12/27/13, “Antarctic mission on ice as rescue ship is forced back,” UK Guardian, Alok Jha
“Given the circumstances, the Shokalskiy is now unlikely to reach open water until Saturday at the earliest.
Speaking before the Xue Long had turned around, Janet Rice, the Green party senator-elect for Victoria, Australia, who has been on board the ship since it left New Zealand, said: “I understand why people might be concerned, but the feeling today on board the ship is like a summer holiday when the weather is bad, when you’re stuck inside reading books and playing Scrabble. We’ve been assured that we’re in no danger and it’s just a matter of waiting….
If the Xue Long had reached the Shokalskiy, it would have likely cut a ring in the ice around our ship so that our captain could manoeuvre it into the newly opened channel behind the Xue Long. “It’s quite an elaborate operation and one that takes some time,” said Mortimer.
The plan would then have been to sail the Shokalskiy close behind the Chinese vessel as it carved a new channel through the ice and headed back to the open waters of the Southern Ocean. That could have taken more than a day….
Penguins, apparently confused by the sudden appearance of a solid mass caused by the compacting of ice floes around our vessel, wandered past at regular intervals, looking for the shoreline.”…
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“South Pole weather has stymied a rescue by a Chinese icebreaker trying to reach an expedition vessel trapped for the past four days in frozen seas, a ship officer told CNN Friday.
The Chinese icebreaker Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, was just six nautical miles away from the rescue, but now it’s stuck in an Antarctica ice floe, too.
The Chinese crew is hoping a French icebreaker 14 nautical miles away will arrive and offer relief, said Zhu Li, chief officer of the Chinese ship.
But it’s likely the French vessel Astrolabe will also be slowed by the polar cap’s extreme frigidity, Zhu said.
Those two icebreakers — plus a third, from Australia — were battling the planet’s coldest environment in trying
to reach the stranded Russian ship MV Akademik Shokalskiy, whose 74
researchers, crew and tourists remained in good condition despite being
at a frozen standstill since Monday.
It all shows that some lands — especially the ends of the Earth — will never be tamed.
The Snow Dragon is in
near-constant communication with the Russian exploration vessel and has
ample supplies of water, food and medicine — even a helicopter — if the
ice-bound Shokalskiy needed them, Zhu said.
The Russian expedition ship is carrying scientists and passengers led by an Australian climate change professor, but they all may have to wait two more days for one or all three icebreakers to free it, said Capt. Wang Jiangzhong of the Snow Dragon.
“Right now we are waiting for winds to blow ice away so we can move closer,” Wang told CNN. “The current ice condition is exceeding our capabilities to break through further.”
The captain also acknowledged his ship may need help from the other icebreakers headed to the area if conditions deteriorate.
“We are in continual
communication with the (stranded) ship,” he said in a satellite phone
call with CNN. “I think it’s at least a form of emotional relief for
them to know we are nearby to help. We know that they (passengers) are
all doing well on that ship.”
The Aurora Australis out of Australia is two days from the Russian ship, its captain, Murray Doyle, told CNN on Friday.
China’s State Oceanic
Administration said the Xue Long sailed through an intense cyclone to
reach the Akademik Shokalskiy sooner….
“The vessel is fine, it’s safe and everyone on board is very well,” expedition leader Chris Turney, a professor of climate change at University of New South Wales in Australia told CNN. “Morale is really high.”
It got stuck in the ice on Monday night — 15 days after setting out on the second leg of its research trip.
According to Turney, the ship was surrounded by ice up to nearly 10 feet (3 meters) thick some 100 nautical miles east of the French base Dumont D’Urville, about 1,500 nautical miles south of Hobart, Tasmania.
On Christmas morning, the ship sent a satellite distress signal after conditions failed to clear. The crew had a “great
Christmas” despite their situation, Turney told CNN earlier. He said
crew members have used the delay to get more work done. “We’ve just kept
the team busy,” he said.
The expedition is trying
to update scientific measurements taken by an Australian expedition led
by Douglas Mawson that set out in 1911.
The expedition to gauge the effects of climate change on the region began November 27.
The second, and current leg of the trip, started December 8 and was
scheduled to conclude with a return to New Zealand on January 4.
Turney said the ship should still be back in New Zealand on time.”
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