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Last night the decision was made that we needed to get the Janas closer to home in order for some parts to be flown out to them. At this stage plan 45b-3 is for us to tow her to the Auckland Islands which are a little over 350nm from Macquarie Island. We commenced our passage yesterday afternoon at around 1730 after saying goodbye to the team at Macca and wishing them well for the rest of their winter. With an average towing speed of about 6knt we expect the transit to take about two and a half days.
The Auckland Islands are a particular sensitive environment with biosecurity requirements equivalent to Macquarie Island so we are ensuring that all our gear that might be used on the islands is cleaned accordingly. Discussions with New Zealand authorities highlights how special this place is. We have been warned that there will be +300 Southern Right Whales in the vicinity.
Hopefully the spare parts to be brought in by air will allow the Janas to flash its engine up and get back to port to allow for more significant repairs to take place. In addition, the crew of the Janas are still working day and night to see if they can get the engine running whilst we are still towing it and have greatly appreciated the spares that the AA's engineering team fabricated for them. They believe that they may be ready to give it another go tomorrow.
Today the weather has been very kind to us with it all on the stern, keeping the speed up and allowing the tow to ride nicely. The sun shines through in pockets and the seas are relatively calm. Quite a change after six days of blowing wind, rain, snow, hail, pestilence and famine off Macca! As a result the ship is remarkably quiet at the moment as people use the opportunity to get some rest after a busy period of operations.
Last night we had the pleasure of watching the documentary 'The ship that shouldn't have' about an expedition to Heard Island in the early eighties starring a couple of ANARE Legends, Jeremy Smith and Bob Jones.
All our troubles over the last week and a bit pale to insignificance to the 12 weeks of trials and tribulations encountered by these guys. Well worth a watch if you get the chance.
You can stop reading here if you aren't interested in the dessert ramblings:
There is a bit of trend becoming apparent in the dessert department as once again we were treated to choc chip encrusted bread and butter pudding. A quick referral to SITREP VE1002 indicated that a repeating pattern was occurring and that we might be seeing a rotating seven day menu! Chef was consulted about this fact and he confirmed that due to a shortage of brown sugar his options had reduced dramatically. After I picked myself back up off the floor about the brown sugar running out (the horror!) it was time to test out Bread & Butter Pudding version 2.0.
You could see that a lot of thought had gone into the construction of this dessert, with a change in the core ingredient - the bread. Chef went for a different type of home made bread cut a little thicker and more robust in texture and individually embedded choc chips in a mosaic pattern that was both inviting and intriguing, gaining top marks for presentation. Although the bread on top was impressive, what lay beneath was truly magnificent and did not disappoint. A firm but yielding texture was accented by the subtlest hint of chocolate that clearly added to the overall superior nature of this representation of a true master's work. In other words a really good pud!
Regards
Rob and Andy
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.