4 Icebergs in 4 days
"4 icebergs in 4 days -- I've never seen this many during three previous circumnavigations" Russian solo sailor Fedor Konyukhov reported this week from deep in the Southern Ocean after completing his first month trailblazing the Antarctica Cup Racetrack.
"Another large iceberg sited in position 54.99S and 122.73W today. It's becoming very scary to sail in these waters! The 10 mm alloy hull plating on my yacht Trading Network Alye Parusa is not the best shield against compressed ice. The sight of my first iceberg excited me earlier this week. This was something new - a different shape on the horizon. The second and third icebergs brought some safety concerns but today's sighting confirms to me that I am surrounded by drifting ice traveling NE. I am crossing their path in a SE direction.
It is very hard to spot icebergs on the radar. I have spotted the first four visually. Even when I knew their bearing, they were still hard to recognize on the radar screen. In a storm or high seas, the chances of spotting one are very slim.
The situation is also complicated by Cape Horn ahead. I need to dive south for another 150 miles to clear the Cape and Lee Bruce, my weather router wants me to be on 56°S by tomorrow to have the best set-up for making this rounding into the South Atlantic. I was progressing SE all night until iceberg number four. Now I have headwinds from ESE. I tacked and have come up on a NNE heading until the wind shifts to the west and will continue to hold up to 54-55°S because of the ice conditions.
When I am facing a storm, the forecast gives me a good idea of wind force, direction, wave height and period. With icebergs it's a lottery. Have I been lucky? How about last night. It was pitch dark, foggy and raining. With my 1 million-candle power torch I could hardly see the bowsprit, which is only 15 meters ahead. The chance of spotting an iceberg even just 100 meters ahead is zero.
According to the Routing Southern Pacific chart -- I am only approaching the boundaries of drifting ice but the map is 10 years old and with global warming, is not valid any more. During previous expeditions and voyages I have been witnessing the effects of global warming first hand. Last Spring, at the finish stretch of a dog sled expedition on the west coast of Greenland, we had to travel 10 kilometers over rocks and gravel. A decade ago that area had been covered by a thick ice cap and the glacier was dropping directly into the ocean. Here in the Southern Ocean I can see that Antarctica is rapidly losing its ice shield on a large scale."
Regards, Fedor
Position: 54° 37'S 122° 13'W
Course: 22° Speed: 4.5knots Distance covered 5.600 n.miles
Submitted By YachtPals on 01 Mar
Antarctica Cup, icebergs, Fedor Konyukhov, sailboats, sailing, sailboat, boats, boat, antarctic, antarctica
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Fedor at sea (via sat. phone)
The last three days were not very easy for us here deep in the Southern Ocean. The wind has been below 10 knots for prolonged periods and we are fighting big swells whilst forever trying to make our way towards Cape Horn. With not enough wind and a big swell the sails undergo a lot of stress (flapping side to side). As a result I have a damaged main sail. There are two vertical cracks in the middle of the sail, just below the second reef. Weather permitting I will try to repair it with a spectra patch and ‘sicaflex’. For this I need a dry day which is a rare moment down here.
At latitude 55 South and close the Polar Circle we get only five hours of darkness each day The rest of the time it’s mostly dark and grey. I get a feeling that we are stuck in time. The sun is supposed to come but it’s not coming. In addition with the heavy fog we had yesterday I’ve got a feeling of being placed into a wet and cold cellar which is the environment we have in the navigation station which is where I live. In the cockpit it’s the same typical scenario - chilling wind and rain, sleet, snow, drizzle, big hail stones – we have it all day after day. Can you imagine the sound of a hail stones rattling on my unlined aluminum deck? You cannot believe the din down below.
It is unbelievable how much rain is pouring into the Southern Ocean. So much fresh water being wasted. If we could transfer these clouds towards Central Australia the area would be a tropical forest.
Today I switched from the Pacific to the West Atlantic satellite for the Sat-C terminal. Although we are still in the Pacific it seemed we were out of the coverage zone.
Readers – you may think that I’m a tough person undertaking this journey around the Antarctica Cup Racetrack. Let me tell you the past three days have been very tough and I’ve been feeling very low. I’ve had very little sleep looking out for icebergs. The motion of the boat in these waves is awful. The damage to my mainsail is worrying me. I took a shower a few days back and must have caught a chill which forced me to spend a day in my wet sleeping bag feeling very sorry for myself. Things are better today. We have 1.100 nautical miles to Cape Horn. The wind is picking up now.
I saw one whale yesterday and one albatross today. In my last journey in this region I saw many albatross every day. What has happened to the magnificent albatross?
Regards Fedor
Position: 56,23.91S , 104,57.14W
Speed: 6 knots, Course: 117 deg.
WIND 20+ knots NW-WNW
Fedor at sea (via sat. phone)
The major challenge right now is to repair my 220 sq m. mainsail which has two vertical cracks below the first reef.
To affect this repair I need to put on many layers of clothes (wet) and climb into my storm gear, goggles, and gloves to avoid frostbite. I will then lower the sail enough to reach the damaged area. The boom on my yacht Trading Network Alye Parusa is two metres above the deck. I need to climb up, lash myself to whatever I can find so that I'm not thrown into the freezing ocean by the constant pitching and rolling of the boat, then try to dry the damaged area enough so that I can stick a patch on the sail. This I have to do on both sides of the sail. This is no small job. I don't know how long it will take. I only know it has to be done before Cape Horn. I'm not looking forward to it at all.
Wish me luck! Fedor
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