• 05

Delivery voyage 2021

Coming to Australia for the first time on a delivery voyage of 24,000 km, RSV Nuyina departed the Netherlands on 31 August 2021 and arrived into its home port of Hobart, Tasmania on 16 October 2021.

Hobart Hobart Casey Casey Davis Davis Macquarie Is Macquarie Is Mawson Mawson Heard & McDonald Is Heard & McDonald Is Nuyina

15 October 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
44.2°S, 141.9°E – 23,027 km travelled

Almost at the end of Nuyina's delivery voyage, meet a few more of the amazing crew who helped bring our fantastic new icebreaker half way around the world to Hobart. On the way they have navigated the English Channel, just missed an erupting volcano in the Canary Islands, crossed the equator, seen a raft of wildlife and breath-taking landscapes and experienced the beauty of the Southern Ocean.

We thank them for taking such good care of our vessel and can't wait to welcome them home.

9 October 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
52.4°S, 108.3°E – 20,282 km travelled

You can’t bring a ship from one side of the world to the other without an amazing crew and Nuyina has some of the best!

We asked some of the voyage delivery team why they thought Nuyina was special to them.

Click through the photo gallery to read what they had to say.

4 October 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
50.6°S, 71.6°E – 17,541 km travelled

Our voyagers got a real taste of winter as they passed the jaw-droppingly beautiful Kerguelen Plateau, the world's longest continuously erupting supervolcano. Don't feel too sorry for them though. Brooke and Tom got to enjoy the spectacular landscape and bird life from the comfort of one of Nuyina's heated wildlife observation boxes. Not a bad view from the office.

The submerged plateau is a massive undersea mountain range, almost the size of Western Australia, created by magma flows over many millions of years. At depths of 1000-4000 metres, the Kerguelen Plateau straddles the Indian and Southern Oceans and stretches towards Antarctica. Volcanic activity on the seafloor pumps vast amounts of minerals such as iron into the water, making the area a biological hotspot.

4 October 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
50.6°S, 71.6°E – 17,541 km travelled

Nuyina is 'rolling' along nicely on its delivery voyage, having rounded the Cape of Good Hope and now tracking across the Southern Indian Ocean. At only 4 metres, these swells are nothing compared to the 14m high waves that Nuyina can handle.

1 October 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
46.8°S, 54.1°E – 16,124 km travelled

You could be forgiven for never having heard of this remote French archipelago of sub-Antarctic Islands, îles Crozet, but we are confident you won't forget them after looking at these amazing images. We are just a teeny bit jealous of our intrepid voyagers getting to sail past such spectacular scenery.

27 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
39.5°S, 30.2°E – 13,929 km travelled

Nuyina turned a corner at the weekend, rounding the Cape of Good Hope and leaving Africa behind, before heading in to the Southern Indian Ocean. Next stop Australia. Honk, Honk!

22 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
27.1°S, 8.0°E – 11,370 km travelled

On 22 September Nuyina crossed over the halfway mark of its passage from Vlissingen to Hobart, clicking over 6,145 nautical miles in 23 days from The Netherlands. So now just the same again before Nuyina sails up the River Derwent on 16th October.

The journey offers the opportunity to test many of the ship’s capabilities – like its manoeuvrability. Nuyina’s voyage track reveals two ‘donuts’, testing the 160-metre ship’s turning circle, to both port and starboard. The churning wake behind the ship shows the power of its twin engines and 5.85 metre propellers!

21 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
24.2°S, 3.8°E – 10,841 km travelled

Nuyina is jam packed with state-of-the-art science equipment and we can't wait to show you this research toolkit throughout the remainder of the voyage and beyond.

To whet your appetite, here's a sneak peek at some of the facilities we will be showcasing in our upcoming features.

19 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
16.4°S, 5.3°W – 9,545 km travelled

Nuyina was so excited to pass by remote island St Helena that it got itself in a spin! Testing the state of the art Dynamic Positioning system the ship was able to complete a full 360° as though turning on a dime.

16 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
7.3°S, 14.6°W – 8,051 km travelled

Having seen nothing but water for several days the landmark starved voyagers were very happy indeed to pass by beautiful Ascension Island, 1600 km off the coast of Africa. Turns out the Ascension Islanders were just as happy to see Nuyina, posting photos of the ship from shore and plenty of well wishes on their local Facebook page.

14 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
0.7°N, 18.9°W – 7,036 km travelled

Crossing the equator is a big deal in maritime circles and has been celebrated by mariners for centuries. Our lucky voyagers crossed the line on 13th August 2021, earning themselves a certificate from none other than King Neptune. Designed by artist Coral Tulloch especially for the occasion, it officially marks the transition from the northern to southern hemisphere. The event was celebrated with a special dip in Nuyina’s moon pool on the marine science deck. And in case you were wondering, the water was warm!

12 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
8.4°N, 23.6°W – 6,002 km travelled

Disco diva RSV Nuyina shows off its sparkling helideck lights as it cruises near the equator. Helicopters form a crucial part of our Antarctic station resupply capabilities and are used regularly for science in the field.

10 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
20.0°N, 22.9°W – 4,667 km travelled

Senior Science Systems Engineer Angus Cummings has inspected Nuyina’s two drop keels from all angles. The drop keels are an important element of the ship's incredible science capabilities and house acoustic instruments to map the seafloor or detect schools of krill and fish.

The keels can be ‘dropped’ or lowered 3 metres below the hull, into a quiet, bubble-free zone beneath the ship, allowing the acoustic instruments to better detect their targets.

Keep an eye out for more detailed information on the drop keels scientific capabilities soon.

8 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
27.1°N, 15.5°W – 3,567 km travelled

During a planned stop at Las Palmas in the Canary Islands, our intrepid photographer Pete jumped on board a smaller boat. He managed to capture these speccy pictures of the bigger ship looking all shiny and new at sea!

5 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
39.8°N, 11.7°W – 2,045 km travelled

Nuyina’s capabilities will be subject to ongoing trials throughout the delivery voyage and beyond. Senior Science Systems Engineers Angus Cummings and Camille Couzi were just a little bit excited when they achieved this major milestone – having live instrument data from the ship appearing for the very first time on the Science Data Management System known as DiRT (Data in Real Time)! Woo-hoooo!

2 September 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
50.5°N, 0.1°W – 462 km travelled

“There’ll be blue birds over, the white cliffs of Dover”. Nuyina is powering through the English Channel and Bay of Biscay enroute to Hobart, but this is not the ship’s first time in these waters. During trials earlier in the year, Nuyina bumped in to its British Antarctic Survey counterpart RSS David Attenborough. Both ships showed off their best side as they gave each other a friendly ‘once over’.

31 August 2021
RSV Nuyina, Delivery voyage 2021
51.5°N, 3.6°E – 0 km travelled

Australia’s new state of the art icebreaker set sail from Vlissingen in the Netherlands on 31st August 2021, heading south to the ship’s new home port of Hobart, Tasmania. The 24,000km delivery voyage will take the crew on board past the coast of West Africa, across the equator, around the Cape of Good Hope and finally to Hobart. We can’t wait to see Nuyina heading up the River Derwent in mid-October.

This content was last updated 2 years ago on .