We're off!

Well, we made it. After two years of dreaming and a lot of hard work, the Australasian Antarctic Expedition 2013-2014 has finally set sail! Departing from Bluff in southern New Zealand yesterday, our ship the MV Akademik Shokalskiy headed off, packed to the gunnels with all manner of scientific gear and 41 team members, all squirrelled away on board. Chris Fogwill and I had a mad final 24 hours in the lead up to this special moment. Team members were delayed by flights, key forms granting permission for our research programme were finalised on the afternoon of sailing and one major piece of kit turned up 30 minutes before we departed – amazingly the latter had been sent to the wrong address and was about to board a flight out of the country! We ran round like headless chickens in the end, chasing the last things we needed and packing them away – all of which had to be stowed in anticipation for the wild Southern Ocean winds and waves. There were some highlights though: the Mayor of Invercargill Tim Shadbolt kindly came to view the ship and see us off. I couldn’t resist giving him an expedition T-shirt as a small gift of thanks! 

By the end of the day and in spite of the enormous list of tasks we started out with, we had a ship and one ready to head south. Unexpectedly, the weather was stunning on departure. I didn’t dare hope this would be the case. It was windy but the wild waves didn’t eventuate. Getting out of Bluff can be a bit choppy, mostly because of the shallow sand bar at the entrance, but we hardly noticed it; the Shokalskiy seemed to glide out through the entrance. Most of us have heard horrendous stories about what to expect over the next few weeks so it was quite wonderful to have a reprieve … for one day at least. I know we’re expeditioning on borrowed time when it comes to the conditions but I’m enjoying them while they last!


We're off!
And things have remained remarkably calm by Southern Ocean standards since we departed. Some of the team have complained of wild dreams and strong swell in the early hours but nothing serious; everyone has made it through unscathed and in good humour. 

Excitingly, after 23 hours of travelling, we’ve just seen the northern part of Auckland Islands, morphing with the clouds on the horizon. We’re making great progress. More soon. But for those of you who can make it, do join us for the first of our Hangouts on Air Friday on Enderby Island. There will be a lot of wildlife in an amazing environment. It should be a lot of fun!

Also, just to let you know, for the rest of the expedition, I won’t be blogging directly to intrepidscience.com but instead all posts will go to the AAE website www.spiritofmawson.com.


By Chris Turney (at +Intrepid Science)

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

500 years of drought and flood: trees and corals reveal Australia’s climate history

Image
500 years of drought and flood: trees and corals reveal Australia's climate history Patrick Baker , University of Melbourne ; Chris Turney , UNSW Australia , and Jonathan Palmer , UNSW Australia Australia is the land of drought and flooding rains, and in a recent paper we’ve shown that’s been the case for more than 500 years. As part of our Australia and New Zealand Drought Atlas we’ve published the most detailed record of drought and wet periods (or “pluvials”) since 1500. The data reveal that despite the severity of the Millennium Drought, the five worst single years of drought happened before 1900. But 2011 was the wettest year in our 513-year record. The dominant theme of Australia’s drought history is variability. We may get one year of extremely wet conditions (for example in 2011) or we might get six years of extremely dry conditions (such as 2003-2009). North Queensland may be flooded out while Victoria suffers with drought. Or in extreme circumstances, the entir...
Read more

The Tropics and the Furious Fifties

Image
There’s an old sailor’s expression: “Below 40 degrees south there is no law, below 50 degrees south there is no God.” Since the sixteenth century, sailors have spoken in awe of the violent westerly winds and seas they experienced fighting their way across the Southern Ocean. With few landmasses to slow them down, the winds found across 40 degrees latitude often reach speeds of twenty-five knots—about 40 percent stronger than their northern hemisphere counterparts—earning them the title the “roaring forties.” As shipping pushed farther south, explorers realized that these winds form part of a vast storm belt that includes the “furious fifties” and “screaming sixties,” names more reminiscent of terrible rock bands than a major part of our planet’s circulation system. The early hunters and traders didn’t understand it at the time, but these winds are created by a procession of low-pressure systems carried east by the jet stream, a river of cold air hurtling and twisting round the Antarct...
Read more

Death of a colony

Image
Cape Denison holds a special place in the history of Antarctic exploration. A small outcrop of rocks on the remote East Antarctic coastline, Cape Denison is forever associated with one of the most spectacular and often forgotten tales of survival. A century ago it was the main base of operations for one of the great explorers of the south: the Australian scientist Sir Douglas Mawson . Privately funded, three bases and one research ship supported a science team that explored a region the size of the United States between 1911 and 1914. Mawson’s Australasian Antarctic Expedition, however, suffered terribly during their time at Cape Denison: a sudden turn of events led to tragedy on the ice, the death of two men, allegations of cannibalism and with the return of winter sea ice, an extended stay in Antarctica. But when they first came upon Cape Denison, Mawson was ecstatic. Greeted by squawking penguins: ‘ We were soon inside a beautiful, miniature harbour completely land-locked. The su...
Read more