{"id":2726,"date":"2022-01-31T12:57:22","date_gmt":"2022-01-31T12:57:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/endurance22.org\/?post_type=expedition-blog&p=2726"},"modified":"2022-02-14T20:25:37","modified_gmt":"2022-02-14T20:25:37","slug":"31-january-2022","status":"publish","type":"expedition-blog","link":"https:\/\/endurance22.org\/expedition-blog\/31-january-2022","title":{"rendered":"31 January 2022"},"content":{"rendered":"
Shackleton never gave up.<\/p>\n
Nor it seems do we.<\/p>\n
And so we are back.<\/p>\n
1075 days, or almost three years have passed since I and my colleagues slunk back to the UK with our tails between our legs. Beaten by the ice.<\/p>\n
I am standing on the high quayside of the East Dock in Cape Town looking up at one of the finest ice ships around. It is going to be our home for the next five to six weeks. Except we cannot go on board because it is loading fuel for our two helicopters. John Shears, the expedition leader, comes over and tells me it is going to take three hours at least. Jolly annoying.<\/p>\n
I am joined by Chad Bonin, a friend of many years from various deep-ocean survey projects around the world. He\u2019s from Louisiana. He is one of a small group who will be piloting the submersibles in our search for Sir Ernest Shackleton\u2019s Endurance. He was with me during the first attempt three years ago. Like me he is delighted to be back. \u2018A twice in a lifetime opportunity\u2019, he proclaims in his distinctive Southern drawl.<\/p>\n
We peer up at the great she-elephant of a cherry-red-painted ship before us. It\u2019s the 12,900 ton, 134 foot long, South African flagged SA Agulhas II. Launched in 2011 she is not exactly new, but nor by any measure is she some old tusker. Her primary role is the supply and relief of her nation\u2019s scientific bases on and around the Great White Continent. Vessels like this are the pit ponies of Antarctica; but this one is more than that; a cross between a Sherman tank, a wrecking ball and a Swiss-army knife, this is one of the best and most versatile ice breakers around.<\/p>\n