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Tuesday 29th March
Hi everybody, there's always something good around the corner, and it was today! It was a ripsnorter of a day. Until I actually got into the IRB I didn't believe I'd actually get ashore, but it happened. I had a whole day watching animals and drawing and photographing them, and didn't come back to the ship until just on dark. The boat trip both ways was very exciting with big waves and howling wind, with the King Penguins still chasing us. I spent a long time this morning on the beach behind the station watching three young Elephant Seals playing in the shallows, wrestling and biting each other. They look so sleek and graceful in the water and so obese and stinky on land. I drew some Gentoo Penguins, then found some Rockhopper Penguins, cute little dudes with yellow tassels on their heads, and took photos of them. After lunch I watched some Giant Petrels feeding on the carcase of a dead Elephant Seal, poking their heads right into it and coming out all red and slimy, very gruesome. I sketched some Elephant Seals with all their disgusting dribbles and then moved along to the King Penguins and drew them. One poor fellow had a huge scab on his tummy where something had obviously tried to eat him, but Georgie said he would probably be ok if he'd survived so far. She said that usually if a penguin comes ashore hurt, the Skuaas surround it and peck it to death. It's a tough world down here. We pulled away from Macquarie Island at about 7.00pm. blowing our hooter and with flares going off on shore and on the ship. Once again there are some sad people who've said goodbye to the friends they've been living with for a year. The people left behind on Macquarie won't have any visitors now until October. It would be a wonderful place to spend some time, but I'm glad I'm going home, with best wishes, Alison

Wednesday 30th March
I did an art consultation in the afternoon. Claire, who has been on Macquarie Island for the last year working with seals, asked me to help her design a picture to go on a surfboard she made while she was there. We looked at pictures of elephant seals, king penguins, maps of the island, the southern cross, and experimented with ways to make them look good, and now Claire is thinking about it. The long winter nights at 'Macca' mean there's plenty of time to be creative and Claire showed me some beautiful stainless steeel braclets that a friend had made her. I'd love to live there for a year and go exploring every day and make things at night.

Thursday 31st March
Hi everybody, what a quiet day! Shipboard life is back to normal, steaming along through fog and calm seas, no need to look out for ice bergs. It’s about 5 degrees so we are all getting around in shirt sleeves. We had a muster on the helideck at 10.30 this morning and it seemed old hat compared to what a big deal the first one was six weeks ago. I went to the gym this afternoon and got sweaty and feel much better for it, until tomorrow, alison