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The good weather continued all day yesterday and continues
today. By good weather I mean anything that doesn't have the ship
pitching and rolling too violently. Its amazing how your concept of what
constitutes 'good' weather changes after getting the integrity of your
skeletal system tested for a few hours in a storm.
In light of the relative stability of the ship, the absence of
expeditioners is particularly noticeable as most people work on reducing
their sleep debt. With only the Marine Science lads working flat out,
the Continuous Plankton Recorder (CPR) and the hard partying krill to
worry about the pace has certainly dropped off a bit. The day is now
broken up by the three major highlights, breakfast, lunch and dinner,
interspersed with the latest episodes of 'Deadwood' and 'From here to
the Moon' in the D Deck Recreation Space. A number of other people
aboard are taking the opportunity to begin writing up the results of
their scientific, engineering or operational exploits undertaken over
the summer. So in summary a very quiet ship at the moment.
Some further info for those interested in the Argo floats that we will
deploying on leg back to Hobart: there are currently around 3000 of this
little yellow beasties pinging away in the world's oceans at the moment;
the floats are named after the ship 'Argo' famous in Greek methology for
taking Jason on his quest for the golden fleece, quite appropriate when
you consider that each of these floats has a life cycle cost of around
$25 000, golden fleece indeed. We should be in position around 2100
tonight to deploy the first one. The lads are as keen as mustard to drop
kick (gently) the first one over the side.
On the CPR front I have to report that another record has been broken,
yes the five minute CPR changeover has been well and truly smashed. John
and the AA Deck Crew worked like a finely tuned machine, in getting that
bad boy on the deck, cassettes changed out and back in the water in five
minutes. Sensational effort! This is getting too easy, so the next
changeover will be done with blind folds and one arm tied behind their
backs! Just joking but well a truly deserving of a fruit bun!
When we were at Mawson, Karen and Natalie, two expeditioners we picked
up at Davis, would head ashore every morning with nets and buckets. The
main net looked like one of those pool cleaning implements and to
dispell a rumour that they were just there to do a 'pool' clean of
Horseshoe Harbour, I've asked Karen, who works jointly with the
Institute of Marine and Antarctic Studies at the University of Tasmania
and AAD, for a run down on her project:
"This season I have been collecting samples as part of a large study to
understand connectivity in Antarctic marine species. For many marine
invertebrates, such as starfish and anemones, adults are site-attached
and so movement among areas is dependent on microscopic larval stages
that disperse with the ocean currents. The work I and my students have
been doing is trying to understand more about larval dispersal in such
species – questions such as how far can larvae disperse? how often do
they successfully disperse between populations? and which direction do
they go? – are the sorts of things we hope to find out. Of course if we
studied seals or penguins we could use satellite tracking devices to
answer these sorts of questions. But this approach is impossible with
microscopic larvae – and so instead we use their DNA as a tracking
device. By comparing how related populations are to each other based on
genetics we can infer the amount of larval dispersal between them. We
have spent most of the 2009/2010 Antarctic season working as part of the
dive team at Davis and collecting samples of sea urchins, anemones and
amphipods, but took the opportunity while doing resupply at Mawson on V3
to try to collect some extra samples from around the shoreline around
station, to enable us to compare the populations at Mawson with those at
Davis. Our collecting was moderately successful, managing to get a
reasonable number of an important amphipod species, but given what a
great place Mawson is, I think we will definitely need to go back for
more thorough collections sometime soon!"
Thanks Karen, your fruit bun awaits.
Since the last SITREP, the Albatrosses have started to appear with a
female Wanderer appearing yesterday afternoon and a Southern Royal
visiting us this morning. Whale sightings were also plentiful with a
number of Humpbacks spotted throughout the day.
Have to make a special mention of Zane and Lisa's stirling efforts in
the galley yesterday. For lunch yesterday both of them joined with the
caterers to put on a gourmet pizza extravaganza. Thanks team for a great
lunch!
I have to report that Ken's Crepe a la Rawson last night was the
'Normandy' of the Dessert War. By all reports, and there were many, it
was the knock out blow of the war so far. Kyle must be in full retreat
after this cream filled weapon of mass BMI destruction was let loose.
What will be unlesashed next in this no holds barred, take no prisoner
campaign!
All aboard sitting back, relaxing and taking it all in!
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.