Thursday 30 April 2009

Belgians' unsuccessful in landing attempt

I learnt this morning that due to bad weather, the Belgian expedition to Rockall has been called off and they are returning to Stornoway. Their website (http://www.rockall.be/) states:

"Landing on Rockall impossible
The skipper of the "Elinca" did not allow a landing on Rockall. The waves are too high; even launching a Zodiac is impossible.A very sad Theo, ON4ATW told us at 09.00 UT they will have to come back to Scotland. "The weather is worsening by the hour and the weather forecast for the coming days does not give any hope" he told us by satphone. For tomorrow 5 Bft winds are forecasted with gusts up to 80 km/h. We are all very disappointed that after all these preparations a landing was not possible. However we learned a lot about all the aspects of putting up a DXpedition. One way or another this knowledge will be used."

This lack of success highlights the difficulties of landing on Rockall, even with the best preparation which they had, when you are tied to particular time period in which to make a landing. I have a lot of respect for what these guys tried to achieve and wish them the best of luck for any future attempt.

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