Information
Comments
What a day! We arrived in Buckles Bay bright and early again this morning ready to jump into cargo action. The first radio call was made to check the wave height at the beach (rocky landing area) to see whether it was low enough to be within our operational parameters for barge operations but alas it was not to be. We are carrying a barge on the ship for a single trip ashore as we have one cargo item that is too big and heavy for our helicopters and LARCs. This JCB (a machine that can lift and move cargo items) needs to go ashore to replace the old one that we will then bring home. Not for the first time it's looking like the JCB will be doing a roundtrip rather than going ashore as we have not been able to line up suitable wind, wave, swell and tide conditions to get it ashore this trip. We haven't quite given up as there may be an opportunity to launch the barge tomorrow so we remain prepared ... Operations kicked off this morning as soon as we finished the usual preparations. Each night we put the helicopters into the hangers ashore and on the ship so each morning we have to take them out again before we can start work. The LARC crews also need to spend about 45 minutes doing mechanical checks and maintenance on the vessels before they can commence operations for the day. The down island flying kicked off well and it was great to see sling loads of cargo coming in from the field all day. We moved cargo from ship to shore and returned RTA loads to the vessel. We used the LARCs to transfer large cargo items such as a generator and three Communications repeater huts (modified plastic water tanks with solar panels on the outside) ashore.
Today was a special day in the resupply - from the first operational meeting and radio calls there were different voices on the other end. Last night the station changed over - we would like to thank the 2014 team for all their hard work leading into the resupply and throughout this past week and welcome the 2015 team to their new home for the year. Mid morning we commenced transfering expeditioners back to the ship. Due to the large number of people involved in this voyage we needed to make sure that this started early as we had estimated it could take around 5 hours to return them and their baggage to the vessel. Once aboard they all set about settling into their cabins and having a well earned break. After having only 5-10 expeditioners plus the crew on board it was unusual to walk down the stairwell and hear the babble of voices, and have to join the meal queue again. It's great to hear about the wonderful winter and summer that our returning expeditioners have had. Our round trip expeditioners have also been telling us about how successful their work programs have been. As we write this we are about to recommence our planning meetings in preparation for another day of operations tomorrow.
REGARDS: Nicki and Mike
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.