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Vernadsky Base
Report 11 February - Team B on board Pelagic Vernadsky Station
Thu 11th FebGoing home after a night out is a little different here. Firstly we get fully dressed (steady) to go outside again, up to 6 layers of clothing, secondly we exchange gifts and mini speeches and then walk down to the sea. There we find our cab floating in the dusky light. She's a little Zodiac dinghy with lovely markings. Like most cabs she has a noisy engine, in this case a 25hp outboard motor, and soggy suspension. There are no creature comforts on the inside either. All you get is a set of oars and a safety box containing flares and a vhf radio-for those interesting moments. No need for a traffic light air freshener as it's open top and the air tends to be pretty good in these parts anyway.
The driver does however wait for you to get comfortable before speeding off and does not expect a tip. She got us home in good order and we reflected on a good night during which we'd watched Vernadsky's summer end and winter arrive on video. We'd seen how people lived and worked through the darkest and coldest months together, and thats 24hrs of darkness and 30 degrees below for months. It's remarkable that these hardy individuals remain so gentle and accommodating towards one another despite the pressures. Imagine working, living (eating, drinking, washing, talking-you know) with the same small group of people for more than a year and on top of that representing your country while doing it. I don't know how they remain so selfless and decent, must be some lessons here.
With our cab safely lashed down to the deck, we set off this morning for our first landing on the antarctic continent. Despite the privilege of just being down here surrounded by fairy-tale scenery most of us really did want to put a foot down on the continent. Hamish and Kate helmed the boat through heavy ice to get to the bay and as seems to be the luck of this trip we came upon a pair of very rare whales. These were Right whales of which only 2000 remain on the planet, hunted almost to extinction they were easy prey for the whalers as they are slow, surface swimmers and when slaughtered and stripped bare gave up much oil and blubber. So pitiful was their plight the whalers gave them this name simply because they were the "right" whales to hunt. We kept our distance and perhaps with inherited caution, they kept theirs, a brief but lasting encounter.
With the team playing down desires to be the first ashore we relaunched the dinghy. And how did it feel to set foot on this vast, cold place? Well a bit like getting out of a boat onto some rocks.... only in each of our minds we marked the moment as something much more significant-each person has there own story to tell on this one. Remaining only long enough to touch the ground and pose daringly for the photo shoot we returned to Pelagic and headed north.
Minke whales, leopard seals and Adelie penguins looked on as we made for our safe overnight mooring. In one of our best moments of seamanship yet we had 3 shorelines and the anchor down within minutes, just as well because the wind climbed from a mild breeze to a 30 knot wind in a scarily short time-we get the feeling our captain knows what he's doing. Wishing you well for your next cab ride.
Jeremy Topple
| Weather and Position Data | |||
| 1. Date | 2. Time | 3. Posn Lat | 4. Posn Long |
| 11/02 | 14.55 local | 65°-12.342S | 64°-08.603W |
| 5. Compass Heading | 6. Wind Speed | 7. Boat speed | 8. Wind Dir |
| 19° | 2 Knots | 8 Knots | 150° |
| 9. Pressure | 10. Air Temp | 11. Sea Temp | 12. Cloud Type |
| 988 | +6°C | no data | cumulus |
| 13. Cloud cover | 14. Precipitation | 15. Sea State | 16.Comments |
| 100% | none | calm | |