I had heard some time ago that the S.A. Agulhas would be open to the public today. We set off to see it this morning. Before our tour, we were treated to hot chocolate and marshmallows, courtesy of the MTN Science Centre.
The S.A. Agulhas is South Africa's only Antarctic research and supply vessel. Antarctica lies approximately 4 500 km from Cape Town across some of the wildest seas in the world.
The ship has accommodation for 98 passengers and 40 crew, cargo holds, research laboratories and recreation areas. There is also a meteorological station on board from which weather observations are conducted while the vessel is at sea. The data is sent to the UK first and then to Pretoria and finally we get the information in the form of our TV weather reports. There are winches and 10 000 metres of cabling for deep sea sampling. There is a travelling deck crane for moving cargo from the holds and a large crane mounted on the bow that can lift a 25 ton tractor 20 metres onto the ice shelf of Antarctica.
There is a large hangar and flight deck on board that accommodate 2 helicopters.
The kids had fun exploring the helicopter.
All in all, it was a very informative tour of the ship and was enjoyed by all. We were all rather hungry after the tour and made the most of the sunshine by having a relaxing picnic on the lawns.
The children had great fun feeding the sea gulls our leftovers.
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