Land Ho!

It had been a much anticipated vision to see the base and final destination. Although it was also frustrating as it would be another 3 days to get there through the thick fast ice which the boat had some difficulty with. Often becoming stuck or stopping to let the helicopters off.

It does look like the ship is not there yet but at 3.6km off the shoreline it is parked in at a distance but truly stuck! All of the heavy machinery can drive over the ice to get the 100's of tonnes of equipment and supplies off the ship! The ice is up to 1.75cm thick that is almost as tall as me and as hard as reinforced cement.

Natural Wonders from the Voyage

The birds are really for George but I hope everyone else likes them too.

Super dooper sunset that just kept on going and going!

Emperor penguins jumping into the water in front of the boat!

Leopard Seal with her Pup. A very rare sight indeed as the use the sea ice to raise there young away from any colonies. Very scary looking and antisocial although sometimes social I guess as that is a baby!

Weddell Seal -pronounced Wedd ell Seal is just seal siting on the ice and in the process of loosing fur! These guys were everywhere as we got closer to the continent.

Very hard to catch when surrounded by snow! These are Snow Petrels which are a lot smaller than the GT below



Fantastic Bow wave from the Bridge! This did happen a little too often in the open seas as the boat was chockers.

GT or Giant Petrel taken from the boat. They are amazing to watch as they can ride the wind uplifted from the waves just as eagles ride the thermals.

Another amazing night which I can not really explain!

All Hail King Neptune!

Initiation by the King! Yuk! Well a wise women (sister Naomai) asked me if I had crossed over to talking pirate. Funny as it seems me hearties she was right on the money. There had been a number of instances where the activities resembled the days of old. Where Parrot's were for your shoulders, hooks replaced your hand and a wooden stump made do for e peg leg!

Let it be known - That from the salty, salpy depths we stir.
Your ship makes good speed, but time is ours.
And all that cross the veil of South
Must stand before the Ocean's Law.

It is declared that Dave Atkins has paid humble and due honour to this passage and is o sound but watery character.That I, Australis King Neptune, Ruler of the Southern Ocean and its winds, shall take the right to cast an eye upon all those of sodden feet, who wish to cross this Southern realm, and land on icy shores.So, if pleases us that the holder of this certificate be now dubbed a South Polar Sea Dog, to take pride in the brine that will now course through their veins. And that the same South polar Sea Dog be seen to be a true and trusted salt, respecting all, and will know the snaggletooths and sea devils as friends.





This is probably the worst I have smelt for the entire trip and was after I had already cleaned up with some paper towel. The stench of the old fish guts, kitchen scrapes and juices, Vegemite and goodness only knows what else was enough to make some people vomit when the seas were almost calm!

You really cannot see the fish scales and all of the juices down the back of my neck in this photo. to cap it off the crew turned off the showers for a little while very, very funny!

All is quiet in the Southern Ocean!

These were the conditions that brought many a stumach unstuck on the high seas. I have maintained food going in and out of the appropriate orafices throughout the Voyage. There was some outside assistance in the form of 6 kwells tablets in total. Many did loose the contents of their stomachs on a number of occasions and looked rather green for about a week in the middle somewhere.

Some of the Icy Bits of the Voyage!

These are just a few images of the ice on the travels of the Aurora Australia on the V1 trip to resupply the Davis Station. These offered a mild source of sanity during the day to day voyage. It is a big ocean and I would not recommend sea ice travel in a ship that is actually rather small.

If you are after a comparison have a look at the Yamal, Russian nuclear powered ice breaker for serious bugger off and was that an iceberg or just a speed bump that we obliterated.

This is a shot off the back of the ship. you can see that the safety fences have been put down flat as the helicopters had already done some work. This is really to show the path of destruction behind the ship. Full ice breaking mode has made that channel through the fast ice(has contact with the land and is locked in). It took the whole day to do that small bit from the open water!

This is what a 'lead' looks like. Leads are what the ship tries to find with the help of satelite imagery. If there are plenty of lead the boat uses them to go through the ice faster. Sometimes the leads run out or the boat has to find another way around. It was great fun to go up the front of the ship as it ramed through these more open areas. Heaps of things to look at. Icebergs, penguins and seals which was such a relief after having more than a week with just water!

This is a piece of the sea ice that has been flipped over. The brown muddy sludgy stuff is a type of algae. The krill and the photosynthetic bacteria feed on this and then the penguins and heaps of other things eat the krill. If the brown algae were not there then we would not have any penguins or whales in our oceans. Global warming can reduce how much of this algae there is as it only grows under the sea ice. No sea ice = no algae = no penguins or whales!

This is me standing on the 'Monkey Deck'(the highest deck outside) with loads and loads of pancake ice in the background. The ship is able to push through this stuff at 8-10 knots without too much trouble.

This is what it looked like when the ship was looking for leads through the ice. At times we went around and around and around or backwards and forwards and backwards and forwards just to get through it without burning through 1000's of litres of fuel.

This is a type of ice that forms on the surface of the water and is really like a slushy! You can see it moving in waves from the wake of the ship. We came across this in the early days of moving through the first year sea ice.