Critical situation at the PEA
Posted on the 31.12.2011 by Michel Brent
The Ice Class vessel Mary Arctica, which has to bring all the material (food and equipment) at the PEA station for the rest of the season, is blocked by the ice. She should have arrived on 24 December. The situation is more than serious...
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The law of the Elements
Let's remind our visitors that for the ones who would like to have more detailed information about what it's happening at the PEA belgian station, they should go and visit the website of the station ; the news there are more often published (almost three times a week) and they are also more detailed with more anecdotes and deeper analyses.
There is an inevitable rule in the Antarctic : every single activity (and even more the outside activites) are subjected to the law of the elements. This season the BLEARE expedition hasn't been lucky with the meteo. Not lucky at all...
First, when Alain Hubert and 4 other people (the American researcher Katherine Leonard from the Boulder University of Colorado included) were on an scientific expedition for Belissima project at the coast (220 km away from the station), they had six days bad weather out of ten days voyage.
Second, on their return, they had only two days sunshine before the arrival of another furious storm. The workers (researchers and technicians all together) had to stay inside. Permission to go work outside could not be given.
That gives an awkward situation : because of all these storms, the people at the station are never done with clearing the snow that accumulates in front of the garages. And of course they have other important things to do.
Some arrive, others leave
In the meantime, between two storms, the planes could resume flying. And the twin-engine DC3/Basler rotations between Novolazarevskaya and Utsteinen could also resume. On 23 December, 11 team members were the first to arrive early in the morning. On the same plane were two German pilots and their helicopter mechanic, who will assist the German researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute (AWI). These scientists arrived three hours later on a second Basler.
Of course the same day, other people had to leave the station : Paul Herman, the heating expert and 'master plumber' in his civilian life, his friend Bernard Pollet, the other plumber. Christine our first cook also left. Next one to leave the icy land was Katherine Leonard -it is already rumored that the results of her measurements in the Southern Ocean are more than promising! Last to fly were the two Spanish journalists who came to report on the station while filming a documentary on the sixth continent.
Blocked by the ice
At the first place, the Mary Arctica was foreseen to arrive at Crown Bay (the place of the unloading) on 24 December. Then after having unloaded her cargo for the Norwegian base of Troll, Høgni Petersen, the captain of the ship, has left the coast with direction eastwards. But soon he has encoutered heavy ice his ship could not go through. Let's remind that the Mary Arctica is not an ice-breaker but an Ice Class vessel. The difference ? When the ice is more than one meter thick, a ice-breaker can go through, an Ice Class not.
Since 26 December, Nighat Amin, the base commander of PEA, is in almost ceaseless touch with the boat and his captain Høgni Petersen. She analyses closely the satmaps and give him advices about the situation of the ices. But so far, the Mary Arctica could not sail significantly ; she is still blocked at about 140 km west of Crown Bay.
The consequences of this delay could quickly become catastrophic.
Alain Hubert : "First, when we sign a contract with the Norwegian shipping company, an additional delay of 8 days is foreseen in case of inclement weather. After this period, huge additional costs must be paid. At the time of this writing, of the eight days, only two remain."
"Second : there is no fresh food left or enough material to continue the work at the station. This means a breach of contract with the Germans who are waiting (with us) not only on their two helicopters, but also on AWI’s new tool, the famous Basler 'Polar 6' (a brand-new twin-engine aircraft) equipped with all the latest scientific equipment that everyone talks about in Antarctica!"
"That’s the way it is on this amazing continent: now that the nice weather has returned, we're all ready to continue our work. But the boat carrying what it takes to continue the job hasn’t arrived. Whenever a storm rages, we pray for good weather, but now we have the good weather, I find myself praying for a good old storm... Rather frustrating, isn’t it?"
The Mary Arctica blocked in the ice for seven days already
© IPF
