This image from the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) instrument on NAS's Terra spacecraft was acquired Nov. 13, 2011, and covers an area of 27 by 32 miles (44 by 52 kilometers), and is located near 74.9 degrees south latitude, 101.1 degrees west longitude. Photo: NASA

In recognition of the start of the 2012 Ice Season, which typically runs from February through July, we bring you this photo showing a massive crack across the Pine Island Glacier, a major ice stream that drains the West Antarctic Ice Sheet.

The crack was first discovered in mid-October when NASA scientists working studying the Pine Island Glacier saw a major rift in the ice during a an exploratory flyover.

Scientists say that the crack, which extends for 19 miles and is 260 feet wide by 195 feet deep, will eventually extend all the way across the glacier and calve a giant iceberg measuring some 350 square miles.

VIDEO: NASA scientist discover the crack in the Pine Island Glacier

Close up of the crack in the Pine Island Glacier. Photo: NASA

Photo courtesy of the National Science Foundation

Update 2: 13 Jan 2012

A United States Airforce (USAF) C-130 Hercules aircraft departed McMurdo station at 12.35pm today (NZDT) with the 7 injured crew on board. Three of the men are seriously injured.

• The aircraft’s ETA in Christchurch is 8.45pm this evening (NZDT).
• The injured crew will be taken to Christchurch hospital on arrival for assessment and further treatment as required.
• Note that photos and video are not available. The USAF advise there will be no media access or interviews when the aircraft lands in Christchurch.
• RCCNZ’s role in the incident will come to an end once the aircraft lands in Christchurch

UPDATE 13 Jan 2012:

The USAF C-17 Globemaster III aircraft was unable to make its scheduled flight from Christchurch to McMurdo Base overnight because of weather conditions at the destination.

• The Nathaniel B. Palmer carrying the injured crew has arrived at McMurdo, and the injured crew are being transferred by helicopter to the base.
• They will be flown to Christchurch this afternoon (leaving approximately 12.15pm NZDT) on a special flight using a C-130 which was already at McMurdo. The flight is expected to arrive at Christchurch at around 8pm NZDT.

(MARITIME NZ) A United States Airforce (USAF) C17 Starlifter Globemaster III aircraft will leave Christchurch tonight to help recover seven crew injured in a fire on board the Korean fishing vessel Jeong Woo 2 in the Ross Sea early on Wednesday morning (NZDT).

The Rescue Coordination Centre New Zealand (RCCNZ) is currently working with a range of agencies to help facilitate the recovery of the seven injured men from the Korean vessel back to New Zealand for hospital treatment.

RCCNZ Search and Rescue Mission Coordinator Greg Johnston said attempts were being made to get a team, including Vietnamese and Indonesian interpreters, on board the aircraft, which was already on a scheduled flight due to leave Christchurch about 9.30pm today.

“Weather permitting, it’s expected that the USAF aircraft will get to McMurdo base about 2am tomorrow (Friday), arriving about the same time as the American research vessel Nathaniel B Palmer, which is currently making her way through the ice with the seven injured crew on board.

“The rescue mission is, however, dependent on the weather and sea conditions, with fog at McMurdo currently causing poor visibility. However, a back up aircraft, a LC 130 Hercules based at McMurdo, is also available if the larger C17 aircraft can’t take off.”

Mr Johnston said once both the vessel and the aircraft had reached McMurdo, the injured crew would be transferred to the aircraft and flown back to Christchurch for treatment.

“All going well, the aircraft will depart McMurdo about 5am, arriving back in New Zealand around 10am, but there are still a number of factors that could cause this to be delayed.”

Two of the seven injured men have received extensive burns (50% and 30% respectively), but have recovered consciousness, and five others have received lighter burns injuries. The Nathaniel B Palmer has medical staff and facilities on board to assess the injured crew’s medical needs, with advice that they are currently stable. The ship’s progress will depend on ice and weather conditions. Three crew have died in the fire.

In the meantime, the 30 surviving crew are all on board the Jeong Woo 2’s sister ship, the Jeong Woo 3, with plans for the vessel to rendezvous with the Korean ice-breaker the Araon, which will collect the crew and take them back to Lyttleton, with the ship estimated to arrive on January 19.

Shot of the Jeong Woo 2 taken from the vessel Nathaniel B Palmer, Credit: Johnny Pierce/Nathaniel B Palmer

Once safe to do so, the wreck of the Jeong Woo 2 will be towed by its sister ship to a position north of 60 degrees south when her future will be decided.

The 51 metre fishing vessel Jeong Woo 2 caught fire in the Ross Sea about 2000 nautical miles (3704 kilometres) southeast of New Zealand and about 600 kilometres north-northeast of McMurdo Base.

A number of vessels responded to the vessel’s distress call, issued in the early hours of Wednesday morning (NZDT). The call was picked up by another Korean fishing vessel, Hong Jin 707, and relayed to RCCNZ by the New Zealand vessel Antarctic Chieftain just before 3am (NZDT) on 11 January.

An overflight of the Russian fishing vessel Sparta on Dec. 16, 2011. Photo: Maritime New Zealand

An ice-strengthened research vessel has reached the stricken fishing vessel Sparta and her 32 crew after 10 days stuck in Antarctic ice, according to Maritime New Zealand.  The vessel has been stuck since striking ice on December 16, resulting in a 30 cm hole in her hull.

Rescue coordinators at RCCNZ confirmed this morning that the R/V Araon, which has ice breaking capabilities, arrived on scene at the Sparta early on December 26th. By 5 am officials confirmed that the Araon was alongside Sparta and transferring fuel, which is expected to lift the bow of out of the water enough so that the hole can be fixed.

Sparta issued a mayday call at 3am December 16 saying the vessel was taking on water and listing to 13 degrees.  To make problems worse the vessel was about 2,000 nautical miles SE of New Zealand and practically sitting on the Antarctic ice shelf, several days from the closest vessel, not to mention a vessel with icebreaking capabilities.  After ditching cargo and non-essential crew onto the ice, the vessel was stabilized and receiving air drops of supplies – including pumps and patches – from an RNZAF C-130 Hercules aircraft.  Commissioned by Sparta’s owner, the Aaron left New Zealand on December 18th and was expected to take eight days to reach Sparta.

Sparta is now expected to be escorted out of the area under her own power pending successful completion of repairs.  The 32 crew on board are said to be safe.

I was walking along the seawall at the US Naval Academy last night when I saw the slightly lit shape of a huge sailboat moving silently and easily amongst a flotilla of yachts anchored in Annapolis Harbor.  They didn’t appear to be boats left over from the Annapolis Sailboat Show the week before, their decks were cluttered with gear and didn’t have the shiny look of a new boat.  Annapolis is a popular Fall stopover point for sailors from the Northeast who aim to sail their boats south to the Caribbean for the winter, or to points beyond.

Back in 1998, my parents had been anchored off that very seawall before heading south for Norfolk and the start of the Caribbean 1500, a rather laid back ocean race from the Chesapeake Bay to the Virgin Islands.   The trip south in 1998 however, was by no means laid back.  The remnants of Hurricane Mitch blew across the fleet, and at least one boat was lost.  During the storm, my parents and crew hove-to for the night and made it to the Islands with no issues.  10 years, 50,000 miles, and countless adventures later, Calypso eventually returned to her home waters on east coast of the United States.

Although more than twice as long, and with a more modern design, this dark hull sliding through the water in Annapolis was similar in many ways to Calypso.   From a quarter-mile away it was clear she was built for one purpose, to explore the far corners of our planet via the high seas.

She reminded me of the Seamaster, a boat once sailed by New Zealand explorer and famed ocean yacht racer Sir Peter Blake.  In 2001, while sailing up the Amazon River on an environmental expedition, he was attacked and murdered by robbers.  Peter Blake had been a hero of mine since I was kid.  For someone who had never gone faster than 8 knots on a sailboat, watching him and his crew in the 1989 Whitbread Round-the-World Race blaze through  the Southern Ocean on the 90-foot Steinlager II was nothing short of incredible.

This morning, through my apartment window facing Back Creek, two huge masts came into view and quickly spun around.  This huge, aluminum hulled beast that I had seen last night was stopping by the fuel dock a block away from my door.  Megayachts and shiny raceboats were a pretty familiar sight, and the wow factor has worn off over the years, but this boat was definitely unique.  It had a mostly plumb bow, a bare aluminum hull, and deck hardware that looked like it came off a tugboat.  This boat was built to go places, and I knew I had to go down there to see what the story was behind this yacht with the words PANGAEA painted on her bow.

As I walked up to PANGAEA, I met a number of young adults who spoke heavily accented English and were busy refueling and filling the yacht’s water tanks.  Apparently there was an air bubble somewhere in their fuel system that was turning this rather simple routine into an all-day affair of filling up and emptying out jerry cans.

Unbeknownst to me, the skipper of PANGAEA was directing operations from her beam and he was the first person I met.

“Who is Mike Horn?” I asked him.

The name was in huge letters on the both masts and I figured there had to be a connection…

“That’s me,” he responded.

I had no idea who I had just met, but I soon found out that I was talking to one of the most accomplished explorers on our planet.

Over the course of his life, Mike has racked up more adventures than any 1000 people that I know.  He is the Dos Equis guy, if you had to pick a real-life version.

Mary Buckheit, a former writer for ESPN, who is now Mike Horn’s Communications and Media Relations Director, was there this morning to give me the scoop on this rugged looking, South African-accented, individual whom I had just met.  In an article she wrote for ESPN earlier this year, she described Mike:

Mike Horn horn after solo-traversing the Arctic Ocean via the North Pole. He arrived at a village called Kugaaruk, (otherwise known as Pelly Bay), a small Inuit village situated on the west coast of Simpson Peninsula on the mainland of Canada. Mike progressed at an average of about 15kms a day, battling against temperatures ranging somewhere between -40°C and -60°C

He once walked out the front door of a camp on the equator, and 18 months later, after the circumvolution of the globe at latitude zero on foot, bicycle, canoe and sail, he entered through the back door.

He speaks fluent Afrikaans, English, Spanish, German, French, Russian and Dutch … in a mellifluous Cape Town accent.

When he was 28, he had a huge party to give away his house, his car and all of his belongings before up and moving to a foreign country — sight unseen — on a standby ticket.

His blood smells like cologne.

He walked across Siberia for one and a half years. Alone.

His hands feel like rich, brown suede.

A tow truck once hauled away his illegally parked U-Haul from a Dunkin Donuts. He saw it being yanked from the car park and tore after it on foot. He caught up, scaled the truck’s cab, threw open the door and — amid an extempore scuffle — accidentally broke the driver’s arm. An ambulance and cruisers arrived. Cops seized Horn immediately and threw him against the wall. After only a few minutes of questioning, the sheriff felt inclined to release Horn (and his vehicle) ungrudgingly and citation-free. The squad then provided a police escort through the city to Horn’s awaiting plane for an on-time departure.

Hearing this story, and looking at the boat before me, I knew that I had definitely made the right call by coming down to the fuel dock.  I was crossing paths with a very unique person.  An individual filled with stories only those who live on the bleeding edge of life can truly understand or appreciate.

He should be dead.  I mean, anyone who begins stories with, “when I was walking through the Congo on my way to Somalia” is either lying to you, or the story is just never told because they disappeared along the way, never to be seen again.   The days of exploration are over, this kind of shit just doesn’t happen anymore.

Fortunately for the teenagers on board PANGAEA, there are still real life adventures to be had, and Mike Horn is still alive to lead them.  In fact, PANGAEA had just arrived in Annapolis after completing a traverse of the Northwest Passage from the Kamchatka Peninsula in Russia, and is on her way to Florida to explore the Everglades before an expedition next year far up the Amazon River.

On board PANGAEA, Mike is leading the Young Explorers Program (YEP), an ongoing sailing expedition around the world that exposes teenagers to real-life, harsh environment adventures, while at the same time giving them a personal view and the ability to act on important environmental issues around our planet.   Since 2008, Mike has taken the Young Explorers on nine expeditions which included notable stops in Monaco, the Arctic and Nunavut Canada, New Zealand, Antarctica, Mongolia, South Africa and Borneo.

Sounds cool right?

Guess what else… it’s completely free for all participants.

This is no vacation however…

If chosen to participate in this program, youngsters can expect long days filled with watch standing, cooking, cleaning, navigating, and learning how to maintain this traveling classroom at sea.  The theme of the YEP is to promote exploration, learning, and to provide teens with the tools necessary for follow-on action.  While part of this program, projects are undertaken within the areas of Ecology and Conservation, Water and Sanitation, or Social Community involvement.

After tens of thousands of ocean miles, very little has been able to slow this boat down, or Mike Horn for that matter.  Fortunately for me however, a pesky air bubble was all it took to keep them in Annapolis for a few extra hours.

PANGAEA has three more expeditions ahead of her before the end of 2012 including stops in the Florida Everglades, the Gulf of Mexico, Patagonia, Brazil, and back to East Africa. Interested 15-20-year-olds may still apply via Mike’s website at www.mikehorn.com.

Military Sealift Command-chartered container ship MV BBC Ems departed McMurdo Station, Antarctica, Feb. 13 after delivering more than 84,000 square feet of vital supplies in support of Operation Deep Freeze. ODF is an annual U.S. Air Force-led mission to resupply the remote scientific outpost.

BBC Ems followed MSC tanker USNS Richard G. Matthiesen, which delivered more than 5.5 million gallons of crucial diesel, gasoline and jet fuel to McMurdo Station Jan. 29 to Feb. 5.

MSC ships deliver 100 percent of the fuel and about 80 percent of the supplies that the researchers and support personnel who live and work across Antarctica – up to 1,100 in the summer months – need to survive and work over the course of a year.

“Resupplying the Antarctic only happens once a year – it’s the window of opportunity,” said John Joerger, tanker project officer at MSC headquarters in Washington, D.C. “If we didn’t provide the fuel and supplies, they would have to shut the station down. They need it for heat, they need it for their vehicles, helicopters and all the things they do. If they don’t have fuel, they can’t survive in the Antarctic.”

An MSC dry cargo ship and tanker have made the dangerous voyage to Antarctica since the station was established in 1955.

BBC Ems arrived at McMurdo Station’s ice pier Feb. 5 carrying cargo that was loaded on board in Port Hueneme, Calif. Supplies aboard the 469-foot ship including food, household goods and research equipment; “everything you need to run a small city for a year,” said Timothy Pickering, cargo project officer at MSC headquarters.

It took 59 Sailors from the Williamsburg, Va.-based Navy Cargo Handling Battalion One and 65 members of the New Zealand Defence Force working around-the-clock three days to offload BBC Ems’ cargo. They then loaded the empty ship with cargo to be transported off the continent, including ice core samples carried back to the United States in three 40-foot refrigerated containers. The ship also took on trash and recyclable materials for disposal.

This year marks the final Antarctic voyage for MSC’s T-5 tanker class, of which Matthiesen is a part. Five tankers were built in the mid-1980s and chartered by MSC until 2003, when the command purchased four of the five.

“This is the last McMurdo Station port call for a T-5 tanker, a milestone in 26 years of dedicated tanker support by MSC, the Champion-class tankers and the U.S. merchant seamen who crew them in support of Operation Deep Freeze,” said Rear Adm. Mark H. Buzby, commander, MSC. “MSC will continue support to Operation Deep Freeze, but this marks the end of a proud era for the Champion-class tankers.”

The T-5s have been replaced for most Department of Defense fuel transport missions by two newly built tankers that came under charter to MSC in late 2010 and early 2011- MT Evergreen State and MT Empire State. Because these ships are not ice-strengthened, MSC will charter tankers on the commercial market to fill future ice missions.

-Source: MSC

Sure we’ve all seen and heard of the horror stories involving a boat full of tourists packed onto a ill-equipped vessel travelling to Antarctica.  We’ve also thought to ourselves “how could anyone be stupid enough to sign up for one of those trips”.  Well it’s tough to answer that question for every yahoo that choses to take a vacation down south, but the answer for this particular group is easy; passion for the sport of skiing and snowboarding.

Here is a look at the other side of one of these voyages.  The side of the passengers in search of the adventure of a lifetime where the ride there is just the beginning.

Ironically, the group here is none other the boys from gCaptain’s sister site, the ski and snowboard blog UnofficialNetworks.com.  Last fall, the group was able round-up a few handfuls of thrill seekers aboard the Clipper Advernturer, with the mission to bag as many first decsents as passible on the “The White Continent”.

The video above is part 1 of a seven part series titled “Skiing the Seven Continents“.

Some more bad news coming from the Southern Ocean over the weekend.

At approximately 6.30am yesterday, the Korean fishing vessel No 707 Hongjin sank about 2700km southeast of Bluff, New Zealand.  The vessel had 42 crew on board consisting of eight South Koreans, eight Chinese, 11 Indonesians, 11 Vietnamese, three Filipinos and one Russian when the she sank.

Two New Zealand fishing vessels were called to assist with the rescue.  20 survivors were rescued, 5 men were recovered dead and 17 are still missing.  According to reports, the vessel sank quickly forcing the crew to jump directly into the water without lifejackets or immersion suits.

Conditions in the area were decent with a light westerly at 10 knots and a 1m swell.  Water temperatures were at about 35.6 degrees Fahrenheit.

[Source - New Zealand Herald]

Check out this video of the Antarctic cruise ship, Clelia II, as it “limps” back to Argentina in heavy seas.  The vessel, with 100 passengers and 60 crew, lost power to one engine after being hit by a massive wave while transiting the Drake Passage on its way back from the Antarctic Peninsula.

The Clelia II is operated by Polar Cruises out of Bend, Oregon.

gCaptain forum member, c.captain has some strong statements about voyages such as this.  Join the discussion in the gCaptain forum HERE.

Check out more coverage of cruise ships in rough seas.

(Photo: Reuters)

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.

Ocean Nova Images

Yesterday, we touched briefly upon on the Argentine passenger vessel, Ushuaia, that ran aground Thursday on Antartica’s western peninsula. We are now seeing reports that all 89 passengers and 33 crew members have been safely removed from the ship. AFP writes:

They were taken off the cruise liner Ciudad de Ushuaia, which became stuck Thursday in Wilhelmina Bay, part of the Antarctic peninsula that reaches towards the southern tip of South America, Commander Alan Nettle said.

Argentine authorities on Thursday said the passengers and 33 crew members were all unhurt and the vessel was in no danger of sinking.

Citizens from Australia, Belgium, Britain, China, Germany, France, Ireland, Italy, New Zealand, Spain, Switzerland and the United States were among the passengers on the ship.

It is still unclear as to how much fuel was leaked into the water but reports are saying that the tank has been sealed.  We will be sure to update if we hear any more news on this incident.