Part 1 11:45 hrs 17 December 2001
The Southern Ocean rocked me to sleep last night on the best Sunday in a decade for me. Aurora Australis shipped her lines at 20:00 hours on Sunday 16 December as we started our resupply voyage (V5) to Casey Station. We have a small complement of passengers, comprising the 14 men of the 2002 ANARE to Casey as well as 25 other round-trippers like myself. There are a couple of science projects happening on board, including sampling for krill, and also at Casey station, including glaciology and, a bit closer to 'home', measuring and rephotographing various moss and lichen sites at and near the SSSI area 16, about a kilometre from Casey. This I will be involved with but at present I am proudly representing the Club and promoting membership of the same. I have already sold some items - in fact the night before the voyage (I'm keen, aren't I?!) and am keeping up interest so predict a most successful voyage.
The Aurora Australis is looking pretty good for having spent 11 years or so voyaging one of the roughest oceans in the world. At present the weather is quite mild - slightly overcast with sunny periods, wind 18kn (I asked a Met chap!), swell about 2m up to 3 or 4. Ship Master Tony explained our 202 degrees course (instead of the direct course to Casey of 225 degrees) as taking good advantage of the swell, in order to speed our voyage through the worst stretch and to make things more comfortable for the benefit of those passengers not delighting in every pitching movement.
The food is delicious as I knew it would be from past happy experience, and I will be hard pressed to lose weight! An early bout in the gym has set my morning routine (I hope!) and I have been helping out in the mess, wandering around the decks watching how the lady takes the waves and checking out the bridge. To me it seems like we have a great combination for an excellent voyage - the Casey crew seem very well integrated and also happy to chat; the rest of my fellow passengers I have so far met also seem most excellent ANARE types - let's see how many of them I can recruit!
Early days yet - I plan to send updates every couple of days, so stay tuned to this space!
Cheers
Lucinda
Continuing...
During the latter part of 17 December (Day 1) our course was set for 202 degrees, even though the direct bearing to Casey from Hobart is 225 degrees, in order to take advantage of low swell and otherwise mild weather conditions. The case was vastly improved weatherwise a bit later on and, at around 19:30 hours, Aurora Australis' second engine was put into play. We powered on at a speedy 18 knots (instead of the 12 or 13 we had been averaging) throughout the night and all the next day.
I continued wandering the outer decks of the ship, letting the wind comb my hair into unruly locks and thoroughly enjoying the increasing bite of the wind. I spotted many short-tailed shearwaters and had three sightings of a black-browed albatross. Trying to balance genrous serves of delicious food with workouts in the gym is a daily challenge; hopefully I will prove the sceptics wrong and actually lose weight on an Aurora voyage! Another restful night's sleep.
Day Two - 18 December 2001
It has been overcast for most of the day (but the sun is gloriously out now) with a tiny 0.5-1m swell and scarcely any wind to worry about. As I write it is 20:00 hours: at 19:30 we were at 52 17.112 S and 139 08.844 E and still steaming both engines full ahead at 18 knots. Apparently 152 S is the record for sighting of an iceberg, so interest in the iceberg sweep is increasing. The winner gets half the takings; the other half goes to Camp Quality, the charity supported by the crew. Air temperature is 5.9 degrees Celsius.
At our current rate we should reach Casey on the 23 December - two full days ahead of schedule. At present the whole intent is to get two days up our sleeve - exactly how this will be used is yet to be determined (probably during the refuelling of Casey). Most probably we will just head back to Hobart two days earlier and let V7 'rescue' the stranded Polar Bird, as otherwise we risk putting V7 (a marine science voyage) seriously behind schedule. However, there is always the chance that we may divert to Prydz Bay - I hope!!! Currently the Polar Bird is on the 35th day of her voyage, with the Mawson winterers for 2002 yet to reach their destination.
We should be able to hold our current speed for another day at least, and then a low is expected. However, we should be out of the region by then, and actually able to take advantage of the winds behind our tail.
We began our field training sessions today - first was clothing, with separate sessions for Casey winters and round-trippers. Having now made up our extra wanted list for filling at the Casey store, tied elastic to our gloves and handy cords to the zips of our ventiles (for use while mittened up in the field) we then attended a session on frostbite and hypothermia, courtesy Damien the FTO and Glenn the MO. More to come in the next few days, as the poor Voyage Leader attempts to match his program with the speed of the ship.
Some excitement ensued later in the afternoon as Omar, one of our two Indonesian guests, sighted the spouting of two whales (but not the whales themselves) - he thought he was imagining things at first! The Mess is now resplendent with festive decorations - we will be celebrating our Christmas on 22 December, as the 25th (even though no longer our landing day) will still be too hectic to celebrate properly. Sales are going well, with the most popular items so far teh T-shirts, calendars, postcards and the Robin Burns book on women in Antarctica.
Each day I am coming to know the Casey winterers and the various round-trippers (and their tasks) better, and we really do have a most professional yet convivial complement of passengers. Time to check out the bar and then, depending on events, another visit to the gym.
Cheers
Lucinda
20 December 2001
The first iceberg was sighted at 02:22 hours by ship master Tony Hanson. The iceberg sweep was won by Casey 2002 Met man Ian (your ANARE Rep was a few hours off! Perhaps I can blame it on the unprecedented speed of Aurora Australis?!) A second iceberg was sighted at 7am.
I joined Ian for the Met obs at 09:00 hours. We were at 127.70 E & 59.30 S, course 232/233, motoring at about 15 knots. There was a 14 kn (Force 4) wind from the S; air T 0.6; water T 1.3; 95% humidity; 8/8 cloud; visibility 2km and closing; 956.5 HPa - we were passing through a low pressure system. [This became more apparent later - our speed fell to 12 kn as we knocked back one of the engines.] The swell was about 3.5m from the west, 8 seconds duration, with 0.5m waves of 1 second duration.
The pitching of the ship increased, and was joined by a nasty roll, and so once again we 'lost' some of our fellow passengers to their bunks. The more hardy watched the action from the bridge. At 16:10 hours we were at 60.35 E & 125.10 S, course 210 degrees and our speed was averaging 7.5-9 knots. Cloud cover was 8/8, and very misty, and sleeting. Very windy too, the apparent 39-49 knots and the actual up to 40 knots. I can attest to this, as I ventured up to the observation deck, firstly in ventiles, which got very wet, and later just in T-shirt and woollen trousers. It was very hard to see as I was srewing up my eyes in the face of howling gales (well, almost) and wind-driven pellets of ice. But it was fun! The air T was -1.2. At times the wind was in fact gale force.
The swell was amazing! Yes sir, we were certainly in a low! The swell was 5-6m with the occasional 8m - not too bad, but they were very short, sharp and steep, resulting in a HECK of a lot of pitching, sea spray and waves crashing over the bow of the Aurora Australis as she rose and fell. There were of course waves on top of the swell, but it was most confusing to try and quantify - in summary, the bridge was the place to be! (Unless one were equipped with stout Goretex jacket and trousers, and glasses with windscreen wipers, in which case the observation deck!)
Field training involved a quiz, where 2 or 3 people teamed up to answer questions drawn from the ANARE Handbook and First Aid Manual. This was all well and good, but studying fine print and working out grid references in a violently rolling and pitching ship was not a good combination, and we lost a few more to their bunks. Various planned slide presentations and talks were cancelled also.
Tomorrow (Friday 21 December) we will be paid a visit by King Neptune, and will be having a combined lunch/dinner as a BBQ on deck -weather permitting! The kitchen staff have been doing an absolutely brilliant job - every second topic of discussion at table is about the excellent quality and presentation of the food - and everyone is looking forward to "Christmas Day" (Saturday 22 December) with great anticipation.
Sales are going well - I have sold out of postcards and T-shirts as well, now, and have only 1 set of greeting cards left. The calendars are going well, especially since I bought some A4 envelopes to go with them for posting at Casey Station.
Speaking of which, we have been given the first draft of what will be happening once at Casey Station. I am truly amazed at the sort of organisation that has to go into this, and am truly impressed at what VL Greg Hodge and CS Simon Cash, along with Casey 2001 SL Paul Cullen and 2002 SL John Rich have come up with. We have all had a chance to put our two cents' worth in. The amazing thing is that, despite the large number of people already on station, they are allowing most of us to crash at 'their place' each night until the ship leaves. This is hospitality indeed! Along with the 'moss ladies' Mary and Ann, I will be paying a visit to Wilkes - at least once - and to Robbo's Ridge, as well as spending some time at a few lichen sites around Casey, and doing some rephotographing of lichen in SSI16 - if my camera decides to function again, that is!
Cheers
Lucinda
For the third night in a row we put our clocks back an hour and are now on Casey time. I woke at 4:30 hours to see growlers floating past my porthole. I wandered up to the bridge after my daily workout in the gym and there were bergy bits in great patches on the ocean. I had to beg a spare camera from Mary (who I would be assisting at Casey Station, relocating and rephotographing mosses and lichens), as mine had decided to stay on the bulb setting after our third day at sea. Not happy, Jan!
I spent a short time on the Observation Deck in -2 or 3 degrees Celcius - jolly cold with a brisk wind, I can tell you! After breakfast the krill bios hauled in the first of their catches - a little audience watched on the trawl deck, but unfortunately only one krill turned up in each of the two catches. They'll have a couplemore tries later.
We had an emergency muster at 10:30, and then were allowed to wanderup to the fo'castle. It was fairly mild weather, so I stayed therefor a while. Saw a whale tossing its flukes in the distance.
At 16:00 hours we assembled in the mess to make the acquaintance of King Neptune, his Queen and their minions, a frightening-looking bunch of toughs daubed with blue and green food dye and wielding baseball bats and various other instruments of menace. The first-timers knelt before the King and Queen, and were anointed with vegemite, had water pistols aimed in their mouths (but it wasn't water - it was gin and maybe rum?!), had ice put down their backs and had to kiss the feet of the king and queen and some little sea bug. Then it was the turn of those who had been south before but somehow missed out on this most important ceremony. Then, when the Voyage Leader had read out all the names on his list, his Imperial Dampness asked if anyone had been missed. At this point I spoke up. I recall going through some sort of ceremony 10 years ago, but I'm pretty sure I was never vegemited or iced, and I didn't want to feel like I'd missed out on anything. Just call me stupid.
At 17:30 we assembled on the trawl deck for a BBQ. It was excellent fun! Especially watching growlers and a few bergs go sailing by as we tucked into marinated chicken kebabs, marinated prawns, sausages, steaks and marvellous salads, our apetites made keen by the bracing air of the Southern Ocean. It was an expeditioner's birthday so we finished up with some birthday cake.
That night Graeme (2002 chippie) showed video footage of his time at Mawson in 1994, including some home movies made there about Haggland extractions from sea ice and crevasses, and some footage of a quarry explosion that was a little larger than predicted. Lots of lessons to be learned there, and the AntDiv has made good use of some of the footage as training videos.
22 Dec
"Christmas Day" for us, as the 25th will be spent doing resupply at Casey. At our daily briefing meeting Greg (voyage Leader) announced those who would now be staying aboard each night rather than ashore at Casey, due to accomodation shortage there. This included yours truly, which was disappointing and also frustrating, as I could not make use of the 24 hours daylight to check out my lichen and moss transects (boats would be leaving the ship 8-9:00 and returning 17-19:00 hours). I helped out in the galley for the big day. The crew had the mess looking lovely and festive, and the chefs cooked us up a storm! The feast was a combined lunch/dinner held from 15:00 hours. We had a smorgasbord of crayfish (some marinated), Balmain bugs, whole salmon, cold cuts of ham, pork, turkey etc, chicken, amazing salads including one of avocado and mango (YUM!!)... there was champagne, wine and beer on the tables (and the Collex guys gave everyone a taste of some Bollinger - thanks guys!)... Dessert included Christmas pudding, icecream and custard, Christmas cake, fruit and cheese platters, and various desserts.
Santa visited a bit after 17:00 hours and handed out the Kris Kringle presents we had all wrapped earlier on. I bought a Nella Dan video from the Club shop for Scott, the first mate - it seemed quite appropriate. We adjourned to the bar and a suggestion by Barbara Smith (glacio) took form: not much money had been raised for Camp Quality and so expeditioners and crew sponsored other expeditioners and crew to have their heads/beards shaved. First up was John Rich, 2002 Station Leader for Casey, who for an extra $500 (on top of the first $500) was willing to have his beard shaved. Then Mark, one of the galley crew, had four years of hair growth reduced to stubble. Angela, krill bio, was next and also got a cool $1000 for her sacrifice. Then it was on for young and old, and about seven of the Casey winterers and a couple more expeditioners had their heads shaved for charity. All up we raised over $4000, which was a pretty good effort from a relatively small number of people aboard. Much of the shaving was performed by "Elvis", a crew member, to appropriate music, and dressed in a lovely pair of white overalls decorated with blue texta-ed stars. A great evening.
I got up at 4:00 hours and went up to the bridge. We were surrounded by heavy mist, and it was quite an unworldly experience as we ghosted silently and slowly through it, the ship's master cleverly avoiding the tricky ice floes that came seemingly out of nowhere. We were pushing one rather thick one for a while before Tony managed to knock it off with other ice floes. We anchored in O'Brien Bay at about 6:00 hours - at Casey at last!
The weather cleared to an absolutlely magical day of clear blue sky and minimal winds. Paul Cullen, 2001 SL, paid a brief visit to the ship to emphasize the more important rules to observe (mainly re signing on and off station, and indicating on the fire board when you expected to be off station limits). Suddenly it was time to clamber into all my Antarctic clobber and descend the rope ladder over the side of the ship to the waiting Zodiacs. A brief trip and we were on the Antarctic continent! At the landing we took off our life jackets, and soon our taxi pulled up - a red Hagglands. We loaded selves and bags in, and bounced along the cleared road, snow to either side, through the remains of RepStat (Old Casey) and to New Casey. We duly registered on the fireboard in the beautifully appointed Red Shed, and I made myself a bit useful in the kitchen, and then found a local (summerer Fred, a bird bio) to show me where the moss and lichen sites were on station. She didn't know exactly, but certainly took me to all the right places.
That done, we embarked on a Casey lunch, and waited for the first jolly of the trip - out to Wilkes. Martin Riddle (head of the Human Impacts study group) was our guide, and a very knowledgable one. I learned about their various projects and the natural and human history of Casey and environs. My companions were two chaps from Collex, waste disposal experts who were there to evaluate the feasibility of clearing the extensive rubbish tip at Wilkes. They seemed a little daunted by the immensity of the project once Martin pointed out the extent of the tip! I poked about the buildings - the majority are now filled with ice but there are a couple one can wander into, including the old Met dome, which has rather amazing acoustics, as I found out when doing a rendition of Dona Nobis Pacem. There were a few Adelies around, and I got a shot of one wandering through Wilkes. At the waters edge there were more, and I witnessed one doing the amazing hop ut of the water to the land. There were huge blocks of ice which had been tossed up from the sea a week or so ago during some extreme weather. We returned to Casey around 20:00 hours and after a homer or two and a bite to eat, headed back to ship.
What a great first day at Casey!
I was on stores today, together with a few other round-trippers, some 2001 winterers and summerers, and Pete, the incoming cook. There was a short delay as we waited for the containers to be delivered from the landing area, so I went to my lichen and moss sites (which I had by then relocated) and took some photographs. Not ideal conditions, as it was blowing snow, but I wanted to take advantage of every opportunity - one can never tell with the A factor! The stores work was very necessary, but very strenuous! I think everyone should become vegetarians - the boxes of frozen brocolli were much lighter than the boxes of frozen meat! The green stores building is well set out, with forklifts and very high shelving for the year's supplies (and extra) to be packed neatly away. In one upstairs section is a well-appointed gymnasium, with a punching bag as well. Had a short break for lunch then back to work. A very welcome dinner at the Red Shed, a coupla beers with the boys and then back to the ship. My arms didn't want to climb the rope ladder very much!
When packing that night for the next day, I put some overnight things in just in case, as a blizz had been predicted and there was the possibility I'd be stranded for the night at Casey (I hoped!). We moved anchor to two miles off Fitzgerald Island to let the captain and crew sleep easy, secure in the knowledge that the ship wouldn't drag her anchor onto any rocks in high winds.
25 Dec
We departed ship a bit later today owing to poor weather conditions, and the fact that the ship master wanted to arrange mooring the ship's boat, Aurora Australis II, ashore rather than having to crane it on board each night (in case we had to move out of the bay quickly). Once at the Red Shed I found that, instead of being on stores today and going to Robbo's tomorrow, I was to accompany Mary and Ann (the moss ladies) to Robinson's Ridge today. We had a couple of locals as guides, and a couple of jollyers. Mind you, I didn't do much more than follow Mary around, hold sample bags for her and number them in collusion with Ann, who was doing the recording. There were a few centimetres of snow covering the mosses, but Mary seemed to know just where to dig.
The trip took about 45 minutes via Hagglands, and we had to drive inland up and over the moraine line behind Casey before travelling west and then down to the coast again, as the area is rife with crevasses. [The moraine line behind Casey is a very good indicator of the fierce katabatics which often strike Casey with little or no warning - the winds form 'Mare's Tails' at the moraine line. See that, and run for cover!] We had no views en route as the visibility was quite low.
We drove past the hut at Robbo's, made cheery by a huge smiley face painted on one side, and parked by the rocky ridge that leads down to the water line. We were careful to make just one track across the snow to the rocks and, once there, to hop from the top of one rock to the top of the next, in order to avoid any damage to the lichens and mosses beneath the snow cover, or exposed. At our first site, an Adelie penguin came waddling up to check us all out, to within one or two metres, so work paused while cameras came out. Mary had a most successful day, collecting many moss samples, and also the one species of liverwort that occurs in the Casey area. The view from the shore got a little better throughout the day, and we could see the nearby Odbert Island, on which were many small penguin colonies, as well as some lovely icefloes and a few icebergs. We had a late lunch and hot drinks at Robbo's Hut and then returned.
Back at the Red Shed I helped out a bit in the kitchen. It really is a great way to meet the locals, and they appreciate the help. After a quick dinner (we had got back fairly late) the station leader said I could stay the night - YIPPEE! (Also, I think they would have had to put on a taxi to the wharf and a Zodiac just for me, so it was better all around.)
I wrote up my field notes while waiting for the weather to clear a bit. It did, and Mary managed to arrange for Tom, a surveyor, to accompany me to my sites with his GPS, with which we plotted the transects and perimeters. Later that evening he produced a lovely map of the points overlaid on a current map of Casey Station. At about 23:00 hours I went out to the moss site (earlier damaged by cement dust from the batching plant) and photographed at intervals along the transect. I got back in a bit after midnight, found a mattress and bedding, and took a few hours rest.
Dec 26 Dec (Wed)
I woke up at 04:00 hours and went out to my lichen site. This was located on the hillside just south of the Red Shed, rather conveniently, and so I didn't have far to go. There is a large area (and another smaller one) of the lichen genus Usnea which has been, for want of a better word, blasted - whether by natural or man-made causes is yet to be decided. The healthy plants have black tips; the blasted plants have their yellow/green petticoats exposed. It was first examined some 10 years ago and, as per the moss site, my task was to relocate the site, rephotograph some locations exactly, and take photos of representative samples of healthy and unhealthy plants inside and outside the areas. I had taken photos previously but the weather was much more conducive, although a light dusting of snow lay over some of them and the air had a definite chill to it!!
I was slushie for half a day, as the chap rostered on had to do some RTA stuff - it was pretty full-on! When not doing that I went over to the green store - all the items had been unpacked, so I scored the task of mopping up puddles of snow melt from crates that had been unpacked in the snowy conditions of the previous day. At dinner we were informed we would be leaving Casey after the changeover ceremony on Friday, thereby gaining an extra day for use in possible Polar Bird extractions... I hoped!
27 Dec (Thu)
I left some ANARE Club calendars in the Casey Post Office, which have been selling quite well, as have the postcards (sold out) and greeting cards (two packs left). Our transport from ship to shore today was the ship's boat, Aurora Australis II - a slow and stately journey. The outgoing winterers and summerers were making final departure preparations, and the chefs were as usual cooking up a storm of great food. I trekked over to Reeve Hill, named for an archaeologist who lost his life near there in August 1979. A cross and plaque was erected by some Casey men in August 1999 a little below the highest peak. Fine views were to be had of the nearby Windmill Islands, and of Casey Station itself. I took a self guided tour around Casey one more time, and then hung around in the Red shed for a while.
All the round-trippers and summerers went on ship by about 17:00 hours, but I stayed with Mary and Ann. Later joined by Voyage Leader Greg Hodge, Cargo Supervisor Simon Cash, FTO Dave and First Mate Scott, we went out to Wilkes again for a bit of a special trip. Mary, Ann and Greg went to SSSI 17 for some final smapling and photos, and the remainder explored Wilkes. Scott (a caver, as am I, but a much more wiry one) managed to wriggle into one of the iced-up buildings but couldn't get far. I sang a few more arias in the ray dome (I think I erroneously called it a Met dome in a previous Part - it is of course concerned with comms), and we eventually went back to Casey and to the ship. The luxury of a cabin to mysef has now changed to the interest of sharing with two of the summer scientists.