Australia Day at Mawson.

Australia Day at Mawson

We've reached the zenith of the 2019–20 Mawson summer season, with Voyage 3 set to arrive in a few days time to commence annual resupply and personnel changeover.

Prior to the imminent busyness that is annual resupply, we all enjoyed celebrating one of the highlights of summer — Australia Day.

Just like back home, Australia Day in Antarctica is a pretty special. Our celebrations included the traditional Australia Day Antarctic swim, a spit roast dinner, and plenty of ‘backyard’ cricket.

This year’s Australia Day at Mawson had an extra special element, with conditions facilitating a running of the Horseshoe Harbour to West Arm Boat Race (the first since 2016!). With Horseshoe Harbour devoid of sea ice in January, for the first time in many years, competitors came out of the woodwork, burning the midnight oil in the days prior to the race in hope of building the winner.

Race day saw an unusually millpond-esque Harbour coupled with an onshore breeze. This quickly stymied the efforts of competitors who went with the traditional sailboat design, leaving three MV’s (Motorised Vessels) at the front of the pack.

In a devastating display of literal non-stop motoring across/around the Harbour, Sparkie Wazza defeated all-comers by a solid country mile with his MV AllSpark.

- Kyle (Station Leader)

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