Log Entry No 9 - 3rd Jan 08. (Discoverer)

FROM THE CAPTAINS CABIN

This evening Rob Duke (primarily a sailor) led a party back to visit the nearby ice cave.  He carefully stowed the provisions into a waterproof Ortlieb bag, closed the water-tight seal, then stamped on it to remove the trapped air – forgetting that he was wearing crampons.  He’s now trying to patch the 12 holes with insulating tape!

Heading ashore.

A couple of days ago, we, the yacht party, were visiting the original British Faraday Base (Wordie Hut), when an inflatable full of American Tourists suddenly appeared.  “Hey, you guys, whaddya doin’ here?”  “OK.  That’s great, why don’t you come back to the ship and give a short presentation?  We got good food, fine wine, heating, and pretty girls!”.   Well, we didn’t need asking twice, so 30 minutes later we were entering another world!  It was the most amazing, almost dream like, shock, which ended all too suddenly when we were returned to our frozen world with a bump.  However, it great whilst it lasted, so thank you to the passengers and crew of the MS National Geographic Endeavour.

Today we left our snug anchorage here in the Argentine Islands, to cross over to Waddington Bay, to recover “Rope 3” James, Connor, and Geordie T. They looked mightily relieved to see us. The Bay had been so ice choked yesterday afternoon and they were thinking that they might have to remain there until next November.  On the way back we had a wonderfully close encounter with two hump backed whales, which rolled and played very close alongside us for 20 minutes. Rob H was able to launch his inflatable, so we should have some tremendous photographs. Getting back into the anchorage was something of an epic for during our absence, a northerly gale blew up.  Strong winds and driving hail don’t make things easy when you are trying to drop three anchors and place three shore lines in a pretty tight parking place.

News from the hill is that the climbers are now on a crest overlooking the Trooz Glacier, having man hauled all their provisions that far. Their position matches that achieved by the earlier FIDS expeditions so, from tomorrow, they will be entering uncharted territory.  Although all is going well, they expect to assess the feasibility of getting up onto the plateau in a further 2 or 3 days and that will shape the remainder of our expedition.

Clem looks down on Discoverer.

Those from Rope 3 are now ashore at Vernadsky base, where they’re enjoying the Ukrainian shower and sauna and recovering from their strenuous exertions.  We’ll sail north for some 45 miles tomorrow, bound for Port Lockroy.

Best wishes from us all for a happy and successful new year.

Andy Mills