Fedor reported record number of icebergs within last 28 hours. Here are reports via Sat-C Inmarsat terminal with UTC time, position and date:
Position: 54,31.78S, 120,1.64W
UTC Time: 29. February 2008 21:15
Iceberg to my port side within 3 miles
Position: 54,38.75S, 119,18.4W
UTC Time: 01. March 2008 02:30
large iceberg ahead, within 5 miles.
Position: 54,36.69S , 119,6.28W
UTC Time: 01. March 2008 03:34
2 small icebergs to stbd side.
Position: 54,32.79S , 117,40.73W
UTC Time: 01. March 2008 13:05
Iceberg to stbd side
Position: 54,42.8S , 115,37.27W
UTC Time: 02. March 2008 00:41
wind 12-15 kt WW -FEDOR OK -Icebergs —
Quote from Fedor:
“Southern Pacific keeps me busy even in relaxed weather. Despite light winds and smooth ocean, I am all time on deck – scanning ocean. Icebergs are keeping pouring on me. I am filming them at different angles. Making notes in my log book, mark them on paper chart, making sketches on my note book. Full records are made about each berg. We have perfect conditions for observing icebergs. Very good visibility, clear sky, wind less then 15 knots, very smooth and low swell and no wind waves. All bergs I have seen are very tall, like skyscrapers. All of them were spotted visually and then using radar to find out distance and bearing. With sunny spells we are having now – the bergs are shining and sparkling which helps to see them at the distance.
Using rear moments of dry weather and a bit of sunshine and dry out nav station and ventilated the boat, dry out foul weather gear, cook soup out of sour cabbage (Russian recipe) and even heat up water to wash my head. The boat progress in these conditions not very impressive but I need this pause to catch my breath after several storms and before we enter into Cape Horn zone.
Here is a quote from British Antarctic Survey on Fedor’s report of numerous bergs.
“it is expected to get more frequent observations of icebergs in the Weddell Sea sector and thus Atlantic sector. This arises as a result of the ocean current system in the Southern Ocean. Most icebergs are transported anti-clockwise round Antarctica (in the East Wind Drift) when close to the coast, and clock-wise further north (in the ACC). There are a number of preferred corridors / paths / bands of longitude where icebergs can be carried north from the EWD to the ACC. Most icebergs that calve anywhere in the sector from the eastern Ross Ice Shelf to the west round to the Antarctic Peninsula tend to stay in the EWD and so are carried into the Weddell Sea and thence out through the Weddell Sea.
So it is partly to do with proximity to the ice shelves in the Weddell region, but also associated with the dominant currents concentrating icebergs paths in this region”.
Andrew Fleming – Remote Sensing Manager
British Antarctic Survey – http://www.antarctica.ac.uk/
Fedor is now sailing in the region between Ross Ice Shelf and Weddell Sea – the main suppliers of Icebergs for the Southern Ocean. In the Southern Atlantic iceberg can travel up to Falkland, Tristan da Cunha and even Cape Agulhas in South Africa. It means Fedor will have to conduct icebergs look out all the way to 45 South in the Indian Ocean, before he turns North to Albany.