Category: Voyage 1

This morning I woke up at 05:30. After a quiet night anchored at Bruny the ship’s engines started up, in preparation for our departure. We were soon underway and continuing on down the eastern coast of Tasmania. I snapped a couple of nice pictures of the rugged cliffs as we went past.

Around lunchtime the ship continued westward and slipped between Mewstone and Maatsuyker Island, giving us expeditioners a great opportunity to further try out our cameras. Some albatross were spotted but I wasn’t quick enough to grab my camera at the time. I’ve been told there’s plenty of wildlife on the voyage so I hope to spot some real soon.

Science on board has also commenced, with the Continuous Plankton Recorder deployed after lunch.

As for the seas they’re still fairly kind here at the moment. We received word that Cape Sorell had a maximum wave height of 15 metres yesterday, so sheltering behind Bruny for a day was definitely the most sensible option. Right now the ship will occasionally lurch up and down as it crosses a big wave but so far I’ve kept my feet.

As for tonight we’ve finished dinner and I’m just deciding between a movie in the cinema or continue playing a video game. Perhaps both!

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.