Changing Of Seasons And Stocktake | East Antarctica

Tuesday-Sunday, 27 February to 3 March 2024
Day 96-102 of 110ish

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.