Yep all going good on the voyage. We’re off quarantine now so this morning we returned to Davis and dropped off the Navy Hydrographers and picked up a couple people. One is actually a plant operator that will be wintering with us. So we are now on our way to Mawson Station but we are taking our time. Apparently there is still too much ice sitting out the front of Mawson however they are pretty confident it will blow out by the time we get there. So they are stalling the time by going to visit and replace a couple whale research buoys on the way then we will travel back out a bit then back through a ‘lead’ (kind of a broken path easier for the ship to travel through) to better approach Mawson. If the ice doesn’t blow out we will be helicoptered off the ship but that will mean we will be very limited with how much cargo can be removed for the resupply and wont be able to do any refuelling at all. This will be less than ideal because they want to try and get two years worth of fuel onto the station because they are unsure when they will be able to refuel again. But again they are pretty certain if will blow out. We spent the last two days going ‘Hove-to’ as we waited for a storm to pass over us and we slowly travelled up and back past the Taylor Glacier. We were not allowed outside as winds got to about 70 knots with 4-5 metre swells. Despite how extreme and hectic it looked outside it really wasn’t all that rough inside the ship.
Anyway by the sounds of things we’re about another 4-5 days away from Mawson. Also have just discovered the disadvantage of resizing ALL of my photos as I take them. Unfortunately I think I have ruined the chance blowing up a lot of the great panorama shots I’ve taken thus far but hopefully I’ll still get some good ones. Hope all is well back home.
Guy's Antarctica Adventure 2020 