Three Months, Now For The Beginning.

February 8^th 2011. Voyage 3 of the Aurora Australis departs Hobart for Davis and Mawson. Doubts exist on the ships ability to get to Mawson because of sea ice. The weather however is on our side!

So after months of pre departure training that included Theatre Nursing, First Aid, Fork Lift operation, Safe Slinging, Handling Small Boats, Quad Bikes,  Fire Fighting, Search and Rescue etc. We were kitted out and ready to depart.

Pre Departure Training. 

Confined space rescue

Douse an isolated fire

Rescue from smoke filled building using breathing apparatus. Photo L O'Connor

Liquid fuel fire with powder extinguisher
Photo L O'Connor

Misting to control a high pressure gas fire
Photo L O'Connor

Small Boat Training - Starting a Zodiac 101. 

Manoeuvres near fixed objects like jetties
in a half metre swell

Search and Rescue (SAR) Training
- Setting up crevasse rescue rigging.

SAR Training - Harness and descender rigging

SAR Training - Cliff or crevasse rescue
- rigging a stretcher

Macquarie Island and Mawson
Lay Theater Nurse Training.

The day of departure.

Weighing in - 30Kg maximum allowed including survival bag.

There were delays to the shipping schedule but the day finally arrived for us to depart Hobart. The pre departure process taking about 2 hours from 1pm to 3pm. Last minute loading, fixing the helicopter in the hanger etc and other ship related activities continued while those departing queued to weigh their luggage, listen to speeches regardig the ashes of Phil Law traveling to Mawson for interment on West Arm, farewells and finally checking in as we boarded.

Farewell photograph.

Tickets please!

Roll Call - First Muster.

Boarding The Aurora Australis.

The first thing that happened when boarding the ship was that we had to return all Antarctic Division Security passes. Having been stripped of our identity we then attended a muster in the mess the voyage leader introduced key people running the voyage and the ships master. We were then mustered on the helideck for a roll call. Once ticked off we were broken into groups and underwent a ships safety and familiarisation briefing that included climbing into submersion suits, life jackets and into life boats. After the safety briefing was complete we were then cleared by customs who stamped our passports. We where then able to collect our luggage from the helideck and make our way to our cabin.

Bags to be collected after
safety familiarisation

Safety Drill - into the life boat.

We were then able to explore the ship till dinner at 6:00pm. It was already close to 5:00pm and we hadn't left the wharf yet. So most returned to the helideck or the upper decks to wait for the ship to push off and a for the final farewell wave to loved ones waiting patiently in the secure area on the wharf.

Nella Dan farewell Wharf No 3. 1981.

Aurora Australis farewell
Wharf No 3. 2011

Loved ones wait patiently for the ship to sail.

A great deal of care has been taken to ensure that the separation from well wishers is as distant as possible. 

My first Antarctic departure on the Nella Dan in 1981 was much more personal, the crowd stood at the edge of the wharf, close enough for streamers to be thrown and conversations to be finished as the ship moved away.

However the feeling at that moment when the Aurora Australis pushed off from the peer was the same that I had felt thirty years earlier. A mixture of excitement and sadness of trepidation and concern for those left behind and the realisation that there was no turning back. Meanwhile loved ones are left waving as we move steadily down the Derwent Estuary.

Cape Bruny to Starboard at sunset. The last sight of Australia.

Very quickly sentiment is swept aside by the need to set up the Met office and go to dinner.

Ship's track map.

And so southward the Aurora steamed, by sunset we were passing Cape Bruny to our starboard, The last point at which moblie phone reception can be had, before turning south west into the southern ocean.  The open ocean caused the ship to roll and pitch in the swell and for many it was a new experience and they were doped up with sea sickness tablets to avoid being sick.

BoM Wave forecast.

Our first night was close to the roughest on the voyage but was relatively moderate with 4-5m swell. The ocean wave forecast showed a core of high seas, (8-9m swell) passing to the south east of Tasmania. Which meant that seas had mostly abated by the time the Aurora reached the Southern Ocean. For Rolf and me it was time to set up the Met Office that we would operate out of for the next three weeks. Ship observations are taken each three hours and they find their way to global forecasting computer models that in turn generate forecasts out for the next seven days for wind, weather and wave conditions. These computer generated forecasts where then fine-tuned by Forecasters at the Davis Met Office to provide route a forecasts for our voyage.

Rolf recording the ship observation

Coded observation sent via INMARSAT

The ship weather observation time is based on UTC time (Universal Time Coordinated) for most purposes it is the same as GMT - (Greenwich Mean Time). So the observation time starts at midnight UTC time was constant while the ship time varied as we gained 5 hours over the two weeks as we went further west.

The pressure is falling- we're in for a blow.

We also needed to be operationally proficient in aviation observations for when the Helicopters were flying so our office routine included hourly Aviation Observations also. The Met office is immediately behind the bridge and we also operated from a desk on the bridge where our instrumentation was located.

Night watch on the bridge - the met desk with blackout curtains maintaining night vision for officers

 on watch. 

What do you do on a voyage to Antarctica.

Desert counter

The meals on board were sumptuous, three times a day whether they were needed or not and then there was morning and afternoon tea if you were still a bit hungry. The clock time was adjusted every few days by adding an extra hour into our day. This added to the the lengthening days because of the higher latitudes had peoples circadian rhythm was totally out of wack. People were up and out of bed wandering the decks hours before breakfast looking for something to do. Many on board took time to read, play cards or scrabble, keep diaries, send email work out in the Gym, watch a movie or just watch the waves go by from the bridge. Of an evening there were presentations each night on a range of topics from those on board including scientific, adventurous, Antarctic history or expeditioners slide shows from previous years.

Iranian Freighter in Antarctic Waters

Cold food buffet counter

There was a brief change to routine when suddenly the ship changed direction and headed NE for half a day to look for an 'item of interest' that turned out to be an Iranian freighter that had engine trouble but was now OK. That change cost a days sailing time and also made us vulnerable to a deep low pressure system moving from the south west. It was a very close thing but the ships master steered the ship through the centre of the low and out the south west quarter and avoided the very heavy sees in the north west quarter

Wandering Albatross

Emperor penguins off for a stroll.

From early on the ship was followed by albatross and giant petrels, skuas and snow petrels joined later and the occasional whale was also spotted.

Whale breaching - Photo I Field

Leopard Seal.

Once we encountered ice, a lone iceberg at first then icebergs, bergy bits, growlers, pack, grease, pancake and a range of other ice types the wildlife became more prolific. Seals, penguins, whales of various types were abundant. The ships speed also slowed as navigation became more difficult.

Iceberg

Watching for ice bergs on the ships radar.

Steering through the pack ice

 

The sun forming a halo through cirrostratus cloud.

What the..

King Neptune and his merry band. Photo I Phillips

King Neptune.
There was also the Antarctic Circle crossing to be negotiated (66° 33′ 44″S). Tradition has it that King Neptune tests those who would cross the Antarctic circle to ensure that they pay him proper homage. So at the designated time all those who had not crossed the Antarctic Circle were rounded up and led, like lambs to the slaughter, to be pay homage to the King while the old hands watched on and enjoyed the show .'Is that fish you can smell?'

Have a closer look.

Acquaint yourself with the fish kind sir.

Next Stop - Davis.
The call was made early in the voyage to divert to Davis first to allow more time for the ice at Mawson to blow out.

Barging cargo to Davis Station.

Coming into Davis

 Getting to Davis required the ship to manoeuvre through some pack ice and iceberg avoidance but was generally straight forward. Before arriving at Davis on 21st February there were briefings on helicopter operations, unloading, baggage handling and managing arriving and departing passengers and their safety during flying and on watercraft operations. All the Mawson crew had a role in the Davis resupply operations.

Departure lounge - Aurora Australis

Immersion suited for a flight to Davis

Going ashore at Davis

Barge operations - Davis

The Davis changeover turned out to be brief (2 days) because of approaching bad weather. There was an exchange of summer and winter personnel as well as some cargo however much of the cargo for Davis was left aboard as we beat a hasty retreat. 

 

Voyage 4 would be at Davis in about a month for the final changeover so anything missed now would be done then.

Leaving the Aurora.

The cargo that did go ashore and was lifted by helicopter or ferried by barge. The Mawson crew who had no reason to go ashore, including me, were given the chance to go across for a couple of hours of the first evening - long enough for a look around, have a quick drink in the mess and to pass some smuggled Tim Tam biscuits to the met staff. 

Squirrel helicopter on reconnaissance.

 


Mawson, here we come.

After a 2nd day of unloading we departed Davis at about 7:00pm and headed for Mawson. When we were about a days sailing out from Mawson (24th February) the Sikorsky helicopter was dispatched to deliver key people mail and other urgent supplies to Mawson station while the ships master and voyage leader in Squirrel helicopters (collected from Davis) conducted some reconnaissance flights across the fast ice looking for leads.

Ice edge

Pushing through sea ice

The ship then continued picking its way through pack ice and ice bergs along the coast through iceberg alley into a polynia of open water to the NW of the station. From the closest point to the station through the thinnest of the ice the ship started breaking ice toward Mawson station. After making progress at only a couple of hundred meters per hour overnight through the fast ice it was decided that the resupply would be done by helicopter airlifting personnel and cargo the 70km to the station.

Alice Giles playing harp on the bridge.

Another load to Mawson.

Afternoons on the bridge during the Davis to Mawson leg included a couple of rehearsals and a concert by Alice Giles on harp that added a surreal ambiance to the striking polar ice scape drifting by the ship as it picked its way through the ice.

Loading on the ice helipad

Sling load of 200l drums

Loading the Sikorsky

On the 25th February the resupply began in earnest. All cargo had to be removed from containers and be slung under or carried in the choppers. Some was moved to the helideck and some was craned down onto the sea ice.

The helicopters then constantly worked the helideck, and the helipad on the ice ferrying cargo to and from Mawson during the daylight hours when weather permitted.

On the 28th February the last but one of the Mawson winterers went ashore including myself. Alice Giles with her harps and a delegation to attend the memorial service for the interment of Phil Law and his wife at Mawson.

The resupply continued, taking more than another week to finish. Operations ceased for a couple of days while a blizzard raged at the station. The major activity that couldn’t be undertaken was the station refuelling which requires the ship to be close enough to the station to be able to pump the fuel through flexible hoses. Mawson therefore would be using its one year buffer in 2011 and would run out of fuel in 2012, if not supplied next summer.

The Aurora Australis departed Mawson on 8th March 2011.