Stuck!

The journey over the last few days has been exhilarating to say the least, we have had a mix of stormy open waters, some quite free flowing sea ice and some really thick ice.

A bit more wild life in the way of seals and penguins. what a brilliant sight when all of a sudden 5- 10 penguins pop up out of a clear patch of water onto the ice evidently spooked by the ships presence.

After the decision was taken to open the bar to all, we had a good crack and copious bottles of beer with the crew, to awake on the 17th to a motionless ship!! stuck since 3am in a big chunk of ice. We eventually freed up at about 10:00 following a lot of swinging of the crane, moving the ballast around and shifting the fuel between tanks. This meant that Will, who was on watch has had to provide free beers for the crew for tonight!!!!! The ship then doubled back and later yesterday found a shore lead and we were coasting gently alongside the continents ice shelf!!! what a sight.

For the rest of the evening yesterday (17th) we made slow progress as you can see from the ships tracking device. For the last few days we have not got any closer to our final destination at Halley (on the Brunt ice shelf) than about 230 nautical miles.

Today, 18th December was the ships captains date for arrival on the sweepstake!!! It was the captain apparently that has led us to a complete standstill at 04:00 this morning, it is now 11:30 here, 14:30 uk time and the ice is solid all around!!! totally solid. So while you guys are battling with cold temperatures and a few inches of snow, we have a blow of around 15-20 knots and are stuck fast in around 12 feet of sea ice that is drifting at about 0.4knots.

At about 07:00 the generators failed and there appears to be a problem with the ships main drive that the engineers are working all out to repair. The crane has managed to swing a container and move the ship slightly to a nice listing position, so making sitting straight an interesting task. It may be that if we are stuck in the same position for a while that the captain will give the order to put the gangway out to allow us to have a walk out on the ice!!!! that will be awesome!!!!!

So we are pretty much sitting ducks at the moment. There is an apparent clear stretch of water close to the continent that we were heading for that would have given us approximately 40 miles of fairly clear run but then into a thicker patch of ice than we currently find ourselves in. As i am typing we have managed to move backwards although the ice has frozen solid all around so should prove a challenge.

We have approximately 140 miles until we reach a notoriously bad stretch of water/ice known as the Stancon Wills ( I think thats how its spelt) named after the lady that provided a lot of the funding for Shackletons expedition, as she was a bit of a battle axe.

We have a total view of white all around,what an amazing sight!!!! I still struggle to find the words to do this experience the justice it deserves and still feel so humbled to be given this opportunity of a lifetime that very few individuals will ever get!!!

The adventure continues!!!!!!!!!!

We are going round in circles!

It has been a cracking day on the weather and wildlife front, with an amazing mix of icy wind, driving snow and near zero visibility!! We are currently in a large patch of sea ice and have ground to a halt!!! This is what we've all been waiting for ;)) lol the ship is carving through at a snails pace, yet another amazing experience!!! I am sat in the cabin typing this with the the eery scraping of the ice, the thundering roar of the engines which send bone juddering waves through your spine and the thud as she slams into the ice ( which is in the region of 3-5 metres thick and solid). The creaks and squeaks within the ship are quite surreal baring in mind the size and stresses that it goes through.......one word that keeps springing to mind is WOW!!!

Pictures capture only soo much and certainly go no where near doing justice to this whole experience. Meeting the crew on deck and seeing their reactions in line with ours is also such a powerful reminder of how lucky we are to be experiencing this adventure and also so humbling.....

Not sure what the ships tracking shows at your end but since we have been stuck the ships computer shows that we have done two loop the loops, we're currently heading back on ourselves to find a passage that is a bit clearer...

We are crossing our final timeline tonight, and I think we have about 300 ish miles to go...

and yet more ice!!!

The last few days have been pretty uneventful in the big mass of water that is the Atlantic ocean!! Really calm seas, almost like a mill pond at times.. Been a little emotional reading the emails from home. Makes me realise just how far away I am from everyone. Although Amanda is fab at keeping me updated (thank goodness I have a wife who loves her laptop almost as much as she loves me!!!!) Almost makes me think I am there :)

We had the last proper sunset 2-3 days ago which was an awesome sight and have now moved another hour back and we are in 24 hour daylight!!! This is really messing with everyones body clock.

If we were to keep to the current speed we would arrive at Halley on friday!!!  :(( For the last 12 hours or so we have had a cracking tail wind pushing from the east, blasting us up to 15knts at times, which isnt bad considering the top speed of the ship is only 12.9!!!!!

The decision was made yesterday to lift the 2 beer rule as the crew dont have any restrictions and have felt that they needed to stay up top so as not to upset anyone.. so last night most of the crew joined us for a beer (or 2,3,4....) and we had a great night. I think the highlight was Jenny the doctor leaving her camera in the lounge!!!! not sure if she's checked it yet but lets just say she will have a surprise!!!!!!! will keep you posted as the day unfolds.

We had our first sighting of Antarctica this morning at about 07:30.... Awesome! with some amazing shots of some big bergs. The kadettes on watch have been upsetting some local wildlife, with some collision courses for the seals, got a good shot of a big boy this morning.

At last we've reached the ice we've been waiting for which has slowed us down considerably. Standing at the front of the ship as she crunches through the ice is something words can't describe! what an awesome experience! and to see the reactions of the crew, some of which have been coming here for years, and are still in awe of the sights.

One area that i havent covered much is the food and catering staff, namely Ray and Rab the cooks. The quality of the food served every day is astounding!! you would pay a right pretty price (as they say in Sheffield - Deano) back home! 5 star quality...... will expand on this over the next few days, but for now the ice  crunching beckons....

Two more briefings today, one on ice safety and then some first aid too.

This is truly turning into the experience of a lifetime!!!

Ice!!

Yesterday was a day filled with very turbulent waters, crew said it was force 9!!!! :O No wonder people were progressively dropping like flies(me included). When the ships motion is so bad the tiredness and fatigue really set in, that coupled with the fact that the further south we go the drier it gets and so we have to keep topping the fluids up.

Had a brew with Ray, one of the cooks, at about 05.30 this morning and then Bang!!06:00 we hit the first bank of sea ice!! wow what an unbelievable experience, totally breathtaking.

Saw some pretty awesome sized bergs yesterday but nothing of any size today. The bands of ice have ranged from 20-30 metres wide up to in excess of 6-700 metres... the crunch and jolting of the ship and the scraping of the ice along the hull is unreal!!! some of the ice is 3-4 metres thick and then some... like a knife through (frozen) butter;) and we're still averaging 11knts on impact!! Can't wait for the thick stuff when we'll need to back up and take a couple of runs!!!

I'm sitting here and being thrown around by the impact as i type and the noise is amazing, sleep should be interesting tonight.

I have stopped taking the sea sick tabs today as the sea is a veritable mill pond:))) looking forward to a couple of beers tonight:)

Thats about the lot for today....did i mention the sunburn??? Day one left capetown, out on deck for 5 hours or so, yeah you know it!! no suncream:(( last few days i could have had a leading role in the singing detective!!! Better now, and yes i've learnt my lesson the hard way...