Profiles

Sunday 25 February 2007

It’s my last blog from Antarctica. We are now sailing towards King George Island from where we will get a plane to take us to Punta Arenas in Chile and then it’s a couple of days travelling before we finally arrive in the UK.

Spectacular views are everywhere.

Mixed emotions today as we’re leaving. It’s been a much longer trip than we first thought, originally Kevin and I were to be with HMS Endurance for 10 days but that’s turned into well over 3 weeks.

It’s been a wonderful experience. Antarctica is the most extraordinary place on earth, a fragile continent which we must preserve for the future, a frozen wilderness unspoilt by man and a place dedicated to peace and science.

I can’t think of a more beautiful place that I have been and I shall return with so many memories. Not just of the stunning landscape, penguins, seals and whales but of the men and women who make up the ship’s company of Endurance. They have all been fantastic, willing to be part of our films and patient with us civilians!

This is a happy ship, that works hard in the South Atlantic and although there maybe some changes to her deployment in the future I’m sure there will always be volunteers who want to experience navy life on board an ice patrol vessel.

Sally and friend - a fur seal

Thank you for reading my blogs and sending me so many emails, you’ve kept me in touch with home. And a huge thank you to everyone on HMS Endurance who made this trip so special…it’s been a blast!

Now I’ll return with some great material to put together a few films you can see on South Today starting Monday week. And I hope you’ll join me for my Radio Solent programme on Saturday morning this week? That’s if all these flights work out!!!!

Saturday 24 February

It’s a quiet day for us with just a little bit of filming ashore. The early morning fog has cleared and we’re coming close to Devil’s Island.

St Martha's Cove

We’re hoping to catch a glimpse of a colony of Adelie penguins, they’re the small ones with almost blue eyes. But all that seems to be there is an awful lot of penguin poo and no penguins!

It’s likely that they have moved for the winter elsewhere, despite the disappointment we’re joining the captain on a trip to Vega Island where we’ve spotted a few red tents!

We go by RIB and that means changing into yet another immersion suit, a different one but just as difficult to get into! Not many people can carry one of those off Sally, shouts one of the crew. He’s right I can’t!

We clamber gingerly down a rope ladder on the side of Endurance in to the RIB and then pick up speed for the shore. The water is beautifully clear and along the shoreline there are masses of krill, tiny shrimp-like creatures which whales feed on.

A whale disappears, as the sun sets.

Could there be a whale around here? So far we’ve spotted a few on our travels but every time we get the camera out they’ve dived beneath the surface.

As we approach the camp a man comes towards us with his hand outstretched…Hallo I’m Pedro and he shakes the captain’s hand firmly. He’s an Argentinian glaciologist who’s been studying the movement of this particular glacier on Vega since 1999.

His evidence so far shows it is thinning by almost a metre a year, which is worrying.

After a very friendly chat and a few photos taken we return to the ship and spend a bit of time delivering some of your emails to your family and friends.

They’re delighted to hear from you and so am I.

Friday 23 February 2007

It’s a big day for us, our last live broadcast into South Today. We should be leaving for home early next week, if the weather stays good.

Today it’s very foggy and it doesn’t look as though we can get off the ship as we’d hoped. Oh well, like everything here you’ve got to be prepared to adapt.

The ripples left from a whale

Kevin and I spent yesterday evening on the monkey deck of Endurance with the die- hard amateur photographers. Doesn’t matter which way you point the camera you’re guaranteed a good shot, although I’ve just discovered I’ve got sun-cream on my lens.

One of the engineers on board Pete Morewood has become fanatical about his photography, taking over 13 thousand pics already this season. As he says, he’s unlikely to come back here again so he’ll just keep clicking away keeping each shot as a memory of a great place.

In fact I think you can see some of his photos in our gallery on the website!

It was rather sad to say goodbye on our last South Today from Antarctica, it was also very, very cold. My brain was beginning to go to sleep, although that’s not unusual.

The captain bought us a bottle of champagne to celebrate and Kevin and I spent the evening in the senior rates losing badly in the weekly quiz! I could have done with one of our sport guys, Tony or Roger where were you?

It’s been the trip of a lifetime, admittedly there have been a few hiccups on the way with delays and cancelled flights but they’ve been completely forgotten as we look out on this incredible landscape.

The icebergs are huge

Antarctica is a special place, thankfully it’s dedicated to peaceful scientific research and it’s unspoilt by man but whatever happens to this continent with climate change, it will affect us all in the future.

None of this would have been possible for South Today without the support of the captain and ship’s company of HMS Endurance. They’ve given us a warm welcome, looked after us and ensured that we’ve had the best possible filming opportunities.

A huge thank you to all of them.

Thanks also for all your emails, I’ll try to keep this blog updated over the weekend and until we leave on Tuesday.

But for now this is Sally Taylor for BBC South Today on board HMS Endurance in the most southerly part of the world, Antarctica.. How cool is that?

Thursday 22 February 2007

Another live broadcast into South Today. This time one of the helicopter crews suggested a location 2000ft up with a great view. He wasn’t wrong, it was spectacular and I hope you saw it.

Sally 2,000 ft above sea level

The extraordinary thing is just how few people in the world have stood there and looked at the view, probably just a handful.

And that is what makes this trip even more exciting, that we are able to go where hardly anyone has been before because Antarctica is so huge!

I’ve been reading up on the Antarctic explorers because tomorrow I may be dropped off at a hut where the Swedish geologist Nordenskjold was iced in for two years, apparently many of these huts look much the same as they did a hundred years ago, complete with tinned food.

I just can’t get over the vastness of this place….we are trying very hard to show you that in our pictures but as everyone keeps telling me, enjoy it while you can because no photograph truly does it justice!

Looking down on Antarctica

As I stand 2,000 ft up I can see for almost 50 miles down the Antarctic Peninsula. The ridge of snow-covered mountains opposite are 6/7 miles away and yet they appear to be much, much closer.

The tabular icebergs beneath me can be up to 40/50 metres high and they look like little table tops from here. I was intrigued to read that some of these icebergs are 300 metres thick, can weigh hundreds of millions of tonnes and enough fresh water to supply a city of a million people for 3 years.

How about our water companies solving their drought problems with that? Tow an iceberg to Britain and we’re well away. It may sound stupid but in the 70s someone proposed that idea to help Africa, it didn’t take off.

They often refer to Antarctica as the White Magnet, and by the look of the number of crew members on the Monkey Deck taking photographs of tonight’s sunset, I can see why.

Wednesday 21 February 2007

So what is a typical day on board Endurance? Well a ship’s alarm call, known as Call the Hands, which rather sounds like a chicken being strangled is given at 7am.

Although Lt. Lou Brimacombe whom I’m sharing a cabin with sets her alarm at 6.45am to get ahead of the rest. I haven’t as yet got used to the early mornings!

Filming on Endurance

Breakfast is between 7 and 7.45am and then we’re on the bridge for the daily briefing.

That’s when the Met guy gives a weather forecast, the operations officer goes through the day’s expected planning, the flight engineers and flight commander give details of the busy flying day and we all hear where we should be and at what time.

From then the morning is spent working as the ship continues to move slowly through Antarctica, charting the seabed 24 hours a day where possible.

Kevin and I usually spend the morning filming on board or editing our report for South Today that night.

Kevin Bird with the tiny transmission unit

Midday is lunch by which time Kevin is starving and needs sustenance!

Then by 1pm we’re getting into our immersion suits ready for flying. The immersion suit is incredibly uncomfortable but who cares when it could save your life in the water.

The sea temperature is freezing and if we fell in we’d last minutes, with the suit it gives us more of a chance.

Feeling a bit like an astronaut walking to the Shuttle, we leave Endurance by helicopter and set down at our location for the live broadcast. It’s always a spectacular view and I’m relieved when I hear the director at BBC South say hello Sally!

Then it's back to the ship, supper is at 7pm and then I bury myself in the library and write my blogs! Last night I was so tired I went to bed at 8.30 to watch a few DVDs, and Lou was watching her DVD of the West Wing. Just shows what an exhilarating evening we spent on board Endurance! 

Tuesday, 20 February 2007

I knew it would eventually happen - the weather has changed, snow, strong winds and fog. So this is the real Antarctica.

HMS Endurance cuts through the ice

It came down in just a matter of hours and it looks to stay for a couple of days. Kevin and I have taken advantage of it and got on with some filming on board Endurance.

We spent quite a bit of time with Chief Petty Officer Dave Sharp who is the chief surveyor on board, running the multi beam echo sounder.

One of Endurance’s roles is to chart the sea bed and she uses this hi-tec equipment which replaces the old lead line that was thrown overboard to mark points on charts.

Images from the Echo Sounder

Watching the seabed as colourful graphics streaming out from the ship on a computer terminal was fascinating.

This will help the increasing number of cruise ships safely navigate their way around Antarctica.

I've had so many emails sent to me via the BBC website, so a big thank you to everyone. I try very hard to pass on all your best wishes to family and friends on board and it’s great to see their faces when they get your messages!

Kevin and I spent the evening in the Senior Rates' Mess giving them a private showing of some of the footage we've taken and the films that have been broadcast on South Today which of course they haven't been able to watch.

It was a great night and everyone was delighted to see the occasional familiar face, you can imagine the comments! Sorry can't repeat them here I'm afraid!

HMS Endurance in the ice floe

Looks like bad weather again tomorrow so think of the BAS scientists and the Royal Navy Kayakers stuck out in their camps in driving snow and winds.

 I'm going to tuck up in my bunk now and stay warm!

Monday, 19 February 2007

Another successful live broadcast into South Today … what a relief!

This time we were able to broadcast from HMS Endurance herself, the captain very kindly nudged the ship into the ice floe so she was stationary for us to link up with BBC South.

How awesome is that, to be able to stop a ship in the middle of the Antarctic surrounded by ice?

We also went up in the helicopter again with the pilot Lt Lee Evans and Lt Matt Boulind, Kevin took some fabulous footage of Endurance powering through the ice.

On board Endurance's helicopter

Suddenly you could see how she breaks the ice with the cutting edge of the bow underneath the water. She’s able to break through anything up to a metre in depth but only what they call new ice or sea ice.

The older the ice the harder it becomes and very old icebergs take on a blue colour. When it gets fairly thick she powers up onto the ice and her weight and the cutting bow breaks the ice.

I spent sometime today in the galley with the chefs including the famous Pob who appears on the Endurance website, as yet we haven't been treated to the crew’s favourite meal … cheesy-hammy-eggy but I do seem to be eating rather a lot at the moment. I’ll put it down to the Antarctic air!

Once again Kevin and I were dropped off on the top of a tabular iceberg to watch the ship glide by - it was a very weird feeling to be standing there knowing you are gently moving on ice in the Antarctic.

Well we seem to be here for another week. Yet again the flights out of here keep changing because of the inclement weather.

If there’s one thing I've learned about Antarctica, it’s that you can't rely on anything because it’s likely to change. Hurry up and wait!

We're supposed to be flying out of Marsh air base which is on King George island and it has been known for people to be stuck there for weeks not days!

I never thought I'd say this but I am missing my warm comfortable South Today studio just a little bit.

Sunday, 18 February 2007

We've done it ... a South Today first. We are the first regional television programme to transmit live from Antarctica.

After months of planning and work done behind the scenes by so many people including the Captain and crew of HMS Endurance, we have broadcast from the most southerly point in the world.

Kevin and I cheered with delight as we finished broadcasting into Sunday’s South Today on a spit of land surrounded by icebergs, in -4 degrees, with the 'Red Plum' in the background.

It was such a wonderful moment and I feel really proud that we have done it. It’s probably the greatest achievement of my TV career.

Sally meets a new friend....

Apart from an anxious day preparing to go live, we have had such fun.

We were helicoptered onto the island accompanied by Andrew one of the Royal Marines on board.

As the helicopter wasn't staying Andrew was looking after safety, complete with emergency supplies.

The weather changes so fast it’s easy to get caught out and then we are left on the ice for the night! Didn't fancy that much!

While we were setting up I wandered off and found a lone penguin who was quite happy for me to sit down next to him for a chat.

Happy Feet came to mind, he looked so forlorn and lonely with no other penguin mates around anywhere. As I wandered off he followed me all the way back and then just sat and watched us broadcast … a tough audience!

Not all birds are that friendly, I managed to get dive bombed by a few large brown angry ones who nearly caught my hat and whisked it off.

For any helicopter ride we have to wear bright orange immersion suits in case something happens and we find ourselves in the water ... without them we wouldn't last long in temperatures well below freezing.

HMS Endurance's route

It takes me about 15 minutes to get into mine with a bit of help from Karl who is in charge of all flying kit.

In the evening I watched the most spectacular sunset I have ever seen, everyone was on deck snapping away, including me. Even if you have a cardboard disposable camera you can't go wrong here.

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