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Last night's feature presentation in the ship's theatre, a retrospective of previous submissions to the 48hour Antarctica Film Festival was fun to behold and highlighted once again the range of talents, creativity and resourcefulness possessed by over wintering expeditioners on Australian stations and beyond. The friendly game of 'killer' continues aboard the ship, with half a dozen participants already having been added to the list of 'murdered', along with their accompanying mugshots. In response to the criteria that you can only be tapped on the shoulder (and thus dispatched) by your assassin when moving alone and outside your work space, a burgeoning demand for 'bodyguards' has thus arisen.
This afternoon, voyage operations staff and ship's crew undertook a dry run of moving cage pallets from the forward holds aft through the ship's internal spaces to the heli-hangar. Assessing the timeliness and practicality of conveying cargo forward to aft helps inform our planning around undertaking concurrent cargo operations to station using both helicopters and watercraft. The results of these trials will be analysed and go some way to guide what configuration we adopt to promote an efficient discharge of cargo.
Having spent the preceding weeks familiarising ourselves with the ship, we thought it well and truly time to take readers on a ship's tour (by instalment), noting parts of Deck 3 and Deck 2 will be left for a willing volunteer to provide post the famed engine room tours.
Today, the remains of Deck 3. Let's begin as all good journey's should, with the warmth of a cup of tea in our bellies c/o ship's mess (Deck 5) and a biscuit in hand. Making our way down the off white coloured central stairwell down 4 flights of stairs, past the wary participants of the aforementioned 'killer' game, huddling together for safety we emerge at the bottom of the stairwell. Directly in front of us is the entrance to the ship's sauna and its small corridor dividing off into several change/shower rooms. Turning back left out of the sauna and change rooms past the stairwell we come to the ship's gymnasium. Appointed with a rack of dumbbells and an array of rowing & weight machines, treadmills, X-trainers, bikes, a weights cage, mirrors and thankfully, some floor fans, a stairwell beyond the stretch mats leads up to the library on Deck 4. Beyond these common spaces lies a labyrinth of switchboard rooms, dry provision stores, the winch room and fuel oil tanks aft. Forward is the auxiliary machinery room, electrical equipment room and the forward holds.
Additional to our ship's tour by instalments. Please find our first of many tours of expeditioners (minds only c/o Sachie):
1. Name: Febes
2. Job: 'Water & Craft operator'
3. Where from: 'South Arm, Tasmania'
4. Where To: 'V5' (round tripping)
5. Claim to Fame: 'In 1995 worked with the 4th richest woman in America, in Petra (Jordan) as an extra and logistician for a special effects team'.
6. Why did you become an expeditioner?: 'For the adventure'
7. Favourite thing about the RSV Nuyina: 'The ship's Palawa Kani name'
8. Favourite pastime on voyage: 'Scientific discussions eg. [John's Aurora] presentation'
9. Favourite piece of Antarctic kit: 'Socks'
10. Voyage / Antarctic experience in one word: 'Epic'
11. Favourite V5 moment: 'The Wedding'
Regards,
James & Brendan
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.