erice 732 Posted January 22, 2017 Share Posted January 22, 2017 preparing for the resupply of the usa's mcmurdo + nz's nearby scott base http://maritime-executive.com/article/photos-polar-star-arrives-at-mcmurdo-station http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=11395429 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
B00B00 310 Posted January 23, 2017 Share Posted January 23, 2017 Was talking to my brother last week, he is on his way back from Antarctica at the moment on an aussie icebreaker and was bashing through some ice as we spoke. Sounded like it was tough going with ice often getting into the prop causing issues. He drives the smaller expedition craft for the landing parties. My mum and dad were on the Akademik Shokalskiy that got caught down there a few years back on their way back form an expedition. They all needed to be evacuated after the bow caved in. Then the Chinnese Ice breaker got stuck going to rescue them and the French and Yanks had to come and rescue them all... Was an international debacle with the Yanks having to save russian (with UK and Aussie scientists) and chineese ships... They then had to carry on for another 2 months on the yanks ice breaker as it carried on its mission to resupply the bases down there. The Russian boat they were on made it back to dry land before they did. It was a bit of a shambles and some huge drama unfolded afterwards about the original cause of the first boat getting stuck. I read my dads report written for the Australian antarctic divison, interesting reading and was used as some major evidence in the investigation on the incident. Link to an arcticle on the rescue http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-25609850 They were on board as representatives of the Mawsons hut foundation to alloy entry into mawsons hut in Comonweath bay. My dad goes down every few years to keep the hut standing. He also built the replica in Hobart. The russian ship never made it to comonwealth bay because the ice was too thick but they kept trying against my dads advice and ended up getting stuck (this was the big debate). But the real funny thing about this is that my dad and 2 of my brothers had actually sailed a little 34ft roberts design yacht (Snow Petrel) right up Commonweath bay to mawsons hut a few years earlier. 1 Quote Link to post Share on other sites
erice 732 Posted January 23, 2017 Author Share Posted January 23, 2017 not bad for an old boat The Polar Star is 399ft (120m) long with a maximum speed of 18 knots, the US Coast Guard said. It can continuously break 6ft (1.8m) of ice at three knots, and can break 21ft (6.4m) of ice by backing and ramming. Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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