Saturday, April 25, 200992
After the excitements of yesterday today looked set to be dull in comparison. The bad weather forecast has not yet arrived but i think the rain now drumming on the roof may be the arrival of muchos wind. Currently i am drifting around about 40 miles from the South Island and about 30nm due east of Stewart island. Landing places are few and far between. This is due to precipitous cliffs with resulting breakers constituting most of the coastline otherwise rocks and heavy surf. So coulpled with a very limited no, of places to land is the weather which looks set to drive us south away from land. So without a gentle Eish wind it is going to be hard indeed to make an unassited landfall. So for now we wait and see what this weathewr will do to our drift over the weekend and monday... The Expedition manager, George Olver Esq, is, it turns out a man a many guises and with a certain affinty for fun machines. Last i saw him he was on the other side of the Tasman sea riding aboard a sieek silver super Schooner named Blizzard , prior to that he had been seen taking to the skies of Tasmania, above the City of Franklin in a flying boat no less! ANd now today, lo and behold who should come swooping in low and fast out of the sun, over the sea, in a mechanical bird but the very same G. Olver, riding shotgun in a helicopter! - However, this was of course no joyride but a mission of the most critical importance..... We transferred a camera on a line from the Carrot to the chopper before George 'iceman' Olver roared off to do a little reconaissance of Stewart Island's coastline to scout for possible landing places. I suspect this may not be the last we see of G. Olver in the skies! SO great excitement to have a visitor from the skies other than the feathered varitety this afternoon.
posted by Olly Hicks @ 4:39 AM
