We’re at sea! A quick recap of our departure…
Yesterday was a rather long day. It started with the bus coming to collect us expeditioners from our hotels and we were off to the wharf before 7am. After baggage weigh-in and running a small IT Helpdesk for non-Division expeditioners helping them get setup, I was then on the ship to start our first tour and safety briefings.
When the first session was completed in the morning we had about 2 hours off the ship to see our friends and families to say goodbye, then it was back on to the ship to check out our cabins and do a safety muster to the heli deck.
In no time at all we were casting off the lines and heading off down the Derwent! Bye bye Hobart – see you next year!
The first night was fairly quiet with most expos having an early dinner then off to their cabins after such a big departure day. The food is really good by the way, and there’s still loads of fresh produce as it’s early in the voyage. I’m making the most of salads and fresh fruit while I still can.
As for the voyage, we haven’t gone very far – in fact we can look out a window and see Bruny Island quite easily! We’ve stopped in Adventure Bay overnight as the island and the southernmost tip of Tasmania is sheltering us from a raging storm with 11 metre swells out there. The plan is to continue to wait the bad weather out today in hopes it improves. Anyway this has been the gentlest introduction to the Southern Ocean one could hope for.
We should be heading off tomorrow Tuesday 06:00 into what should be 5-6 metre seas by then – before the next big system heads our way of course. In the mean time, today is going to be about getting the rest of my gear stowed away, meeting the remaining expeditioners I’ve yet to say hi to, enjoy the few bars of 3G data whilst we’re still in range, and try to go easy on eating all the amazing food the galley makes for us.
