Resupply comes to an end and all leave except for the new wintering crew, who have two birthdays to celebrate. An unexpected furry expeditioner joins the crew.

And then there were 15

L'Astrolabe left us early on Thursday morning taking the 68th ANARE and all the round trippers with her. Due to winds, it was an early start to the day — all were loaded and the ship was on its way over the horizon by 0815. That left 15 of us winterers here on the island ready to start our year-long adventure.

Fortunately we had some returnees who knew that the correct procedure was to head up the hill to the ‘Ham Shack’ for the traditional flare farewell salute to the ship (this has the additional purpose of using up our out-of-date flares).

L'Astrolabe on the bay as the sun rises over North Head.
Deck of a LARC land/water vehicle with expeditioners in their yellow survival clothes waving goodbye
Plumber Tim waves goodbye from the deck of a big tin boat with wheels called a LARC
A LARC boat with wheels is heading down a dirt road towards Landing beach.
Two LARC boats with wheels in the water. The rocks of the Nuggets in the background.
Marcus & Helen letting off flares on the Ham shack balcony. Vista of south of the island in background.
Ranger Chris farewells the ship with an orange smoke flare. Ocean and distant ship in background.
L'Astrolabe heading off for the horizon with flares sparks in shot
Muster board showing only the winterers left on station and everyone else as ‘out'.

New neighbour

This little guy chose the middle of resupply to move on to station and set up his napping place under the back stairs to the surgery — completely unphased by our comings and goings.

Fur seal napping under the stairs

How to move a heavy, awkward item uphill

High winds the day before departure meant we couldn’t do any cargo ops so our watercraft operators got bored enough to take our new NBN dish-base up Wireless hill — all 51 kg of it. We're all very grateful winterers as that’s one less task for us to do!

A wooden hut sits atop a small but steep hill covered in grass. One man at the top runs a rope down to a few people at the bottom.
The base is strung up on a plank and carried between 4 people up the steep, muddy slope.
Now further up the hill, awkward tripod style base is visible between the carriers.

Double birthday celebrations

To start off the year, we had a double birthday to celebrate with Meteorological Observer, Marty, and Wildlife Ranger, Marcus, sharing a birthday on Friday. They called it a 21st as there are 21 years between them. Chef Rocket went all out creating cakes including some fondant sculpture and our giant version of Jenga got a workout.

It was a quiet station the next day…

Marty with his birthday pavlova and sparklers
Marcus with his chocolate mud birthday cake with sparklers.
Marcus and Marty in their blow-up birthday crowns and with full glasses for a toast.
Marcus’s birthday cake with an ele seal made of fondant by Chef Rocket.
DSL Joe in brightly coloured paisley ‘party’ shirt at the bar.
Dr Helen removing a block during the game of giant Jenga
Ben successfully removes a block and mugs for the camera whilst Rob watches.
Rob having a turn as the giant Jenga tower has more gaps and becomes more precarious. Ben in background watching on.
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