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Yesterday, we continued to make good progress in relatively calm conditions. In the afternoon, it was noticed that our course was going to take us over a large group of sea mounts that are known from gravity surveys but have never been mapped in detail.
We altered course by a few degrees and slowed down to 8 knots for two hours as we passed over the largest of them. Using the deep water multibeam, the acoustics team of Floyd, Alison and Jill were able to map a long swathe across the entire mountain and discovered that it rises to within 450 metres of the surface from a base elevation of 3500 metres. The entire mount is about 16 nautical miles across and has never been mapped before. It was tempting to go round again and get the whole thing but it will be waiting for us on future trips.
We are claiming naming rights but the rules state that you have to be dead before you achieve immortality by having something named after you. This rather blunted peoples enthusiasm. So we have provisionally dubbed it Ridgy-Didge Seamount. We'll see what the appropriate naming committee makes of that..
Lloyd & Justin
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.