Falklands : Yeates to Set Off Despite Seasonal Dangers
Submitted by Falkland Islands News Network (Juanita Brock) 10.01.2006 (Article Archived on 24.01.2006)
Colin Yates is determined to set off for his Antarctic circumnavigation in about two weeks.
YEATES TO SET OFF DESPITE SEASONAL DANGERS
By J. Brock (FINN)
Colin Yeates (CY) is determined to circumnavigate Antarctica despite the dangers of the Southern Ocean Winter. He told FINN that once his rowing boat, the Charlie Rossiter, is fixed, he intends to set off.
FINN: Will the delay change your route in any way?
CY: It may. It’s always been a situation where I have been trying to head as far south as is possible. It may mean that I will look to go to a lower latitude rather than the higher latitudes. If I can get the boat back in the water within the next two weeks then there is no reason why that should make too much of a difference.
FINN: Is Paul Ellis going to tow you out a bit further this time?
CY: I will ask them if they can do that. I need to speak with Paul and have a word with his colleagues and see which is the best way to go?
FINN: As a curious person I note that you are heading south in the middle to end of January. It’s going to be pretty late in the season by the time you reach Antarctic waters. Before you make any distance at all, the Antarctic Continent, due to the winter ice, will grow exponentially. Have you made any contingency plans for that?
CY: Yes I have. I was anticipating one particular route anyway. I have at least 15 chart possibilities scanned in to take into account what time I leave. Clearly the sea ice expands further into the South Atlantic than it does into the Indian Ocean and the Pacific, so you are right. It is a key situation to get out of or around that sea ice.
FINN: if it doesn’t work this time, will you try again next season or will you plod on regardless of what season it is – autumn, winter, spring?
CY: I am in a situation now where I have stripped down the boat and have taken off parts of the filler and the epoxy that were cracked and damaged. I have taken that right back to the Kevlar. There are no punctures in the Kevlar so there is no real reason, once I get the materials here to fix it properly, that I shouldn’t just go ahead and get on with it. If I were going to be here a month, it wouldn’t work. I would ship the boat back home and then review. I have an Atlantic race at the end of this year that I can do. I don’t really want to think about that but I want to focus on getting the boat back up to scratch, getting it back in the water and testing it. Then I want to get on my way.
FINN: If it is second time unlucky and the Falklands experience seems jinxed, whoul you consider another start and finish point?
CY: I think the Falklands are – if this could be done – then I think the Falklands are the best place to start from. Initially, you have the current against you but once you are out of the danger of coming into contact with land, then that’s part and parcel of it. If I set off from New Zealand, I would have even further to go south. I know somebody who has tried something similar and it just didn’t work.. You haven’t got the speed in a rowing boat to be able to cope with anything like that. So, I think the Falklands are the best place.
FINN: Are you just relying on yourself and the equipment on your boat to get you through, or have you asked vessels in the area to keep an eye out for you?
CY: Fish-ops will keep an eye on us to some degree. They said that they would track me, probably by the website and the Argos Beacon. But once you are out there, you are pretty much self sufficient. I’ve got pretty good communications, I’ve got a satellite phone, I’ve got the Argos Beacon, I’ve got a PDA..
FINN: Do you still have your appendix?
CY: Yes. I’ve still got my appendix.
FINN: You can’t plan appendicitis.
CY: I have also got a pretty good medical kit. I think, when you set out on a venture like this, it’s a situation where you know you are going to put yourself in places where you can’t get help. And, that’s why you look at what you are doing and you try to make sure you are as self sufficient as you possibly can be. The last thing you want to do is put other people at risk when you go out to do something that is a risk to yourself.
FINN: Are you doing this for a charity?
CY: The Hampshire Echo at home have very close links with Wessex Heartbeat. They do a lot of good for raising funds for Southampton General Hospital for heart complaints in children. Te work they do is tremendous. They actually paid for the children’s ward at the hospital. They also converted a couple of houses for people with children in the hospital. They are a small organisation but very professionally run.
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