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This morning expeditioners and crew awoke to find that the heavy sea conditions experienced over the past 24 hours had largely abated, with few if any white caps on the surrounding ocean and a clear horizon visible from the bridge. Before bunkering down the previous evening however, another very absorbing presentation was delivered by another of the voyage's watercraft operators, James Brook, covering his recent experiences in the Southern and Indian Oceans supporting the monitoring of illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing activities in those regions. James is an experienced seafarer, musician and has even previously worked in a technical role within operating theatres.
Presentations are usually followed by a movie in the ship's cinema, although who gets to choose what's watched each night largely falls to who's quickest with the whiteboard marker. We haven't had any disputes as yet, but there's usually at least one 'Sound of Music' fan lurking aboard the ship, ready to traumatise their fellow expeditioners with singing nuns and brightly coloured curtains......
The calmer conditions returning overnight permitted the underway science team and crew to retrieve the latest Continuous Plankton Recorder around midnight, with a another unit redeployed at the same time. The voyage management team are now ramping up our planning activities for the vessel's arrival at Mawson station, reviewing watercraft and refuelling procedures, scheduling briefings and monitoring weather and sea ice conditions within the vessel's anticipated track.
We'll change time zones again at midnight this evening, bringing us to 'UTC +8' – three hours behind Hobart local / AEST, but still three hours ahead of Mawson Station!
And no-one's yet sighted an iceberg........
Cheers
Mark & Fred
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.