Vessel leaves behind engine problems

Press, 23 January 1988, Page 11

Vessel leaves behind engine problems

By

YVONNE MULDER

The M.V. Greenpeace will sail for Antarctica today, two weeks after her first voyage south was abandoned.

Engine troubles only 80km out of port forced the ship back to Lyttelton on January 10 and the crew then had to wait for spare parts to be flown in from Europe. The M.V. Greenpeace now had a “very, very good” port engine and an “0.K.” starboard engine, said the campaign co-

ordinator, Mr Peter Wilkinson. The starboard engine would be used as a spare in the case of an emergency, he said. Three cylinder liners and four pistons were replaced by the ship’s engineers. Mr Wilkinson said the ship was carrying some spares, but they had waited for more to arrive "to be on the safe H side.”

The M.V. Greenpeace’s crew of 32 includes four people who will replace the first winterover team

at the organisation’s World Park Base, Cape Evans. The first team was taken to the Greenpeace base by the same ship last January.

“They are quietly confident that we’ll make it,” said Mr Wilkinson of the three men and one woman waiting to be picked up. If the M.V. Greenpeace had been unable to make the voyage the environmental organisation would have had to charter another vessel.

The base did, however, have two years supply of food and fuel if the worst came to the worst, said Mr Wilkinson.

The two weeks delay had been a bit frustrating but morale was high and the people of Lyttelton had been helpful, he said.

The M.V. Greenpeace is due back in Lyttelton in the first week of March and will then set off for the Antarctic Peninsula, near South America, to monitor the environmental impact of bases there.