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Last night after a hearty Sunday roast, expeditioners gathered in the theatre for a presentation on the resupply of the U.S station McMurdo, by Jeff, our American refuelling assistant. With his considerable experience undertaking refuelling operations at McMurdo, Jeff provided a very engaging account of the similarities and differences between the U.S and Australian programmes as well as some insights into some of the unique aspects of a resupply at McMurdo including the scale of the operation there, and innovations such as the floating wharf – made from ice and capped with gravel, serving as a platform for cargo and refuel activities.
Today, blessed by relatively calm conditions we continue to make excellent progress northwards though conditions are expected to get a little rougher in the coming 48 hour period.
Taking a step back to resupply, it has been interesting to see how expeditioners' observations of the operation differed based on the nature of their role. A case in point being the perspective of one of our watercraft operators whose task during refuelling operations afforded him a very unique vantage point of the ship as he describes so well below:
'We have finished the refuel and the pack down occurs during our swing. The barge is put on the water to carry the hose reel, we are in the red boats to do all the running around. First job is to collect the end of the hose from the ship as it is lowered down out of the bow of the ship, our boat gets to do that which is great. [...] I like it when we get an excuse to get in real close because you can lean back to look at the curve of the hull arching up over your head, and on still days you can look down and see it disappearing down into the depths. Ships look different below the water line than what you would expect, they have a bulbous protrusion on the bow and bloated, rounded bellies. There is a lot of stuff going on under the water. You can also touch the hull of the AA. Some sections are ice cold while others are so hot to touch your hands almost burn. She feels alive.
Her hull is made up of hundreds of individual steel plates welded together all coming together around the keel which is her backbone. They are different to one another in size and shape and curve and they have all been welded by hand at a shipyard in New South Wales. Big ships aren't built like that anymore, now ships have different sections of hull built separately, eventually being joined together. The technology is evident, the craftsmanship is not.[...] I rest my hand on her side and then my cheek. I can look all the way along the water line until it curves away near the stern. I can hear her humming. Then the radio chatters, we are told to go somewhere else and we pull away.'
Kind regards,
James and Dave
V2 Voyage Management
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.