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So I thought I’d start today’s Sitrep with the statistics I’ve been promising. All up on the voyage to date we have conducted 216 helicopter flights from the AAs helideck. At Mawson we transferred ashore over 130,000Kg of cargo to the station, including 47,084L of SAB (Special Antarctic Blend Diesel), and back loaded over 7,700Kg of return to Australia (RTA) cargo from Mawson station. As well as retrieving the 2013 wintering team and deploying the 2014 winterers. All of this was achieved in 9 flying days, some of which were not even full flying days. Well done to all involved!
Yesterday evening we enjoyed one of the great traditions onboard the Aurora Australis, the Trawl Deck BBQ. The crew did a fantastic job of running the wood fired BBQs and all on board donned their Antarctic clothing to gather on the trawl deck in -24 degree temperatures to enjoy the BBQ and watch the ice go sailing by, which when seen from the trawl deck is a great experience in itself. We also discovered that -24 degrees seems to be the temperature at which most standard BBQ beverages, and some foods, “snap freeze”... who would have thought?
Late yesterday afternoon our dream run through the leads came to an end and since then we have been bashing and ramming our way through heavy pack ice as we attempt to find a way through to the ice edge. We are only around 25 – 30nm from the pack ice edge but it is going to be a hard fought 25 - 30nm battle it would seem.
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.