Pixuberant - Mission Antarctica 2002

In February 2002, I was unbelievably fortunate to be selected as a representative of British Energy to Mission Antarctica. The Organizer, Robert Swan, had walked to both the North and South poles and was inspired to speak about climate change at the United Nations Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro in 1992. He decided to inspire people to pay attention to the environment by accomplishing the difficult task of cleaning up 50 years of industrial waste at the Russian base at Bellinghausen on King George Island off the Antarctica Peninsula. It took years to organize, but in January 2002, 1000 tons of scrap metal had been loaded onto a barge for recycling in Uruguay, and toxic waste had been shipped to the UK for safe disposal. He brought young people, corporate sponsors and governments together to accomplish this, and as a representative of a corporate sponsor, I was crew on"2041", Mission Antarctica's 67-ft yacht, for two weeks, learned about the project, took photographs and sailed her across the Drake to South America. I also was able to work for Mission Antarctica at the World Summit on Sustainable Development in Johannesburg, South Africa in September 2002. The photos are how they came out of a borrowed camera nearly 20 years ago, a sturdy Kodak DC500 with which I had condensation problems. Please note that the videos are not mine, they were taken by 2nd Mate Alex (Alf) Johnston.

Steve, Darren and Russian Guide Valery on our hike of King George on Day 1

Steve, me and Darren on arrival on King George Island

Chinstrap Penguins on King George Is.

Closeup of Chinstraps

Crabeater Seal

Steve, Darren, Robert and Valery inside the Bellinghausen Base

Elephant Seals

Fur Seals

Steve, me and Darren celebrating our arrival

"2041" taken from the bow. She is a Challenge Yacht, built to go upwind around the world, and reinforced for Antarctic cruising. We were very happy to have the hard dodger when weather was rough