Spent 163 days, crossed westerlies 4 times, two teachers from Nantong participated in Antarctic expedition ——

Wang Qian Zhou Hui

By Gao Yang

On 6 April, icebreakers ‘Xue Long’ and ‘Xue Long 2’ returned to Shanghai base, which announced the successful completion of the 39th antarctic scientific research team’s task in China. The scientific investigation is the 3rd time to implement ‘dual Long polar expedition’ in our country. The expedition team took 163 days, travelled more than 60 thousand nautical mile. Wang Qian and Zhou Hui, two teachers from Jiangsu Shipping College participated the ‘dual Long polar expedition’.

Zhou Hui, a teacher from school of marine engineering of Jiangsu Shipping College, is a new ‘polar person’, also an old crew member. Grown up by the sea in Nantong, he has divine longing for the South Pole and the North Pole, ‘this time I realized my dream!’

Zhou Hui set out from Shanghai on ‘Xue Long 2’ on 26 October 2022. He mainly worked on daily maintenance and management of power system of the ship. Zhou Hui said that in the process of breaking ice, the ship would vibrate continuously, and problems such as loose equipment joints and falling off of screws might happen. ‘The screws are very dense and bare eyes can not see problems. Professional tools are required to check them one by one, and carelessness cannot be tolerated.’

Last 25 November, ‘Xue Long 2’ reached Zhongshan Station. Zhou Hui saw polar penguins for the first time. ‘Penguins are very cute. Seeing them, I did not feel dizzy head any more and forgot all the difficulties.’ Zhou Hui said that some penguins were curious about human beings, they would come to places near the station.

Wang Qian, a teacher from school of navigation technology of Jiangsu Shipping College, worked as commander of brain of ‘Xue Long’ as the third mate.

‘Sailing in the ice zone is battling with nature.’ Wang Qian recalled, the biggest challenge was unpredictable floating ice and icebergs, and bad weather that could happen any time. As the radar display was plane image, while sailing in the ice zone, it was very difficult to tell floating ice and icebergs for driver, especially at night when visibility was extremely poor. Sharp observation and ample practical experiences can work. Sometimes there were strong wind and big waves, or thick fog, the visibility was less than 30 m, you could not even see the ship’s bow.

Wang Qian experienced thrilling moment. On the way from Ross Sea New Station to Zhongshan Station, there was heavy snow and fog, plus the end of polar day and start of night sailing, visibility was very low. ‘I saw some white color near the ship’s bow, which was a bit different from the white color nearby. I did not know what it was, but took a full left rudder instantly, and then saw a very high iceberg passed close to the right side of the ship.’

Now, there are more weather forecast measures of better precision on ‘Xue Long’, the plan to avoid cyclone is getting more mature. The rate of encountering terrible wind and waves has been reduced. The trip crossed ‘roaring westerlies’ 4 times, and every time it was generally smooth, Wang Qian said.