Revisions, Updates and Ice
Revisions, Updates and Ice
By Blog.Admin
July 2, 2008 - second entry
In an earlier posting today, I said we were going to visit Cape Flora - I was incorrect - we landed at Cape Norway today. The weather was so warm, we had to strip to our t-shirts. Parkas were piled near the helicopter landing zone.
We saw the monument - a simple, post with a plaque - erected to commemorate Nansen's overwintering on the cape with Johansen. I find it very difficult to imagine the two men spending 7 months in what was essentially a cold cellar. Smaller than a modern lifeboat - in the deepest dark of an Arctic winter.
Our second landing was cancelled due to weather. But that weather led to another exciting moment. During our Cape Norway landing, the return flights to the ship began about 11 AM. The final shuttle was scheduled for 11:45 AM. However about 11:20 AM - the ship had disappeared in a bank of fog. We felt the temperature drop - all who had shed parkas slipped them on again. Laurie checked with the senior pilot. He recommended that the landing be aborted. We had to round up everyone who had not expected to return until 11:45 AM. We had been carrying 20 people per transfer. There were 28 on shore. The pilot had instructed that everyone had to leave on this last flight, because visibility was falling dramatically. The helo can carry 35 in an emergency. So we piled in...our guests got the seats, the rest of us knelt on the floor of the choppper. Were we worried - not much - because the minute we were airborne, a dozen cameras came out. We were blinded by flashes, as we documented the adventure. Then cameras were exchanges to capture different angles. Safely aboard, we milked the adventure for all it is worth. So if you hear there were 45 aboard, and the pilot had to circle for 10 minutes to find the ship...it isn't true...although it may be the story I'll tell at my next dinner party! LOL [You can see in the photo just how excited we were!]
July 23, 2008: I took a photo of the map that hangs in the hall outside the dining room. It has a plexiglass cover, so one of the ship's officers can mark our route in grease pencil. This is a detail of the map showing Franz Josef Land and our route. The red line represents our northbound route. The green is our southbound journey.
Prisca