| Ship's Diary |
| During her time at sea, HMS Endurance will be sending back regular diaries to keep us all up to date with what is happening on this deployment. Use the links below to read extracts from the diary. |
| April Update from the Flight Department |
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Hello, `Johno’ the Aircraft Controller here again to tell you what 212 Flight has been up to since our diary entry. The last couple of months have seen quite a lot change for us on HMS ENDURANCE. For us on the Flight this has meant a change in our work and a change to our Boss with Lt Jameson leaving us to be replaced by Lt Cdr Collins as the Flight Commander.
First, let me cover the work we’ve carried out. After our visit to Ushuaia in southern Argentina, the Ship headed to a different part of Antarctica for our third and final work period. This was meant to be five weeks and ENDURANCE was set to go as far south as we could. However, the work period was cut short and we had to head away from Antarctica earlier then planned. For us on the Flight however it was business as usual but with a bit of a difference. Instead of the Vertical Photography cameras on the aircraft - we had a big camera called the “Gyron” camera. Our job with this camera was to film Humpback whales while they fed – this was something that had never been done from the air before. The filming was part of the documentary series called `Planet Earth’ and our part is set to be titled `The Poles’. We initially had problems finding the whales due to very poor weather and this problem threatened to ruin our chances of capturing them on film. We were trying to do this filming on top of our normal tasks of putting working parties ashore for surveying and moving scientists around. We managed to get quite a lot of filming done of scenery and the penguin colonies when the weather improved but the whales seemed to be very camera shy. We really thought that we wouldn’t be able to get the footage for the BBC and this dampened our mood quite a bit. But just as we were due to leave Antarctica, the whales came through for us and the BBC crew got the footage they needed and this made all the hours of waiting seem worthwhile.
By the time you read this update, we will be on our way home with our 2005/6 deployment drawing to a close. So what has this trip meant to me? The work we’ve carried out has been very interesting, worthwhile and totally different to any work I would have done if I were on a Frigate, Destroyer or Aircraft Carrier.
When this deployment is over I will continue to write our diary to let you know what 212 Flight will be doing in the UK and of course, when we sail again for our next deployment later in the year. Finally, I would like to say a special `thank you’ for taking the time to visit our website and for following what we have been doing for the last six months. Bye for now POAC `Johno’ Johnson |
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