Ship's track - Updated every six hours from the weather observations sent to Bracknell weather centre - direct from BAS homepage.
 

Summary

The journey from Montevideo to Stanley proved to be an uneventful one. On Monday 25th several groups of sperm whales were sighted, some of them just resting on the surface until the ship approached and then doing a deep dive with the tail coming clear of the water. The weather remained fair with a tail wind and following seas throughout the whole journey and the Bransfield tied up to the FIPASS jetty at 0800 on Tuesday 26th for a brief stay in the Falklands. The personnel who were joining the ship had arrived in the Falklands on the Sunday evening (following a diversion of their aircraft to Montevideo!) and moved on board shortly after or arrival. A small amount of cargo for Signy and Halley was loaded and then the ship was prepared for the next journey south.

Dave Rees, SG1, celebrated his 28th birthday in the Victory Bar. Alas, there are no photographs of this memorable event!

The weather in the Falklands once again did us proud, with bright, sunny days and warm temperatures. At the same time as our stay the passenger vessel Noordam also visited with several thousand passengers, thus doubling the population of the Islands for a few hours.

The Bransfield departed Stanley on Thursday morning for the short passage to Signy. Our first ice-bergs were sighted as we approached Coronation Island on Saturday. The vessel anchored off Signy at 0600 Sunday morning and 'Tula', the cargo tender, was loaded with cargo and fresh provisions and headed into the base at about 0800. Two of the personnel embarked at Stanley were leaving the Bransfield and will be spending the next eight weeks at Signy, making the total number on the base seven. Mike Gloistein, the Radio Officer, had an interesting trek to the top of one of the hills on the island to look at a radio repeater that was not working correctly and returned to the ship with it under his arm in the hope of resolving the problem on the journey to Halley and re-fitting the unit towards the end of February when the Bransfield is next due to visit this lovely island.

Two related web sites to look at are:

• Falkland Islands Tourism - For further information on the Falkland Islands
• Heritage Antarctica - Includes information on both the UK Antarctic Heritage Trust and the New Zealand Antarctic Heritage Trust

Last updated 10/02/1999 - webmaster@dartcom.co.uk