Hi David,
The skipper is experienced in these types of sees, the ship is very solid and has been tested, updated etc. over the last 2-3 months for these seas. It’s a ship built for rough seas but as you described your experience in the area as well - there’s rough seas and then there’s Cyclonic storm conditions on top of rough seas. Not a good place to be in when that happens. The ship stood up to the high seas well as far as hull, motors bridge etc. are concerned, what happened was the high waves took the radar and navigation gear off the mast from what I understand.
At least one (possibly two) of the team have been on Bouvet before, landing by dinghy, I believe during their time in the Polish military services.
I guess when the (lost overboard) antennas are replaced there will be some strengthened gaurd around the new ones!
The question is how long this will take as they are already towards the end of the time to be in those seas. Both the previous attempt and this one were delayed in their depature plans and when it gets too late, mother nature is not forgiving in those latitudes!
Lets hope they all get back safely to Cape Town first of all.
The green circle is Bouvet. It is a hot mess down there today, but I was watching this map when the ship was headed down there, and it was a similar hot mess. Truth be told, it is usually a hot mess down there in the roaring 40s, furious 50s and screaming 60s.
I noticed the captain said he missed, the ‘6 hour window’ to land.
If they had landed I wonder how long he, or the DX group were prepared to wait for another weather window to allow them to be picked up?. It is now the start of winter down there.
The plan was for a 2 week stay, possibly extending to 3 or 4 weeks (they have enough supplies for up to 4 weeks on the island).
Let’s wait and see if they get another chance this month, I would think it would be more likely that the next attempt will be at the end of 2019 however, because as you say, the Antarctic winter is now starting.
This groups failure I have no sympathy with… The sparse information and “pirate like” devil may care attitude" from their postings made them look like a shady outfit compared to the 3Y0Z 2018 attempt.
I have worked and confirmed Bouvet three times before on two bands: Jan 1990 (15m CW) and Feb 2001 (15m & 20m SSB) so this latest cancellation has saved me money on my electricity bill and many sleepless nights chasing them on the HF bands.
I have much sympathy though for the 3Y0Z 2018 DXped that had to cancel - this was very dissapointing. Late last year the group returned as much of the money sent in advance contributions by DX Clubs and Foundations as they could (around 50%). This DXped was cancelled due to mechanical failure of the vessel used, not the weather.
Ed,
lets hope they have learned their lesson and don’t try again in the next couple of months. They will fail again or worse people will loose their lives.
Its one of the wildest areas on earth, so the wind dictates everything. Passage of the ship, ship holding anchor, swell for small boat operations, keeping your antennas up and your tents surviving.
To give yourself best chance of success you go in December / January / February. January is statistically the least windy month, with low precipitation. The wind stats are significant : January = 1 day per month > 40 Knots vs April = 5 day per month > 40 Knots.
In 1992 VP8SSI went to South Sandwich in late March and at the end they were in a very precarious position which could have ended badly. I was working in Antarctica at that time, I relayed messages and weather between VP8SSI and their ship so know what was going on first hand. Interesting footage of VP8SSI below.
Not to mention the question where to take shelter on a glacier with wind speeds > 40 knots. I’m not sure how long their tents would have survived. I think they were lucky not meeting the mentioned weather window.
73, Roman
I was quite surprised by how much it cost the T31EU group to fly from Tarawa, Kiribati to their destination of Kanton Island, Kiribati. They’d already had to fly to Auckland, NZ then Tarawa. They had to pay £22000 for the flights for 6 of them to Kanton and back. Even though they were only on 2 of the flights, they had to pay for the 4 flights the plane made to and from Kanton Island. This came out at the GMDX convention last Saturday.
I think their costs were cheap in comparison to Bouvet expeditions.