The injury list from the night of the Big Seas did not stop at bruises and dislocated shoulders! Unfortunately, one of the passengers passed out on the beach on one of the shore excursions. Her blood pressure was 60/40 which was dangerously low. Apparently she had lost a lot of blood the night before – nobody is sure how that occurred, but the general medical consensus was that she needed to be evacuated. It was fortunate we were at the Auckland Islands, which represented the limit of helicopter flying from New Zealand.
So two helicopters were sent from Invercargill, they took 3 hours to reach Enderby Island in the north of the Auckland group. We were all sent on shore for another excursion whilst the staff took care of getting Winona and Vernon into the zodiacs with their luggage across to Enderby Island, only a short hop away. By the time we had all been ferried back to the Shokalskiy by zodiac, they were well away back to Invercargill.
The latest news is that Winona is safely in hospital in Christchurch having tests to work out what went on. Vernon and Winona, we all are very sad your trip had to end like this, and we hope all will be well. As promised, I will make sure you get pictures, although I know Ted Cheeseman will already be onto this!
All credit to the Heritage Expeditions staff who managed this very difficult operation with a minimum of fuss and maximum efficiency!
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