Відео

@Tom-qt7mf hey Tom, thank you for watching. Glad you enjoyed it. To repeat that video will be hard, trips like that are once in a lifetime, there’s more old tapes in the shoebox though and I’ll get to them in time.

@@BlessBliss-e6y thank you. The Beara peninsula is something special, rain or shine, wind or calm, it’s always impressive.

Cheers Kyle, always appreciate the feedback. That’s what steers the next one 👍

I think from reading the lines and maybe a little between the lines in your reflective comment that this video took me on a similar trip while editing it as it took you while watching it. I spent maybe 50 hours ploughing through this old VHS video. Playing back the voices of old friends who I think I might have forgotten exactly how well I knew them and valued their time and friendship at one time. Looking back at the technology, even though Bransfield was old school even when she was built, it’s almost odd that I was there. I think it’s the passage of time that grips you at our age. I also think it should grip us at our age. It should shout in our face and say climb the slope, don’t slide down it. It should get us to get out and live the rest of it as if it was the first of everything. When I put in that last line, “and then we all went home”, I played it back and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up for a riot. I’m not sure why, I think because of the connection with those old shipmates that I had forgotten for a while. The lesson? - don’t let your life become a one chapter book, and each chapter is about the people. The rest looks after itself.

@@hhymwaa thank you, glad you enjoyed it. I appreciate your feedback. That’s what drives the next one👍

@@walkercustoms hey thank you, I really appreciate that feedback. I really wanted to do justice to this story more than any other so I’m relieved to see it has hit home as it is. I have a whole shoe box of these old tapes to convert, so there will be more, bear with me, there will be some other more modern boat or camping trips between this and the next Antarctic trip, but although it takes many hours to do I am encouraged by this and other comments to get through that old shoe box come hell or high water. Standby for more, and thank you again for the support.

You’re very welcome and thank you for the feedback. It’s interesting to me because when you said ‘probably didn’t know your world existed’ it reminded me how that was so easy in 1996. I had only heard about this job from a steward in another company who had sailed on this ship. Before that conversation I knew very little about it. Hearsay and social conversations might open doors that you might never otherwise know about. Nowadays we have entire worlds and different lives visible right in the palm of our hands. Now they tell us the rate of change in life can only accelerate. Hang on😅 looks like a crazy ride ahead.

Totally, I couldn’t agree more. This observation is a powerful one when you travel anywhere as extreme as this, the best way I can describe my connection with this comment is to say I wish I had said it in the voice over because I certainly thought it when I was there. Playing these old videos back the story became about the people and the ship because the footage I have of wildlife is largely eclipsed by what people capture today in high definition, but at the time I was clearly entranced by the wildlife, I left so much of it out but still at the time just left the camera rolling even in this place where no more tapes could be bought. The huge and ever precise Albatross, penguins who swim so fast they leave a torpedo trail, obviously the orcas. The tape just rolled and rolled.

Sorry wrong .its SAMPO ice breaker

Yes. The Almirante Irizar (the Argentinian ice breaker with the helicopter in this story) was built in Finland. Bransfield was nowhere near as powerful as those dedicated ice breakers. There was another big ex Russian ice breaker down south at the time which also carried tourists. She just sailed on wherever she was going as if it was all just frost. I can’t remember her name.

I’ve just been looking her up. Sampo is beautiful. She looks even older than Bransfield. Lovely to see her find a role in her older years.

@@Kippis.. the price of a trip on Sampo would bring a little frozen tear to my eye 😅

Isebrekear tarmo.yea its museum its old...

@@Andy-x3e4z yes I think that sounds familiar. I’m glad I kept you watching until the end. Great memories to have. Andy you might do me one small favour and share it with any old ship mates you still know from that ship who might enjoy it. I think the primary purpose of this video in the end will probably be to bring back good memories for those who were there.

@ Already have done mate,I’ve passed it on to a few lads I’ve kept in touch with it was a very good film you made. Especially the coverage of capt Lawrence,he really was a knowledgeable old man ha ha and was a true gentleman it was a pleasure to sail with him even though he only did 4 months with us and was rotated with capt Cole .

@Andy-x3e4z ya that’s great Andy and thanks for the support. His commentary running in the back ground cracks me up even after all this time. I’d love if he got to see it, or failing that if his family did. I think he was as good as you could find in so many ways. I transitioned to airplanes but as a Captain now myself I have heard it said that you learn from all your captains but ultimately you become the average of those who impressed you most. For any discipline, polar adventures, ships, planes, doesn’t matter, if you are leading a crew he was a damn good template for any one to follow. I’m glad that is recorded here.

😁 ha ha, yes I did indeed. But you see I remember Martin the Bosun asking me for some of his lads back as they were all working on my stuff. I took that to mean I walked the line. It’s the British who like a class divide. I’m Irish. Over here we are sometimes all foxes or other times all hounds but either way if there’s a job to be done we all will run together.

@ Ha ha I was only kidding,you knew what I meant .You can appreciate that saying What happens down here STAYS down here and that was sacred to keep a happy ship,sounds like the lads trusted you and that’s fine by me.A lot of people wouldn’t understand but it’s vital down there on such a long voyage that blabber mouths can’t be tolerated.I would have welcomed you no problem and the crew bar was my second home.Is that fridge still in the corner of the bar and is that brick fireplace still there? Those heavy bar doors are difficult to negotiate at sea and I’ve still got a scar on my left knee to prove it.I was a motorman onboard and it was 4 on 8 off with 6 hours spent in the bar ha ha. Good days and happy memories with not one argument between anyone,that Montevideo was a great run ashore especially the bar in Plaza Independencia and that brilliant meat market.

@ ah I know😄 but you know it’s interesting though. You are absolutely right, if you wanted to walk the line like that then trust and discretion were an absolute minimum. It’s interesting though to look at both sides from the point of view of the ship that replaced it though. The Ernest Shackleton was smaller and as far as I recall had only one mess and one lounge or bar for everyone. To a degree you could argue that this did not affect the running of the ship, but I also recall an absence of the ‘craic’ that I found was a staple of the Bransfield crew bar. This would of course make you right Andy. The ‘Craic’ is important.

Man, the brick fireplace 🍻 😅

@@Andy-x3e4z yes, glad to hear it. All the hours putting it together practically brought the memories to life for me. Stuart Lawrence was indeed a true gentleman and down to earth as you say. I still admire him both as a mariner and as a leader. I would easily rank him as one of the greatest Captains I ever sailed with. loved the way he did business. Loved the Bransfield too. She was a beautiful old ship and built for adventure.

you are very welcome, I appreciate your feedback very much. Absolutely great memories, however the biggest adventure of all is the home life on your shoulder in your profile picture. I left it all for that home life and there can be no regrets in this.

😂Have another comment,

@@WestCorkWander And one more for the road... or sea as it were! 👏

This is a very valuable comment to me, Just like Captain Lawrence you know what you're asking me to do because you have done it a great deal yourself, but you also see the bits I can already bring and should keep, and I appreciate that. I bought my first Video camera for this trip and it was the first time I came home and felt my family actually understood what on earth I had been doing away for all that time. Sometimes the language alone is not enough to paint a picture of things people have never seen. I knew in my heart that my narration lacked tempo or energy and this is a constant focus for me because I'm an easy going sort most of the time, that's what the instagram stories are about, you can't tell a story in 90 seconds if you're being dozy, but in the end in this project perfection became the enemy of progress. My landrover is begging for a little help here and there, so is my wife, this project took a long time and ultimately I had to retreat to the present. However there is a satisfaction in getting critique which mirrors my own analysis because it means I am moving on the right track. This video will blow the crap out of my algorithm, subscriber confusion galore, I gain 4 and loose 3 🤣 it is totally out of context, but I have decided that a danger of the algorithm is it can turn you into a 'one chapter man'. You wouldn't sit at a campfire or have a pint with a man who had only had one subject, yet that is who the algorithm wants us to be. Just do tents, stay with tents, feed the algorithm.. just do boats, stay with boats, get the views. I have reminded myself this winter that I am only here to learn how to do this well because telling a story and knowing its point has hit home is that age old camp fire satisfaction that I am drawn to. I don't need all that many subscribers to practice on. At the moment I am not at work here on UA-cam, I am at school. I do however work in a profession that has a finite end when your medical or your age finally catches up with you. My life after that I hope is when my time in school here will count for another chapter. One day I'll swing by for a coffee, thank you as always for the support.

Have another comment 🤣 such a great little token, I'm going to steel this idea

I think your ‘have another comment’ trick tipped the balance on this one Robin 💪

@@thomasharhen2168 even ageing fuzzy and digitally sloppy reflections on a stunning Antarctic world and the great people I met along the way still comes out able to tell the story it seems, even after so long. Thank you.

I'm not beneath a little wild and unbridled optimism from time to time, so thank you, its as good a target as any 🤣

@@thomasharhen2168 well how can I respond to that other than to undertake to get another few tapes out of the old shoe box next winter and get as lost in the memories as I was on this one. Thank you, a comment like this steers focus.

To be honest what we were seeing on the scale of this video would be the natural cycle of calving of bergs from the continental ice shelf, this would have looked similar a century before, however in the wider context the science doesn’t lie, overall the melting is happening and establishing data for predictions of rates of collapse of the ice shelf were the basis of lot of the research this company was involved in.

You’re very welcome, so glad to have it done now at last. Took me a while to get the skill and the know how to do it, but thank you for the comment. It means a lot to me that people are enjoying this. Maybe it’ll inspire another spark of adventure, in one of adventure’s many forms, in the back of someone’s mind, and then it will have been worthwhile.

I haven't seen much out there in the way of ship crews and day to day life on such a ship , brilliant insight, again thank you 🙏

Very encouraging to read thank you. There’s another 5 years in the old box of VHS tapes. I am motivated now to do some more editing in the quiet season next winter.

Brilliant I shall look forward to that , thank you 😊

@@EstBob ‘Real’ is actually a great description in one word for all of life out there. Either that or unreal😆 Thank you for watching, glad it got to you as reflected by your comment and I hope it sparks another real or even unreal adventure of any sort and anywhere for you.

@@MusashiTetsukobu thanks for the feedback Musashi, I think you are right, I struggle to maintain an energetic tempo on such a long project, however I’m glad to have helped you get a little nap. Everyone deserves a good nap from time to time.

@@VISTATREKKER Use AI voice, it is excellent and will save you all the work and improve the quality of the narration.

I’m afraid I differ with you there. If I hear AI voice I immediately move on. I literally can’t stand it. I think the long term answer for me will be practice. On the bright side if I send people to sleep and the video keeps playing until they wake up an hour later then that’s good for viewer retention data 🤣

@@VISTATREKKER Oh! Please don't be afraid of differing with me. I am just a bunch of words on a screen.

My partner and I actually both said you would be great on TV We found your story telling has a great Irish charm and keeps us glued to the story being told . It's brave you tell your story and we truly appreciate the effort of your work 🙌

@@IanGrant-zl5dd correct Ian, Diddy Doddy was stuck in any and every adventure that could be found.

@@marcosluciosilva2433 seems unlikely, there were probably about 10% back then on average.

@@CountryBoyNH8340 thank you Craig, I really appreciate your comment. It’s a lot of work to put something like this together but I believe it’s important both to remember adventure to those who were there and also to inspire it on any scale to those who are looking forward to plans and dreams up ahead regardless of the shape or form of that adventure. Life is short and fast. Better to make it as wild a trip as we can.

@@joselopezsanchez2359 high Jose, aluminium hulls are very tough and very light. Very resilient and durable. There can be slightly less room to make fine hull shapes for particular hydrodynamic reasons due to the metal plate structure as opposed to mouldings, but for me I think it’s an excellent solution overall.

From a Spanish point of view the only issue I can think of is the black hull will be hot to sit on in your finer climate.

@@johnbrown-rm8kc thank you John, I appreciate the feedback.

@@Andrew......... thank you for watching. It was my biggest project ever, both in final length and also learning the whole process of digitising the old tapes. Lots of problems along the way. I set myself a winter resolution to get it done this time. I’ve probably spent 50 hours at it. Car in bits. Jobs piling up 😄 But it’s done and I’m delighted to have knocked that off my 28 year old ‘to do list’. It was like sleeping in a 40 gallon drum that was being dragged through gravel and the occasional rock 😆

@@richardjamieson8068 thank you Richard, you’ll be travelling a little faster than we did that trip 😆

Thank you for watching and as always I appreciate the feedback. Can you decode your channel name targula for me, forgive me but I’ve forgotten 😩

@@arborigenie careful what you wish for 😆🤣 there’s a lot more where these came from, a decade of nautical meandering

@VISTATREKKER haha xD well, I'm up for it mate! I'm sure you have great stories to tell!

@@arborigenie story telling is such a strong tradition at Sea, by necessity as much as anything, but there’s not much more to do out there than live on the edge and talk about it over a tax free beer. Looking back into this chapter lately has I think started to open up an area of my videography that needs work. That is the telling of the story exactly as you would tell it to a friend if swinging the lantern in the crew bar. I feel like I’ll have to pull it all into one piece of vistatrekking somehow because one part serves the other. You and I are at a similar stage in our videography endeavours I would say. Speaking to camera is an odd thing to do as I’m sure you know. From a mental position that is not unlike that seat in the the corner of the crew bar I just find it easier.

@@VISTATREKKER yes, I 100% agree. It is an art-form that has to be crafted as much as any other, i think, some find it easier some less.. I have a hard time with it.. even the voiceovers but I give it a try nonetheless. anyway.. thank you for being a part of my journey since the start and your encouragements, I wish you a happy new year and all the best for 2025 🥳

And to you, with many fine adventures thrown in for good measure.

Looks like ol micks land right on the water or his neighbor

Not sure who owned that land previously, I heard he passed away and now there’s a few owners involved, one of whom I asked. Should be magic down around there in May. Enjoy👍

@@KEYTOWNADVENTURES you are correct. There were Royal Marines on South Georgia and a lot of bullet holes in some areas of the whaling station in Grytviken from the fight with the Argentinians there. This of course is also where Shackleton is buried overlooking the harbour and he is regularly visited by fellow explorers to this day. On the back of his grave are the words “I behold that Everyman should strive to the uttermost for his life’s set prize”. Sitting there reading those words I built my own conviction to start again with a second career, ironically one that would take me closer to home than this. The adventure I was shaping up for then was the family one that I am now on. It would have been much harder as a mariner. Much much harder.

@@VISTATREKKERyes you are right ! I enjoyed this video Robin. Even the footage wasn’t in 4K 😉

@ 😀 it sure isn’t 😩

@@Andrew......... it was amazing work and great people. I could have done it for a lifetime but it was no good for family.

@@janachamillova6557 thank you, I’m glad both that you got to the end of the video and of course that through experience you can understand the reward that rescuing a dog really brings.

@@WestCorkWander thank you, I didn’t see that comment, I better have another check. I have the boat all on rollers now. Big fat soft rollers good for bouncing along those west coast roads. A bit slow to roll off compared to the harder smaller rollers, I guess a bit more drag there but I think the right choice for aluminium. I didn’t get the ‘swap to rollers’ video edited down yet as I got distracted with the flat calm canoe trip. That was so damn gorgeous a view that I jumped it up the job list to November. Couldn’t wait to edit it😅

I can’t find that comment. Had a look in studio and can’t see it. I wonder did it get held back because of a link?

@@KEYTOWNADVENTURES I’ve yet to bring her on the canoe Willem, with her weighing in at about 25kg I feel like a passing cat could be our downfall 😂

@@SirMossalot_Paul thank you Paul. I think so. We brought her out on the Shannon after this and she was happy out. Very important to have a ships mascot leading the charge up the beaches. Hard to imagine any of that here in the middle of storm Darragh 😂

Ah, didn’t realise we also had boats and dogs in common, what type of each have you got?

@@VISTATREKKER I have a border collie :) my boat isn't as big as yours, also it is man-powered haha 😄

I only bought an engine in an attempt to stay cool with my up and coming teenagers😂, I knew they’d follow me to the easy sell of Adrenalin, but man or wind powered boats are where the soul food is.

@@VISTATREKKER haha I think it did the trick 😂 couldn't agree more :)

@@brendanfrancis8715 hey Brendan thanks for watching and thank you sincerely for the sentiment too 👍

@@brianmelial8885 you’re very welcome Brian. I really appreciate the feedback.

@@brianmelial8885 I sincerely appreciate the feedback Brian. It is of course what drives on the next one👍

@@KEYTOWNADVENTURES thank you Willem, it’s a long way from Amsterdam, glad you in particular got to see this, much of your stuff would match and best it easily, but I know we have the same eye. The lense guard is coming off the insta 360 now. I lost a lot of footage due to a bit of condensation inside the lense guards. Damned if you do and damned if you don’t. Still, it was a magic little trip and a caught enough of it to tell the day.

@@Andrew......... thank you Andrew. Yes the bilge pump makes a fabulous anti pirate machine gun. Since he was about 3 he has been using the bailer on a line to go ‘fishing’😁 He’s never caught more than enough water to slow us down, but still I hate to tell him to stop because when he does it will be over, another chapter consigned to memory. Good memories though.

@@colinvalentine7679 brilliant Colin thank you so much for the feedback. Much of the insta 360 footage was lost due to condensation in the lense protector, all the into the sun footage was blurry, you can still see the blurr in the corner of a lot of the footage I used but there was enough there to tell the tale. Thanks again for the feedback. Means a great deal.