L'Astrolabe left us early on Thursday morning taking the 68th ANARE and all the round trippers with her. Due to winds, it was an early start to the day — all were loaded and the ship was on its way over the horizon by 0815. That left 15 of us winterers here on the island ready to start our year-long adventure.
Fortunately we had some returnees who knew that the correct procedure was to head up the hill to the ‘Ham Shack’ for the traditional flare farewell salute to the ship (this has the additional purpose of using up our out-of-date flares).