Aurora Australis berthed in Hobart. French icebreaker L’Astrolabe at right.

We posted recently about the Chinese icebreaker,  Xue Long, or Snow Dragon, which came within about 6 miles of the expedition cruise ship, MV Akademik Shokalskiy, before being forced to turn back. MV Akademik Shokalskiy has been trapped in pack ice off Antarctica south of Tasmania since before Christmas.  Now, the third icebreaker to attempt to assist the stricken ship, Aurora Australis, was stopped by ice and poor weather roughly 10 nautical miles away.  News.com.au reports: “30-knot winds and driving snow has forced the rescue icebreaker to turn back.

“These weather conditions have resulted in poor visibility and made it difficult and unsafe for the Aurora Australis to continue (the) attempt to assist the MV Akademik Shokalskiy,” the Australian Maritime Safety Authority said in a statement.”

There are now plans being worked out to airlift the 74 people on board off the ship by a helicopter onthe Chinese icebreaker.  These plans will have to wait, however, until weather conditions improve.  The 26 tourists, 22 Russian crew, four UK journalists and 22 scientists from Australia and New Zealand are said to be safe and comfortable on the ship.