Post the Fortieth

Wow.  40 posts, plus the specials.  Crikey.  

I had never imagined that I would have written as many as that.  Jeepers.

40.

Gosh.

Oh well; that's enough of the slack-jawed reflection.  The time for being impressed with myself is at an end.  Let's forge ahead with this post!

I am back on the ship now, and will not be setting foot ashore again.  My time as an Uber-Slushy is over, and now I may now proudly wear the title of 'Passenger'.  Albeit a passenger in Antarctica, but passenger nevertheless.

Uber-Passenger, perhaps?   Hmmm, maybe not.

That doesn't mean the story is over.  Nosiree!  There is still much to see.  And so, so much for me to share with you, my dear, sweet, gentle reader.  Such as, for example, the Resupply!

The Mawson resupply operation is a much smaller affair than the Davis resupply.  So this one is not so much of a RESUPPLY!!!! (daahm daahm daaaaaahhhm), or even a RESUPPLY!!!, but more of a Resupply!.  Don't let me lead you astray, however.  This is still a major operation which takes much organisation, concentration and work from people both on the ship and on the station.

Today I thought I'd focus on a small aspect of the process: the jet barge.

The jet barge.

None of Australia's Antarctic stations has a wharf facility to which the Aurora can come alongside to discharge and take on cargo.  (In fact I am unaware of any Antarctic station anywhere which has such a thing, but that is merely my ignorance.  Which I possess in great abundance).  So in each case the Aurora must stand offshore to a greater or lesser degree and offload cargo onto a barge.  The barge then ferries the cargo ashore to a waiting mobile crane which lifts the cargo off and/or loads returning cargo back onto it.

However, the very first thing the ship's crane must unload each day is:  the jet barge!

First things first.

While the preparations for that lift are taking place, the barge crew clambers aboard a Zodiac...

My baby takes the morning train...

...under the watchful eye of Mick Stapleton (Watercraft Operator extraordinaire) who is overseeing the operation.

Hi Mick!

At least it was under his watchful eye until I distracted him by calling out his name.

For safety reasons no-one may be aboard the barge while it is being lifted; hence the crew waits in the Zodiac until the barge is in the water, and then they can transfer aboard.

So, as they hop into the Zodiac the jet barge is lifted up...

Uplifting

...over and down onto the water.

Once the barge is safely down onto the water's surface the Zodiac can come alongside.  Here it passes some pancake ice which had formed in the shallows overnight, and was now being blown out by the katabatic wind.  My first ever sight of pancake ice!  I feel so proud.

Ice in the water.  Evidently it can get cold here.

Once aboard they release the crane's lifting strops, start the engines, and barge operations can now get under way!

All aboard!

(It's not actually quite as simple as all that.  They spend quite a bit of time setting the equipment on the barge up in preparation for taking and transferring loads.  But the wind was approaching 30 knots and the air temperature was -6.9°C.  No way was I going to stand out there taking photos for a second longer than I needed to!)


Mostly the cargo transfers are pretty straightforward - shipping containers and cage pallets which are loaded directly onto the barge.

Occasionally however there is a load of much greater weight and/or an awkward size.  In such cases the Uniflote is employed.  This a device made up of modular flotation segments which are connected in such a way as to best support the load.  The Uniflote is then lashed to the barge, which provides the motive power.

In this case Mawson's old excavator is being returned to Australia, and the Uniflote has been used to bring it out to the ship.

Arriving with the ex-excavator

Where space is prepared in the tweendecks hold ready to accept it.  ('Tweendecks'.  Man, I love that word, and I have been itching for a chance to use it.  And now I have!  Score!)

The tweendecks hold.  Tweendecks.  Tweendecks.  Wheee!

The excavator is lifted by the ships's crane up...

That's a load off.

...over...

Quite a photogenic moment, apparently.

 ...and down into the hold.  Safe and sound.  Put to bed.  Sleep tight, Mr Excavator!

Putting it to bed.  In the tweendecks.  (Hee hee!)

Task completed, the jet barge returns the Uniflote to the shore to be dismantled.  It is dismantled either so that it can be reconfigured for later tranfers, or (as in this case) made ready for transport and stowage back on the ship.

There you have it: a brief glimpse into the daily working life of the jet barge and its crew during a resupply.  After cargo transfers have ceased for the day the jet barge returns to the ship and is lifted back onto the deck, and the crew comes on board for a good night's rest.







Or at least they would have had a good night's rest, had not the watch officer on the bridge made a call over the PA system at 1am to advise everyone of an aurora!

Cognisant of the fact that I had not provided enough sub-par photography for this blog post, I thought it fitting to try and botch some photographs of an Aurora for you.  I'm pretty happy with the result!

The conditions were not ideal for Aurora photography.  It does still not yet get to full dark in the Antarctic, and the ship was shifting slightly in the wind, which meant that having the shutter open for any length of time was going to result in blurry photos.  To cap it off, the photographer in question was me!

The Aurora was visible for about half an hour, slowly shifting its shape and intensity.

Until by about 1:40am it had begun to fade entirely.

Yes, they are rubbish photos, and I encourage you to google 'aurora australis' or 'aurora borealis' to see good images.

However I took these photos, and goshdarnit, they are going to appear in my blog.



And, dear reader, that may well be it for me from Antarctica. 

We will shortly be leaving Mawson, which means that I will lose the the internet entirely, and thereby the ability to upload blog posts.  I promise I will keep writing posts while on the way home, though.

Then, upon my return I will upload those remaining posts and take you to the end of the story.

See you then, and thank you very much for joining me on the ride so far!