As we had left Tristan da Cunha we set course for South Georgia with an aim to go do some PR for the locals there as well as to see the grave of Ernest Shackleton.
Some humour along the trip was required, orginal Asterix album cover modified
South Georgia is a long banana shaped island that is more a home for the wildlife than for the humans inhabiting the island. Traditionally she had been first used by the whalers to boil up blubber and a lot of the structures still remained ashore from that era. The Falklands museum has a lot of documentation and videos of it from back of that era as well as interviews from retirees.
Map of crown dependencies in the southern Atlantic (@ Falkland museum)
These days the main goal for the S. Georgian Gov't is to preserve/ restore the bio sphere and trying to eradicate any damage man has done to the island, like e.g. introducing foreign species there. The paperwork that is to be filled in and sent in advance was extensive, videos had to be downloaded and watched, crew had to be briefed of what they couldn't do there. Also specific shoe disinfectant and rat traps had to be purchased and placed throughout the ship to ascertain level of rodent infestation onboard upon arrival. Would probably have been a shorter list if they'd list what is allowed.
Calm night in southern ocean
One evening after leaving Tristan and before weather turned sour we decided to sample the Tristonian lobster tails. The preparation and cooking was very closely monitored by the Officers as the Chilean cook had a tendency to boil and fry the living daylights out of anything he prepared in general. This time we only let him prep the veggies. The dinner was spectacular and each and everyone got a tail each and so we had 2 more servings left in the freezer for the future.
Tristan lobster box
I kept a close eye on the weather and so far it looked good. There was a low approaching from Cape Horn so time would tell whether we would get ahead of it or astern of us. Unfortunately in the end it did neither, it was coming straight for us. So in order to rig the lottery I checked our motion lotion and increased speed a bit to get ahead of the storm so we'd reach shelter of South Georgia, let the low pass and then continue towards Falklands.
Iceberg 6' away
Iceberg 6' away
Another few days went past and the we passed the latitude 50 into the "furious fifties" as they're referred to in many publications. We also started seeing icebergs and passed 2 of them that we saw in day time. Although huge blocks above the sealevel (1/10th is above, the rest underneath) they were not easily spotted and looked very ethereal only few miles away. I didn't want to go too close because of the risk of growlers that could have calved off them.
Iceberg target on the radar
Iceberg in the distance
We were doing pretty good speed of approx 13kts and the seas were rising ahead of the low pressure. By evening one could see that we had entered the lee of South Georgia as the seas got smaller and wind was still blowing as forecasted from South. Everything was going according to plan.
Screenshot from Yachtingworld (note the triangle of lee from S. Georgia)
Later in evening our Director onboard called me that he had been contacted by the Falklands Island Maritime Authority (FIMA) and had been asked if we could turn around and go pick up a sailor, Mr Ian Herbert-Jones, that was in distress. He was racing in the Golden globe cup, one of the hardest sailing races in these days. I asked if there was nobody else available as the casualty was 270' N of us. The reply was we're the only one in these waters.
Screenshot from "X" (ex. Twitter)
After a short weighing of distances and remaining fuel onboard I turned around and headed N for the sailboat "Puffin" in distress. Turned out he had been demasted and rolled over a couple of times so the skipper nor the boat was in a particularly good shape. At same time we also reported to the Argentine MRCC who was coordinating and gave our ETA to the mayday position. Going was at first good because the waves were not that high, perhaps 4-6m from our stern. Weather forecast was giving same wave height for our ETA to the sailing vessel.
S/v Puffin after the rough and tumble (source unknown)
S/v Puffin after the rough and tumble (source unknown)
After few hours we got out from the South Georgia lee and the full brute force of South Atlantic could be felt. Winds were howling up to 60-70kts in gusts, constantly we got around 40-45kts, waveheight climbed to 8-10m and started turning to our port quarter. By late evening, 18h later close to midnight, the Argentinian MRCC stood us down as they had eventually found a couple of other vessels closer to the casualty that was attending the emergency. By that time we were in the middle of the lowpressure on a NNW'ly course. Nobody felt at ease, we had no way of turning back south towards S Georgia so kept a N'ly course until daybreak.
Albatross
All 4 main engines kept running well except the port outer engine that started taking air into the cooling system as we were rolling and pitching so I slowed down from 12kts to 8-9kts. It was still difficult for the engineer to keep it running but in the end he managed when we reduced that particular engine rpm further on port side.
Following seas
Ian Herbert-Jones LinkedIn posting (screenshot)
So, come daybreak, nobody had hardly slept the way we were being buffeted by the sea. The waves were streaked white, like textbook pictures from the Beaufort scale. Wind was still howling like a banshee through our masts. Anything loose on deck had flown away ages ago. Our gangway had ripped it's securing points from the railing and boys had managed to secure the getaway end temporarily. We were still surfing on a NNW course and the waves were coming aft on our port quarter, almost straight from W.
Some "sporty seas" as per our Director (photo Col. M Gray (ret'd))
Vessel was behaving well but after few hours the wave lengths became very short and as we were not making very fast headway we didn't dive into the waves ahead. The axebow cleaved water very well but I didn't want to go through a wave. At short succession we were lifted by the following wave and broached down the trough and got a considerable list that was stomach wrenching as we clung onto bridge chairs and consoles the best we could. After the second time it happened it felt to me that we slid down sideways of the wavecrest down into the trough and I thought we're going now as we started listing heavily but the vessel kept going, righted herself up and climbed up again on the wave and kept going. I decided enough of this and altered course W'ly, towards Falklands and went at a slight angle against the seas so as to take the waves on the side and not head on.
Some sporty seas as per our Director (photo Col. M Gray (ret'd))
LinkedIn screenshot from Owners
From that point on going got gradually easier and in the evening we're down to force 7 or 8 and seas had reduced perhaps to 5m. It felt like calm to us. We had weathered the storm, nothing had really broken down so the vessel had proven her mettle in a proper southern Atlantic Ocean storm of epic proportions. The next few days monitored fuel and could still carry on all the way but had to reduce to about 10kts in order to stretch out the remaining diesel. As we entered the Falklands territorial waters, commonly referred to as Falklands outer conservation zone (FOCZ), as we got closer we entered the inner conservation zone (FICZ). Both referred to in colloquial language to "fix" and "fox" eventually.
As we motored towards Falklands the unfortunate sailor Ian Herbet-Jones had been saved by a Taiwanese fishing vessel "Zi Da Wang" and he headed for Cape Town where he was going to step off. Fortunately he had not hurt himself critically so he was in good spirits as per news reports, although he'd lost his boat "Puffin" to Davy Jones locker. At least he got to live to see another day and perhaps he will attempt the race again although personally I would not attempt an E to W transit of Cape Horn.
The whole incident was widely reported about in various media outlets:
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