A Southern Christmas 2001 - Day 2

If you are reading this for the first time and didn't read yesterday's post - Stop! Kindly go back (HERE) and read my introduction and journal entry for Day 1 and then, of course - please come back.

Today's entry was quite short - they get longer as the trip progresses, but not too long, I hope!

 Monday 17th December 2001

At sea

Today a few of us got to understand why Aurora Australis is sometimes unkindly called the “Orange Roughie.” Personally, I was pleased to discover that although it is more than 25 years since my sea-going days, I still seem to have immunity from sea sickness. Sadly, not all my shipmates are as fortunate and there was only a handful of us who turned up at 0730 for breakfast. My colleague and cabin mate, Yann from our waste research establishment in Paris, was one of the casualties with a ruthless case of mal de mer which saw him incapacitated until later that afternoon.  I’m pleased to say that after a couple of pills and a good sleep he joined us all for dinner that evening and was soon feeling and looking much more like his earlier self.

 We are presently about 200 nautical miles southwest of Hobart and travelling at a cracking 16.5 knots having picked up speed the past couple of hours to take advantage of the relatively calm sea. Earlier today the swells were around four to five metres with the ship occasionally pitching dramatically. Later this afternoon it calmed down and the decision was taken to put our foot down a bit to make a little hay while the sun shines, so to speak. If we can keep up this speed, we may well make Casey by December 23.

Today was a day for finding our sea-legs. It was also a good day for establishing communications so Yann and I can keep in touch with Sydney and Paris, and we now have our own satellite antenna sticking out on the deck above the wheelhouse at the end of a broom handle – it works perfectly.

Voyage Leader Greg was one of the early sea-sick casualties, but he was still able to join us from his sick bed later this evening to inform us that we are in for some intense survival training activities over the next few days – something we can all look forward to!

We are also running an Ice Sweep, the object being who of us can most closely predict when we will see our first iceberg. The rules are strict, it must not be a radar siting it must be visual and independently verified, and it must be at least as big as the ship, more on this story later.

To be continued…