A Southern Christmas 2001 - Day 7

Well, here we are dear reader, a week into my self-indulgent trip down memory lane. I hope you are still with me.  If this is your first visit to this site - please go back to Day 1 (HERE) and rejoin us when you have caught up. 

Christmas Day at sea - let's get into it...

Saturday 22nd December 2001 (Aurora’s Christmas Day)

at sea (66 Deg S, 110 Deg E)

Early tomorrow morning we arrive at Casey and work will start straight away on the jobs of getting fuel ashore to the Station and commencing cargo operations. December 25 will be just like any other working day, with too much work going on for anyone to take more than just a moment to celebrate the day. So we celebrated Christmas Day today, December 22 while we are still about 60 or so miles from Casey Base. For the same reason, a similar event was taking place in Casey as like us they celebrated early in anticipation of the work to come over the next few days.

The day began quietly with Aurora proceeding on her way through sea ice with an occasional iceberg drifting past on one or the other side of us. As the name suggests, sea ice is formed from frozen sea. It is generally about a metre thick, but this varies as the ice is formed and floes drift together. Icebergs on the other hand, originate from land ice. To this we can add all the variations such as growlers and bergy-bits, but more on this later.

Later in the morning, we gathered in the Mess Room to receive a briefing about the day and to listen to some of the things that our expeditioners plan to do during the week we’ll be at Casey. Mark told us about the team of three glaciologists who are travelling with him to Law Dome, an area about eight to ten hours travel by tracked vehicle inland from Casey and, as the name suggests on an elevated plateau. In this area, the ice is over a kilometre thick. Australian National Antarctic Research Expeditions (ANARE) have been taking bore samples here which provide information on ice which is up to 100,000 years old.

By testing the sedimentary deposits, salinity and general composition of this ancient ice, we learn invaluable information relating to climate change patterns and conditions that have existed over centuries of formation of Antarctic ice. Other expeditioners told us of the work they are doing on mosses and lichen and its growth rate over many years. In the search for possible forms of life on other planets, the survival and growth of such organisms in an otherwise hostile environment gives tremendous information on what may be expected in these conditions.

Of course, the real highlight of the day was Christmas Dinner. Apart from those on watch-keeping duty, at 3 pm sharp, the whole of the ship’s crew and all the expeditioners sat down to one of the most magnificent feasts imaginable. Honey glazed leg ham, sirloin of beef, roast turkey and cranberry sauce, Moreton Bay bugs, Tasmanian crayfish, prawns, salmon, oysters all made for a banquet which would have gratified Neptune himself.

Toasts to family and loved ones were shared as well as to the skipper and crew, with the loudest cheer of all reserved for the catering staff whose efforts were magnificent.

At 5 pm we eased ourselves away from the tables and gathered under the Christmas Tree in the library to await the arrival of Santa and his elves, and what a great looking bunch they were when they arrived. Earlier, we had all participated in a Kris Kringle where we each put a small gift under the tree for a fellow traveller whose name we had each drawn from a hat.

It was an excellent way to share the pleasures of giving and receiving without knowing the giver’s name. Although the logo on the caps might have been a bit of a clue to the guys who received our gifts!

As the evening progressed the next significant event was the auction run by ship’s captain, Tony Hansen. I mentioned in an  earlier entry that Aurora’s crew have adopted Camp Quality as their sponsored charity. Ship’s bosun, Per gave us all a personal account of the crew’s continuing involvement with this wonderful organisation which has for over 40 years dedicated itself to improving the quality of life for kids facing cancer. 

This was no ordinary auction – the items being auctioned were all the same – hair! Wintering Station Leader, John Rich started the ball rolling by offering his hair and beard for $1,000. John is one of those quietly spoken, gentle men with a Lincoln-like demeanour and a wonderful statesman-like beard which he told us, his wife had never seen him without. The money was quickly raised, and Elvis arrived complete with star-spangled overalls and dark glasses. To the tune of Blue Suede Shoes, John was rapidly transformed into a chrome-dome. A succession of candidates followed including second cook Mark, with his Frank Zappa locks and krill lady, Angela whose transformation from yesterday’s Queen Neptune to today’s Sinead O’Connor was a sight to see. All together about a dozen lined up to be sheared and the next morning at breakfast we suddenly had a whole group of new faces to get used to.

The evening was topped off for me by the most beautiful Antarctic evening I could have imagined. As midnight approached the sky which had earlier in the day, and generally throughout the voyage been quite overcast became clear and unclouded. The sun drifted toward the western horizon and stayed just an outstretched hands-width above the ocean’s edge. It was a great sight to watch Aurora’s shadow stretching to the east and reflecting from a nearby giant iceberg while the sea shimmered like a lake. A great end to another magnificent day in one of the truly great spots to be on Earth.