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The Aurora Australis is now well on its way back to Hobart, having crossed the line of latitude of 60 degrees South earlier this morning, and being roughly halfway between Davis and Casey stations (although several hundred kilometres to the North of the Antarctic coast).
Sightings of the few remaining large icebergs within range of the vessel's track have been sporadic the past two days, however there are a large number of icebergs which drift North of 60 degrees South each year, one berg being spotted from Australia's Macquarie Island station team just earlier this season.
The expeditioners aboard continue to make the most of the relatively moderate conditions to rest, play cards and board games, read, attend yoga groups or head to the gymnasium & sauna. The upper decks have remained a little wetter throughout the day as a result of passing snow showers and the sea spray from larger waves breaking along the ship's side, but with the sun appearing regularly throughout the day, a number of expeditioners have still been heading up for fresh air, photography and bird watching. There are also still several expeditioners conducting underway scientific tests and analysis, including sea water, air sampling and the various meteorological and atmospheric tests being conducted by the international team on the monkey-island (the uppermost external deck of the Aurora, above the bridge).
The Atmospheric Radiation Monitoring (ARM) team includes two instrumentation specialists (Mr Vagner Melo de Castro and Mr Bruno Cunha) engaged by the National Los Alamos laboratory in the US, although the two technicians themselves are based in Brazil and Portugal respectively. The third team member is a representative of the Australian Bureau of Meteorology's Melbourne office, Mr Dainn McGee. This team have kept round the clock duties throughout the voyage, releasing weather balloons and maintaining the sensitive suite of equipment on the monkey-island. High wind and swell conditions present additional challenges for the team, but they'd done a great job keeping the instrumentation in running order – collecting large amounts of data to be shared with various scientific offices internationally.
While the expeditioners who've completed a busy season of operations in Antarctica are now relaxing for the homeward leg of their journey, by contrast the crew of the Aurora still maintain bridge and engine room watches, attend to routine ship maintenance, conduct checks of systems and sensitive cargo, prepare hundreds of meals daily and maintain the accommodation areas to support the large numbers of personnel aboard. In-between these duties and in their own time, some crew members are also hand-making a number of items which will join those already donated for the auction to be held before our arrival in port in support of the Aurora Australis' charity Camp Quality.
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.