Monday 24 January 8.30pm
The Aurora Australis is sailing out of Storm Bay into the Southern Ocean. Shearwaters are gathering in great rafts before flying back to their burrows after nightfall and Shy Albatrosses have been flying around the ship since shortly after entering Storm Bay. Tomorrow we should see the first of the great Wandering Albatrosses as we leave the Shy Albatrosses behind. The sea is almost calm with very little wind and no reports of seasickness - yet!
It has been a hectic day since first light. A bus was supposed to pick up three of us from outside a motel in Sandy Bay at 8am. By 8.30am it still had not arrived so I rang the Division. The cruise liner, the Sea Princess was in Hobart for the day and most buses in town were involved picking up passengers from there and taking them on trips. The bus company contracted to pick up the ANARE expeditioners had subcontracted to another company but forgot to tell the driver he had to pick us up in Sandy Bay. Consequently we arrived for the compulsory briefing 30 minutes late.
The briefing was interesting. It covered a lot of ground that we had learnt 28 years ago but the pictures were so much better.
There have been major changes in the attitude of the expeditions since my day. The division is very environmentally aware today and there are many rules these days about what you can and can't do. This is fair enough too. All boots, for instance, must be scrubbed clean of any soil before they are allowed to be worn ashore. There have been introductions of plants to some parts of Antarctica by seeds carried on boots. The division wants no more. There are rules about how close you can get to the wildlife as well. That probably won't work on Macquarie Island. If you sit down for five minutes there, the penguins come and investigate you - and they haven't seen the wall chart about proximity to wildlife.
Eventually, the briefing was over and we were all taken to the Aurora to stow our gear. I had to drop off my duty free film with Customs, to be picked up later. A word of warning to anyone venturing to Hobart - the Duty Free Shop closed two months ago. Here I was, ready to stock up the gin supply at home and buy a few cheap ciggies and what have I got? Nothing! I knew I should have done my shopping in Sydney but everyone told me there was a DFS in Hobart. Don't believe what people tell you!
After stowing the gear we did a lifeboat drill and tried on the immersion suits - a sort of thick, red, body condom. Then came a tour of the ship finding out where the important places are like the restaurant, the smoking areas and the bar. Oh we did the bridge and the engine room and the two gymnasiums as well.
Dinner was served shortly after we sailed, and excellent it was too. I am certainly not going to starve and will probably need to use the gym after a couple of days, just to be able to fit into the cold weather clothing.
The ship can carry about 70 passengers but there are only 40 on this voyage so I have a cabin to myself. Most of the people I have met so far seem to be round trippers or summer expeditioners
but somewhere on board is the wintering Casey party so I am sure I will find them soon.
Tuesday 25 January
There is a remarkable difference between the Aurora Australis and every other ship I have been on - birds don't follow it. The Nella Dan had a full complement of albatrosses, shearwaters and storm petrels wherever it sailed but not the Aurora. The reason for this is simple, no scraps or rubbish of any kind is thrown off the Aurora. There is nothing for the birds to eat so they don't bother following us. We are seeing a lot of birds as we sail past though but the flocks of followers are not there.
A sperm whale was seen this morning but not by many. It was too early to make an announcement as the crew were sleeping. I woke up very early this morning and watched a magnificent sunrise. The water was so smooth it looked oily. A bit of wind has come up now but the waves are very low. It has been so smooth I have heard no complaints of seasickness at all but we probably haven't seen the inflicted up and about yet.
Everyone is settling into the routine of shipboard life. The meals are at odd times - lunch 11.30 to 12.30 and dinner 5.30 to 6.30 but there is always food in the restaurant if anyone gets the munchies. Don Reid at the Antarctic Division stores who kitted me out tried to convince me that if some item of clothing was too tight it wouldn't matter as everyone lost weight down south. Those people who stay at the stations might lose weight but I defy anyone on the ship to do so.
Lunchtime - Australia Day - 50S 140E air temperature 10.5C
We have now left the roaring forties which did anything but roar and have entered the furious fifties. At least the wind is now blowing about 25 knots from the west and there are a few white caps around which makes whale spotting difficult. As it is Australia Day, we are having a barbecue on the trawl deck this evening.
5pm
This is more like it, the wind is now gale force and the ship is crashing through the waves. I was down on the trawl deck a while ago and got soaked as a wave broke along the side. The barbecue has been cancelled as the deck is awash down there. Looking at the latest chart, we are going to be getting this weather for a day or two yet. The clocks go back an hour tonight, and I think we have another time change before we get to Casey.
The Club shop is going well with the postcards being particularly popular and I have one new member signed up so far.
There is speculation about the first iceberg. The sweep starts tomorrow with everyone nominating a time the first berg seen comes abeam the ship. The first icebergs on the previous voyages this season have been about 56 to 58 degrees south so it will probably be the day after tomorrow.
Lunchtime 27th January - 53.45S 135.2E, wind 30knots, temperature 6.5C
We have been in westerly gales now for more than 24 hours. The seas have changed. Where we were heading into southwesterly swells we are now rolling through the westerly waves and movement around the ship is far more difficult. The anti-slip mats are on the tables in the restaurant - and very necessary they are too. Before they were put on the tables I went for a cup of coffee this morning and just stopped the mug before it crashed to the deck. Even sitting in my cabin typing this is difficult as the chair keeps tipping over.
The skies are grey, the sea is leaden, the waves are huge with the spray whipping off the tops. Perhaps the only people really happy with the weather are the bird watchers as the gales bring more albatrosses. There are two guys on board whose job is to count and identify all the birds we see on the way. The cross section of the seabird population of the Southern Ocean can be compared with the counts of other years and other voyages. A picture of the fluctuations in the populations of different species can be built up. As every observation is recorded on a computer with the date, time and position, studies can be done linking bird sightings with weather patterns, air and water temperature etc. No more whales have been seen yet but in these conditions it is very hard to see the spouts in amongst the foam and flying spray. We should see more when we get south of the Antarctic Convergence - where the cold Antarctic water slips below the warmer temperate water. There is more food available in the cold water so there should be more whales.
Last night all the food that was to have been cooked on the barbecue was cooked in the kitchen and some very potent punch was available to those who were so inclined. I think the lack of people at breakfast this morning has more to do with that than the change in motion of the ship. Most people have a cabin to themselves on this trip so if someone is ill other people don't necessarily know about it. The doctor is currently doing the rounds of the cabins just making sure everyone is OK. So far, only one person has been stricken with seasickness but that could well change.
Lunchtime 28 January. 57S 130.1E wind 10kn, Air temp 1C, water temp 2.9C.Snowing.
I am now further south than I have ever been before. Macquarie Is is only 55S. At least the wind has dropped off in the last hour or two.
The Southern Ocean began showing us what it can do last night. Using the in-cabin roll meter (the angle of the curtains), the worst of the rolls around midnight were about 30 degrees. The worst at the moment would be about 25. The rolls to port are worse than those to starboard because the wind and waves are both westerlies. Sleep is difficult when the ship rolls rather than pitches as the bunks lie athwart the vessel. I spent most of the night sliding from one end of the bunk to the other.
The iceberg sweep is underway. My first proposal is for 2.15 this afternoon but I will take a few more guesses.
All email messages are sent and received between 3 and 4pm ship's time (now UTC + 10). They are banked up until the contact with the Division is established then they all go out at once. While on the subject of emails, please do not send any attachments and please do not copy the original onto your email and then send it back. Evidently they need to conserve as much space as possible.
I read the SMH and the Australian every day at home. The last newspaper I saw was Monday's Australian. Here we get a three page news summary once a day and that's it. Interestingly, I don't miss getting the news. Last night I joined the video watchers for a film. They have a video library on board that could form the basis of a reasonable video shop and some of the expeditioners are working their way through the lot. I've seen all the good ones and can't be bothered with the bad ones. They had the Life of Brian on yesterday. I've seen that so many times I know the dialogue. Anticipating the next line can be fun at home but it tends to annoy others less fortunate.
Now that it is snowing and the wind has dropped, I might venture out onto the helicopter deck again and take a few photos. I have been very slack with pics so far, there are only so many shots of sea and sky you can use.
Lunchtime 29 January: 60.31S, 124.22 E. Wind NNW at 25kn, Air temp 2C,Water temp 1C
Just finished a lifeboat drill on the helicopter deck in full cold weather gear. It was necessary too with snow whistling across even with the ship stopped. An iceberg was seen just after midnight last night from the bridge but no-one else saw it and there has been nothing since, although there are some echoes on the radar which may turn out to be ice. We'll know in an hour or so. No-one was even close with the iceberg sweep so all contributions are being given to Camp Quality which is supported by the ship and all who sail in her.
We are almost at the way point where we change course from southwest to west southwest to head through the ice to Casey. We still expect to be there on Tuesday which is my birthday so it will be a nice present.
There is a deep low pressure system west of us so we are expecting the weather to get a bit more foul in the next 24 hours but we will just have to wait and see.
The galley is determined that no-one will starve to death and there is plenty of good food. On top of three big meals a day there is a perpetual cold meat and salad bar and we are going through a side of smoked salmon every day - mostly at midnight munchies I suspect. After all between dinner which finishes at 6.30pm and breakfast which starts at 7.30am is a long period without food. The clocks went back another hour last night so that was 14 hours. Believe it or not, there is such a thing as a half empty packet of Tim Tams. As soon as the biscuit barrel looks as though it might be getting down to half full, some kindly person fills it up again.
There is a movie marathon in the video room. Some people are spending almost the entire day and half the night in there watching films. I have watched a couple but there are lots of other things to do on board like, um, eating, er, ducking out to the trawl deck for a quick ciggie, er, playing cribbage, bird watching, um, reading, looking for whales and icebergs etc etc. I think I might catch a few more movies :-)
7pm Saturday. 61S 122E wind 50kn, air temp 1C, water temp 1C, snowing, visibility 2km
The trawl deck is now out of bounds. I was on the upper part of it before dinner and the water was surging across the lower section waist deep at times. The bridge windows are covered in sheets of spray. The deadlights have been closed over the portholes in the restaurant and all the watertight doors have been shut. Water was also pouring into the corridors aft of the restaurant. Evidently someone went out on the trawl deck and tied the watertight door open. I went out on the helicopter deck about 15 minutes ago and it is not nice! I'll have to give up smoking until the weather improves. Even writing this in the cabin is difficult. The laptop is on a non-slip mat on the table so that is not moving a millimetre, the chair I am sitting on is another matter altogether. It keeps deciding to go walkabout around the cabin - with me still in it. Still no more ice since the berg last night. There is probably loads of it out there but with the limited visibility and the huge waves, no-one can see it. If this keeps up, it will be an interesting night.
7.30 Just been up on the bridge. We have changed course and are heading northwest at 4kn right into the wind and the waves. The rolling has stopped but the pitching continues, quite violently at times. The waves are crashing over the bow, coming in green occasionally. This is what the Southern Ocean is supposed to be like. Why people like Isobel Autissier and Tony Bullimore want to sail small boats down here, I have no idea. I was huddled in a corner of the deck outside the bridge with Roger the radio operator and another member of the crew having a cigarette. The general opinion of others on the bridge is that smokers are mad. I tend to agree :-)
6.30am Sunday: wind 45kn, air temp 0.4C water temp 0.8C, snowing, visibility 800m in fog
The captain changed course from northwest to west about an hour ago and the change in motion woke me up. The barograph trace is finally rising again after threatening to go off the bottom of the chart at 950hPa. We got down to about 953. Every now and then the ship ploughs into a wave so hard a shudder runs through the ship. This sets up a harmonic vibration which is particularly noticeable down towards the stern where my cabin is. The vibrations last 30 seconds or so. It is difficult to describe the sensation but "thud....boing boing boing boing boing boing" might give you some idea. I am now going to attempt a shower before breakfast.
Lunchtime Sunday: 60.34S 120.19E. Wind westerly 42kn, track westerly, Air temp 0C water temp 0.8C, snowing, maximum roll 30 degrees
We are still battling our way through this storm. Waves have been 12 to 15m high and the spray is coming off the tops in sheets. Still no ice since that sighting yesterday morning but with visibility only about a kilometre it is not surprising. The sun did appear for a while this morning and a couple of us were out on the helicopter deck watching the rainbows in the spray off the bow. Things should ease in the next 24 hours. I hope so, we are due in Casey on Tuesday although the forecast for Tuesday is for 50 to 60kn winds and blizzards. I wonder if Sydney is getting any summer yet?
5.30pm Sunday.
At long last - an iceberg!!! Not big and too far away for a photo but it was an iceberg. Then a black-browed albatross soared round the stern between the ship and the berg, and to cap it off the sun came out. The wind has dropped to mere gale force now so lots of excitement to take to dinner.
9.30pm
As I write this I can see the second iceberg of the day out of my porthole. This is much bigger than the first one and has a flat top. I was out on the upper trawl deck with Gary from the WA Museum. We were discussing icebergs as Gary had missed the earlier one. We had a look over the side and there was the new one coming down the starboard side about a kilometre out. Allwe need now is an iceberg a bit closer and with reasonable light and it will be time to buy shares in Kodak. The ship is still rolling but the waves are smaller and the wind has dropped to below 30knots. We are back on track for Casey.
7.30am Monday
I watched a beautiful sunrise this morning. There is a low westerly swell and a wind of less than 10 knots. There are icebergs on both sides of the ship including a huge tabular berg off the port side. Looking at the sea this morning there is no sign of the storm we have battled for the last two days. Humpback whales were seen this morning but I missed them unfortunately, I was on the wrong side of the ship. With any luck we should see more whales today. There are no whitecaps so any whales spouting will stand out.
Lunchtime Monday: 62.3S, 114.3E. Wind ENE 20kn, Air Temp 0C, water temp 0.2C, fine but cloudy, course southwest for Casey. Icebergs everywhere from stately tabular bergs kilometres long to moderate lumpy ones cleft with great fissures and caves to small bergy bits and growlers. I had no idea ice could have so many shades of blue and green. I am sure the photos I have taken will not do them justice. Old hands have been taking one or two photos while those of us seeing our first icebergs have been clicking away madly. We keep getting told they get better further
south but nothing is better than your first close-up iceberg. The sea is almost calm and it is easy walking round on deck now. I was out on the deck for about 45 minutes earlier with almost full cold weather gear on. The doctor came out to take a couple of pictures of a nearby iceberg and he was wearing a short sleeved shirt. After five minutes he did go back to his cabin and put on a furry hat before coming out again. Others were out on deck in t-shirts - but not for very long.
We should be in Casey late tomorrow.
2.30pm Monday.
We are now three hours behind Sydney and somewhere north of Casey. The weather is extremely fickle down here. An hour ago I was enthusing about the beautiful calm seas and moderate winds. Since then the cloud has come over, it's snowing and the wind has picked up a bit. Not an iceberg in sight - but as the visibility is down to a kilometre that's not surprising.
Ian Robertson from the Sydney office of the BoM is the forecaster at Davis this summer and he has been issuing forecasts for Casey. Tomorrow we can expect 60 to 70 knot winds and blizzards. Perhaps we won't be in Casey tomorrow after all but running for cover. Col Christiansen, who is putting this page on the web for me, tells me he has put a link to the Casey webcam on the page. You will be able to have a look at the station on that. I don't know the protocols of standing in front of the webcam with a sign saying "Hi Mum", I expect it is frowned upon, but I'll try to get an intrepid pic up here from Casey - if we ever get there.
6.30am Monday 1st February
Happy birthday to me! We are heading southeast with 55kn easterly winds making life interesting, visibility less than a kilometre and sheets of spray and foam covering the ocean. We are looking for the ice edge - it has to be there somewhere. We are nearly 65S, well south of the track along the ice edge on the last voyage but there is nothing to be seen.
Yesterday was amazing. So many icebergs wherever you looked. The first snow petrels, antarctic petrels and cape petrels of the voyage appeared. Lightmantled sooty albatrosses circled the ship as we sailed past enormous piles of ice. Some of the bergs looked like lumps of nougat broken off and dropped in the ocean while others which had rolled over exposing the smooth underside looked as though someone had been busy with a large economy size can of shaving cream. There were so many bergs around at one stage the radar screen seemed to have a nasty case of measles. The bridge was crowded most of the day, luckily it is a large bridge and the ship's officers are a tolerant bunch.
Susan, a microbiologist, had her birthday yesterday and after dinner and a movie the evening moved to the bar - where it stayed for the next few hours. An intense darts match was on all night. I left the bar about 1.30 and went up to the bridge where the spotlights were lighting up the water ahead of the ship. The snow was driving horizontally across the deck and winds were over 50kn again. The officer on duty had turned the ship more into the wind which made the night more bearable for the more fragile.
Any SSSF people reading this will be pleased to know we have two cat killers on board, Sue and John. Their job is to shoot and trap cats on Macquarie Island. The program has been going a few years now and so far more than 1000 have been killed. The program to remove introduced species is going well. The wekas are gone, myxo has got the rabbit population down to about 5% of what it once was and now it is the cats' turn. Already two species of bird that had never been recorded breeding on Macca before have now been so recorded. All dead cats have to be weighed, measured and have their stomach contents checked. Sue keeps the skins and the bodies are left for the skuas to clean up. She says she has quite a few skins now and might get a coat made.
Off to breakfast, lets hope we find the ice edge before lunch.
9.30am
This storm is worse than the last one!. The big difference with this one is that we have to keep changing course to avoid icebergs so one minute we are heading into the waves and the next we are getting them broadside. The stabilisers are working overtime and there is an eerie whistle every time they cut in. I was in the video room earlier to pick a movie for tonight. Jeff, one of the American geologists was in there. There were videos scattered all over the floor. I started to help him pick them up when the ship hit another big roll and 400 videos flew out of the shelves in mighty cascade of colour and plastic. Simon, the deputy voyage leader came in and, although he couldn't help as he had a radio sched, he rounded up some volunteers and we started sorting them and putting them back. Every video has a number so it is easy to find if it is in order on the shelf. Eventually, we had them all back in numerical order - then we changed course again to avoid another iceberg. The best rolls we have seen yet, 45 degrees in both directions had the whole ship's company clutching at anything and anyone to stay upright. All the carpets bunched up at the ends of the corridors, everything not tied down went flying.
There are 400 videos all over the floor in the video room. We crept out andleft them there.
Lunchtime 1st Feb: 65.9S, 110.12E, wind ESE 50kn, air temp -3C, water temp -1C, heading ESE, hove to.
We are sitting here north northeast of the Petersen Bank, 68 nautical miles from Casey, head to the wind and waves and bobbing up and down going nowhere. We are going to stay like this for a while hoping the wind will ease. When it does, we will head west to get round the Petersen Bank and then southeast into Casey. No sign of the pack ice but there are a few icebergs still around. Visibility is next to nothing with the spray whipping off the tops of the waves. We are not expecting to be in Casey before tomorrow, someone suggested Friday might be a reasonable bet. I hope not, It will be good to get onto some firm ground again, even if it is frozen solid.
6.30pm Tuesday
The wind is still blowing stronger than 40knots and we are still hove to north of Casey as they are getting 70 knot winds at the station. For the last few hours the ice has been increasing and there are now lots of ice floes drifting past with lumps of rotten sea ice carved into fantastic shapes by the sea and the wind. The first Adelie penguin has been seen. It was sitting on an ice floe and as the floe went past the ship, the penguin stood up and flapped its flippers at us. It is still overcast which is a shame as the ice would look brilliant in sunlight.
I had a big icecream birthday cake at dinner with three candles on it. They either ignored the rest or didn't have enough candles. We have a compulsory briefing at 7pm about Casey and environmental issues. There are some areas out of bounds due to nesting birds and a few rules we have to adhere to. It will be useful information if we ever get to Casey.
6.30am Wednesday
During the night we turned south and then west in a big semicircle. We are now running smoothly through loose pack ice. The wind is still 40kn but the ice has quelled the swell. Petersen Bank is to the southwest of us and the huge icebergs grounded on it can be seen on the horizon. The sun is breaking through the overcast occasionally and the ice is dazzling.
Over the years I have seen many films and photographs of Antarctica but nothing prepares you for the immensity of the real thing. A film has borders and boundaries which the eye doesn't. It is like seeing Uluru for the first time. You have no conception of the size of it until you see it. Eric and Phil, the birdos, have been up on the bridge for hours looking at seals and birds. I haven't seen a seal yet but an ice floe with a large contribution of seal poo floated by my porthole just after I woke up. I saw an Emperor penguin out on the ice earlier and more Adelies. They are too far away for photos yet. The latest weather charts show the low pressure system moving at last so if things go as expected, we could be in Casey tomorrow.
I'm going back outside to watch the spectacle. Full gear, I think, it's about -4C and blowing 40kn.
10.15am
Great excitement! (Well it doesn't take much to get us all excited as we trundle up and down through the loose pack). They put the krill net out about 6 o'clock this morning and after 4 hours of trawling to the east the net was hauled in 15 minutes ago. The upper trawl deck was crawling with photographers as the big black net emerged from the ocean. Finally the container at the end of the net arrived and was swung onto the deck. The marine biologists stood ready with an impressive array of buckets in which to sort the catch. The result? Nothing, not one! Worse than Forrest Gump and his first attempt at shrimping. I reckon we must have a pod of whales going along ahead of the ship cleaning up all the krill before we get to them. Or else we are fishing in the wrong place. Whatever. As we are still waiting for the winds to subside at Casey, we are going to do the run again so we are now heading west once more.
Thanks to everyone who sent me birthday greetings, they were much appreciated.
Lunchtime Wednesday: 65.35S 109.21E, wind E 30kn, Air temp -1.5C, water temp -1.5C, track southerly, loose pack ice.
It is indescribably beautiful out there. The sun has come out and the ice is glistening. Every piece of ice is worth a photograph. Majestic icebergs full of deep blues and mysterious caverns, ice floes gleaming white on their flat tops and green underwater, lumps of ice in all sorts of shapes and sizes. The snow petrels are constantly around, soaring in and out of the icy crags and swooping low over the open water. I'm heading back to the bridge with my camera to try to record a small part of it but no photo can capture the real thing. I just looked out of the porthole at a floe going past and six Adelies were on it looking straight back. We are close to the Petersen Bank now and the icebergs just get bigger and bigger.
More later, this is no time to be sitting in a cabin typing.