My Australian Adventures: 2012

Sunday, 5 February 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 05/02/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

It's been a pretty crappy few days. The CTDs continue, the 12 hour
shifts seem to drag on for eternity, and the monotony of ship life
becomes harder to handle. Everyone on the ship seems run down and
tired beyond normal standards. The topic of conversation has shifted
as people now start counting down the days/CTDs left, and begin
planning their activities upon arrival on terra firma. FYI, it's 8
days until we arrive in Freemantle, that corresponds to 16 CTDs!

On the plus side, the swell was pretty rough the other day (6m ish)
which meant it was too hazardous to deploy the CTDs. As such, I got
to "enjoy" a nice shift off. Unfortunately, there wasn't much
enjoyment as I opted to work on my PhD. I did get a few much-needed
extra hours in bed though!

As of yesterday, the game of Assassin officially ended as I killed
the last remaining victim! That's right, I won!! It took nearly two
weeks, but after putting practically zero effort into the game, I
finished victorious as I shouted "YOU'RE DEAD" to Chris, the person
that had put the most effort into the game, killing 11 people (I
killed 2 including him). I don't think he was best pleased, but he
definitely deserved it. So there you have it people, do not piss me
off because I will hunt you down.

Not much else to report. It's getting very warm now (15C both air and
sea temperature) and we are now further north than Hobart where the
voyage began. I hope you are all enjoying the cold snap in England -
I would certainly like to be back in the polar latitudes.

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Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia
IMPORTANT: This transmission is intended for the addressee only. If you are not the
intended recipient, you are notified that use or dissemination of this communication is
strictly prohibited by Commonwealth law. If you have received this transmission in error,
please notify the sender immediately by e-mail or by telephoning +61 3 6232 3209 and
DELETE the message.
Visit our web site at http://www.antarctica.gov.au/
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Monday, 30 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 30/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Another week onboard the Aurora Australis has come and gone, and
quite fittingly, it ended with a viewing of the proper aurora
australis, the southern lights!

After a brief glimpse on VMS last year, I was hoping upon hope that
this voyage would bring better weather for an aurora viewing. It took
a while, but after three weeks or so, we were far enough north to
have darkness, far enough south to still be in the domain of the
southern lights, all coupled with a rare clear night in the Southern
Ocean.

Now the Aurora is a pretty temperamental thing, so after hearing
rumours of a display prior to my shift starting, I was dubious that I
would be lucky enough to see anything, and initially I was correct. I
shouldn't really say that I saw nothing as the stars were stunning.
Shooting stars were flying all over the place, the Milky Way spanned
from horizon to horizon, and Mars (I think...) was shining a
brilliant red light down on me. You all know I'm a bit of an
astro-geek these days, so I definitely wasn't disappointed.

After a quick flurry of snow, and a snap decision to ride it out, the
cloud cleared and the stars offered their beauty once more, this time
in conjunction with an auroral display. It was beautiful. A pale
green veil of light seemed to descend from mid-way through the sky,
shimmering gently, and slowly pulsing as the aurora strengthened and
weakened every so often. It was such a strange phenomenon, appearing
somewhat like dawn in the middle of the night sky. Spanning for what
seemed like forever, I just stood atop the ship and watched in awe as
the aurora passed over me and slowly dissipated, leaving behind not
darkness, but the stunning beauty of the stars.

With Antarctica now far behind us, and the ice becoming increasingly
sporadic (no iceberg viewing's for 24 hours), it seemed as if we had
left the polar domain, but the auroral viewing gave all onboard one
last taste of Antarctic life.

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Friday, 27 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 27/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Due to the monotony of marine science work in the Southern Ocean,
away from the ice, it's been a few days since anything particularly
interesting has happened, and thus since my last blog post. That all
changed last night...

A deep low pressure system passed to our north during the course of
yesterday, and with it, came some of the world renowned Southern
Ocean fury. For much of the evening (remember this is essentially the
middle of the night for me given that I am working the night shift),
I lay in bed attempting to sleep while I was constantly shaken in my
bed, sliding back and forth and side to side with the pitch and roll
of the ship. At this stage, it was bearable, but come 9.30 or so, the
ocean stepped it up a notch. The pitch (the tilting of the ship from
front to back) reached 40 degrees, and the roll (the tilting from
port to starboard) reached 48 degrees! The curtains appeared near
vertical from window, objects were flying all over the place in the
room and I was clinging on in my bed trying not to fall out. A quick
look out the window made for a very dizzying sight - one second we
faced straight into the ocean, the next high into the night-time sky!
After dozing, I woke up to some particularly nasty conditions and
realised my laptop was unsecured on the desk, so thought I should
attempt to get out of bed and put it away safely. Boy was that a
mistake...

And then came my second idiotic moment of the voyage (after running
into the rope). Straight after getting out of bed, with the ship
titled at some ridiculous angle, I was knocked straight onto my bum,
and slid all the way across the floor to the other side of the cabin,
a good 6-7m. The speed at which all this happened was crazy. One
second I was upright, the next I was crumpled on the floor in my
boxers, heading straight for the cabin door! On this apparent roller
coaster ride, I managed to bang my knee (not my injured knee from
snow cricket) on the wall pretty hard, and have been hobbling around
all day. I don't know what it is about me and my knees this voyage.
Remember that I had literally just woken up at this point, and
hurtling towards a door at warp speed isn't something you expect to
happen so I was pretty startled. Upon reaching my final destination
at the opposite end of the cabin, my cabin-mate and I just burst into
laughter at the hilarity of the situation, and continued as such on
and off until the seas abated and we were able to sleep. A small
taste of what the Southern Ocean can produce I'm sure.

Fortunately the seas have died down considerably over the course of
the day, but the impact from last nights drama were clearly visible
throughout the day - chairs knocked everywhere in the mess, objects
strewn all over the floor in the cabins, and bruises from other
peoples falls in night. I'm told the pitching and rolling was so bad
because of the swell and seas coming from different directions,
producing a very confused ocean. This meant we could not escape the
oceans wrath whichever direction we traveled in. Things were bad
enough to prevent any CTDs for the last 18 hours or so (a day off
today!), and a broken generator also didn't help.

On the plus side, I didn't get sea sick, and I'm still alive in
assassin!

p.s. there seems to be a problem with the sending and receiving of
e-mails. If you have sent me one and I haven't responded, I likely
didn't get it...

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Monday, 23 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 23/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hey y'all,

The voyage has now entered full marine science mode, and as such, the
monotony of ship-life begins. My life now consists of eating and
CTDs, nothing else. Unless I bore you all with the ins and outs of
the CTDs, I don't envisage having much to share over the coming
weeks. I'll be sure to update you when anything interesting does
happen, but I no longer think I can justify a blog a day.

Today, however, something interesting did happen. We saw a jade-berg!
What's a jade-berg I hear you ask. Well, basically, its an iceberg
that has a deep green-blue colour, contrasting with the bog-standard
white iceberg. I'm not entirely sure what forms these, maybe one of
you can elighten me, but I heard discussion of the ice being at the
bottom of the glacier, and thus forming under extreme pressure. I do
have a lovely photo for you all to enjoy, but it doesn't really do it
justice. I love the white and green stripy section - BEAUTIFUL!
Reminds me of a sweet of somesort, maybe a green version of a campino
for those who remember them from back in the day.

Assassin continues...I'm still alive, and so is my victim despite my
scheming.

I have now also run out of the chocolate I brought with me. Bad times
ahead!

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Sunday, 22 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 21-22/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Happy Birthday to me!

No rest for the wicked, even on their birthday. Yesterday (the 21st -
my birthday) the first proper day of CTDs began, and boy was it a
busy one. After probably 4 hours sleep total, I got up and literally
didn't stop until my shift was over 12 hours later. Even breakfast
and lunch (which corresponds to my lunch and dinner) were sat
working! It's not all bad; the crew did bring me out a birthday cake
and sang to me. Unfortunately I literally had to blow the candles
out, take some cake and run because the CTD was just coming up. The
cake was pretty good though, chocolate - YUMMY!

By the end of the shift I was completely shattered, so come 2pm I was
fast asleep. I woke up at 00:30 this morning feeling refreshed and
ready to face another full day of CTDs. Luckily it wasn't as hectic
as yesterday but I still feel pretty knackered. Eventually I will get
used to the night shift...I hope anyway!

In other news, I am still alive in Assassin! Nobody has even made an
attempt to kill me. I also haven't killed my victim yet - however, I
have acquired some assistance and concocted a plan, and come early
tomorrow morning, I'm hoping they have been murdered.

The ship was also visited by two humpback whales today, a mum and her
calf. Typically, I was mid-CTD but I did manage to run out on the
trawl deck and get a quick look of them flapping their fins around.
No photographic evidence I'm afraid - I didn't have time to run up
and get the camera.

The sun is shining beautifully right now but it is bed time for me.
Good night people!

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Friday, 20 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 20/01/2012 - Ship Trail [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 20/01/2012 - Adam and I wih Antarctica [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 20/01/2012 - Sunset [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 20/01/2012 - Iceberg at sunset [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 20/01/2012 - Beautiful Weather [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 20/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

It's just before 4pm, and I'm about to head off to sleep. We have
just about reached the start of the I9 transect, and so begins the
dreaded night shift work. 1am to 1pm. Work is expected to begin in a
few hours time with the first mooring retrieval, followed by four or
five continuous CTDs until the next mooring. Due to the depth of the
ocean here (~500m or so), the CTD process will be fairly quick, so it
will be go-go-go from the start of the shift, likely until the end 12
hours later. Fun times! If I don't crash straight after the shift
ends from exhaustion, I will be sure to tell you how it went.

My knee remains slightly swolen, but feels much better. I also had
another accident that I forgot to tell you all. I was rushing up the
outer stairs to get to the monkey deck (the highest place we can go)
to set up my GoPro. Being in a rush, I failed to see a rope that was
placed across the top of the stairs, and ran face first into it, full
force. Believe me, it bloody hurt, and I have a bruise on the corner
of my brow to prove it. Luckily the rope didn't get me across the
neck otherwise I would have likely fallen backwards down the metal
stairs. Also luckily, nobody was around to see me. I'm such a knobber.

A game of assassin has also begun on the ship. The aim is to kill
(not literally) a person who's name you have been given by walking up
to them when nobody else is in sight, and say "you're dead" - quite
tricky! Once dead, you take over their target, and so on until either
you win, or you have been killed. Over 30 hours in, I am still alive
despite walking alone quite often. Others have taken to escorts. I'm
sure I will be killed soon enough...it's just a matter of time.

Not much else to report so I will end it there, and leave you with
yet another penguin photo.

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Thursday, 19 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 19/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hey all,

I realise it's been a few days since my last posting, but a lot has
been going on.

Two days ago, we left our position in the fast ice off Commonwealth
Bay and said goodbye to the penguins. I was actually pretty sad to be
leaving. Although I'm sure boredom would have soon set in if we were
contained within the ice much longer, the experience of being in the
ice, photographing the penguins, and generally just being in
Antarctica, is one of the best experiences of my life and something I
hope to never forget. I don't think I will be heading back to the
frozen south for a while, so I'm just extremely happy that I got to
experience what I did.

As we left the ice, the weather could not have been better. The sun
was shining, the water was still offering beautiful reflections of
the sea-ice and icebergs, and the Antarctic continent clearly
visible. I stayed up on the bridge watching the world go by for near
6 hours, until I experienced the first sun set in a over a week, and
then called it quits. The next morning I awoke to open ocean and
consequently a slight swell. It was a strange feeling to be moving
again after being stationary for so long. I just hope the swell
doesn't pick up, and the ocean remains friendly for the remaining
three weeks of the voyage. We are currently heading west towards of
the begining of the I9 transect, which is basically due south of
Perth. From here, the proper work begins, with continuous sampling
every 20 miles or so. The sea-ice is now long behind us, with only a
few isolated icebergs in sight.

Our second special occasion was held last night, with a fancy dress
theme allowing you to dress up as anything begining with a C, T, or D
(if you remember, the CTD is an ocean instrument measuring
conductivity, temperature and depth). I was not particularly
inventive, and dressed as a cardboard box, which literally involved
putting a box around my torso. Easy. Other people went to much more
effort than I. A few items were also auctioned to raise money for
charity - the ships flag, the map used in Commonwealth Bay, and two
paintings the artist onboard has done. In total, $10,000 was raised
with these 4 items!!! Some people clearly earn too much money. Even
the opening bid was beyond my budget.

We should arrive at the start of the transect tomorrow, so I'm
attempting to wake up early in order to get my body in 1am-1pm
mode...I'll try and post some more photos tomorrow - I took 600 on
the evening we left the ice so it may take me a while to sort through
them...

Good night all!

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Monday, 16 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

I hope you all enjoyed the many photos I posted earlier. I will try
to continue to do so as long as I have good photos to post.

We were once again blessed with beautiful weather for the majority of
the day, with blue skies and the sun gracing us with their presence.
As such, heli-ops began bright and early, taking the last of those
people to Mawsons Hut for the official ceremony. After some 4 days or
so of waiting, some people were literally on land for an hour and a
half - they went to the ceremony and basically came straight back
again before the weather turned (which it did). It seems fairly
ridiculous to me that so much money has been spent keeping the ship
here just for an hour of speech-reading. Who am I to complain though,
it allowed me to play with the penguins!

With heli-ops occuring for a large part of the day, we were banished
to the confines of the ship as our pen of sea-ice was being used as a
heli-pad. I did manage to get out and play for a short while though,
and saw yet another chinstrap penguin (or was it the same one?), and
also an emperor. I later saw a whale (probably a Minke) from the
heli-deck, and also an albino penguin!! I thought those that pointed
said albino out to me were playing some sort of joke, but when I
looked, there was an albino penguin - instead of black feathers, it
was sort of a creamy colour - it was also being bullied by the other
penguins...Unfortunately I was too slow to change lenses to get a
shot of it. You will all just have to use your imagination instead.

After 3 days of waiting, we also finally got to go out on the water
in the zodiacs. Just before getting aboard, a group of 3 or so whales
were spotted in the distance, so after climbing down a precarious
ladder on the side of the Aurora onto the zodiac, we headed straight
for where we spotted the whales. Unfortunately, there was no sign of
them, but we then got a radio call from the ships captain saying a
whale was spotted near the ships bow. We zoomed (or fanged as the
Aussies say) straight back towards the Aurora, and spotted another
Minke. It didn't want to pose for any photos unfortunately, but
still, a grand total of 5 whales for the day (and the entire voyage)
isn't too bad. I also got to see two more emperors on the edge of the
sea-ice. One was a juvenille, and still had a small amount of
youngster plumage on it's back - the other we think was it's parent.
At the begining of the trip, the weather was pretty fair, so we had
some nice reflections of the icebergs in the glassy water. After
being out about 15 minutes, however, the weather turned and it
started to snow, reducing the visibility. Still, it was great to be
able to head out on the water, and see the Aurora from a distance
amongst the sea-ice. I thought the zodiac trip may help make up for
my lack of standing on the continent, it doesn't really, but was
still an amazing experience.

In other news, I reported yesterday that I hurt my knee playing snow
cricket. Well this morning, I woke up and it was still hurting pretty
badly, forcing a quick trip to the doc. Turns out my knee is swolen,
but worry not. It's nothing serious. This is why I don't do
exercise...

We leave Commonwealth Bay tomorrow, and say goodbye to the VIPs as
they head to Dumont D'Urville, Casey, or McMurdo stations to catch a
flight home. The science therefore begins very soon.

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Land Ahoy [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Me with blue sky [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Me with Aurora [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Penguin 7 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Me with continent [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Penguin 6 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Penguin 5 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Penguin 4 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Penguin 3 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Penguin 2 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 16/01/2012 - Penguin 1 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Prepare for many penguin photos...

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Sunday, 15 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 15/01/2012 - Aurora Photo [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Sorry about my lack of post yesterday - time got away from me whilst
I was sorting through my photos. To make up for it, I will be sure to
post lots more penguin photos tomorrow.

Once again, I don't really have much to report from the past two
days. We had a brief nice weather window yesterday so flight
operations began to Commonwealth Bay so some VIPs and scientists
could visit Mawsons Hut. Now one of my dear friends asked if Mawsons
Hut was the same as a research station. The answer is no. Mawsons Hut
is the hut that Sir Douglas Mawson, the most famous Australian
Antarctic explorer, constructed basically 100 years ago to the date,
when he (along with his team) sailed to Antarctica in 1911 onboard
the S. Y. Aurora, marking the begining of Australian Antarctic
Expeditions. This centenary is half the reason why we are here - so
fancy politicians and other governmental people can celebrate the
centenary at this hut, which is now preserved under some Antarctic
cultural treaty. Now, there is an Australian research station called
Mawson (one of three Australia have on the mainland: Casey, Davis,
Mawson) but this is not the same the same place as Mawsons Hut - they
lie at least 60 degrees of longitude apart (I would guess), and
Mawson research station is a place where scientists and others live
year round for scientific purposes, and Mawsons Hut, is literally a
hut where people don't live. I may have confused you even more...my
bad if I did.

Anyway, a few people managed the short 20nm ride to the mainland
before the weather turned, and within the space of 10 minutes, the
Aurora was once again engulfed by fog. This didn't really bother me,
but those who were a third of the way to the mainland, and then had
to turn back because of the looming fog, were mightely pissed off
that's for sure. Operations were halted today too because of bad
weather, but there are plans to begin again tomorrow (weather
permitting, of course).

My time has been spent frolicking with the penguins, trying to get
some awesome snaps for you lovely people. I'm doing my very best, and
have taken at least a few hundred photos of the Adelies alone...I do
love my new lens! The penguins were not a happy bunch today though. I
was just relaxing on the sea ice when one killer penguins got within
50cm of me and squaked really loudly, and performed their threatening
dance. Crazy as it sounds, it was actually quite intimidating as I
wasn't expecting such behaviour. The penguins friend then came and
did the same thing. Needless to say, I didn't hang around for further
attacks. I did bear witness to two further attacks, once that
actually included physical contact from the penguin. I think they're
trying to get us to bugger off!

A game of cricket was also played on the ice today. I injured myself
straight away and have been suffering ever since. Literally just as
the game started, I did an awesome dive for the "ball" and landed
strangely on my knee. On the way back up, it made some horrible
clicking sounds. You will all be happy to know I continued to play,
and represented the English pretty well.

Now to answer a few other questions I had.

1) Who is King Neptune? - King Neptune is the keeper of the Southern
Ocean (or the Ocean in general, I'm not too sure). When people cross
the Antarctic Circle for the first time, King Neptune initiates and
welcomes those to his domain. It's basically a good excuse for the
crew to dress up in funny clothes and cover the expeditioners in shit
(not literally).

2) The Russian tourist ship - if you remember, a few days ago we
passed the Russian ship that brings a few tourists who are willing to
pay tens of thousands of dollars to travel to Antarctica. Tourism is
now a pretty big deal in Antarctica, and something that those who
help govern the Antarctic Treaty have to consider. Unlike us onboard
the Aurora, however, the tourists got to have some fun in zodiacs
(basically small open-air boats).

3) What is sea-ice and how does it differ to ice-bergs? - sea-ice is
literally frozen ocean. When the sea gets to approximately -1.8C, ice
begins to form as what is called frazil ice, which then accumulates
to form larger and larger pieces, until eventually, floes hundreds of
kilometres large (or bigger) are formed. These floes are typically a
few metres thick, so sea-ice can basically can be thought of as
floating ice on the ocean. Glaciers are accumulations of snow onland
which eventually compress to form ice and flow under their own weight
and gravity. As Antarctica is essentially two massive ice sheets
(made up of smaller glaciers), these flow towards the ocean, and
break off in pieces which are ice-bergs. Ice-bergs = continental ice,
sea-ice = marine ice. That's a very simplified explanation but
hopefully it cleared that up a bit.

If you have anymore questions, feel free to e-mail them to me at
graham_sim@aurora.aad.gov.au and I will do my best to answer them. I
forget not everyone knows about polar science so I do probably gloss
over things that make no sense to anyone.

Keep an eye out for photos tomorrow!

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Friday, 13 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 13/01/2012 - Penguin Photo IV [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 13/01/2012 - Aurora Photo [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 13/01/2012 II [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Today has just been amazing. Too amazing to put into words. Hopefully
some of the photos I posted earlier will help. Again, I appologise
for the poor quality of the photos; higher resolution copies will be
posted at some point when I'm back. This trip just continues to get
better and better, beating last years voyage hands down! I really
don't want the science to start in a few days, I'm enjoying the free
time way too much!

After the dissapointment of this morning and being told that us
marine scientists won't be going to the continent, the day
immediately got better when the captain opened the door, lowered the
gang way, and gave us access to the fast ice that's preventing us
from reaching Mawsons Hut by ship (weather permitting, the VIPs will
still be helicoptering in). Now technically, this fast ice is
attached to the continent, so perhaps I can get away with saying I've
been on Antarctica...? Either way, being able to walk around on ~1.5m
thick sea ice, with ~600m of water beneath you is pretty damn
amazing, and something a sea-ice scientist should cetainly do!

The ice is the home to many a wandering penguin, mostly Adelies, but
an Emperor (the first I have seen this trip) also wandered by, and a
Chinstrap was also pleasant enough to grace us with its presence (the
first I have seen ever). The penguins are just ridiculously
inquisitive, and mostly unafraid. They weren't in the least bit
phased when I army-crawled across the soft snow to be within 1m of
them - they just continued to snooze away whilst the snow fell around
us. I was so close to some of the penguins that I heard them sneeze,
and I swear when one yawned, I could smell fish! It was just
craziness, and something I will never ever forget. How many people
can really say they have been within 1m of tens of wild penguins!?
Not many!

I don't really have much else to report. All I have done is sit on
the sea-ice, and watch the pneguins come and go (with a bit of work
mixed in but you don't really care about that). There are rumours
that we may get trips in the zodiacs - I will keep you posted on
that, but I certainly hope these rumours come to light. Playing with
penguins, walking around on sea-ice, and cruising around in zodiacs
will definitely make up for not walking on the continent.

Enjoy the photos!

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 13/01/2012 - Penguin Photo III [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 13/01/2012 - Penguin Photo II [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 13/01/2012 - Penguin Photo [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 13/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

I was just told I won't be stepping foot on the continent.

Devastated.

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Thursday, 12 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 12/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

OH. MY. GOODNESS. Today has been the most awesome day EVER, beating
yesterday (or whenever it) was hands down! I know my words won't do
the day justice, but I will try my very best to recollect everything
for you. Be warned, this may be a long post...

As sampling is due to start in a few days time, I thought it would be
a good idea to try and stay in shift mode, and get my body at least
partially used to waking up early. At 5am, I therefore wake up, and
the first thing I do is look at the window; we are surrounded by
pretty dense pack ice. Being a sucker for sea-ice and the wonders it
beholds, I quickly don the thermals and other necessary gear, and
head out on deck to watch the world go by, Antarctica style. At this
time, and for most of the day, snow was also falling, the first of
the trip, giving a true Antarctic feeling to the day. I literally
spent hours out on deck, keenly on the look out for whales, seals and
emperor penguins, all of which I am yet to see on this trip. One of
those can be crossed off the list, a seal - it was pretty far in the
distance though...I think it was a crab-eater, nothing special.

The denser pack ice came and went, as it does, but periodically we
trundled through thick, dense flows, where ice extends as far as the
eye can see, and stunning electric blue colours contrast against the
undisturbed white of the snow and the green-brown of the algae rich
under-ice. This is just what I was hoping for, and it certainly made
me feel like I was in the winter wonderland that is Antarctica,
especially when thick snowflakes are thrown into the mix.

Late in the afternoon, we heard news that the tourist ship, whose
name has now escaped me, was in the vicinity. After passing through a
particularly dense pack, we came into a section of open water (which
looked incredibly liked the region of open water we stopped in last
year - with similar looking icebergs too...), and there in front of
us was the Russian tourist ship. Soon 5 or 6 zodiacs were loaded into
the water from their ship, and they were on the way to come and get a
closer look at the Aurora Australis, and us. It was pretty strange
actually, I felt somewhat like a tourist attraction, but also like
royalty as they all waved at us hoping we would return the gesture
(which I obviously did!). We were probably the first people they had
probably seen for a few weeks so their excitement is definitely
understandable.

After a quick visit from King Neptune and his initiation for those
that haven't been south before, and a short lecture by Dr. Steve
Rintoul (in which I saw some results from last years voyage which was
nice), a BBQ was held on deck in celebration of the captains 60th a
few days previously. Slowly, the iceberg B9B came into view, which
meant we were nearing out destination of Commonwealth Bay, the home
of Mawsons Hut, and thus the purpose of the first half of the V3
voyage. All of a sudden, the small areas of ocean between ice
stopped, and all that was ahead was white - white from the abundant
snow that was still falling, and white from the solid fast ice
(sea-ice that is essentially fastened to the coast line). We tried
bashing our way through the ice four or five times, but then the
captain gave up - hopefully just for the day - and we settled in the
ice to enjoy the rest of the BBQ. As the ship settled, the
surrounding penguins became really curious and kept on waddling up to
the ship to check us out. They were probably 5m or so away, then all
of a sudden they would get startled and run away. 50 or so penguins
were probably in sight either side of the ship, coming and going,
swimming the waters behind us, generally just providing plentiful
opportunities for photos. Everyone on board was just so happy and
excited.

I can't put into words how amazing today has been. I feel so
privileged and fortunate to be here amongst all the wonders
Antarctica has to offer. Everything is just so wondrous and stunning,
but also extremely peaceful and tranquil, yet exciting, break taking,
and overwhelming. A bombardment of emotions.

I am in Antarctic heaven!

p.s. I will try and post some photos tomorrow. I took a few hundred
today so it may take me a while to sort through them...

p.p.s after reading through this post, the awesomeness of the day
definitely doesn't come through. Hopefully my photos, and the video I
plan on making will help.

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Wednesday, 11 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 11/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

LAND AHOY!

Today, I saw the Antarctic mainland for the first time! After awaking
ridiculously early for the first proper CTD, I headed up to the
bridge to see what Antarctica had to offer, and boy was it worth it!
The sun was almost visible, there were some small patches of blue
cloud, sea-ice was sporadically all around us, and the Antarctic
coast was in the distance, just visible through the cloud, and
everything just seemed to have a golden hue to it. AWESOME! The
perfect opportunity to test out the GoPro for a second time.

The day was spent in the Mertz region, on ocean previously never been
shipped in, or sampled by anyone, EVER! The waters we are currently
sailing used to be the home of the Mertz Glacier tongue for probably
thousands or hundreds of thousands of years, until it was bashed off
by a massive iceberg a few years back, leaving open water for us to
sample in. If you recall from last year, we were supposed to be
sampling here then, but thick sea-ice prevented our passing.
Fortunately, this sea-ice has since gone, and we were allowed to make
history! I'm also told this was the most southerly we will go, 67
00.13 south.

As the day progressed, the visibility got better and better, leaving
behind spectacular views of the Mertz Glacier. The glacier front was
still 7 nautical miles away, so it appeared fairly subdued, but just
the sheer scale of the thing was awe-inspiring - extending probably
tens-hundreds kilometers (so hard to tell scale here) up the coast in
either direction before merging in with other coast line. It just
made such a change from last year when fog hampered our aspirations
of viewing the Mertz.

Today was definitely the highlight of the trip so far. I think it
will be hard to be beat the tranquility of sitting in the (almost)
sun, the Mertz practically spanning as far as you could see, huge
icebergs in the distance, sea-ice basically close enough to touch,
penguins hopping by the ship to say hello and honking from ice floes,
snow petrels flying by, and views of the Antarctic coast. Hopefully a
day I will never forget. I wonder what treats Antarctica has in store
next.

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Tuesday, 10 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 10/01/2012 - Photo Test [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Hello again,

Not sure if this is going to work, but if all goes to plan, you
should be seeing a photo of a beautiful sunset a few days back
(albeit in very low quality). If this works, I'll try and continue to
post low-res versions of photos as I go on.

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Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 10/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

We're well and truly in Antarctica now that's for sure. We've
officially crossed the Antarctic Circle (current position is nearly
66S), temperatures drop to -8C with wind chill (and let me tell you,
it is definitely windy - average speeds of 25 knots), ocean
temperatures fall to -1.6C, and most importantly, we are amongst the
sea-ice! This is what I came to see.

The ice is still fairly sporadic so we are constantly going through
thicker regions, into areas of open ocean, and back to more sea-ice.
Most of the ice isn't very consolidated, so not much ice-breaking has
been required, but I have been knocked around a few times when the
Aurora stumbles into a particularly thick block of ice. It definitely
feels good being back in the ice, with a feeling of déjà vu hitting
me often. In fact, I swear to God I saw an iceberg today that I also
saw last year. I was laughed at for even suggesting this. With
sea-ice should come wildlife, but alas, the wildlife spottings have
been few and far between. Nevertheless, I did see my first penguin of
the season!! In fact I saw three. All Adelies, waddling around and
wondering what the hell this big orange thing floating by is. No seal
sightings as of yet, and also no whales. Come on free willy, I want
to see you! As we near the coast, I'm sure the sightings will become
more regular. I hope so anyway.

Tomorrow, the science begins. We are set to do our first CTD at ~5am,
which means an early morning for me. This first CTD will be at the
same location that Mawson sampled at 100 years ago - quite fitting
really considering we are on his centenary expedition. Following
this, we are sampling along the Mertz Glacier front. Once again, I'm
hoping for good weather - I'm told the Mertz is pretty spectacular so
it would be a shame if our viewing was hindered by the ever present
low cloud/mist that follows us.

I had my first trial of my new GoPro today - it wasn't a great
success. My vision was for a nice time lapse as we travel through the
ice, but unfortunately the aforementioned low cloud has also brought
drizzle/rain with it. Consequently, the GoPro casing was the home to
more than a few rain drops which spoilt the photo to say the least.
Nevertheless, it was a good "dry run", and hopefully in days to come
I will produce some nice video.

Also, of considerable other news. Today I drank two cups of tea...TWO!

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Monday, 9 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 09/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Another pretty non-eventful day I'm afraid, so unfortunately I have
nothing exciting to report to all you lovely people. We crossed the
60S mark, and are predicted to hit the sea-ice tomorrow. The real
excitement will then begins!

The fog still follows the Aurora thanks to the presence of a low
pressure system that seems intent on joining us on our voyage to
Commonwealth Bay. Fortunately, the seas have remained calm despite
said low; that's one positive at least! Rubbish visibility with rough
seas would not make for a happy Graham. The temperature continues to
drop, and remained at about -4.0C with wind chill for the majority of
the day.

We had a meeting today to update all the expeditioners on the plans
for the coming day as we near the continent. The original plan was to
head straight to Commonwealth Bay and drop people at Mawsons Hut for
centenary celebrations. The Antarctic weather has foiled that plan,
with blizzards set to prevail for the next few days. For that reason,
we are heading to the Mertz Glacier region again, the same location
as I went last year (if you remember, the Mertz Glacier tongue was
knocked off by a massive iceberg, allowing opportunities to sample in
previous unsampled locations). We're hoping to do a few CTD stations
there, and then make our way to Commonwealth Bay once the weather has
died down a bit. We were told that if there was enough open water
close to the Bay, they would try and get as many people to land as
possible. There's currently a fair amount of ice about I'm told, so
I'm hoping upon hope that this gets blown away in the next few days
so I can finally step foot on Antarctica.

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Sunday, 8 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 08/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

A bloody miserable day here weather-wise in the middle of the
Southern Ocean. The Aurora has been blanketed in fog/mist from the
moment I woke up, to now, just before I go to sleep. Not the most
inspiring of weather conditions that's for sure, in fact there's
something quite creepy about being shrouded by fog in the middle of
nowhere, with civilisation hundreds of miles from anywhere...It would
make the perfect start to some cheesy horror movie that's for sure.

The work finally started today with the first test CTD, and my
goodness had I forgotten how long the entire process is (note how I
never said boring there). In fairly deep locations (i.e. 3000m or
so), it takes roughly 3 hours for the whole CTD to descend to the
deepest, darkest depths of the Southern Ocean and come back to the
surface. Along its ascent, the Niskins (basically big bottles
suspended to a metal frame, or Rosette) are fired (or closed),
collecting water samples at strategic depths. These Niskins are
subsequently sampled by us (termed milking the Niskin - another hour
or so), and then analysed by the hydrochemists on board (for
salinity, oxygen, dissolved inorganic carbon, pH, total CO2, etc).
The CTD is also fitted with various other sensors which are
constantly collecting measurements of salinity, temperature, depth,
transmittance, and many other things I can't remember. These CTDs
therefore collect a fairly substantial amount of data, providing us
with information on the current state of the ocean. When data from
previous voyages is thrown into the mix, it's possible to determine
whether any changes are occuring over time. That, my friends, is why
I am here. There you have it, a brief (ok, not so brief) discussion
of my purpose for the next 4 weeks or so. I'm sure I will provide
more tit-bits (?) of information as the voyage goes on.

The temperature continues to decrease further, and with the
wind-chill, the first negative temperatures of the voyage were
recorded (-2.4C I believe). The ship itself also feels bloody
freezing, so I have opted for wearing my thermal top indoors! What
has Australia done to me?

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Saturday, 7 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 07/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Day two of my second voyage south, and I'm feeling much, much better!
I have to admit, I did feel incredibly rough yesterday so it's a
wonder I didn't actually puke (the same can't be said for everyone!).
The ocean has calmed down a fair amount today, with swells of ~2m
which I am very thankful for. The sitrep described these 2m swells as
"nice", and I definitely agree.

My main achievement of the day is finally completing the revisions
for my manuscript. I have bitched and moaned about this to many of
you, so I'm sure you will all be glad of that news. Hopefully this
will be the end of the dreaded manuscript (and my whinging about it)
- I will keep you all posted in the that regard, but for now, I'm
giving myself a pre-emptive pat on the back (Thanks Laura for your
help too!).

Other than that, ship life hasn't been that eventful yet. In contrast
to last years voyage, we are heading straight down to Antarctica
rather than sampling continuously on the way. Fortunately, this means
that we all get to ease ourselves into sampling mode rather than
effectively being chucked in the deep end (if actually thrown in the
deep end, I would most definitely drown). A test CTD is scheduled for
tomorrow, so I'm sure scores of memories will come flooding back as
soon as I "milk" my first niskin. I'm still undecided whether these
are fond memories or not, but I do know it will be nice to have
something to do. I already know that I will regret saying that - once
the proper sampling starts, I will undoubtedly savour every moment
out of the CTD room.

I bore witness to a beautiful Southern Ocean sunset this evening. I
have to say, there is nothing better than being stood on the helideck
watching the sun slowly set with amazing yellow, gold, orange, red
and pink colours over a seemingly never ending ocean with Wandering
Albatross circling overhead, breathing in some of the purest air on
Earth. For that reason (along with no sea sickness and the paper
being complete), today has been a good day. Here's to a few more of
them as we trundle towards the ice...

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Friday, 6 January 2012

Antarctic Voyage 2012 - 06/01/2012 [SEC=UNCLASSIFIED]

Day one into the voyage and I am not feeling great. In fact, I fear
this may be a short post because staring at the computer screen makes
me feel nauseous.

It has definitely been a hard first day on the ship. After a bad
nights sleep, I got up, and immediately had to lie down again from
fear of being sick. This basically continued until lunch time, when I
bravely ventured down to the mess for some food. Upon seeing the
food, I realised this was not a wise move, and very cautiously ate a
piece of bread and cucumber over an hour or so. Luckily I managed to
keep the food down and actually perked up over the rest of the
afternoon to the early evening. Hopefully the seasickness will get
better, but upon reading the weather forecast, I fear things may get
worse before they get better.

I'm not going to be all depressing in my first post though. It is
great being back on the ship and seeing many familiar faces - in
fact, it feels like I've flashed back to last years VMS voyage. Plus,
wandering around on heli-deck in the sunshine with wandering
albatross flying overhead really isn't something I can complain too
much about. The voyage is also set to be pretty exciting, with lots
of activities going on in celebration of Mawsons expedition to
Antarctica 100 years ago. For this reason, we have Karen Barlow, the
ABC presenter, onboard again so be sure to check out her blog. I'm
not sure exactly where it is, but googling Karen Barlow - aurora
australis - antarctica will be sure to come up with something.

I'm going to have to end there. I was hoping to give a good
introduction to the voyage here, but considering that it's taken me
forever to write this e-mail due to all the lie-downs I have needed
between sentences, I think it's better to wait for another day. Be
sure to keep checking the blog, I will be updating as regularly as
possible.

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