HMS Endurance Kayak Team Blog

28th February
We have all been back on the ship for a couple of days and the worst part of the expedition is over – cleaning and stowing our kit.

With time now to reflect and write up the expedition report and arrange some of the team’s photos I have put aside most thoughts of the James Ross Circumnavigation but will mention them briefly.

The original aim of the Endurance Kayak team was to paddle Greenland 66 North and then 66 South. Unfortunately in the planning stages Greenland proved to be impossible to arrange in the given time, with permit requests being required a year prior. The second part of the plan was to paddle 66 South which couldn’t be achieved due to the Ship’s programme and the hosting of other groups onboard.

With this in mind a plan was developed to circumnavigate a major Island. Although it looked likely we could achieve James Ross Island due to the reducing ice concentrations it could not be done in the time we had or strictly without making long and dangerous portages. So we did keep to the original plan in that we circumnavigated Vega Island and then visited Egg, Red, Vortex, Humps and Devils Islands covering approximately 105 nautical miles in the process.

Now that I have managed to calm the competitive drive I had created in myself in order to achieve the goal of James Ross Island, I have lifted the fog of annoyance that has until now reduced my post expedition satisfaction.

Now that I have got that off my chest, I will return to my current peaceful contemplation of what we have achieved and seen. Looking through the group’s photos and diaries I am reminded of all the fantastic things we have seen and done. I could try to describe it all but I think it better just to provide you with some of our better photos so that you can see for yourself. The only thing to consider while looking at the pictures is what it is like to remove yourself from the busy and noisy world you find yourself in as you read this and imagine the absolute silence that exists between the cracking of ice or the breaching of whales; the coolness and freshness of the air in your nostrils that only walks on a crisp Boxing day morning come close to, and look again.

Of course it was not all like this or everyone would be down here paddling. The environment here is very changeable and requires constant attention to prevent injury or worse. Our camping skills are all good as is our cold weather and survival knowledge. Some of us like myself have had less experience of living in extreme cold for any length of time but the lectures and training we have received coupled with a lot of common sense have made our time on the ice comfortable rather than a matter of survival.

We were relatively lucky with the weather in general and although we had one long day under cover from a gale force blizzard we experienced little really bad weather. We had one day of thick sea fog which made our 15 nautical mile crossing through the icebergs potentially trickier than you might like. We had a good Navigator in Russ and we had GPS that we checked about half way across which proved we were still heading for land not the open ocean.

Again I should point out that it was not all hard work, in case my Mother reads this and worries about her boy doing ‘dangerous’ things in the future. I’ll let on that we managed a bit of sunbathing on the icebergs as well as a few entertaining seal launches in the boats – Not dangerous Mum.

Anyway I think that will do for now as I have a few more things to sort before lunch. TTFN.

Endurance Kayak