RUNNING before a storm building from the Falklands, the Irish Antarctic Expedition made its first land fall in South Georgia last night after a formidable 800-mile sea passage across the Southern Ocean.
The expedition's 54ft rescue yacht, Pelagic, dropped anchor in Cooper Bay on the island's southeast tip, having rounded Cape Disappointment at 6 p.m. Irish time.
"It was like sailing into a wonderful glacial amphitheatre," the team's joint leader, Mr Frank Nugent, said last night.
Weather permitting, the vessel expects to work its way up the island's east coast to the Antarctic's first whaling station at Grytviken, where the Irish polar explorer, Sir Ernest Shackleton, is buried.
Climbing gear was already being sorted in the Pelagic's hold yesterday as the expedition prepares for its 30-mile mountain crossing from King Haakon Bay on the island's north-west flank, a snow and ice journey first undertaken by Shackleton and part of his rescue crew in 1916.
The expedition may put in some training before setting off, according to its manager, Mr John Bourke. "They were barely able to keep warm, let alone walk about or exercise when they were on the Tom Crean," he told The Irish Times, speaking by satellite phone on the Pelagic from the Scotia Sea.
Modelled on the original lifeboat used by Shackleton and five others, the Tom Crean's cabin was little bigger than a coffin. The crew could take 30 minutes to perform the necessary acrobatics involved in removing foul weather gear when coming off watch, while eating could induce indigestion due to insufficient head - and stomach - room.
Spirits improved considerably yesterday after Sunday's loss of that vessel, said Mr Bourke. The five crew were rescued by the Pelagic, and the Tom Crean was scuttled after three capsizes in a Force to storm.
A flood of e-mails from Ireland and beyond had helped to raise morale, Mr Bourke added. "We're very moved by the messages of goodwill and by the statement from the Minister for Sport, Bernard Allen," he said. "We can't reply to them all individually so we intend to put up a response on our Web site page on the Internet."
Landing in King Haakon Bay, South Georgia, in their 23ft lifeboat almost 81 years ago, Shackleton's crew encountered huge rollers which almost swept them on to a lee shore.
"For three hours, our thirst almost forgotten, we looked death square in the eye," Frank Worsley, Shackleton's navigator, wrote. "Foot by foot, we staggered and lurched drunkenly past the ravening black fangs of the rocky point. The moments became so tense that we feared even to speak - just held our breath or bailed harder..."
South Georgia's rock-strewn waters have long been a ship's graveyard - taking a particular high toll of British and US seaters in the last century. On erecting a plaque to Shackleton in King Haakon Bay, the expedition aims to climb the island's highest peak, Mount Paget (2,943 metres), which was first ascended in 1964.
