For those of you who have been following the site, you probably are aware that gCaptain.com has a sister site (actually more of a brother site) called UnofficialSquaw.com that is run by John’s brother, Tim Konrad. Based out of the infamous Squaw Valley USA ski resort in Tahoe, California, the site offers an inside look into the lives of avid skiers and snowboarders and follows a team of skiers as they compete (and dominate) in various freeride competitions throughout the world.
Just recently, the team embarked on an adventure for the ages that I think is worthy of a cross post here on gCaptain.com. So where did they go? Skiing in Antarctica! [Continue Reading →]
An investigation conducted by the Liberian Bureau of Maritime Affairs into the circumstances of the sinking of M/V Explorer concluded that the decision by the Master to enter the ice field based on his knowledge and information available at the time was the primary reason why the Explorer suffered the casualty.
The Liberian registered cruise ship, which was on an 18 day round trip voyage from Ushuaia, Argentina to areas in Antarctica, sank on November 23, 2007 in a position 25 miles southeast of Penguin Island in the Bransfield Strait near the South Shetland Islands, in about 1,300 meters of water. All 54 crew and 100 passengers were forced to abandoned ship into lifeboats and RIB’s and were later rescued by the Norwegian registered Nordonorge. [Continue Reading →]
The Bahaman-flagged cruise ship, Ocean Nova, ran aground in Antarctica’s Marguerite Bay amid high winds and rough seas Tuesday morning with 64 passengers and 41 crew members aboard. The incident occurred about 1 mile from the Argentine naval base in San Martin. No injuries have been reported and there have been no signs that the ship is leaking oil or taking on water.
All attempts to dislodge the ship have proven unsuccessful. The ships operator, Quark Expeditions, has sent another vessel to retrieve the passengers and crew, who will be taken to the southern Argentine city of Ushuaia.
As the weather cools in the northern hemisphere the most southern continent gets the slightest bit hospitable and the war against mother nature begins again. For those new to gCaptain here’s a recap of last year’s events: [Continue Reading →]
Press reports from around the world are reporting info on the above.
Here’s an excerpt from the Guardian UK:
A vast hunk of floating ice has broken away from the Antarctic peninsula, threatening the collapse of a much larger ice shelf behind it, in a development that has shocked climate scientists.
Satellite images show that about 160 square miles of the Wilkins ice shelf has been lost since the end of February, leaving the ice interior now “hanging by a thread”.
This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the BitterEnd of the net.
BitterEnd reports that the Royal Navy Ice patrol ship HMS ENDURANCE, which amongst other tasks is carrying survey work in the Antarctic on behalf of the United Kingdom Hydrographic Office (UKHO) to improve Safety of Life at Sea products and services, has located the wreck of a cruise liner which sank last year.
Listen to our podcast on the M/V Explorer sinking HERE then read our previous posts HERE and HERE.
Also be sure to take a look at these excellent BitterEnd posts:
On 11 November 2007 Sola and I departed from Ushuaia, Argentina aboard the M/S Explorer on a cruise meant to follow in the wake of Sir Ernest Shackleton’s Endeavor. Little did we know how closely we would follow Sir Ernest.
The first time I went to Antarctica was in 2004. I had a few free days before I was returning to Bangkok after being in Bariloche, Argentina to celebrate Simon Bonython’s sixtieth birthday. Prior to leaving Bangkok, Gary Heager, a well-traveled friend, had suggested I visit Ushuaia to earn the bragging rights for having visited the southernmost city in the world.
While in Ushuaia I took a guided tour to see a beaver lodge. Beavers, in Ushuaia? Yes, but introduced from Canada by enterprising Argentines after World War II for their pelts. Predator-less beavers left unchecked have become an environmental disaster.
At the end of the beaver hike, Alicia Petit, a local tour agent offered me a cruise on an icebreaker sailing to Antarctica but I had to be able to leave in two days. I explained to her I had left all my belongings in Buenos Aires and I had reservations to return to Bangkok with visits in Santiago, San Francisco and Tokyo as part of the return. I said if she could change all my reservations and secure my things in BA I’d go. She called me fifteen minutes later and it was all done. I had cell phone then. Alicia became the link to sailing on the M/S Explorer.
I’ve stayed in contact with Alicia and each year she contacts me with Antarctic cruise offers. Simon, Jon Olson and I were first offered an Antarctic trip while touring Bhutan in 2002. We all agreed it was something we wanted to do. Unfortunately for them, by the time Alicia told me about this trip that year they had both left Buenos Aires.
Every year since then, Jon, Simon and I have discussed contacting Alicia to plan an Antarctic cruise. It wasn’t surprising In October, when Alicia contacted me to offer space on the first cruise of the 2007 season, that we all decided to go. It wasn’t too long after this that Jon remembered he had a prior commitment and could not go. Simon’s business required him to stay in Bangkok. Simon, a fellow avid photographer, really wanted to go on this adventure and said he would make every effort to be there.
Alicia reached me while I was photographing the Colorado fall color. Later that month I met up with Sola Morrissey, my daughter, in San Francisco for dinner. I mentioned to her I could not find anyone to go with me and asked if she would be interested. She had recently started working for Architecture for Humanity and wasn’t sure it was good timing, but thought it was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity. She would check with her employer.
Sola and I discussed including visits to impoverished areas around South America that would tie into her work. The two of us have traveled together before in Europe, Morocco, Myanmar, Cambodia, Thailand and Japan; she is a wonderful travel companion. Kaze, my son , was in the process of getting advanced pilot training, so he couldn’t go.
Simon was able to get away just days before the M/S Explorer (not a Microsoft product) departed from Ushuaia. Jon had (that’s past tense) been kicking himself for not going, that is until he heard the news on the radio.
Thanksgiving 2007 was the night I put the Antarctica maxim to the test. The maxim goes “Below 40 degrees south latitude, there is no law. Below 50 degrees south latitude, there is no God.”
We were at 62 degrees 24 minutes South and 57 degrees 16 minutes west, when Sola woke me and Swedish Captain Bengt Witman told us to dress warm before proceeding to our emergency assemble point.
Article by Michael Morrissey is considered one of the new generation of adventure and travel photographers. Based in Bangkok, Thailand with a passion for travel, Michael got hooked on photography while driving a bus from Istanbul to Katmandu in the 70’s; an obsession briefly interrupted with a twenty year career in business. You can view his photography at: www.mjmorrissey.com
You can read more of Michael’s harrowing tale HERE.
Revealing once again how little we know about our oceans’ inhabitants, researchers announced discovery of two new marine species, including a Dwarf Killer Whale in Antarctica and a new species of beaked whale in the tropical pacific. Loren Coleman has more over at Cryptomundo. From one of his posts about these animals:
The oceans hold many natural history treasures and wonders. New animals are being discovered at a faster rate from the seas than in freshwater or on land. But these finds from the marine environment often get little attention from Homo sapiens versus, say, a new giant peccary or a new monkey.
Overnight, famed marine biologist Bob Pitman shared with me breaking news about several new marine mammal species. The news will not get as much of a read as a fuzzy picture of a land mammal from the woods of Pennsylvania or of a rapid moving otter-like animal videotaped in Loch Ness. That’s a darn shame.
Link to “First Live Sightings of Shepherd’s Ziphiid,” Link to “New Species of Tropical Pacific Beaked Whale?,” Link to “Dwarf Killer Whale Discovered in Antarctica”
The annual supply ship the American Tern being unloaded at McMurdo Station, Antarctica.
Time-lapse footage taken over 3 days of continuous sunlight towards the end of summer. This is the only time of year the ice is thin enough to get ships in.
In the background the Krasen, a Russian ice-breaker can be seen working a channel in the 2 meter thick ice to keep it from freezing up, so the Tern will be able to leave again.
Every 2.5 seconds of film equals 1 hour in real time.
This post was written by Richard Rodriguez, Rescue Tug Captain, and US Coast Guard approved instructor for License Training. You can read more of his articles at the 
The Spirit of Shacketon – Aboard the M/S Explorer
The oceans hold many natural history treasures and wonders. New animals are being discovered at a faster rate from the seas than in freshwater or on land. But these finds from the marine environment often get little attention from Homo sapiens versus, say, a new giant peccary or a new monkey.
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