After 30 years as Australia’s Antarctic icebreaker, the Aurora Australis, affectionately known by expeditioners as the “Orange Roughy” departed Hobart 5pm yesterday afternoon for her final resupply voyage south.
We had plenty of farewell waves from the Shipping team on the Macquarie 2 dock as the ship cast off, turned around, and headed down the Derwent river. Regulars from the Division who came down to Kingston Beach to see us off got a few blasts of the ships whistle as we made our way past and headed out to open waters.
Departure day had been quite a long one, with an early start, many briefings on the ship, and getting settled into our rooms for the next few weeks. After all that it was definitely time for an early night.
