To the South

February 23, 2024

Finally, after lots of rumours and false starts, we boarded the RSV Nuyina on Friday 16th Feb 2024 and pulled away from the wharf at 8:00PM! After the ship turned around and began to head south out to sea, I pulled my trusty bagpipes out of their case and played a couple of tunes to celebrate our long anticipated departure. It was a beautiful still Hobart evening with a sunset to boot.

Very quickly after that I took the first of my little blue seasickness tablets in the hope that they would keep away the nausea that has plagued me on other sea going trips... most notably on our honeymoon trip to Tassie on the Seacat from Port Welshpool. We foolishly ate a packet of Chicken in a Biscuit as we left and we very very sick on the trip to Gerogetown. After that we couldn't even look at a packet of those things without feeling squeamish!

For the next three days the Southern Ocean was generally pretty kind to us, with swells around 3-4 metres. This swell was certainly noticeable but the pills were doing the trick for me even though they did make me feel a little funny. Then we came to the fourth day and things got a little wild. There was a serious low pressure system to our west pushing up bigger swells around 4-6 metres but by the late evening we were seeing some over 11 metres! We were sliding up and down the lounge chairs, crockery was flying around the galley and in general we were wondering how far over the Nuyina could tilt before it wouldn't come back the other way!

It was spectacular but also a bit un-nerving. The voyage leader said the ship was more than capable of handling the conditions but to someone who is not very keen on ocean things at he best of times I wasn't a big fan of the situation. Still, after making sure that I was up to date with my blue pill intake, and finding that I was sliding around in my bed a tad more than normal, I eventually dropped off to sleep that night and awoke to the fact that I was still alive and that the waves were much smaller thank you very much.

The Nuyina's Bridge.

The Cabin I share with the other Mawson Comms Tech... the sign on the door says it all.

So since that wild day it has been smooth sailing, although the ocean view has become pretty tedious at times. We have found ourselves playing lots of card games, taking lots of photos of anything interesting ( and also not very interesting just to do something ) and counting down the minutes to the next meal time. The biggest demand on us has been to restrain ourselves from totally pigging out at every meal time on the very good food!

As we crossed over 60 Degrees South their was a small ceremony to note all those who had never been this far south on a ship before. It was very tame with some short speeches followed by certificates handed out to those who "deserved" them. Apparently in the past the King Neptune ceremony has involved those who deserved the certificates being covered in the galley slops and other unmentionables and being hosed down afterwards with the fire hoses. I wasn't sure whether to feel ripped off or eternally grateful.

The evening after crossing 60 Degrees south we began to see our first icebergs! Just a couple but by the next day they were a common site. Massive big tabular icebergs that need to be avoided... hundreds of metres long and at least 100 metres high... a very impressive sight and all of a sudden we began to believe that we were actually getting close to the fabled land of Antarctica.

This of course meant that the chance of colliding with an iceberg was becoming a concern. As the Master of the Nuyina pointed out, the Nuyina is an Icebreaker, not an Iceberg breaker. So as dusk departed , as well as the Radar systems watching out for icebergs, good old searchlights were switched on as well.

The next day saw an explosion in the number of smaller "bergy bits" of ice around the ship and as soon as these appeared we began to see all manner of wildlife! Seabirds in large flocks in the air, resting on the ice and flying around the ships. Minke and Humpback whales and of course penguins amde their appearance hitching rides on the ice to who knows where. We would have been at least 50kms from the Antarctic coast and yet here they were going about their business.

Later that evening it began to snow so our feeling that we were indeed in the far south was confirmed. Now the waves were virtually non-existant so I didn't bother with the sea-sickness tablets. And this morning after eight days at sea we awoke to find we were anchored in the harbour right out in front of Casey Station. Here we are loading equipment to take to Davis station about 4 days sailing to the west. Once that is completed we will then finally be heading to our home for the next 12 months at Mawson station. It will be the best part of three weeks at sea by the time we get there and I am guessing we will all be ready to get off!

Casey station