Sunday 30 October 2005
Here comes the Shack
This week the RRS Ernest Shackleton has just left the UK heading,eventually, for Halley. After stops in Montevideo, the Falklands, Signy, Bird Island and South Georgia they will work their way through the pack ice to Halley. They are due to arrive on Christmas Eve, marking the beginning of our busy summer season. The ship is carrying enough fuel to keep the station powered for another year, all the incoming cargo for the season, not to mention a few of next year's winterers. After dropping off all that cargo they will disappear for a few weeks resupplying the other bases, then they will then return again at the end of February to pick up the summerers and departing winterers (include myself).
The journey down here was my first and still probably my most memorable antarctic experience. From sailing through a graveyard of grounded icebergs when arriving at Signy, to fighting off fur seals at the beach of Bird Island then smashing through the pack ice before arriving at the Halley coast it was an adventure from start to finish. After two years on the white flatness of the Brunt Ice Shelf I'm very much looking forward to seeing the sights of the outward journey.
In fact I enjoyed my time on the ship so much I've decided to take up an option provided to all winterers and sail all the way back to the UK on the ship. After being dropped off in the Falklands I'm going to go scuba diving and trekking on the Juan Fernandez Islands for a couple of weeks then return to the Falklands to rejoin the ship for the six week journey to the UK.
Thanks to the wonders of GPS technology you can check their current position in near real time - at the moment they are just sailing past the coast of Portugal. The Shackleton have just started their web diary for the 2005/6 antarctic season, which is updated every couple of weeks with news of their progress.
Posted by simon at 7:42 PM | Feedback (9)