Br.Ant.Territory : Hard Part First for South Georgia Kayakers
Submitted by (Juanita Brock) 14.10.2005 (Article Archived on 28.10.2005)
The BBC's Deborah Vogle asks Nigel Dennis to explain to listeners about his South Georgia Kayak adventure.
HARD PART FIRST FOR SOUTH GEORGIA KAYAKERS
A Report for BBC World Service “Calling the Falklands” by Deborah Vogle (DV) 12/10/05
Heading to the Falklands and due to arrive on the 5th of November are 4 heroic Kayakers, whose ultimate destination is South Georgia. The team of three men and one woman is lead by Pete Frey, who you may remember hearing on the programme after he became the first person to paddle solo across the Atlantic. That was three years ago and he said then his next challenge would be South Georgia. His team will meet up with their support vessel in Stanley and head South, just as a team from New Zealand is embarking on the same challenge. Nigel Dennis (ND), a member of the British Team, told me what he knew about the dangers of the trip.
ND: Just looking at South Georgia itself, the main piece of coast that could be a problem to us is the Southern side – south-east, if you like. That’s the sort of crux stretch for us.
DV: So where will you be starting from? Where does that area fit into your journey?
ND: As we are sailing across from the Falklands we will obviously be looking at the weather systems and things coming through. And, we will make a decision where to start with the prevailing weather conditions in mind. So, we would like to get the worst piece of the Island over with first. If the weather looks good we will start on the south-east corner.
DV: So how long is the journey likely to take?
ND: It all depends on the weather. There are two issues – there’s the swell and the wind. So if there is large swells running then it’s going to create quite a bit of surf on the coast.
DV: What about icebergs?
ND: They aren’t too much of a problem. We will be steering clear of some of the bigger ones, especially if they look unstable. The pack ice coming off the glaciers sometimes causes us a little bit of a problem but, again, it depends on the wind direction. It also depends on how much pack ice is actually in the water at the time.
DV: Will you spend the night on land or go back to your support ship? How does that work?
ND: We will basically be spending every night on land. The support boat is there to oversee the expedition. But if the weather turns and it’s nasty, the support boat will have more problems than we will. We suspect that the boat will have to run to shelter and probably leave us on various bits of the coast when the weather gets bad. We can dive in quite quickly. A lot of it is our judgement. If we think the sea is going to pick up and get worse, we need to land before it reaches that stage. If we make a mistake and the weather catches us out then it is a matter of keeping going until we get shelter to land.
DV: Of course South Georgia isn’t quite uninhabited, is it? The Carrs, who have been based there for a number of years are living there. Will you be able to go and see them?
ND: Yes. We hope so. Where they actually live is at the head of a bay so it is a little bit out of our way but yes it would be a shame not to call in there.
DV: And, there is going to be a record number of cruise vessels around the time that you will be there.
ND: We haven’t been in touch with any cruise vessels. We are quite keen to polarise aims and objectives and just get on with things without being too side-tracked.
DV: So, what’s it all for, then? Why are you doing this?
ND: It’s a unique part of the world. It hasn’t been done before but that’s not a major thing for us. It’s something that’s been talked about in the sea kayaking world for years and there have been various attempts, which have failed for one reason or another. We all do expeditions as part of our lives and we all decided it was a good thing to try and do. So it’s grown from there.
DV: So you are not completely bonkers?
ND: I’d like to think not.
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