rothera. While we were there we were tasked with doing a drone survey of the building site which was handled by Andy Walder, the Second Officer. The next day cargo work commenced at Rothera and carried on for a good few days.
Unfortunately most of the areas around the base were shut off to general access, there was to be no crevassing adventures this time. The night before we departed we hosted the Wintering Team for a dinner on board for the traditional farewell dinner, which was enjoyed by all. The next morning we were off on our way back, however, with a few stops on the way. Green Island for for some moss collection, the Ukrainian base Vernadsky to deliver some equipment, a social call to the US Palmer Base and a stop off at Port Lockroy before heading up the Neumeyer Channel and back to Stanley.
The Lemaire Channel was once again showing off as we passed through in perfect conditions.
I will never grow tired of that.