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The plan for yesterday was to wait for Happy Diamond to backload as much cargo as possible before stealing away the outgoing wintering team and taking them home. The morning began for us with six Watercraft Operators heading ashore in three IRBs. They offered a helping hand for the resupply effort and waited on station as a contingency standby should we not have time to use Happy Diamond's barge for PAX transfer. At around 1130, Happy Diamond announced that they would be suspending cargo operations and departing the Harbour to wait out the bad weather that was set to come over the next 4-5 days. An hour or so later they were ready to leave the harbour. Unfortunately, upon exiting the harbour, the Happy Diamond became grounded on a shoal. The AIVIQ was not far away and was immediately on standby to assist as needed. The Happy Diamond soon floated free and headed out into Kista Strait. The Happy Diamond could no longer offer us their barge so we launched into Plan B of transferring the PAX and their bags by IRB. We had about 20 IRB runs to get all PAX and bags to the ship. We were four runs in before we had to pause operations when the wind blew up above IRB operating limits. The wind soon dropped back to 20-22kts and we re-commenced our IRB runs. The remaining bags and PAX were transferred efficiently and within an hour we had everything and everyone we needed on board. We then departed Mawson, waving goodbye and good luck to the new wintering team.
We spent the night escorting Happy Diamond out of Iceberg Alley. At 2200, they left our side and headed for home. We now have our sights set on Davis, where we will discharge cargo and retrieve six personnel.
REGARDS: Sam and Anthony
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.