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Last night brought a sense of excitement to the ship - once we departed Buckles Bay and began our night transit off the coast the wind really began to pick up. The Master closed the decks as they became very wet and slippery. An expeditioner who shall remain anonymous was heard to ask how strong the wind was. When the First Mate replied that it was just over 50 knots this expeditioner jokingly replied "Well that's boring, I want more". Needless to say after dinner of smoked fish and vegies he retired to his cabin as the roll of the vessel continued to increase ... We were later treated to a faint Aurora Australis on the horizon before the clear skies were again swallowed up by clouds before the next sqaull arrived.
Most seem to have slept quite well overnight despite the windspeed measured on the vessel reaching a high of 64 knots even in the lee of the island where we were doing our night time laps. We were all up on deck again this morning to check those every present weather forecasts to see what today would bring. We had planned to resupply a couple of the islands huts, at Green Gorge and Brothers Point by watercraft. This resupply voyage usually carries helicopters but as we don't have them this year we have been tasked to resupply the huts using either LARCs or IRBs. Extensive planning has gone into this activity and we're all keen to get down the island and get the job done, but unfortunately the weather has not co-operated. After careful consideration of the weather for the next few days we postponed the huts in order to finish off our cargo operation and bring our Macquarie Island passengers onboard.
We pulled into our 'parking spot' at Buckles Bay around 7am and got started with LARC runs shortly after. Midmorning we had our hold cargo completed and were able to close our hatch for the last time this voyage. We went on to transfer out the marine invertebrates and the deck cargo. The highlight of our day should have been the beautiful view of the finally clear coastline of Macquarie Island, but instead the event that generated the most interest onboard was the loading of one of the LARCs. This went very smoothly and it was on deck before lunch. We then moved out our second last group of passengers and the final cargo for this voyage. The passengers who joined us today are the summer personnel from Macquarie Island, many of whom have been on the island since October 2013. They have joined the members of the MIPEP (Macquarie Island Pest Eradication Program) leaving only the outgoing winterers on the island for us to collect tomorrow.
Cheers, Nicki & Sharon
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.