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Yesterday we flew a RAPPL's (Radar, Aerial Photography, Pyrometer, Laser
Scanner) transect flight in the afternoon. They flew 60nm north, then
60nm east and then back to the ship. At 1500 feet above sea level as far
as the eye can see there is heavy, continuous, snow covered floes of
pack ice with not a single lead in sight.
In the last 24 hours we have done 263 rams of the ship. We ease
backwards about a ship length (94m), and then increase forward pitch to
push the ship into the ice. The trick is to hit hard enough to push
ahead, either breaking the ice or pushing it aside, but without going so
hard we push up onto it where the sticky snow will then hold us in
place. Each ram usually gains us a few metres.
There is the possibility of a reasonable storm early next week which
might finally bring the strong southerly winds we need to loosen the
pack and make decent headway. Until then we are trying to park up on a
floe that we can sample for the next couple of days.
Christian our FTO (Field Training Officer)is running some advanced field
training in knot work. Some boy scout he must have been to learn these
knots! We have learned figure of eight (single, rethreaded, and on a
bight), alpine butterflies, bowlines, clove hitches, the double
fishermen's and many more...
The latest edition of Wendy's blog is available at www.aad.gov.au then
follow the SIPEX II blog link on the right side of the page to read
about Ernesto's amazing work with the terrestrial laser scanner.
Cheers
Andy, Brett
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.