Antarctic Reflections As Life Goes On

I’m writing this in the wee hours of the morning three weeks after stepping off the ship. The amnesia still hasn’t kicked in. The last days of this 4 month odyssey were a nightmare and the memories are still raw. I’m really looking forward to that subsiding so I can enjoy the three months of great memories that were made on that boat and the precious time down in Antarctica. 

I know that will come. Perhaps as I look though my thousands of pictures and recall those special memories of curious penguins, of languid seals, of majestic whales, of magical skies and of the ever present frozen sculptures floating in our midst. 

Antarctic Seeps Into Your Soul

I’m still without the right words for it and hopefully they will come in time, but Antarctica is enthralling. It’s raw. It’s pristine. It’s unlike any place you’ve ever experienced.

The wildlife is unafraid and curious. There’s a deep peace that settles inside you when you stare out across the Antarctic Ocean, across the frozen tundra.

To think that these animals thrive here is mind boggling. It’s harsh and beautiful. It takes no prisoners but lavishes you with magic and mystery. Of auroras and mirages. Of phenomenon that I’ll never experience anywhere else. The stark serenity.

It draws you in and settles in your soul. Every molecule that makes me up feels connected to this place and its inhabitants. Every part of it must be cherished and protected.

I’m not sure I will ever experience ever again such untouched wilderness. Unspoiled. No plastic floating in the water. No visual evidence of humanity other than the climactic impact that leaves no part of our world unaffected.

Antarctica Feels Humanity’s Indulgence

Humanity is, however, tugging hard on the Antarctic strings now. I sense that whaling will resume and they are now hauling out krill by the hundred of tons so that people can have omega-3 capsules. 

As John Muir poignantly states, “When one tugs on a single thing in nature, he finds it attached to the rest of the world”. Let that settle into your soul.

The significance of this quote is especially true in Antarctica. You can see the strings pulling in Antarctica, a place that few of us will experience and, as such, should be free from our ravenous ways.

As human beings and stewards of this planet, we need to keep something sacred. We can’t keep ravaging every last little bit of nature. Nothing will remain, we know that, and yet, that is exactly what we are doing. It breaks my heart!

Climate Care and Conscientious Consideration

I hate to end this post on such a depressing note. It sounds cliché and I suppose it is these days, but my God, every single one of us needs to be mindful. We need to open our eyes and really contemplate how we are personally pulling on nature’s strings. 

Are you buying the krill oil? Why?

Is meat at every meal necessary? Doubt it!

How much waste do you create? Where is it going?

What are the things that you can do differently so you lessen your impact and pull fewer of natures strings?

Every little thing that we do can add up and hopefully save these wild places. Leave what is managing to survive alone.

Let’s not touch every last reserve.

Let’s back off.

Use what we’ve already created or mined or produced. Ease up on wanting the newest, the latest and greatest. That ‘want’ serves billionaires at the expense of our planet and makes you a mindless slave to marketing. It’s time to wake up and consider that you to have a part to play in this climate crisis. 

Big Life, Small Impact

For my part, for my health and for the planet, I’m going to become mostly vegetarian and drastically limit my dairy consumption. I’m looking forward to cruising more as well. I find living in developing countries easier to be closer to my environmental values. Local produce. Prohibitively expensive oversees groceries. It’s great! The more local we all can live, the better!

I am in no way perfect or a model for how to live, but I don’t expect perfection of me or anyone. I just want to see each of us taking baby steps to a better future for all the living beings on this planet. As Maya Angelou says, “When you know better, you do better.” You know better!

Climbing off my soapbox, please let these pictures of Antarctica soak into your soul. It’s not untouched but it’s the closest thing we have.

If you feel compelled, join the Antarctic and Southern Ocean Coalition, an organization actively working to protect Antarctica, Earth’s last great wilderness.

Let’s save this wild place!

The post Reflections And The Philosophical Side Of My Time In Antarctica | Ross Sea and East Antarctic first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

We are steaming home…it’s a bittersweet time.

Adios Antarctica

Well, the day finally came! 

We are steaming home. 

While the crew were eating my final brekkie (yay!) I went out to the back of the boat and watched the sun set on Antarctica. The sun was almost warm. It felt so comfortable and peaceful on the stern. I shed a bittersweet tear as the sky melted into the most vivid cast of pastels.

This beautiful place has crawled deep into my heart. The colours. The magic. The inquisitive wildlife. The raw, frozen beauty everywhere. My heart is full. I will carry Antarctica with me for the rest of my life. 

With Antarctica fading into the distance, it’s time to look ahead to our time in Tasmania. And thus began shopping and scheming!!! We are certainly excited for our time in Australia, both seeing Tom’s dad, Richard, and Bev plus we get to bum around with some friends in Queensland. 

Digging Deep

This last little bit is certainly the hardest though. The ingredients are low. Crew morale is waning and the cleaning is beginning. We’re having to dig a bit deeper now to push through this last bit without wanting to give up. We will. We’re tough. But it’s not without its pain. 

Plus, as we cross the Southern Ocean towards Tasmania, the boat no longer has it’s stability tanks and we’ve dumped all of our offal (the fish and food that has gone through the hasher) so the boat is wallowing and making for a much more uncomfortable crossing than when we journeyed southward four months ago. This is very tiring to an already exhausted crew.

The dishwasher that errors out multiple times before proceeding. The refrigerator door that doesn’t stay open but, because the other one won’t keep a low enough temp, we are forced to use, the slippery floor with little traction and drains in the wrong place, partial lee boards on the bunks….all these little annoyances that we’ve lived with are starting to pull the curse words out of us now!

And the guys not cleaning up after themselves. That always gets worse during gentleman’s hours and this time is no exception. Not closing doors properly so the contents distribute themselves wildly across the mess, using the food scrap bin that gets dumped in the ocean as a rubbish bin (a very big pet peeve of mine!), and leaving dirty dishes all over for me (crew mom) to clean up. It’s too late to complain with only days left.

Well, that’s enough whining and winging for now. 

Aurora-licious

On the positive side, though the icebergs are now gone and there’s nothing to see but a great expanse of ocean, if the sky is clear enough overnight, the aurora is always on. I love to stand outside and marvel at it and take way too many bad photos!

Nate said the other day that he doesn’t know what the big deal about the aurora is. I find that really sad. It’s one of the most spectacular natural phenomena this world has on offer and he can’t be bothered. Where are you in life when you can’t appreciate that you are being blessed to experience something like this? 

Land Adjustment

Well, six more days until we reach land.

I’ve been told it’s a bit of a shock to the system. I’m pretty easy going and tend to handle change pretty well so it will be interesting to see how I react. I’ve been told you really, really smell land, that people are overwhelming (we’ve been with only 23 others for the last 4 months), and that there’s a sensory overload. I guess the grocery store is the first place that can do that! 

Sights, smells, sounds, stressed people and busyness. 

I’m very curious to see how I deal with it.

Now, it’s time to start thinking about packing. It really feels surreal. It’s been groundhog day for so long that it’s hard to imagine life any other way.  It’s almost like a form of shock. I don’t think I’ll quite fathom what happened until a little while down the road. It still seems like a dream…well, it’s still a little bit of reality!

Tick…Tock

We’re counting the days, the meals, the seconds we have left.

Luckily we’re arriving a day earlier than anticipated. One less day to sleep in an uncomfortable bed. One less day of having to make meals and clean up after other people. And closer to a Vietnamese meal cooked with fresh veggies and herbs!

Some blessings we are looking forward to on land – a nice haircut for Amy, tattoos for both of us, estrogen pills to calm Amy’s power surges, and our new toy…a drone that shouldn’t crash into the ocean like the DJI crap we’ve been battling. Yay!!!

Two days out and now there’s a bit more of a buzz around the boat. We are all cleaning and packing, filling out customs forms, the bridge has booked the pilot, and doing all the things to get us back to land. It’s very exciting!

Job Done!

We will finish cleaning the galley today and then other than the last meals, that’s us! Job done…well, I have a few more days left in port but Tom gets to put his feet up since he’s not allowed to work in Australia on an Australian battleship

We arrived early! We see Tasmania!

Tonight the sun is setting on a jagged horizon marked with peaks and valleys and little satellite islands. So we lurk. We will both wake up early tomorrow morning so the boys can have a good brekkie before coming into port. This will be Tom’s last meal. Lucky bugger! 

We have put the finishing touches on our bags. I have left some bits and pieces behind for my last few days on the boat while unloading is happening.  (I’ll deeply wish I hadn’t)

Hello Hobart

This morning as we started to approach Hobart, we had a welcoming crew and a rowdy one at that. Dolphins! Always a welcome sight and I couldn’t get enough of them. They were jumping completely out of the waves. They seemed just as happy for us to arrive as we were!

The shafts of sunrise through clouds was gorgeous along the Tasmanian coast as we made our way up Storm Bay into the guts of Hobart. As long as the wind was right, instead of smelling the smoke stacks, you could sniff an earthy eucalyptus smell on the breeze. Bliss! 

We passed the Iron Pot Lighthouse, many oyster farms, and a sailing regatta as we made our way to the dock. Once docked, our luggage in place for a quick retreat, we waited for customs to check us in to the country and bio security to go through the galley. 

After all that was complete, we made a hasty retreat. Unfortunately, Richard, Tom’s dad didn’t get our email asking to pick us up. We waited outside the security gate for a while before Tom went off in search of internet. His search turned into buying roaming minutes which didn’t work and then a taxi to take us to the house. 

The excitement of reuniting father and son turned into multiple bottles of wine. Needless to say, Tom woke up with quite the hangover. Annoyed but not surprised, I, not having indulged and keen to explore, went for an early morning walk to check out the area while he slept off the night before.

The post The Steam Home From Antarctica | East Antarctica To Hobart, Australia first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

The seasons are changing

Autumn In Antarctica

This is crazy. It really does feel like autumn has come to Antarctica.

It’s noticeably colder around the boat and the night time is getting a lot longer quickly! And the weather has packed in for our last week here. I don’t know if that’s the seasonal change or just a weather system but it’s gray and snowy and bleak outside. No whales. Mmmmmm….not my favourite farewell.

Moods Continue To Go South

While the night time is getting longer and longer, tempers are getting shorter and shorter. The mood is definitely muted on the boat and the weather isn’t helping.

Everyone is ready to go and quickly losing their ‘cares’. We are all counting the days.

Tom and I are just looking forward to our time exploring Tassie with Tom’s dad and partner, Bev. Comfy bed, long walks, seeing new things, meeting new people and not working!

Feral Mould And Foul Moods

Oh and now someone has complained about the mould in one of the fridges. We know who it is. Our evil engineer. Just another little kick to make us even more ready to leave. 

One of the fridges is warmer than the other by a couple degrees centigrade. This has made the onions grow a nice layer of mould on the outer skin, kill some of them, and make the potato bags mould as well.

The other day I mentioned to Tom that you can actually really smell the mustiness when you walk in there now. So what did we do…something! 

Tom emptied the cooler fridge, cleaned it from top to bottom so it wreaks of bleach, and stocked it with the goodies from the mouldy fridge. The complaint came two days later. Dumb and annoying! 

Moving on…as always!

Stocktake Sucks

We are now doing stocktake, which is a painful process of counting the stores that are leftover from the trip. 

As the outgoing cook ordered far too much on top of what was already on the boat, it’s a huge task. Needless to say, the outgoing cook’s name is mud…thick, dumb, lazy mud!

Toastie Wars

And now we’ve learned that the two of the engineering team, Chief Jerk and Javed, are making toasties and ‘selling’ them to the boys for $5 each…well, namely Tangi and OJ that I know about. Tom is most unimpressed and let down by Tangi, especially after a recent conversation they only just had about something similar. 

I only found out because I broke my reading glasses and went down to the Engineering Room to find Andrei and a tube of super glue. Andrei, being the wonderful soul that he is, went to fetch super glue and came back with another pair of specs that he reckons make him look like a girl! So I now have a fancy pair of transition reading glasses.

Thanks Andrei!!!! I needed that boost of faith in humanity. He got a big hug!

Leap Year Day And Icebergs Showing Off

Tomorrow is 29 February! Leap Year Day! Nothing particularly special happened until the next day.  Only a couple more lines to shoot and haul and in a couple days we leave. 

1 March started with a stunning evening…clear skies and calm seas. No whales but today ended up being the day of the interesting icebergs!

Antarctica keeps dazzling me right to the bitter end. First thing I saw when I got to the galley was a surreal looking jade iceberg in the distance. 

And later the same morning, as I was in the wheelhouse without any cameras (of course), I saw my first iceberg calve off a chunk. We were all on tenterhooks waiting to see if it would roll over since it was a decent sized berg. Alas, it didn’t, but it certainly readjusted! Tooooo cool for words!

Then an hour later, we had to pick up a line where the floats had found a nice little home right next to a large iceberg. So there we were…nuzzling up quite close and having a very intimate moment with a large iceberg. Luckily everything went perfectly!

Unfortunately it was dark so the photos aren’t that great but it was a really neat experience getting THAT close! Despite the darkness, I could see all the striations in the berg. You could hear the waves crashing against it. Simply incredible and kudos to Frannie for the great maneuvering!

Mirages And Other Miracles

Well, this morning, I hope, was my second or third to last breakfast! It went ok but the great part was that the Fata Morgana mirage appeared on the horizon again. I was really hoping to see this one last time and photograph it properly before we left and Antarctica delivered…again! 

Such a magical and wondrous place! 

In other news, the stocktake is about 99% done. Incredible! Truly a small miracle.

Tom did a fantastic and thorough job. I grunted through my part of it. It’s a relief to have that out of the way. All we have to do next is a deep clean but we’ll wait until we’re near port for that.

The post Changing Of Seasons And Stocktake | East Antarctica first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

Having a whale of a time! 

New Whale Species

In the last couple days I’ve had the immense pleasure of adding a couple whale species to the list of whales I’ve observed. It’s very exciting! 

My first Antarctic Minke spotting was right next to the boat. I actually thought it was a dolphin because it looked and behaved like a dolphin being small and quick. Luckily I got a cool photo which confirmed that it was, in fact, a Minke whale. What luck!

We’ve also been seeing humpbacks…even caught a far off glimpse of one breaching! Upon reviewing the photos, it also appears that the humpbacks have calves. Bless! 

Then one morning I saw a big version of a Minke which turned out to be either a Sei or Bryde’s whale. Apparently they are basically indistinguishable from a distance. You only know once you count its throat grooves or ridges between nose and blowhole! Nevertheless, awesome to spot!

Trouble On The Horizon

But uh oh…trouble loomed. Connor, on the bridge, spotted a pod of orcas. This could be a game changer for the Antarctic Aurora’s fishing mission :/

There are three different kinds of orcas and if it’s the wrong species (the fish eating species), we might have to go home early.

Apparently, being such an intelligent predator, they will follow the boat even to 100nm in order to feed off the sushi train! And when they feed, unlike a sperm whale that will only take a few fish, the orcas strip the line! So it’s not worth the fuel or effort to fish with them around :/

Though I love seeing orcas, I’ll wait for another day! Perhaps on the steam home [Fast forward…the orcas didn’t follow us so we escaped this time!]

Frannie Quit!

And if there’s nothing happening outside, then there’s something happening inside. Today Frannie quit!

For reasons unknown at the moment, Fran gave his notice. He’s not sure what he’s going to do next but it won’t be working for Australia Longline! He’d like to sail the world but his wife isn’t particularly interested. It will be neat to see what the future holds for this kind, lovable character. 

Venus Up To Its Tricks Again

On another cool Antarctica note, we experienced another special polar treat. We got to see the moon with Venus as its companion.

It’s a rare day to see the night sky here. It’s usually overcast so this was a beautiful treat to behold.

This morning Venus is playing games. Today it’s low on the horizon and shifting between red and white. At first we thought it was a boat…again!!  

The Aurora Spotting Auroras

And on a second cool Antarctica note, I finally got to spot the Aurora Australis. That was a long time coming!

It seems to cloud up at night but this night, the clouds were slow to fill in and I noticed. I’m always paying attention. Plus most of my shift is at night these days so it’s easy to keep an eye out.

So I snuck up to the deck, even before the sunset completely dimmed (this takes hours), and immediately heard the sound of whales below me.

What an amazing surprise!

Then I looked up at the sunset lit horizon and further up was the aurora. Are you kidding me?

If this isn’t absolutely magical, I don’t know what is! So out the camera came.

I suppose this is the reward for working at night!

Plus we’ve also had a full moon which is quite big and rusty coloured on the horizon. Simply stunning night sky!

The Countdown Is On

We continue to see whales (mostly Tom because now I’m sleeping when it’s light and working in the darkness) nearly every day and get graced with the odd snow shower which reminds me of home. 

We now only have about 10 more days of fishing left before we head back to Tassie. Not long now! The countdown is on.

Soon we will be doing stock take and doing a deep clean to get the boat ready for the next crew. No rest for the weary and wicked!

In the meantime, the sunsets and sunrises continue to take our breath away. 

The post Whales And The Magical Antarctic Night Sky | East Antarctica first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

True love blooms even in ice.

My Valentine

Happy Valentines Day from Antarctica!!!

I got up like any other day and made my way down the corridor, up the stairs, down the other corridor and into the galley where a sweet card and homemade roses were waiting for me.

What a lucky girl I am! Tom found a florist in Antarctica xxxxx

And since they were made of paper, my white roses apparently identify as red He’s clever and funny too!

Treasure From The Deep

Oh and Nate brought up a squid beak found in a toothfish tummy.

Pretty cool stuff! I love when random stuff comes up from 2000 meters. My mind thinks of all the doco’s I’ve seen of the other world that lives in the darkness and high pressure of the deep sea. Fascinating!

The day before the line had brought up a Dumbo Octopus…quite rare!

The post Valentines at 66 degrees South | East Antarctica first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

I see Antarctica!

But What To My Wondering Eyes Should Appear

Land Ho!!!

In the distance I see glaciers and mountain peaks.

Being white and looking a lot like a cloud, you question strongly whether you are seeing land or just a cloud bank. But it’s definitely ice!

Have I mentioned that the clouds appear lower here? And Tom googled it. Apparently the stratosphere is around 6km thinner here than the equator. Funky! And I digress.

Now I can guarantee I’m not seeing a cloud. This is Antarctica and those are definitely mountains. It’s almost surreal! 

Needless to say, the camera came out en force.

The Evil Engineer Strikes Again

Just another day…though apparently I may have broken the water chiller machine thing by turning it on and off.

Tom cries ‘Bollocks!’ and I tend to agree. Seems engineering isn’t too happy with me these days.

There was a nice cuddly note on the machine saying something to the effect of “Do not turn on and off. You’re fucking the machine. Thanks Engineering” 

Hindsight being what it is – I found out that Dave was turning it off in the night when Tom and I were sleeping because it would make a horrible noise. So there you go. It wasn’t me, but have I mentioned morale is down and tensions are high. Yeah…it’s starting to get bad :/

The post Glaciers, Mountains, And Evil Engineers | East Antarctica first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

Box 2 – Bring it on!

Ice Ho!

Box 2…we have arrived and it has not disappointed!

Almost like magic, the icebergs showed up and you can make out land on the horizon. And by land, I mean a big, smooth chunk of ice with craggy peaks sticking out of it. Bliss!

I’m excited to spend the next couple weeks here. Oh and we are already seeing heaps of penguins already. Now for the whales to find us

The Evil Engineer

Unfortunately, the start to Box 2 also started with a health and safety meeting. Not bad in and of itself, but the Chief Engineer, Zach, sat too near Lance, our peace lily. Lance became the victim of this sad little man’s pathetic existence and Lance lost a flower spike and about 15 leaves, snapped individually. 

Who does this? And why? And it’s not his plant or his property. WTF!

I was sad I wasn’t there to save Lance, sad that no one else spoke up for Lance in our absence and absolutely spitting mad at Zach once I figured out what had happened.

Tom had his distrust of Zach from the beginning and it turns out to be well founded. He’s a pathetic human being and thankfully the only one onboard that I would say that about! 

Greener Galley

I know it doesn’t seem like a lot…you’re plant being maimed. But somehow, I think having such a small world for three months makes some strange things precious, like the plants Tom got us.

So Lance and Lars are now living in the galley with us so they won’t be vandalized and victimized by another random act of plant violence. 

It’s these little things that can turn big out here. I’m going to be the bigger person but another part of me really wants revenge! No Amy smiles for him!

The post Land Ho! And Evil Engineers | East Antarctica first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

Box 1 – Tick!

No More Fishies For Us

Today our allotted quota in Box 1 has been caught and it’s time to move the roughly 560nm to our next fishing hole in Box 2 which is further along the coast of East Antarctica towards White Island and Davis Station. 

I’m super excited to see what beholds us though it looks like we might have to endure a bit of a weather system to start. Thinking positively, that usually brings some beautiful days behind it, which is exactly what we want in order to be able to see the land!!! 

Bring it on!

Morale Waning Continues

Otherwise, crew morale has taken a bit of a hit.

I think we are all starting to feel the grind and a bit of an the itch to finish the trip. The other day Dylan and Junior had a little bit of a tiff, but are swiftly back to being buds again.

The rest of us are tired and you can tell we all have less patience but, on the whole, everyone is holding tough. It hasn’t deteriorated to the point of bringing the boat’s lovely peaceful feeling to an end. Thank goodness!

Change of Scenery

The steam to the far end of Box 2 has been lovely. There is an evil weather system just above us and we are managing to, by chance, avoid the brunt of it.

And there are whales absolutely everywhere. You only have to gaze at the horizon and within 5 minutes you will have spotted at least one, but probably more, whales! 

I feel so privileged to be in this area, in this fragile and pristine corner of the world.  I feel changed and even emboldened. These creatures are thriving here because this is a highly regulated area.

However, they are still very much affected and in danger. Human activity and pollution have reached this far off place. Climate change is leaving it’s mark. My heart breaks for these animals who have had no part in this disaster but have to suffer the consequences. 

Time To Step Up And Save The Wild Places

And I have a small part in their struggle. There are parts that are easier to remedy than others but there is no time like the present to start living in line with my heart and my values.

It’s time to reduce my footprint again now that I’m wiser to the impacts of my actions. 

I am going to start eating vegetarian/pescatarian again, for them and for me. And I am going to become an active and engaged citizen scientist. As much as possible, I will eat locally.

Thankfully I live on a boat so it’s hard to accumulate material goods but I’ve never been too interested in that anyway. It’s the travel that’s the clincher. Our work means that we have to fly. If I want to see my family, I have to fly…or wait years to sail there.

Thankfully traveling by boat does reduce my tourist impact but boat ownership comes at an environmental cost too. Everything does, but it’s time to put on my big girl britches again and live my cleanest possible life…for these beautiful whales and all the creatures that call this little blue ball home. 

So watch this space as I develop my citizen science conservation project, Save The Wild Places.

The post Steam From Box 1 to Box 2 | East Antarctica first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

I’m definitely finding this part of the journey to be the most tiring.

Morale Is Waning

The weather and sea have improved significantly! We’ve had a few good storms come through with a max wind speed of 70 knots but mostly sitting around 40-50knots. That’s pretty breezy!

Thank God that’s passed!

Plus a good nights sleep and life is good again. I’m definitely finding this part of the journey to be the most tiring. Perhaps its the non-stop work…though it hardly feels that much like work.

Perhaps it’s the insomnia and hot flashes flaring up again. Whatever it is, I’m dragging and finding it hard to get my pre-steam mojo back. 

Never mind, the experience goes on. 

Times Are Changing

Another part of the experience is that we are getting about 4-5 hours of darkness now. It is occurring from around 5:30am-10:30am ships time. It’s incredible how fast the darkness is extending itself as we approach the first day of autumn on 1 March.

As the darkness increases, so does my excitement about seeing the aurora. I’m hoping to see the aurora but, generally speaking, the sky is overcast here at the South Pole.

***Just a wee update – turns out it’s dark because of the cloud cover. We had a morning with no clouds and though the sun sinks on the horizon, there is still a faint hint of paleness to the horizon for an hour or so before the dawning of the new day begins. Oh and sunrise/sunset lasts for hours!!! I love that! ***

Box 1

Right now we are fishing Box 1. The fishing is finally going pretty well and after a week of not seeing any whales, the streak broke.

Tom got pictures of a sperm whale that was stealing fish off the line. Even sperm whales enjoy the sushi train! And we keep seeing them bumming around the boat again. It’s absolutely wonderful! Makes the fisherman grumble and me grin.

And I’ve grilled Shaun.

Box 1, scenically speaking, is fairly boring. There are some icebergs here and there but nothing like we were promised.

He’s saying Box 2 is close to the land. Ooooo can’t wait for that!

The Truth Comes Out

Also, an update on the Japanese boats. The word on the street is that they are only counting whales this year. They are not taking any so it really is purely research…though disappointingly, one has migrated to the high krill zone…either to count and tag whales there or something with the krill.

Fingers crossed they don’t have their eyes on that now. The krill take is becoming a massive ecological disaster. All for people to have another source of omega-3 fatty acids which they can get from flax and chia seeds. No animals need die and we don’t need to collapse another ecosystem to get your precious omega-3’s!

The post It’s A Grind And I’m Feeling It | East Antarctica first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.

I’m up, I promise. I’m not functioning well, but I’m vertical.

Back To Work

We’re back fishing.

As expected, this morning was a shock to the system.

Gentleman’s hours are over and I’m minus about 4 hours of sleep. I’m eager to get back into my old routine. I quite like my shift days. It works well to get a good workout which conveniently uses up the rest of my data with a yoga video and then a sauna later in the day, a cold shower and a good sleep. 

I’ve got to get over this hump though and shock my body back into my new schedule. It will take a couple days so luckily there are lots of leftovers to deal out to the guys for brekkie while I’m still the walking comatose. 

Research Fishing The Lonely East Antarctic

Now that we’ve arrived to East Antarctica, we are obliged to CCMLAR to set 15 research lines and tag 5 fish per ton caught. Once we have done this work, there are two ‘boxes’ we can fish in to start on the EA toothfish quota.

There is only one other boat allowed to fish for toothfish here. A French boat. He’s not here yet so we have the grounds to ourselves for a few precious days. 

Japanese and Whaling

The only other boats around are a couple Japanese whaling ‘research’ vessels. We have looked at their tracks on Marine Traffic and you can pick out where they’ve had a kill. It’s heartbreaking to me. Apparently they are targeting Minke, Sei, and Brydes whales.

Being a complete dork, I wanted to educate myself on what the Japanese whaling vessels are allowed to do and what research they are doing. I won’t go into depth here but it does look like the International Whaling Commission has greatly reduced the number of whales allowed to be taken from these waters in the last decade. In fact, it appears that the last five years there has been a hiatus.

But they are definitely here and sharing these whale rich waters with us.

I also learned that the Japanese have built a new ‘mother ship’ so they have no intention of ceasing whaling. And what I learned is that for every mother ship, there are probably two other boats that do the harpooning. Once they have some kills, the mother ship comes around and they transfer to kills to the mother ship for processing.

I invite you to see what the IWC has to say on the matter and educate yourself on what is happening. It was eye opening but also appears that it’s all on the up and up as far as the whaling commission is concerned. Though the higher latitude countries are still busy scheming ways to get their whales.

My Oh Minke

Tom saw a Minke. Lucky guy!

Tom generally has all the animal spotting luck.

I haven’t yet but we’ve both seen rafts of Adelie penguins torpedoing through the water which is fun! At first you think it’s fish because they look so small, but your brain won’t accept that. So you look closer. And lo and behold, it’s not fish at all. It’s a raft of penguins on a mission. Loves it!

Back To Business

Otherwise, it’s back to business as usual. 

Our research location has us in an area where there are few icebergs so I’m hoping our fishing grounds have us near the East Antarctic ice shelf. I’ve been promised we will see land and I’m really looking forward to that. 

The post The Pleasure of Shift Work | East Antarctica first appeared on Sailing Kaihanu.