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We are greeted this morning with another clear blue sky with light winds, making for another perfect opportunity to get some more cargo ashore via helicopter. During the silent hours the ship backed out of the pack, proceed to the east along the edge of the pack ice and found a promising lead that allowed us to get to a new fly-off position just under 50nm from Syowa. The helicopter hanger is filled with around another six tonnes of cargo ready to go ashore this morning. Yesterday morning the first helicopter touched down at around 0845 and the pace didn't really let up until around 1900 last night. Due to the 55nm distance the time betweens waves of helicopters allowed a lot of cargo to be prepositioned in the hanger for the next series of helicopter touchdowns. The helideck, aircraft and cargo crew were able to shift nearly 15t of cargo during the day as well as getting another six tonnes ready for today's flights. At one stage the crew on the helideck was able to land a helicopter, safely internally load a tonne of cargo and for the aircraft to take-off in about six minutes. Well oiled machine and excellent effort all round team! We managed to get a lot of the cargo necessary for the JARE summer party to get their construction program underway ashore over the last two days, plus the all important beverage supply for the long Antarctic winter. More cargo today, with about 60t to go, and a favourable weather forecast for the next two days. One interesting sight yesterday was that of the Chief Engineer practicing his fly-fishing on the forecastle of the ship. Kind of surreal at four degrees below, but understandable with the sun shining so brightly. As always, all aboard doing well and eager to get into action again today. Regards, Rob, Aaron and Mick
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.