 |
 |
Diary Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
21st Feb.
Hello everyone, its about 5.00pm on my first day at sea. We are 200 nautical miles south-west of Hobart in fairly calm seas. I’m still finding my sea legs but haven’t been sick. The anti-seasick tablets make me very sleepy and I had a delicious sleep last night, feeling snug and safe in my bunk as the ship crashed through the sea.
It was very beautiful leaving Hobart, with a big moon reflecting on the water and lights twinkling along the hills. The ship is bright orange, I guess so it shows up against the snow and ice. ( Maybe they just had heaps of that colour left over from something. )
22nd Feb
Hi everybody, it doesn’t really feel as though I’m on my way to Antarctica. It feels more like I am on a floating health farm, fabulous food, great gym, no stresses or worries. It has been foggy all day today with calm seas but even so I am very careful about going on deck. It’s such a big ocean that I can’t help imagining how terrible it would be to fall overboard. I watched shearwaters ( mutton birds ) flying around the ship yesterday, cheers, alison
23rd Feb
Hi everyone, and welcome to all the new people who have emailed me. It’s a grey day today with calm seas and we are still chugging across this huge ocean, with about nine days to go until we reach the ice. This morning I wandered around the ship taking photographs of all the signs. There are signs everywhere, and many of them have pictures of people running, up or down, to reach exits.
The deputy voyage leader found a room for me to work in this morning, so soon I am going to go down there and do some drawing and painting.
I’m going to use these drawings as the basis of an exhibition called Kids Antarctic Art which will tour Australia then by sold for charity. (* If you want to include your own drawings please read the contact page on this web site). |
|
 |
|
24th Feb
Hi everybody, the seas got much bigger overnight so the boat is rocking and rolling but ( touch wood ) I don’t feel seasick. Everyone staggers around the ship hanging on to rails all the time. The ocean is very dark blue and glittering. Its still not very cold, though the wind drives you inside pretty quickly. An albatross flew behind the ship for a long time today, gliding across the waves without flapping its wings at all, just smooth sweeps over the peaks and troughs. I met the chefs this morning, there are three, Alan, the head chef, Tony and Katrina. Katrina took me for a tour of the pantries and freezer and it was interesting to see such big supplies of eggs, meat, vegetables etc. The meals they make are fabulous and if I don’t keep going to the gym I’ll be a whopper by the time I get home. There’s about 2000 nautical miles to go now, before we get to Mawson, but we’ll hit ice before then. All the seasick people are hanging out for the ice because then the ship stops rocking. |
|
 |
|
25th Feb
Hi everybody, I am loving this trip. Last night at about 10.30pm a green aurora stretched across the sky, shimmering and dancing in front of the stars. It began way up ahead of the ship ( the south/west I guess ) and swooped right over us in a wide band of neon green, then finished in a swirl. It was as though Casper the ghost had zoomed across the sky then disappeared with a flick of his tail. Auroras are particles charged by the sun that are magnetically drawn to the poles. They occur near the Artic circle too. It was beautiful to see and I think we will see more, and different coloured ones, as we travel south.
I have been given a small room near the back of the boat ( the stern? ) to work in and it has the most incredible sound effects. The Aurora has a ballast system to help keep it even in rough seas, and this involves shifting water from one side to the other through a series of valves and pipes. As the water moves it groans and howls and squeaks and bangs, so that it seems like the ship is talking to me.
I spoke to the Mate today, Peter, and he is going to show me around a level of the ship every day, so I can describe it to you. I think there are about seven levels, so I’ll start with the top one tomorrow, hasta la vista, alison
Diary Page: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10
|
Powered by CityMax.com
|
|
|
