A Southern Christmas 2001 - Day 23

 Welcome back. There wasn't much journal writing for a few days, so we've jumped forward from Day 17 to Day 23 - but you haven't missed a lot - it was several days of ice bashing.  Here's my report at the end of that week. Read on...

Monday 7th January 2002

in ice Prydz Bay (68.20 deg S, 74.40 deg E)

 We’ve been here for nearly a week – not quite within a loud “Cooee” of Polar Bird, but pretty close. It’s been a long and frustrating few days, described by one of my fellow expeditioners as being in a state of punctuated equilibrium. I know what he means. Over the past few days, it has been a case of constantly adapting to changing conditions and situations as the weather and wind changes.

I have already mentioned that icebreaking is a lot more than just science - it requires skill, commitment, ideal conditions and lots of fuel. I have spent enough time on the bridge over the past few days to get an idea of the huge responsibility taken on by these guys when it comes to deciding the action plan for arriving at the right outcome for all involved. It is complex and has many conflicting priorities and needs.

First there is the annual shipping schedule which is built up around the resupply and the research program. The Antarctic Division has used two vessels through the 2001/2002 season, Aurora Australis and Polar Bird. Their role is to carry out re-supply to the three mainland bases at Casey, Davis and Mawson as well as the additional sub-Antarctic base at Macquarie Island. They take down the wintering and summering expeditioners and bring home those who have been there for the past season. There are also valuable marine science programs which are carried out both during the re-supply trips and as  separate voyages. A disruption such as having Polar Bird out of action for so long affects the operations of all the stations, and impacts the science programs and the people who are carrying out these programs. 

Additionally, there are many round-trippers such as Yann and me and many others, whose role it was to go to Casey, carry out their assignment, and return to their day jobs. So it is easy to understand that no matter how important it is to do everything that can be done to rescue Polar Bird, (and this of course, is priority number one) it is also essential that we do not get stuck ourselves and make the situation worse. I have stood on the bridge alongside Tony Hansen, many times over the past few days and repeated hear him saying, sometimes out loud, sometimes under his breath through gritted teeth:

"I’m not getting stuck; I’m not getting f*cking stuck!”

We bash and growl and bully our way into Prydz Bay, bit by bit getting closer to our target. The first time we come within 42 miles, before Tony calls it a day. 

If we should have a sharp change in the weather from the light south-easterly we are presently feeling to a northerly, then the ice channel we are creating, will close behind us as the wind blows the ice back toward the land. 

Aurora's crew are all highly experienced in ice, most of them having been down here many times before and without exception a repeated comment is:

“I’ve never seen this much ice in Prydz at this time of the year.” 

Many of the old hand expeditioners agree. (Maybe there really is something to this climate change talk.)

From the safety of the comparatively lighter ice, some 60 or so miles from Bird, a decision is made to start doing some helicopter reconnaissance and stores transfers. A little later we have two four-seater Squirrel helicopters from Polar Bird landing on the big white H on Aurora’s aft helideck, where only a few days ago our big waste containers had stood. Voyage Leader, Greg and Skipper Tony are soon up in one of the Squirrels with pilot, Ricardo and after a 10-minute sortie come back and confirm everyone’s fears that the ice around Polar Bird is not going to move for some time and it is too risky for Aurora to try to keep pushing further.

We start helicopter transfers to evacuate the ship of its stores and expeditioners, and later in the day it is decided that, for now, nothing more can be done to assist Polar Bird. We have not heard from the Chinese icebreaker and any way decisions on getting help from other sources are taken further up the line than on board Aurora. We don't have time to wait for that. The weather improves, then it deteriorates, then it improves again. During this time, phone calls and messages go back and forth between Polar Bird, Aurora Australis and the Tasmanian headquarters of the AAD. Eventually the weather clears enough for a 12-seater Sikorsky from Davis Base, some 80 or so miles to the east to join us. Aurora will take the Mawson bound expeditioners off Polar Bird and deliver them to Mawson. This will add another five or six days to the schedule but will get the expeditioners on their way at last and hopefully give a few days for the weather to improve, so that on the return journey we can have another attempt at helping poor old Polar Bird. So after having at one stage been as close as 35 miles, we leave Polar Bird with enough people and stores to keep the lights on, and with another 35 pax on board, we are off again in heading west to Australia’s oldest and many say, most beautiful of all stations, Mawson. 

Now there are four of us wedged into our tiny cabin, and there is a need for dual sittings at lunch and dinner. 

There is genuine concern that the beer is going to run out.

And so to Mawson …

A Southern Christmas 2001 - another short film

 I need to take another short break from the diary, as the next journal entry was not for another two or three days. So we will leave Aurora bashing and grinding at the ice as she continues her attack on the thick snow covered ice in Prydz Bay on her way to Polar Bird. If you have not read any of the story so far, this will give you an opportunity to catch up from Day 1 by starting HERE. 

Otherwise you may find this little five minute film, Cleaning up Antarctica - Wilkes provides more detail of our cleanup mission. It's dated of course, the sound is a bit scratchy and is not as well mixed as we would have liked, but I think it provides a picture of the challenges that are being faced in the cleanup process.

I have a couple more films which I'll try to post here a little later, just as soon as I work out how to transfer them from a twenty year old DVD disc to a notebook PC that doesn't have a DVD slot.

Meanwhile I hope you'll enjoy this...

A Southern Christmas 2001 - Day 18 (icebreaking)

 Wednesday 2nd January 2002

at sea (66.30 deg S, 78.40 deg E)

En route to Polar Bird…

After the excitement of New Year and our encounter with the Japanese whalers, the past 24 hours or so have been most frustrating as Aurora inches her way through ice and snow.  While some of us worry about families coping with the extreme heat and bushfire dangers in parts of Australia and wonder how the Aussies are doing at the Sydney Cricket Ground, Aurora Australis is showing us that icebreaking, particularly ice which is covered by up to a metre of snow, is no simple task.

It is now 1600 hours and in the 16 hours and four watches since midnight Aurora has travelled a total distance of 18 nautical miles, and we are no closer to Polar Bird. The competition for the first sighting of Polar Bird looks like going to whomever of us is the least optimistic.

Chief Mate Scott reminded me this morning that we’re an icebreaker, not a snow breaker. The mere presence of a few inches of snow slows the ship’s ice-breaking capabilities and makes it more like trying to force our way through solid porridge. To compound matters, in these conditions the clumps cling to the side of the ship as we go along increasing our drag and slowing us down even more.

The process is an art form, not a science as Skipper Tony Hansen says. 

"Look for little channels in the rafted ice floes and aim for a grey sky on the horizon, rather than a white one. The grey indicates possible water, the white is more snow and ice." 

This can be misleading at times, so it's important to maintain forward momentum and not chase false leads. All day it has been a case of making a hundred metres or so of forward progress watching as the ship slowly grinds and growls to a standstill when a particularly stubborn clump of snow covered ice refuses to yield, and then backing up 20 or 30 metres into our clear wake and taking another run at it, gaining more speed and momentum to break through and create enough inertia to sustain another run until the next huge clumps forces us to start the process all over again. Newton’s Laws of Motion certainly takes a pounding when you’re trying to push your way through this stuff.

Through all this, the scenery never ceases to capture our attention. Just think for a moment of every picture you have ever seen of the moon – huge rocky emptiness in every direction – then imagine it painted the purest white, with blue shading and you are close to the picture that we have been looking at today. And the wildlife persists - different species of seals (leopard, Weddell, crabeaters), sea birds and the wonderful emperor penguins. At one point, in the thickest of ice, in a tiny pool of water two minke whales surfaced for a quick breath before disappearing back under the ice again.

I am again reminded of the need to keep this area clean and unspoiled. We have done a one or two satellite phone interviews with Australian and French journalists and yesterday I was interviewed by a Chinese journalist. Among other things she wanted to know was why we thought it was so important to clean up waste in Antarctica when the continent is so large, and the part affected by human occupation and exploitation is so small. The point I made then, and one which gives a lot of cause for thought is that it is true that the part of Antarctica which is partially ice free in summer and which has been affected by humans is less than one percent of the continental land. However, it is because this region is comparatively ice-free and warmer, that it is so abundant in wildlife. That is of course abundant by Antarctic standards, where a couple of millimetres of moss growing on a rock is considered an absolute rain forest. And because of this abundance of flora and fauna, over 90% of the continent’s birds and animals use these regions to live and most importantly to breed. So we have the situation where less than one per cent of the continent supports over 90% of the wildlife, and this is the very spot where we have been making such an impact for the past hundred years.

So it is critical that these regions are dealt with sensitively. Current research at Thala Valley is already showing indications of reduced marine life in the region of the run-off from the tip. As we have said several times previously, Thala Valley represents less than a tenth of the potential problem at Wilkes, and the problems at some of the other bases, particularly the Russian Bases are probably as bad, if not much worse.

Finally at 1830 hours, after more than 24 hours of trying to push our way through what was becoming more and more like quick-drying cement full of lumps each the size of a small truck, Captain Tony Hansen decided to call it a day. The real risk to us is that if the weather should change for the worse, we could finish up in the same situation as Polar Bird and instead of being a rescuer we could well become in need of help ourselves.

We are very close to helicopter range of Davis Station (about 120 miles) and with clear weather a helicopter will do a much better job of directing us through the ice and helping us to find the most snow-free route. At present, although the log says we are in 9 tenths thick sea ice, I would describe it as 99 one hundredths. So we’re heading north-west instead of south-west to stay in helicopter range, but we need to find some free ice, from which to make our next attempt.

It’s going to be a long haul.