Alarmed And Feeling Alone | East Antarctica

Saturday, 13 January 2024
Day 52 of 110ish

The weather and sea have improved significantly! Thank God! Plus a good nights sleep and life is good again. 

Feeling Alarmed

Tom and I decided that we would boldly attempt studying the remainder of yachtmasters during gentleman’s hours when we have a nice chunk of time between meals. The last time we attempted this feat was in the middle of Cyclone Gabrielle in Whangarei, NZ last summer.

So being the diligent student I am, I found myself diving into the Yachtmaster course. As I was starting into Yachtmasters, I heard the faint sound of an alarm emanating from one of two stories below me.

Hmmmm!

I mentioned it to Tom, who in true Tom fashion, went trundling off to investigate. The main alarm wasn’t sounding so I didn’t worry too much. I continued on with Yachtmasters. Then a few minutes later the main alarm went off! 

Eek! This is really happening!

Emergency At Sea

A herd of us started up to the bridge when we were turned back. False alarm! 

In the distance, I could still hear the other alarm. Then the main alarm went off again. This wasn’t a drill.

This wasn’t a false alarm.

I grabbed a big heavy jacket and went outside to the muster station. We got shuttled around different areas of the deck because what happened was a refrigeration valve was leaking ammonia through the boat and we were trying to stay clear of the fumes. 

This did mean that we were in the wind. Thankfully it wasn’t super windy today but it was overcast and a bit miserable.

Mother Hen

In the meantime, I saw Ipan standing there without a jacket, in a t-shirt, shorts and flip flops shivering his little Indonesian self into oblivion. My mother hen instincts kicked in and I threw my enormous jacket around him as we huddled in the freezing wind. 

Thankfully, after what seemed like forever, Tangi, the skipper, said it was clear enough in the wheelhouse for all of us to gather in there with the heater blasting. 

Relief!

Real Life Classroom

It was fun being in the wheelhouse and watching the CCTV footage of the guys dressed in their BA (breathing apparatus) gear going in and out of the room to fix the leak. 

These are the situations that we train for when we take our STCW courses. Yet, I feel like I would have been an absolute liability if I were to have to be involved. Even still, anything can happen at anytime even on a 3 year old boat.

Is Anybody Out There?

Certainly not something you want to happen down at the bottom of the world, but thankfully, the skilled crew made a bad situation go smoothly. 

It is situations like this that truly highlight how alone we are out here. It is blatantly evident how self-sufficient we need to be no matter what. We were no longer amongst a fleet of boats in the Ross Sea.

We were paving our own path now. Looking on Marine Traffic, there were no boats around us for days. The gravity of what had just happened was gut wrenching!

So that relieved a little bit of boredom for the crew…then back to being bored while Tom and I continued cooking and studying.

Life goes on!