RSV Aurora Australis, Monday, 14th January 2002
Barely had I had a few moments deep sleep when Jeremy Smith burst upon the fridge door telling me to be ready to depart in just over an hour at 7 a.m. The Aurora had finally freed the Polar Bird from thick pack ice about 40 nm north of the station and both vessels were ready to steam post haste back to Hobart. The weather again remained perfect and we were all ready to go in ten minutes. Tom and I paid a "pilgrimage" to the the ARGN (Australian Regional Geodetic Network) permanemt GPS tracking station above the LIDAR and took some photos in the morning light. After a few minor delays we made our farewells to Jeremy, Leigh and a few other early risers before Dave took us out to the Aurora for one final run in the S76. Amazingly there were three ships close together at the edge of the pack ice, a Chinese ice breaker, Polar Bird and the Aurora Australis. Three ships together is a very rare sight in this part of the Antarctic. We were heartily welcomed on board by Greg Hodge, the Voyage 5 leader, who guided us around the ship. The crew of the Aurora Australis (the AA) had been very busy guiding and towing the Polar Bird out of its very bad predicament and were very tired indeed. We mustered on the helideck with the familiar Polar Bird just a ship's length to port side. What a sight, the AA pulled ahead of the PB with a fanfare of Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" booming out from the speakers. The AA would stay ahead of the PB until well clear of the ice at 62 south, sailing in convoy. The ice petered out and I snoozed for a couple of hours after a delicious lunch in the company of Greg Hodge. Dinner was great too and all looked good for a 9 day voyage back to Hobart. The evening weather was perfectly still, hardly a ripple on the surface of the ocean, with the odd berg here and there catching the sun. The Polar Bird was several hundred yards astern of us, keeping a good pace of 16 knots. Only six weeks previously we passed through the same area in broken pack-ice with the Polar Bird ! By mid evening thick fog closed in around us, forcing the ship to slow to 7-8 knots. I felt pretty tired and crashed out not long after, still a fair bit of sleep to catch up with.

Position at 23:43 local time (UT +7hr) S 65°46'31" E 75°55'57"
325km ENE of Davis, 4932km SSW of Hobart

Previous day | Back to Log | Back to Expedition page | Return to Homepage | Next Day