Free entrance to Iziko Museums of South Africa today, 18 May 2022.
Visit the Sentinels of the South Exhibition at Iziko Museum of South Africa, Cape Town.
This exhibition will give you insight into the history, discoveries, and current role of South Africa’s Antarctic and Southern Ocean exploration. Read more here.
Prof Annie Bekker is a Professor in Mechanical Engineering at the Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering, Stellenbosch University. She is Head of the Division for Mechanics and Director of the Sound and Vibration Research Group. She is the Principal Investigator of the NRF-SANAP-funded project, The Digital SA Agulhas II – Flagship for Vessel 4.0.
Prof Bekker is a specialist in vessel responses of the S.A. Agulhas II and she recently did research onboard the vessel, during the Endurance22 expedition.
Her lecture title is: What can we learn from the way a ship shudders on an icy wreck hunt.
For more info and a link to the LIVE event, click here.
S.A. Agulhas II Image Credit: Ken Findlay.
Anche Louw, Antarctic Legacy of South Africa, 11 May 2022
On this day, 03 May 2012, the newly built South African vessel, the S.A. Agulhas II, arrived in the Port of Cape Town. The vessel was formally handed over to the Department of Environmental Affairs (currently Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment), in Finland on 04 April 2012 and left for South Africa the following day. Read more here.
More about the vessel: This 134.2 m vessel was designed to carry out both scientific research and resupply South Africa’s research stations in the Antarctic and the Southern Ocean. See full vessel specification below.
Click on the link below to read more about the S.A. Agulhas II and its predecessors.
Watch this short documentary to learn more about the South African National Antarctic Programme and the building process of the South African polar research and supply vessel, the S.A. Agulhas II.
Read more about the vessel, with links to the Antarctic Legacy of South Africa Archive – click here.
The Sound and Vibration Research Group, at The Department of Mechanical and Mechatronic Engineering at Stellenbosch University, work onboard the vessel when at sea to determine, amongst other things, the effects of ship vibration. This group was also on the recent ‘The Endurance22 Expedition‘ on the search for Sir Ernest Shackleton’s sunken ship, The Endurance. The S.A. Agulhas II played a crucial part in this successful expedition. Read more here.
Get a quick catch-up from The Endurance (S61) editor, Maanda Mulaudzi
Get to know the team’s Senior Meteorological Technician, Eric Randall
Find out more about his work, how the Antarctic journey has been so far, and much more!
This team cooks together, they have dinner together, they also have fun together. For fun, they have in house-tournaments such as the Pool Table Championship and in every newsletter, the current “King of the pool table” will be announced! See below the current ‘king’.
Thulani Ngwaqa (S61 Mechanical Engineer/Base Engineer) – he is the March 2022 King and champion of the pool table.
Saturday pool night at SANAE IV. L-R: JC Laubscher (Doctor and DeputyTeam Leader), Thobani Mabaso (SANSA Electronic Engineer) and Thulani Ngwaqa (Mechanical Engineer/Base Engineer).