Before outlining the events of the last few days, I'll instead recap some of the things that occurred during the nearly 4 week voyage through the Southern Ocean.
First, we set off from Hobart fare-welled by those nearest and dearest to most of us, while others said goodbye to uni friends and (eep) supervisors. We eventually go on the ship, and started to meet our cabin mates (most rooms had 3 people sharing) and to unpack into the limited space alloted. The L'Astrolabe pulled away from the wharf first, to much cheering and waving, and then after perhaps 20 minutes the crew finally cast off the lines, and the AA was able to start following the lead of the much smaller boat into the Southern Ocean, through what appeared to be a flock of white sailed yachts. Dinner was at 5:30, which seemed quite early, but was much appreciated and then followed by the consumption of 2 seasickness tablets (on Snake's advice) followed by bed. Since the 21st, I've become somewhat convinced that Snake may have given that advice for his own amusement, or because he wanted to be left to his own devices for the first week. The reason for this is that one tablet is enough to knock most people out, while 2 resulted in a ship full of zombies- some of which returned to conscious humanity after 24-48 hours, while others were out of action for over a week.
**extracts**
22/10/2010
Getting over the seasickness- made it up for lunch today which is an improvement, but I didn't need to know that they offer desserts at lunchtime as well! I had salad and some potato gems this time. Haven't made it to the gym yet- right now a cup of tea and a tim tam is sounding much more appealing! Maybe tomorrow... Lara is spending a lot of time asleep, so I haven't wanted to hassle her into coming with me. This morning before lunch Jess and I were sitting on the helideck when a pod of 5 Hectors dolphins came and swam alongside the Aurora, which was pretty special. They were much smaller than bottlenose dolphins, and had varying shades of grey as markings on them. There was also a wandering (maybe) albatross hanging around the port side of the ship for a while, before the dolphins were spotted.
The Continuous Plankton Recorder was deployed yesterday. It's run on every voyage, and provides a record of the plankton biodiversity over time for the different areas we pass through- some lucky scientist will get to sit in a lab and pull 1000s of tiny zooplankton off kilometres of tape over the next year! (Glad it's not me). The Marine Science that's happening while on the ship is likely to be plankton tows when we get further south, and there're also people testing out Remotely Operated Vehicles, which are submersible robot things that they can direct to go under the ice and then use sonic to determine how thick the ice is.
26/10/2010
The weather is starting to get much colder- water temp is 6 degrees, and the air temp is a balmy 3-4 degrees celsius. Even better, we've just passed through a thick sea fog which was amazing, and earlier this morning there was sleet (which some people were lucky enough to be out on the foredeck to experience). It's pretty impressive and a little surprising how quickly the temperature has changed as we've moved south, but it's good in a way. The old fashioned manner that we're traveling certainly gives you much more of a chance to appreciate the distance traversed, and the accompanying change in conditions than does air travel, which gives a rather artificial feel of not having moved very far at all, if that makes sense.
30/10/2010
So, the communications department at the AAD not treating us so well at the moment- the Australian media got hold of the aircraft flyover of the crash site before we were given any information this morning. From what I understand the photos indicate that there are no survivors, however this still needs to be confirmed on site at ground level. We're still operating in support of the Astrolabe at this time in what is currently a search and rescue operation, and once things are confirmed at the site, it will become a recovery operation, which as I understand we will also be assisting. After that, it will be up to the Astrolabe and French scientific program if they would like us to hang around, if we are able to provide any further logistical support.
Had a meeting with the lab manager yesterday and was shown where I'll be working at Davis- where my desk will be, and which lab I'll be in, and who I'll be sharing with- it seems a pretty nice set up, and I even get priority use of a controlled temperature room! Yay! I R important!
13/11/2010
Last night I allowed Rio to cut my hair- he'd had a 3 hour TAFE training course, so I think I almost doubled his haircutting time... It's short at the back and getting a little longer at the front in a bob cut, and I now have a fringe. I left a couple of long sections on each side to frame my face a little. I feel like I look like a doll, but some people have been complementing it (though there were more comments of "You're brave, letting Rio touch your hair!"). Yesterday Lara, Jess and I finally all got into the sauna and spent a good half hour hanging out in there relaxing. It was so good to be warm for a little while! The instructions say to cool off slowly after the sauna, as if that's possible down here! I would if I could...
Before..
After...
Have seen a bunch of crabeater seals floating past today and some massive icebergs, after hanging around on the helideck after our 3rd muster this voyage. We're in pretty thick ice and having some trouble getting through at times, so the Squirrels were sent out last night to do some recon, and found the Russian icebreaker and cargo ship a bit further south, which is pretty cool. Sounded like they were in a similar situation to us though. Apparently there was a whale yesterday, but the bridge was closed to expeditioners all day, so only the lucky crew and meteorological guys on shift got to see it (not Brian though, he had his head down and was too busy with work).
15/11/2010
Davis is finally in sight, which is a huge relief, after spending so long cooped up on the ship. We can finally see some of the ice free areas of the continent, with the Vestfold Hills rising in dark waves on the horizon, behind a screen of huge icebergs. About 12 people are already off the ship, as the choppers took them to station this afternoon/evening, and the rest of us that are allowed to get off at the start of resupply expect to get onto station tomorrow sometime. Tonight is the last night on the ship! Yay! Some people have to stay on board to help man the fuel/water/etc resupply stuff, so we won't see them until the end of the week, when we have handover with a couple of drinks in the dieso shed. After a month of an essentially dry ship, I think everyone is hanging to let their hair down a little and just relax with a beer or two after doing the long resupply work (24 hours days with everyone on 4 hour shifts to get it done). I'm in the Temporary Accommodation (TAD) rather than the summer area.
So excited! I can't wait to get off the ship and meet the winterers- it's a little like Christmas Eve, and I'm not sure how many people will manage to sleep well tonight, despite knowing the work load for the next few days.
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