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Polar First just miles from the Pole
13:28 p.m. EST Dec 16, 2003
Colin and Jennifer are working their way towards the Pole. Makes you wonder if by now the inside of their helicopter is not that much different than your car would be after a long, long road trip, McDonald’s wrappers lying on the floor, coffee stains on the seats, tapes, CD's and the wayward world atlas strewn about the cockpit? Their latest dispatch has them at just 208 miles from the Pole and waiting for the weather.
December 15th:
Slept rather well and then remembered where we were and no stove. Happily it all got sorted. Colin found the problem was ice in one of the small pipes and soon we were enjoying hot cereal and coffee though still looking at a white out scene.
Optimistically we refueled the heli and then waited, and waited and decided to have a lunch of chicken curry and rice. Phoned Tamara to discover that they were all having the 'office' Christmas lunch! (Tamara and Simon's office - all four of them). We told them I'd left the connector cable for the Iridium at Patriot Hills and we had turned heli inside out but found no sign of it.
4pm The weather is looking marginally better so we decided to give it a go AND found the Iridium leads. Set off with the weather steadily improving. It felt great to be doing the 'half hour report' back to Patriot Hills. Then, much to our surprise, we spotted a sledging party! I think they were surprised too but we didn't land in case they were an unsupported group and almost immediately found ourselves in a white out and still in a turn form having circled the sledgers.
It was suddenly all really bad news being disorientated with no horizon. It required Colin on the controls too and I truly don't think I would have landed safely without his help....really traumatized - now sitting in heli - in white out - wondering whether to pitch tent or not. There is no way we are taking off again until situation improves. Just 208 miles from the Pole.
Jennifer Murray and Colin Bodhill plan to fly a helicopter from New York, down the East Coast of the Americas to the South Pole and then up the West Coast of the Americas, to the North Pole and back to New York – with some stops in between of course. The duo hopes to land on the South Pole, December 17th, the 100th anniversary of Wilbur and Orville’s first manned, powered, flight.
Image of a stuffed helicopter courtesy of PolarFirst.com.
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