Rescued Antarctic passengers resume journey home

CANBERRA, Australia (AP):An Australian icebreaker carrying 52 passengers who were retrieved from an icebound ship in the Antarctic resumed its journey home yesterday, leaving behind another two icebreakers trapped in pack ice.

The Aurora Australis will continue its interrupted resupply mission to Australia's Antarctic base, Casey Station, before returning to the Australian island state of Tasmania in mid-January with the rescued scientists, journalists and tourists.

It had been slowly cracking through thick ice towards open water after a Chinese ship's helicopter last Thursday plucked the passengers from their stranded Russian research ship and carried them to an ice floe near the Australian ship.

But on Friday afternoon, the crew of the Chinese icebreaker that had provided the helicopter said they were worried about their own ship's ability to move through the ice.

Feeling frustrated

Andrew Peacock, an Australian doctor and photographer who was rescued from the Russian ship, said his fellow passengers had been frustrated by the news Friday that their journey home had been delayed by another potential rescue operation.

"My feeling, and those of others I believe, today is one of relief at finally having a concrete plan for how and when we can return to loved ones, family and friends," Peacock said in an email from the Aurora.