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What a difference a day makes! This morning as we awoke the ship was penetrating the outer edge of the ice pack with sea ice as far as the eye could see. There were frequent sightings of penguins and crabeater seals on the floes and the ship's speed has also dropped as we make our way though the sea ice. This has been accompanied by the odd lurch and bump as we negotiate our way around the bigger floes. The photographers have all been out and very busy, with several people complaining of severe bouts of "lens envy". Some camera lenses seem more like small cannons than photographic equipment! Last night we retarded the clocks one last hour, bringing us to the same time zone as Mawson (UTC +5), this now puts us 6 hours behind Eastern Standard Time (UTC+10 +1 for daylight saving). It also means that on the sail home we will have to loose 6 hours... Today the preparation effort has focused on team and individual briefings for specific aspects of the resupply operation. These include helicopter briefs, communications equipment briefs, and briefs for the complex evolution of mooring the ship in Horseshoe Harbour. Detailed planning for the operation of the workboat 'Howard Burton' by the RAN Hydrographic survey team onboard has also been largely completed. The A factor is now firmly in play with only a remote prospect of achieving a Sunday arrival at Mawson based on the current weather forecast. Accordingly we will seek shelter on the western side of Prydz Bay inside the pack ice and wait until the weather improves enough to allow us to make it into iceberg alley and then the station. CPR #4 has been recovered and no further CPR deployments are planned for this voyage.
Regards
Andy, Sharon and Chris
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.