Thursday 10th April 2014

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Overcast, winds averaging 15 knots

SEA CONDITIONS: Low westerly swell

ICE CONDITIONS: Nil

LATITUDE: 64.03S LONGITUDE: 64.36E

HEADING: 68 degrees

SPEED: 16 knots

DISTANCE COVERED LAST 24 HOURS: 191nm

AIR TEMPERATURE: -9.5c

SEA TEMPERATURE: -0.66c

DEPTH: 1572m

Once again I had a sleepless night and woke up very tired. Early this morning we cleared the actual ice edge, and we took this opportunity to slow the ship down and do some trawling for Krill. For many years the AAD has been running a Krill research project that is designed to focus on obtaining life history information that can be used in managing the Krill fishery, which is the largest Antarctic fishery. These studies will enable scientists to gain key information on the impact of climate change on key aspects of Krill biology and ecology. The trawling we did this morning did result in us collecting just over 50 live Krill, that’s individual krill and not tons of krill. It’s just as well we are not fishing for a living.

The krill are now being cared for in one of the ship’s laboratories which has been set up as an aquarium for the Krill. Back in Hobart they will then be transferred to a larger aquarium at the AADs Head Office in Kingston.

Once the trawling was finished and equipment packed away, we commenced our long transit back to Hobart. We have over 2660nm to go now in a direct straight line from our current position to Hobart and at our current speed of sixteen knots that should have us arriving at Hobart sometime around the seventeenth of April. We have a large number of birds following our progress at the moment, most of them being Antarctic petrels and we continue to sight minke and wright whales.

I’ve had a headache since waking up this morning and I guess it’s because I’m tired and also caused by the swell. That means people will be getting sick shortly and remaining in their cabins. I had a quick chat to I bloke in Slovakia who I have been talking to all year, the propagation is not very good today.

Wednesday 9th April 2014

HEADING: 282

CURRENT SPEED: 3.5 knots

DISTANCE COVERED LAST 24 HOURS: 15 miles

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Skies clearing, sunny, 17 knot south-south easterly wind

AIR TEMPERATURE: -17c

SEA TEMPERATURE: -1.8c

ICE CONDITIONS: Backing and ramming through Heavy first year pack ice, large flows and rubble

Yesterday we continued to make slow progress through the heavy pack ice and as the day went on the weather deteriorated to a point where we had very little visibility as the snow and winds increased, so we turned the ship into the wind and just held the ship in that position. The pack itself is drifting in the direction we want to go, so by just holding position we were able to drift with it. So for very little effort we were able to make progress in the right direction at around 0.7 of a knot per hour.

This morning’s conditions have eased weather wise, and as the day goes on the clear skies and sunshine are returning. As soon as it was light enough we re-commenced the process of backing up and ramming through the pack ice, and again we are making slow but steady progress. We are hoping that Mother Nature will play the game and “open up” a few leads as the day goes on, but ice breaking is never easy. We are hoping to get through to the open water sometime in the next few days.

I had a bad night trying to get to sleep with a lot of things on my mind and I woke up very early also, so I am rather tired today. I just had a chat with Fred in Melbourne on 10m who was quite strong, but I think the bands a little fickle today.

In the late afternoon we sent a helicopter out to scout around for some leads and once again he put us on the right track and within an hour or so we were making progress, slowly at first and then the pack ice turned into fast ice that we could slowly slice through. Eventually the fast ice thinned and turned to plates, then frazzle and finally we were cruising ten knots through open grease ice.

After sailing for an hour or so through a long lead surrounded by lots of large bergs we entered back into the large plates and fast ice. I went up to the bow for a few hours to watch the ship smash these huge lumps of ice to smithereens. The raw power is amazing to watch and the sound is just as impressive. I was there on my own and every now and then there would be a small open pool and there would be three or four minkie whales coming up to breath. After dinner I stayed out on the bow until sunset and finally had to go inside when the skin around my eyes started to burn.

I had a nice hot shower and later we were traveling at ten knots through loose pack ice and the ship was now rocking with the deep ocean swell so maybe tomorrow all the ice will be gone.

Tuesday 8th April 2014

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Heavy first year pack ice, large flows and rubble. White out conditions and 30 knot wind.

LATITUDE: 66.02S LONGITUDE: 58.19E

AIR TEMPERATURE: -17c

SEA TEMPERATURE: -1.8c

DEPTH: 1022m

I woke this morning to see the same ice berg out of my port hole that I was looking at yesterday and realized the situation is not good. I had a lazy morning and eventually rolled out for lunch and a coffee. By now the ship had managed to turn around but I could still see the same ice berg from last night. I had a look at the satellite image and it all looked straight forward, we just had to keep following the lead between the fast ice and the pack ice and we would be in open water in no time, but things on the ground were totally different.

We are currently only about twenty five to thirty nautical miles from the open water, but it might as well be a thousand miles as we are not going anywhere. The ship has been stationary for most of the day and we are waiting for the wind and currents to hopefully open up a lead for us to move through, so I think we are going to conserve fuel for a while and play the waiting game. The radio has been dead most of the day but there were a few brief opening with good signals back to Perth, Thai Land, South Africa and Italy.

Satellite sea ice photo

Some statistics of the resupply

All up on the voyage to date we have conducted 216 helicopter flights from the Aurora Australis helideck. At Mawson we transferred ashore over 130,000 kg of cargo to the station, including 47,084 L of SAB (Special Antarctic Blend Diesel), and back loaded over 7,700 kg of return to Australia (RTA) cargo from Mawson station. As well as retrieving the 2013 wintering team and deploying the 2014 winterers. All of this was achieved in 9 flying days, some of which were not even full flying days.

Monday 7th April 2014

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Clearly skies and light winds.

LATITUDE: 66.08S LONGITUDE: 59.09E

AIR TEMPERATURE: -24c

SEA TEMPERATURE: -1.8c

DEPTH: 7754m

I woke to the sound of ice scraping against the side of the hull. Every now and then there would be a dull thud and you could feel the shock waves echoing up and down the hull and feel the hull bending and flexing. I looked at my clock and it was just past five o’clock so I laid back and tried to go back to sleep. It was useless, as I was too excited, so I got up to look out my porthole. There were three huge search lights moving around out front as we pushed our way through the chunky pack ice while overhead the sky was full of auroral curtains. I didn’t want to miss out on this so I jumped into the shower and then headed up to the bridge to take it all in. Once the sun came up we managed to pick our way through leads all morning seeing lots of Adélie penguins and minki whales as we went along.

Every now and then we would hit a thick patch of pack ice doing ten knots that would stop us dead in our tracks requiring us to back up and hit it again at full steam. Our luck couldn’t last for ever and around one o’clock we had to stop and send out a helicopter to do a reconnaissance of the area. The helicopter reconnaissance paid off and after a couple of hours we were off again heading in another direction to follow a new lead. This new track took us past a huge ice berg that must have been many kilometres long but by four o’clock in the afternoon we were totally stuck and the ship was continuously backing back and ramming the ice with very little headway.

 
At five o’clock we had a BBQ outside on the trawl deck in minus twenty five degrees to celebrate the successful resupply. We were given a couple of light beers each but these froze solid in your hand in about two minutes so you pretty much had to scull them if you wanted a drink.
The best thing was being down only about two meters above sea level and watching the raw power of the ship trying to smash its way through the pack ice. Some of the chunks of ice were massive and it was quite noisy. The ship went back and forth constantly for hours not making any progress at all and later I went up onto the bridge to chat with the master before going to bed.

Sunday 6th April 2014

WEATHER CONDITIONS: Mainly clearly skies, some light scattered cloud. Light winds.

LATITUDE: 66.22S LONGITUDE: 60.00E

AIR TEMPERATURE: -24c

SEA TEMPERATURE: -1.8c

DEPTH: 1754m

Last night there was another great display of auroras all night and some of us got some great photos braving the minus twenty eight degree temperature.

We had another great day of helicopter operations yesterday with 30 flights conducted which resulted in another 24,159kg of cargo taken ashore. We also back loaded another 4,866kg of cargo from Mawson.

This morning we have started helicopter operations again, and today will be our final day of operations. The first flight from the Aurora Australis saw the last item of Mawson cargo transferred ashore, which means we have been able to fully discharge all the Mawson cargo that was loaded onto the vessel. We are currently back loading the last RTA cargo from Mawson, as well as bringing back to the ship the remaining ground support personnel that are on station. Once that is complete we will conduct an ice reconnaissance using the helicopters, which will not only let us determine the condition of the ice we need to get back through, but also pinpoint the best course for the ship to take through the ice.

Radio propagation today was quite lousy, but I did manage to contact two stations in Namibia.

By mid-afternoon we had all the helicopters safely stowed in the hanger, and the ship then commenced to turn around and to start breaking its way out of the fast ice so we can get on our way back to Hobart. I spent hours out on deck in minus twenty four watching in amazement as the ship repeatedly rammed full steam ahead into the one meter thick fast ice smashing it to pieces like huge chunks of Styrofoam cracking and exploding under the huge pressure. The massive prop wash shooting out the back of the ship looked like rapids in a raging river. It took over two hours just to turn around and to start with it was really slow going, but eventually the speed increased slowly until we were doing about eight knots and there was ice smashing in all directions. It was a rough ride and very noisy as you could imagine but gradually the ice thinned and by the evening we were gliding through the ice at over twelve knots.

At eight o’clock we watched an amazing documentary about the Americans raising a Russian submarine during the cold war and later I worked on my blog until late.

Around eleven o’clock we entered the pack ice with lots of banging and hard jarring. I went into the bridge to see what was going on and I stayed a while watching the large chunky pack ice illuminated by the three huge spotlights as the fairy dust sparkled in the light beams. A short while later the master decided it was safer to park up for the night and to navigate his way out during daylight so I retired to my chilly cabin to read my book for a while.

Saturday 5th April 2014

POSITION: 67 02 S, 62 09 E

HEADING: 139

CURRENT SPEED (KNOTS): 0

WEATHER CONDITIONS: predominantly clear skies with some light scattered cloud, winds 5-10 knots.

AIR TEMPERATURE: -22.5

SEA TEMPERATURE: -1.8

ICE CONDITIONS: Parked in fast ice, numerous ice bergs

It’s a lovely day today and flying has resumed. If we get a good day of flying both today and tomorrow we will be departing for Hobart Monday evening, which means heading out into the Southern Ocean in late April which should be exciting. At least we will be running with the sea all the way home. It will probably take about three days to smash our way out of the ice to get to the open ocean and then another thirteen days to get back to Hobart, so we should be back in Hobart around the 22nd or 23rd of April.

Radio conditions don’t appear to be very good today and so far I have only had a chat with a guy in New South Wales. Things picked up a little on the radio, but it was a pretty quiet day with only ten contacts in the log today. I had a nice chat to my mate David on Marion Island and he is about to depart also. Another great day of flying and now I’m off to watch a movie.

Friday 4th April 2014

Another great day of flying with lots achieved. At the completion of operations yesterday, our discharge/back loading stats was as follows:

- 36 ship to shore flights conducted

- 31,119kg of cargo transferred ashore

- 3,084kg of Priority 2 RTA now stowed on the vessel

- All of the remaining containerised SAB has now been transferred ashore

- 3 passengers were brought back to the vessel

Statistics wise, here’s where we are at:

- 100% of Priority 1.1 cargo discharged

- 100% of Priority 1.2 cargo discharged

- 99% of Priority 1.3 cargo discharged

- 100% of the IBCs that contain SAB have been discharged from the vessel

Due to the different sizes of IBCs we had, this equates to 47,048L of SAB delivered to station;

- 100% of Priority 1 RTA cargo stowed on the vessel

- 100% of Priority 2 RTA cargo stowed on the vessel

- 14 of the 15 2013 winterers are on the ship now

There’ll be no flying today as it’s pretty much a whiteout outside and the wind is blowing about thirty knots with lots of blowing snow. I spent pretty much all day on the radio working plenty of stations on 10 m all around the world including a few nice chats with South African stations, Dave in Albany and even Don before he got called away to light the BBQ.

Its freezing cold inside today and I have a doona stuffed into my port hole as insulation. I can’t wait to get back home and lay back in my spa with a nice cold beer. I’m doing a lot of reading too and really enjoying it.