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We woke up to a glorious sunny day with neige (snow) on one of the hill's and pain au chocolat for breakfast. Great way to start the day and even though we had to stop operations for 30 minutes due to high gusting winds the wildlife kept us entertained. King penguins were darting around having a good feed, I assume on something tasty. We had the joy of watching two orques (orcas) leisurely cruising along the beach in front of station. If this was not enough excitement a cormorant landed on the heli deck. It appeared to be assessing the cargo operations but as it was not on the RTA cargo manifest it had to leave the ship.
This morning 101 items of RTA cargo remained on shore. At 3.20pm the last item had been loaded to the ship. One last job for the day – load one LARC on board the L'Astrolabe. A LARC weighs over 9 tonne and a carefully choreographed process saw it safely lifted onto the deck.
We are coming to the end of our time at Macquarie Island with only two tasks left. Bring the 2020 Macquarie Island wintering team and the voyage support staff including the watercraft operators to the ship and load one more LARC. These are scheduled for tomorrow morning and if the weather plays the game we will head back to Hobart around noon.
The 2020 Macquarie team have now handed the reigns of the station to the 2021 team. We wish Derek and his team a safe and successful year and look forward to seeing Finn and her team on board.
SANTE: Leanne and Anthea
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.