MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

Falkland Islands: Penguin News Update

Hollinscloughs in happier times with the kings of South Georgia

Headlines: British family saved in Southern Ocean drama; Rockhopper shares boom.

British family saved in Southern Ocean drama

A BRITISH family with good reason to be thankful for the Royal Navy’s presence in the South Atlantic arrived back in the Falklands on Wednesday aboard HMS Clyde.

After a twenty-hour vigil of baling to keep down rising water levels, Carl Lomas and Tracey Worth, also known as Lord and Lady Hollinsclough, and daughters Caitland and Morgause were rescued from their sinking yacht Hollinsclough by HMS Clyde, three-hundred miles north east of South Georgia.

They left South Georgia on an excellent weather forecast, Mr Lomas said, expecting regular force eight gales which are typical for the southern oceans: “It was sensible southern ocean weather; what you expected.”

Last Friday, when safely hove-to for the night, their Oyster yacht Hollinsclough was hit by a “growler” the name given to small chunks of floating ice rising only about one metre out of the water.

Their alarm signal was received by the international distress centre run by the Falmouth coastguard, who communicated with HMS Clyde, which was some two hundred miles away from the stricken yacht.

When HMS Clyde approached the family was huddled together on the rear deck of the stricken vessel.

“It was by the grace of God that we found an English warship, sat within 300 miles of us. We could not believe the luck we had,” Mr Lomas said. “The Royal Navy plucked us from the ocean and saved our lives, for which we’re forever indebted.”

Before communications finally broke down on the Hollinsclough the family received messages of support from all over the world, including from the Rev Dr Richard Hines of Christchurch Cathedral in Stanley, the FPV Pharos SG, the RRS Shackleton and HMS York.
On the four days spent on HMS Clyde returning to the Falklands, the family “were treated to outstanding food, friendship and warmth,” Mr Lomas said.

As is customary for naval ships on operation, there was a communication blackout from the ship, which the family described as difficult to deal with at times, as they had no way of communicating with their family back in the UK.

Mr Lomas said: “We’re just happy to be here with the friendship and warmth of the Falkland Islands. There’s no greater place than the Falkland Islands to have to come back to.”

They are staying with friends they and their daughters made in their previous six weeks visit to the Islands, which was longer than expected: “The girls were very sad to leave the Islands and leave the school” Tracey said. “We’d stayed longer than expected because the girls had got involved in going to school and really loved it, and asked us to keep them here until the end of term.” She added: “We recognise that there were lots of friends in the Falklands that were rooting for us, and we did appreciate that.”

While happy to be in Stanley they do hope to return home soon: “It’s time to take stock and head home to England” said Carl.

 Rockhopper shares boom

SHARES in the Rockhopper Exploration company rose from 37p to 93p following last Friday’s announcement of an oil discovery and surged upwards in value again on Monday to open at £1.90, reaching as high as £2.35 during the following week.

This optimism among investors followed an update from the AIM listed company on Monday, which stated that additional logging data had confirmed the quality of the reservoir encountered by their Sea Lion well.

Managing Director of Rockhopper, Samuel Moody, commented: “These are further encouraging results; the logs clearly indicate that we have encountered a high quality reservoir interval with very good porosity and permeability. This increases the likelihood that we will return to this well later during the campaign to carry out a flow test.”

Renewed confidence in the viability of the North Falkland Basin has been shown by the market. Shares in Desire Petroleum which had slumped in the wake of early disappointing results from their Liz well, rose from 37p on May 5, to 88.5p yesterday.

Source: Penguin News