SA Agulhas leaves for Marion Island
2010-08-06 15:45
Cape Town - The SA Agulhas has left for Marion Island as the department of environmental affairs in partnership with the department of public works complete the construction of the research facility on the island.
On Friday, with a haze of mist hanging over Cape Town, the research vessel left Cape Town with 130 crew, including construction workers, scientists and crew to operate the two helicopters on board for the four-day trip to the islands.
"This is a construction voyage, we're going to complete the construction of the Marion Island research base; not only the construction but to refurbish the base inside and give the expedition team that is going to stay there training," project leader Adriaan Dreyer told News24 before his departure.
He said that the 16 permanent people who stay at the Marion Island base will be increased substantially by the number of construction crew that will arrive to begin the work. He explained why research at the island was important for SA.
"Marion Island has a huge animal life and it's part of South African property and we need to maintain a research station there with people who stay there for a year. It is the only natural scientific laboratory in the whole world," said Dreyer.
Emergency
The four to five day trip depends largely on the weather and Dreyer said that in his experience, there have been trips that have lasted much longer.
"If the weather holds then its four to five days, but we have sailed for seven to eight days to get there."
The construction of the base began in 2003, and it is hoped that the base will be completed by November this year.
"The majority of the construction is completed already. The outer shell and the base is already in place; what we need to do now is all the interior work, get all the systems up and running, and to put in furniture," said Dreyer.
Dreyer said that the crew on the island largely have to depend on themselves and in an emergency, the soonest a ship would be able to get there would be about three days.
He added that the food was first class.
"There's no hotel that has food like this. With Bernie (the chef) on the ship it's absolutely fabulous, it's fantastic," he said, chuckling and looking down at his healthy waistline.
According to the department of environmental affairs, the project has an estimated cost is R200m.
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