Information
Comments
What an amazing effort!! Everyone on the ship and on shore worked tirelessly for 4 1/2 days at Davis to deliver all cargo and retrieve far in excess of what we thought possible. In all we have handled close to 1000 tons of cargo in that time. Barges, zodiacs, cranes, trucks, skidders, forklifts, kitchens, forecasters, comms and many others came together to make it all happen. The Aurora crew were fantastic working to get everything on, stowed and then sailing the ship from Davis last night. Those coming on to the ship must be glad of a rest after all the work they have done. We left the 18 winterers at Davis at 8pm last night after many farewells and we look forward to hearing of their winter over the coming months and catching up again in person at winter's end. The ship negotiated the slalom course of islands of rock and ice out of Davis and steamed overnight to be at the head of Prydz Bay at first light this morning. Murray had us parked up in a great little parking space in the ice bang on time at 8am this morning. The three helicopters stayed at Law Base overnight and by 0810 we had the first on board and all briefed. We are now holding position in the ice while the three helicopters fly a continuos pattern collecting three drums of fuel on the their slings from the ship and dropping them at a depot on the rock ashore. Each aircraft takes 8min to complete the circuit so it's constant activity for those on the deck and on the ground to keep up with the flow of drums to and from the helicopters. It's not unlike bees around a hive. We are only about 1 mile from the Russian Progress station and will have to apologise to them for the clatter! We started with about 270 drums to fly ashore and hope to have it finished this evening if the weather allows. About 6-8 hours flying to finish the job, we hope! Yours Aye Robb and Simon
Map
A map showing Australia and Antarctica. The map shows the journey of one voyage that has occured in the season, with each route highlighted in a distinct colour.