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I wasn't joking yesterday when I said the calm weather was
over! The conditions continued to worsen throughout the morning and into
the early afternoon, with the wind reaching a scintillating 60 knots
around 1400. High winds make for high seas and we had the pleasure of
8-10 m seas at some stages pounding the bow of the ship and causing
massive shuddering - the roller coaster at Dream World has nothing on
this! This continued well into the evening when most of our
expeditioners took the opportunity to strap themselves into their bunks
and hold on tight for the duration. I have discovered that steel cap
safety boots wedged between the bulkhead and your mattress is very
effective in keeping it from ricocheting across your cabin with you
attached. Its only taken me six voyages to work that one out! Other
solutions to avoiding the dreaded bunk ping-pong include wearing your
thermal underwear and socks to increase the level of friction between
you and the sheet as well as the old chestnut of sharing your bunk with
all your kit bags and my new favourite of sleeping on top of another
dona. But when you are dealing with these types of conditions, nothing
can really prevent your face becoming intimately familiar with the
bulkhead both behind and at the foot of your bunk, they only help to
deaden the impact a little. All in all a very ordinary night's sleep for
everyone aboard and as a result numbers were extremely low at breakfast
this morning. We also had the added pleasure of losing another hour last
night as clocks were again advanced an hour to UTC+7, making us now four
hours behind Australian Eastern Daylight Savings time.
Despite the difficult conditions the Marine Science team continued to
put in the big hours, with George on standby, as we prepare for the
first Argo float deployment latter today. A lot of work goes into
getting things setup correctly for deployments as well to finish up the
stow of the RMT from yesterday. For those interested, the Argo floats
actually sink when deployed to undertake current and water profiling,
gathering a lot of data about what is happening below the surface. At a
preordained time, the float will surface and make a phone call via the
Iridium Satellite network and transmit all its data, before going back
under the water. The type of data it collects relates to water
temperature, pressure, density as well as the positional information it
gathers when it surfaces. It also has a sensor to detect if ice is
present above it, so it won't try to pop-up under an iceberg or in the
middle of the ice pack.
With regards to the daily wildlife report, yesterday was Orca day, with
a pod of about 10-15 Orcas parallelling our track for about 5 minutes.
They came to within 100m of the ship and provided a great show for the
limited time they decided to grace us with their presence. Shortly after
this the Southern Ocean tempest began and the only wildlife was the
occasional Shearwater or Prion battling to remain on course in the
turbulent winds.
During the early hours of today, the wind began to abate and the seas
backed off to around the 4m mark. Currently the wind is a moderately
comfortable 20 knots and the ship has a more sedate pitch and roll. Most
people are using the relatively calmer conditions to check out the
insides of their eyelids and catch on some of the sleep they missed last
night and as a result it is very quite around the decks of the ship this
morning. Even the Krill are taking sometime out, putting up their
multiple legs and chilling out with a fruit bun after the heavy night
last night.
During our daily morning chat, the Field Marshall informed me that Stay
the wooden legged plastic dog, has been on tour for nearly 20 years. It
seems Stay first made an appearance during the 1992/93 ANARE expedition,
but this date is yet to be verified. Sprunkie has sent of an email to
the person long believed to be responsible for the introduction of Stay
to confirm this and to answer the other vexing question causing much
consternation, is Stay a boy or a girl???? Standby for further updates.
On the Dessert War front, in response to the devastaing 'Shock & Awe'
campaign launched by Kate and Kyle, Ken fired a Apricot and Butterscotch
Sponge pudding missile. Although a great effort the fallout from the
Honey Roasted Pear and Orange 'A-bomb' detonated the previous night, is
still in the air and contaminating the judges opinion. Speaking of a
'great efforts' the current fruit bun recipe is proving a hit, the lads
have perfected a fluffy interior with just the right amount of fruit,
plus a beautiful glazed exterior. I have also been informed that moves
are in place to ensure a continued supply of fruit buns for the
remainder of the voyage, so can those personnel who have been hording
the buns in anticipation of a FB famine, please refrain from doing so.
All aboard enjoying the respite from yesterday's horrible conditions and
catching up on entire seasons of TV shows daily!
Regards
Rob, Simon and George.
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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.