Video: Rocking and Rolling On The Southern Ocean

The Drake Passage is one of the most notoriously treacherous bodies of water in the world. Sitting between the southern tip of South America and the Shetland Islands of Antarctica, it is a dividing line of sorts between the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. Because of its unique geographical location, it has been known to see some incredibly bad weather, which can make sailing through those waters a precarious affair.

Recently, ski guide Kent McBride experienced this first hand when he was returning from an expedition to the Antarctic in which he, and some teammates, skied a variety of locations in the region. After finishing up that excursion, the team was on its way back to Chile, when they caught out in the Drake Passage when things began to get a bit dicey. You can see the results in the video below, which show the waters there rolling dramatically, while we're informed that the wind gusts are topping out the Beaufort Scale, which is a ranking between 1 and 12 that indicates the force and danger of the winds. In this case, the ship was experiencing a 12 on that scale, which is hurricane force.

You can read more about Kent's adventures over at the Born Out There Blog, which is the official blog of First Ascent gear.

Warning: If you're prone to sea sickness, this video may be enough to put you over the edge.

Olly Hicks Gears Up For Global Row 2012

Remember Olly Hicks? He was the young adventurer who attempted to circumnavigate Antarctica in a rowboat back in 2009. Ultimately, due to a number of reasons, he was forced to abandon that voyage, but now he is back and gearing up to give it another go next year.

In his first  attempt, Olly set out from Tasmania to challenge the Southern Ocean, but soon found the conditions in that body of water were fickle and conspiring to work against him. The wind and currents made it nearly impossible for Hicks to make progress, and after weeks out on the water, he eventually conceded defeat, due in no small part to design flaws on his boat that made it less than ideal for the waters in which he was traveling.

Since that time, Olly has been working with two veteran naval designers on ways to overcome the flaws in his original boat design. With those new designs complete, he now feels ready to start planning his next attempt at the Global Row 2012, as the expedition has been dubbed. The new boat incorporates some unique features that will make it better suited for the conditions in the Southern Ocean, and the design team feels that Olly can expect to average 50-60 nautical miles per day. He'll put those estimates to the test when he returns to the water in October of next year, departing from Tasmania once again.

The voyage is expected to take somewhere between 18-22 months to complete, during which time Hicks will cover more than 18,000 nautical miles. The first phase of the journey will take Olly across the Pacific Ocean to South Georgia Island, where he plans to wait out the winter before resuming. That stage is expected to take approximately 160 days to complete. After overwintering and resupplying in South Georgia, he'll take to the Atlantic Ocean and continue around the globe, before arriving back in Tasmania. If successful in his venture, Hicks will become the first person to circumnavigate the Southern Ocean by rowboat.

While Olly loves a good adventure and wants to set the record, he's also making the row for two of his favorite charities as well. He hopes that his efforts will help raise funds for both the Hope and Homes for Children organization as well as the Save Our Seas Foundation.

While October 2012 seems like a long way off at this point, Olly is about to begin the all important search for sponsors for the Global Row 2012. With that in mind, a new website will be launching soon, and you can keep up with Olly's progress on his Facebook page right now.

Stay tuned for more as Olly ramps up for his next big adventure next year.

Antarctic Tourism On The Decline

I covered this topic this morning at Gadling.com, but thought it was worth sharing here as well. Yesterday I received a press release from the International Association of Antarctic Tour Operators that gave some interesting statistics on the Antarctic tourism season that just ended. Those numbers indicated that there was a slide in the number of visitors to Antarctica this year, with 8.3% fewer people traveling in the region. This trend is expected to continue in the season ahead as well, with even more significant drops in the number of visitors to the frozen continent.

According to the IAATO, 33,824 people traveled in and around Antarctica in the 2010-2011 season. That number is down from the 36,875 from the year before. Of those travelers, 18,534 actually set foot on the continent itself, while 14,373 of them chose to just cruise the Southern Ocean instead. These numbers were reported by members of the IAATO, which carry clients throughout the region aboard small and medium sized expedition ships and yachts. The "cruise-only" folks were generally aboard larger cruise ships.

While the 8.3% drop is fairly substantial, that's nothing compared to what is projected for the 2011-2012 season. This August, a ban on heavy fuel oils will go into effect, limiting the number of larger ships that can enter the waters around Antarctica as well. That will most likely effect the cruise-only numbers, which are expected to drop below 5000 travelers total. When factoring in an economy that continues to struggle, the IAATO believes that there will be as much as a 25% drop in travel to Antarctica in the season ahead.

This is good news for environmentalists who have long feared that increased traffic would damage the fragile environments in Antarctica. These substantially lower numbers should help to protect the region from too much harm, and the ban on heavy fuels is designed to do the very same thing.

On the other hand, tour operators in the region can't be happy with the projections, as they could potentially be scrambling to fill their cabins. Obviously the largest decline will be in the cruise only section, where the number of ships operating in the Southern Ocean will be reduced from 12 down to just five, but if the expectations of a poor economy continue, we may see some good bargains for those looking to travel to the very deep south later this year.

Missing Antarctic Yacht Update: Life Raft Discovered Adrift In The Southern Ocean

For the past few days I've been following the search for the missing yacht in the Antarctic. The Norwegian-flagged Berserk ran into trouble a few days back, and hasn't been seen or heard from since. Yesterday, the ship's life raft was discovered in the Southern Ocean, damaged and adrift, giving an ominous sign of the likely fate of the vessel.

Search and rescue efforts have been ongoing since Wednesday, when storms in the region allowed ships to finally reach the area where the Berserk activated its emergency beacon on Tuesday. Two ships and a helicopter from the Sea Shepard organization have been combing the area looking for clues, and they were the ones to discover the life raft yesterday. That raft was said to have a ripped canopy and was missing both its first aid kit and survival knife. There were no indications that it has been occupied however, and it is just as likely that it drifted away from the yacht on its own as someone used it for escape.

The water temperature in the area was reportedly -12ºC (10ºF) which means that if anyone were in the water, they would probably only live for a few minutes at the most. Now that more than three days have passed since we have heard any word from the ship at all, it seems increasingly unlikely that the crew is still alive. The search will go on today however, as their is still slim hope that they are still out there, adrift on the sea currents, and without power.

If there is any further news, I'll post updates.

Missing Antarctic Yacht Update: Two Crew Members Located

Yesterday I posted a story about the Norwegian yacht the Berserk which had gone missing off the coast of Antarctica. Today we have word that two of the crew have been located on the continent itself, and that they may hold some clues as to where the missing ship might be.

As reported, the ship had five people aboard when it set sail, and the intention was for two of them to be dropped off on Antarctica itself in an attempt to go to the South Pole by ATV. Apparently the delivery to the continent took place, as the ship's captain Jarle Andhøy and an 18-year old crew member were found alive and well yesterday and have reportedly been working with rescue teams to help locate the missing 14-meter, steel hulled yacht which has three other crew members still aboard, including two Norwegians and one British national.

The Berserk went missing two days ago after activating its emergency locator beacon amidst high winds and 25 foot waves. At the time, the ship was roughly 18 nautical miles off the coast of Antarctica. Since then, all attempts to contact the vessel have proven fruitless and the beacon has stopped transmitting. The bad weather, which is common in the Southern Ocean, has slowed down search and rescue operations, but there are a number of ships in the area now, including naval vessels from New Zealand and two ships from the Sea Shepard organization.

The SAR teams are still holding out hope that they might find the Berserk adrift at sea with her crew alive and well, but the longer it takes to locate them, the more unlikely that outcome seems to be. Lets continue to hope for the best as the search continues today.

Ship Goes Missing Off Antarctic Coast

A small sailing yacht has gone missing off the coast of Antarctica after setting off its emergency beacon yesterday amidst rough seas and high winds. The ship is believed to be carrying as many as five passengers, although exactly who was aboard at the time the beacon was turned on is still unknown.

The 14-meter steel hulled Berserk is operated by Berserk Expeditions and conducts small, private sailing adventures in various parts of the world. The yacht was believed to have visited the Antarctic continent where it may have dropped off two passengers who are attempting to drive ATV's to the South Pole. If that event did take place, then three passengers could still be aboard the ship, including the Norwegian skipper Jarle Andhøy. The boat was believed to have possibly four other passengers, including three more Norwegians and a British national.

Rescue ships have been dispatched out of New Zealand to the Southern Ocean to search for the missing yacht, but the bad weather in the region hasn't made the search easy so far. All attempts to contact the ship have also failed and the emergency beacon is no longer transmitting either. Weather reports indicate that 75 knot winds and 6 to 8 meter swells are hitting the area at the moment, although conditions are expected to improve later in the day.

The last known location of the Berserk was approximately 33 nautical miles off the coast of the Antarctic continent, just north of the Scott Base. The current outlook of finding the ship, and her crew, in good condition is a bit grim, but rescue teams are holding out hope none the less.

Wanted: Operations Manager For Rower Attempting Circumnavigation of Antarctica!

Looking for a new job? Are you tired of the day-to-day grind of your current occupation? Want to work closely with an outdoor adventurer and explorer? If you said yes to any of the above, then I just might have the gig for you. It seems that Ollie Hicks is gearing up for another attempt at rowing around Antarctica, and he is in need of a good operations manager. Who ever gets the role will have an important position to fill, taking care of a lot of Ollie's needs while he is out on the water once again.

The details of the position have been posted at EscapeTheCity.org and can be accessed by clicking here. The first thing you'll need to know is that you must be living in the UK to take on the job, which pays £20k a year. (That translates to about US $31,500 for those scoring at home.) The job description was posted on January 6th and there is a deadline of February 19th for those who are interested.

There are two things that I take away from this. 1) I really need to be in the UK so I can get a job like this one, and 2) It's good to hear that Ollie is planning his return to the water. For those who didn't follow his adventure last time, Hicks had planned to make the first rowing circumnavigation of Antarctica, and set out to do just that. After having some issues with the Australian government letting him depart from Tasmania, he quickly made a change of plans and set out from New Zealand instead. But, he ran into issues with the design of his boat that made progress nearly impossible in the challenging and cold waters of the Southern Ocean. Hopefully he has resolved those issues with the boat, which he lovingly dubbed the "Flying Carrot," and he'll have a real, legitimate chance of completing his expedition this time out. Either way, it won't be an easy one.

I'll posted updates on Ollie's progress as he gets closer to getting underway.