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Hello everyone,
Last evening, we were privileged to host a dynamic presentation on orchestral works and composition by our resident composer Gordon H, who is sailing with us courtesy of an arts fellowship in his pursuit to create a piece of music representing the history of this ship, the Aurora Australis.
This morning at the D-Deck noticeboard, an expeditioner gently chided us for leading them to believe they had missed their aviation survival kit briefing by incorrectly reporting it in yesterday's sitrep, when it fact it hadn't been held until today. Sometimes it seems, you can be late and ahead of schedule, all at once.
This morning at 0545hs, we were right on time as that same expeditioner and more than a dozen others gathered of their own free will on the chilly outer decks of the Aurora, with the temperature well below zero, to spot for a whale mooring that was at that very moment making its slow ascent from a depth of almost 3 kilometres to meet us. Equipped with advanced acoustic instrumentation, this device had spent its year productively; recording data that will provide insights into both the 'recovery and ecology' of the Antarctic blue whale in a project that remains the 'flagship of the Southern Ocean Research Partnership'. Having been 'pinged' and released from the deep by its comms handler Daniel some 40 minutes earlier, the suspense was ended by a shout from the starboard side deck. A bright yellow ringed capsule - Sam T knew a whale mooring when he saw one. Within the second hour the crew had expertly recovered it onto the trawl deck and deployed a successor to take up the lonely listening post for another year.
With both MET buoys deployed, the whale moorings now exchanged, and Ben and his volunteers standing by to commence sea ice observations, the ship set a course for Casey, with what looked to be a substantial extent of sea ice standing between us and the station. Very impressive from space; as far as the satellite imagery showed, and strikingly beautiful from up close, the pack ice turned out to be far less of an obstacle than was reasonably anticipated, and we were quickly immersed into the brilliant white expanse after a week on the dark blue ocean.
Hours passed and the ship moved effortlessly on through the pack as expeditioners dutifully attended to their briefings and trainings (including on the aviation survival kit) and absorbed their new surrounds. Quickly, the spectre of days spent breaking a route through compacted ice to Casey faded and was replaced with the spectre of becoming the early guest at station. Whilst management put aside the day's sitrep to consider this, their last ETA to Casey still ringing down the phone line, the off-duty crew and expeditioners made use of the now sunlit trawl deck to toast the voyage so far and those who had crossed the 60th by sea for their very first time.
So now, some hours later, with plans revised and honed in no small part thanks to an adaptive station team, the ship continuing its steady progress through the ice and a delayed sitrep now completed, here we are - late but ahead of schedule.
Regards,
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.