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Voyage 6 departed Hobart yesterday evening in lovely conditions for an evening cruise down the Derwent River. Most passengers stayed up on deck well into the evening to watch the lights of Hobart dissapear into the distance. This voyage is bound for Mawson station where we will conduct the station's annual resupply and personnel changeover. Due to heavy ice conditions in the Mawson region currently preculding vessel access to Mawson Harbour, it is anticipated that this years resupply will be conducted via helicopter, and thus this voyage has been prepared accordingly. The cargo has been prioritised and pre-packed ready for flying ashore. Special Antarctic Blend (SAB) diesel fuel, which is used on station to assist with power generation, has been preloaded into Intermediate Bulk Containers (IBCs) which will enable the fuel to be flown ashore and to enable all of this to occur, we are carrying four AS350B3 Squirrel helicopters.
There has been an incredible amount of work that has occured by numerous sections within the AAD to enable this voyage to depart as well prepared as it can be for the operation ahead of us. So to all those people we say a big "Thank You" for your efforts. There's too many of you to mention but you all know who you are and we hope you are enjoying a nice relaxing public holiday in Hobart today.
We've had a very calm first night at sea which has been appreciated by all onboard. We are currently transiting on a southerly course to avoid the worst of two low presseure systems that are moving across from the west. We won't be able to avoid them fully however, and things will start to get a little bumpy tomorrow and then pick up further on Wednesday as the second of these two low pressure systems generates gale force winds on our proposed track as we start heading on a more westerly course.
We will retard our clocks by 1 hour tonight. We will continue to put our clocks back by an hour every other evening so we end up on the same time zone as Mawson station when we arrive.
Cheers,
Deepy and 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.