ach year the Akademik Fedorov makes the 23,000 mile return journey from St Petersburg to Antarctica to resupply the Russian bases on the continent and change personnel. The Russian Antarctic programme is now much reduced from what it was in Soviet times where there might be as many as five hundred people on the continent during the summer season.
traight as a die, the Akademik Fedorov makes its way through a thin crust of sea ice. The resupply expedition is right on the edge of winter since government budgets are not available until January and thick sea ice is needed for cargo operations. The frozen sea around Antarctica may grow in area by some 16 million square kilometres by winter time.
cience is high on the agenda. Here season scientists are drilling ice cores near to Novolazarevskaya station. When analysed, the cylinders of ice will reveal climatic and atmospheric conditions at the time when the ice was deposited. In this way it is possible to learn about what the earth was like hundreds and even thousands of years ago.
atching Cape Town's Table Mountain recede from view. For the seventy-four station crewmembers on board it will be well over a year before they will see the mountain again. In two months time returning station crews will savour a few days in Cape Town as the ship journeys north, all except one man who has elected to remain for a second wintering. The voyage from South Africa to Antarctica takes ten days.
he crew of the ship are extremely proud of their icebreaker, built in Finland in1987, and of the opportunity to work in a very unique area of the world.
hreading between icebergs Fedorov makes her way along the Antarctic coastline between stations. Some icebergs can be seen on radar to be many miles long. This is an extreme environment - beautiful and hostile in equal measure.
aking time out, a Blue Petrel rests on deck in front of another somewhat larger mechanical bird - the Mil Mi-8 helcopter. Igor the expedition ornithologist enthusiastically examined and weighed all such visitors as the voyage progressed.
aking off from the ship by helicopter as it lies stationary in a field of dense sea ice close to Progress station. The Akademik Fedorov carries two hundred people, 5,700 tonnes of cargo, two helicopters and has laboratories for scientific work.
estocking the larder. Provisions are flown to the station by helicopter. Refrigerating the meat is unnecessary when it leaves the ship's cold store - the outside air temperature is minus 20 degrees centigrade.
nloading tractors onto an iceberg during a blizzard. Sea ice was too thin to support the weight of the vehicles which form an essential means of transport in the antarctic. The solution was to leave them on an iceberg, to be driven off to the station when the ice thickened. The tractors will be used on the 1400km supply convoy to Vostok station in the spring. The convoy goes deep into the heart of Antarctica and is one of the world's most extreme journeys.
robing the blizzard - the ship's searchlight warns of 'growlers', large pieces of submerged ice, during night-time navigation. These are not large enough to show up on radar but pose a significant risk to the ship if it were to be damaged with little chance of immediate help.
arewell. It will be well over a year before new station crews left in Antarctica will see the ship again. For most overwinterers the hardest part will be the period of total darkness before the sun appears once more. Communication with home is more difficult for the Russians who do not have the unrestricted use of internet and satellite phone facilities that the other nations with bases in Antarctica do.
