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Despite the fog and intermitted pack ice, our speed of advance
continued to average around the 12-13 knot mark for most of the past 24hrs.
Due to the available ice imagery, provided to us on a daily basis from the
PolarView Consortium, the decision was made to 'cut the corner' early and
make good a more southerly course. This shaved a couple of hours of our
transit to Davis and at the time of writing this SITREP we have around 60
nautical miles to run to the Station. Then the fun will begin. As it stands
we have around 100 tonnes of cargo and 15 new expeditioners to get ashore.
In addition, there are about 10 other people aboard who need to go ashore to
undertake scientific and other station based activities. All this has to be
accomplished by Sunday afternoon. The weather forecast looks good for the
next two days so that should make our job a little easier.
The job will take all of the resources of the Station and the Aurora to
complete. We have brought our Barge, the "Bill Budd" along to do the heavy
lifting, but will also rely on other station based watercraft to move
personnel too and from the ship. We have seven highly experienced watercraft
operators aboard ready to get stuck into it after 11 days at sea. The Aurora
crew is also eager to get going. It is pertinent to mention that the Aurora
is a unique vessel in that it is probably the only ship flying the
Australian flag, whose crew actually discharge the vessel. Most ships tie up
to a wharf and hand over the keys to the stevedores to unload. The cargo
tonnage figures may be lower than say a 7000 TEU containership (the AA
carries 34 TEUs), but the difficulty of offloading onto a barge or a LARC in
Antarctica or off Macquarie Island, and not onto a stable wharf puts the
different operations into perspective. This also makes working as part of
the ship's company on this vessel quite unique in the Australian context. We
are lucky in that P&O has a core group of personnel who have done a
significant amount of sea time on this vessel and know its idiosyncrasies,
which ensures that we get the outcome we need in a safe and efficient
manner. Add to that the fact that we also require the vessel to undertake
marine science activities in the Southern Ocean also highlights the
uniqueness of working on this ship.
After spending most of yesterday under a grey sky and at time very thick
fog, last night Antarctica put on one of its best shows for us as the sun
set on a calm sea. Although not a clear sky the clouds made for a very
colourful sunset, with amazing contrasting colours. At the same time we had
the pleasure of passing through a couple of pods of Humpbacks and Sperm
Whales. It must have been an 'all you can eat' krill buffet as the numbers
were up around the 50 mark. There were blows right across the horizon as
well as the occasional fluke slap. This show went on for a good hour, with
the bridge packed with expeditioners and crew taking in this truly
spectacular sight. At the same time well had the pleasure of a large flock
of Antarctic Petrels accompanying us, they too numbered over the 50 and
swarmed all over the ship. The sounds of camera actuations was deafening!
Due to the diminishing light, I daresay that there will be more photo
deletions than keepers. I know I shot 200 photos but deleted 195!!! Anyone
who has tried to take a photo of a whale will tell you that, unless you
catch them breeching or sleeping on the surface, the results don't match
seeing them with the mark 1 eyeball. Interesting fact that whales are never
entirely asleep, apparently one hemisphere of their brain sleeps whilst the
other remains awake.
The first shot in the battle for the title of 'Ice Chef' has yet to be
fired, but rumour has it that Ken has something special planned for his
pre-emptive strike tonight. Word has spread that the weapon of mass
waistline destruction (WMWD) will have 'Tim Tams' as the secret ingredient
and might be in the form of a Brue lee, simply intriguing! The question will
be, what will Kyle retaliate with? Standby!
All aboard doing well and getting ready to surge ashore at Davis, which
means there should be more fruit buns left for us poor souls remaining
aboard. Every cloud has a baked lining I say!
Regards
Rob, Simon and George.
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.