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We decided on the less travelled, more scenic route yesterday, which also happens to be the shorter, potentially more challenging one. So far we’ve had a brilliant run, and have just reached our first real “speed bump”, which we anticipated anyway. Our journey has taken us through a narrow opening between the fast-ice and sea ice. It’s been a bit like following a road of open water, with a dark water-sky showing the way last night. The ocean was (I kid you not) mirror smooth, and at times it was hard to tell where water ended and sky began. It was more like being on a train than a ship last night, with no rolling motion, and just the gentle vibration of the ship’s engines as we sped along at 16 knots. Our wake was a series of standing waves, stretching almost uninterrupted and seemingly motionless behind us.
We had a great party last night, with a “masquerade, or come as your hero” theme, which saw some great costumes, including two Ned Kelly’s, with one having a secondary under-the-helmet black-and-white-minstrel costume (because Ned always had trouble drinking a beer with his helmet on), two gladiators, Sponge-Bob, Lara Croft, Mother Nature, Sea-spiderman, and many very elaborate masks. The marine science team gave a witty summary of their work, with the final species count now standing at well over 600 after the last trawl from yesterday.
We now have a few more miles of relatively heavy ice to go, before a fairly clear run into Davis.
Regards, Doug, Aaron & Margaret
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.