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Weather conditions eased sufficiently yesterday afternoon for expeditioners from Mawson to come to the ship for briefings. There was a briefing on mooring the vessel in the harbour and the roles and responsibilities of all concerned. There were quite a large group for the briefing as there are two teams needed – one for mooring the vessel on entry to the harbour and one for releasing the mooring lines from the bollards to exit the harbour.
Key personnel involved in cargo operations also walked around the cargo to familiarise themselves on what will be discharged from the vessel. It is also a great opportunity to point out any quirks of particular pieces of cargo. It could be a certain way cargo is required to be rigged, the general order of discharge, likely timeframe of when RTA (return to Australia) cargo can be loaded to vessel. It is important this briefing occurs to ensure that everyone is working of the same song sheet.
On completion of the briefings all Mawson expeditioners went ashore (outgoing and incoming) as well as several roundtrippers. The first day of resupply is always hectic with managing passenger transfers ship to shore with briefings, timings, inductions, trying to maximise opportunities and work hours available. As safety is our number one priority we do not commence any operations without the appropriate safety processes being gone through and everyone briefed accordingly.
The ship was very quiet last night with nearly half of our passengers now safely at their new home.
We went to sea overnight and stooged around. This morning as we edged our way closer to Kista Strait (outside Horseshoe Harbour) – the scenery was sensational. Probably some of the best I have ever seen (yeah, big call). The winds dropped sufficiently to commence start cargo operations after lunch. Actual cargo operations take a little while to start as we need to prepare then discharge the jet barge from the ship. This is our means of transferring cargo to and from shore.
As I write this I am watching the refuelling container being loaded to the jet barge for transfer ashore. This allows our refuelling supervisor time to continue preparations ashore so that we can commence refuelling as soon as a weather window is open. You may notice I continue to refer to weather – this is the determining factor for just about all of our operations in Antarctica.
Cheers
Leanne, Simon and Amy
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.