Polar Bird, Tuesday, 4th December 2001
The ship left early at 7.25 am as the latest weather report looked very bad for the rest of the day. As predicted by lunch-time we were into yet another force 10 gale doing a repeat of a few days earlier, forcing the ship to heave to into the oncoming gale. This was a good chance to reorganise the gear for Landing Bluff in one of the spare cabins as it was getting difficult to move around the ship. The gales became stronger as the day progressed and by midnight were reaching 75 knots with gusts of up to 90 knots. Force 12 (hurricane) on the Beaufort Scale is declared as 63 knots + !! The sea was a wild ferment of foam and ice with waves of 5-6 metres, some up to 10 metres high coming right over the bow and stern. Sometimes the ship's superstructure would be submerged with water, flooding the B deck lounge portholes. Pieces of broken ice were being shot up as far as the bridge as though they being fired from cannons. The ship was rolling very heavily indeed. One minute all that could be seen was the sea, then open air as the ship see-sawed through the torment. Sheets of water and spray were everywhere. I tentatively opened the inner poop deck door (the smokers den) which i thought was comparatively safe only to be frightened out of my wits by a wall of water almost at right angles to stern, sweeping over it, washing up against me. Air and sea temeprature -1° eaarrrghh! The captain looked very, very edgy with many crew up on the bridge taking shifts to spot really large waves or airborne growlers of ice.
Position at 24:17 local time (UT +7hr) S 68°54'02" E 76°36'04"
Prydz Bay, 66 km SW of Davis, 148 km NE of Landing Bluff
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