Well, welcome to my fourth and last newsletter email from the ship. I will

hit Tasmanian shore tomorrow, Monday 17th March, after a total of 74 days at

sea (minus 6hrs ashore time at Mawson!). I definitely have mixed feelings

about coming back home. I'm excited about seeing family and friends again,

telling them everything, getting my photos developed (how often do you have

to wait for more than 2.5 months to see how your photos turned out?!), but I

am sad that this is the end of this adventure, and that I won't be seeing

many of these birds again, hopefully this won't be 'forever'. I still

imagine seeing these translucent or opaque cold aqua or blue bergy-bits

floating by as we plough onward through countless swells.

Some people have been asking, how do I keep fit? Well, on good days, we

always make the most of the weather, and play hacky-sack on the helideck!

Sometimes, Dave (a hydrographer) brings up his 2 totem tennis kits, so we

can have our very own Antarctic Open tennis tournament! In the evenings

sometimes Dave hosts some folk dancing in the Husky Bar or in the lounge

next to the mess (restaurant), so that also helps let off some steam, which

is great, as I'm not a big fan of 'regular' dancing, but have always loved

bush dancing. Don't forget all those stairs.

Being on a ship means living a multi-level life! I work on the bridge,

which is A Deck, (the Crew and Voyage Leader/Deputy Voyage Leader sleep on

the B and C Decks, the expeditioner cabins (and the video/recreation room)

are on D Deck, our mess (restaurant) room and conference/computer room is on

E Deck, and finally, the two tiny gyms, a sauna, a small store (open

4-4.30pm weekdays!) and the Husky Bar(open several times a day for a couple

hours a time to accommodate all those people working on different time

shifts) are on F Deck. As you can see, I make use of A, D, E decks

regularly, and F deck occasionally, and hence am traipsing up and down the

stairs all day long between my shifts. I also make use of the stairs

outside the ship to get to the helideck to get fresh air, to play

hacky-sack, and of course, to take numerous photos - but it often does mean

rugging up, but sometimes if it's not too cold, I just go out in jeans and

t-shirt, thermal top, gloves and headband! Although now, even that is too

much, 10 degrees is so warm!

We did have a BBQ and a fundraising head-shaving event on our small ship

floating upon 4800m-deep ocean. Every voyage there is a huge emphasis on

fundraising for Camp Quality (a charity-funding organisation for kids with

cancer), and often there is a hair-shave, where people bid some money on

someone to get their hair completely shaved, and on the day, there is a

further auction, where the highest bidder gets the honour of wielding the

shears! Don't you worry, my head of hair is still intact and attached to my

scalp. When Dave got his hair cut, I managed to find the Aussie song 'Click

go the Shears' to play while he lost his locks. It went down very well,

particularly since he's a folk-dance host. Andreas (oceanographer) had let

his beard grow, and the funniest thing was when he was shaved, VL Steve

Nicol made the first cut at the base of his neck to his lower lip. So, for

a brief moment, Andreas sported a very 19th Century-style beard!

Well, time is flying here, like the sand in an hourglass in the last few

seconds appears to speed up, and I can't believe that we'll be tying up at

Macquarie Wharf in Hobart in less than 30 hours. I won't write much longer,

as I am rather keen to spend my last day 'being on the ship' and not on my

computer! I would have written this a lot earlier, except that I have been

really busy filling in my off-shift time finishing my painting of a 2m (2/3

life-size) Wandering Albatross for the Captain.

Les commissioned me to paint an albatross on his wooden bedboard, which he

had Per, the bo'sun, make, as while we were up north on the Kerguelen

Plateau three weeks ago, (with the world's highest avg. waves), there was

this abberant swell, in which the ship rolled a purported 45degrees and poor

old Les

rolled out of bed! It was the only one amongst nothing much, since we had a

pretty good run, with weather not much worse than when we came south from

Hobart - in other words, the sea of this region didn't live up to it's

reputation! By some miracle (I've also got a bed parallel to the ship, just

like the capt'n, as opposed to the perpendicular majority), I happened to be

lying in the right position at the right time, so didn't see the carpet at

close range in the early hours of

that morning!

Two weeks ago we experienced a very mild -12 degrees with 35kt winds! This

was during our very quick visit to Davis for about 6 hours to collect people

and some cargo. No opportunity to get off, even though the choppers were

flying almost the whole time between 10am and 2pm! We left pretty soon

after they had been hangared. It was very cold and windy while we were

moored there. The AAD-invited Malaysian and Indonesian scientists were

given shore-time at Davis, lucky buggers! I would have loved to go also,

but I guess time and resources were the biggest limiting factors. I did

manage to see their close-up digital photos of the Elephant Seals I could

just pick out, with binoculars, wallowing on Davis' shore several hundred

metres away from the ship. Wow, I'll definitely have to find a way to come

back to Antarctica or a sub-Antarctic island. These seals are as massive as

their name suggests! Although I didn't get ashore, I was able to enjoy the

different scenery and the break from being glued to the birdo chair on the

bridge, although I do continue bird-watching in my free time!

I was working up on the bridge the morning after we left Davis, and at about

the time I expected Peter to come in to take over, I heard the door open, so

looked to see who it was. A stranger appeared, and I simply couldn't work

out who it was.... who on the ship looked like this man? I couldn't ever

recall seeing

him before. Doof, I had completely forgotten that we had picked up about 20

people from Davis! A lot of them disappeared to their cabins, after

landing, to recover from hangovers from their last night at the station!

They'll all have to emerge from their shells at 10.30am today though, as

they have an emergency muster drill.

Before Davis, we were up quite a fair way north, east of Heard Island, doing

oceanographic surveys, vai CTDs (Conductivity (salinity), Temperature and

Depth), and moorings (concrete blocks sunk up to 4500m, with cables and

electronic devices attached, the data is sent via satellite). This meant

being in the open ocean and not seeing much at all. No icebergs. Although

we saw birds we hadn't seen for just over a month, while we steamed south

from Hobart, but only saw a couple new species, seeing each of them only

once (Grey Petrel, Little Shearwater, Macaroni Penguin). Peter and I

managed to get hold of some excess frozen krill, defrosted them, threw them

over the side of the ship, and waited.... and waited.... and lo, the prions

started coming, frantically ducking their heads underwater in the ship's

wake, grabbing for the quickly-sinking krill! More and more came, then a

Southern Giant Petrel, a Light-mantled Sooty Albatross, a South Polar Skua,

a couple Soft-plumaged Petrels, and several others came into the vicinity of

the 'feeding water' (and some even came close enough to let themselves be

captured through our lens)!

Maya, my cabin mate, we get on fine, but we're different. She has a friend

in Bronwyn, who lives in another cabin. They both are 'the party animals',

although Maya is quite quiet during the day. She often gets to bed a lot

later than I do, and gets up at lunchtime. See the main diff eh? I get up

at either 5.35am or 7.10am! It's a bit annoying, as it means that my cabin

is a 'bat-cave' more than half the time, and I can't really do anything much

in it until she gets up. As a result I spend a lot

of time in the conference room, on the bridge, in the mess or in a friend's

more day-aware cabin!

I spend most of my time with a few people. I've found that after a while,

most of us expos found like-minded people, and tend to gather around each

other at meals or have a cuppa while talking or playing games! When Shannon

has a rare break longer than 50mins (the whalos have more regular breaks,

but they

are hopelessly short) you can't stop us talking. She's good fun. Catherine,

the other whalo is also good fun to talk to, but she is currently very busy,

and spends a lot of time on the computer, as she has to organise herself for

her wedding on the 22nd March, before flying off to Seattle with her partner

on the 26th! They only decided to marry about a month ago, when Andrew, her

partner, found out he got 'the job'. A Hen's night was organised for her,

along with 'bridal overalls' and a scavenger

hunt which involved her getting the Captain's blessing.

Although most of you will not have time to reply to me at this address, I

would love to hear from you, as I won't be coming home to Melbourne for

another two weeks.

I will still be able to access the internet at times while staying in

Hobart, so get in touch! Look forward to catching most of you in person,

soonish.

Take care, with love,

Alice.

>>>A VERY IMPORTANT NOTE<<<

Please DO NOT SEND EMAILS to me at my "alice.ewing@aurora.aad.gov.au"

address after EARLY (before 9am) 17th MARCH.

My ship email account will become DEFUNCT FOUR HOURS before arriving in

Hobart. PLEASE reply to me at ewing_ad@hotmail.com as otherwise your

well-intentioned email will disappear into cyberspace permanently unread.

Many thanks, Alice.

-- Alice Ewing --

Hi All, (emailed received 15th Feb 2003)

Australia Day on the 26th January was... interesting! I played in some sort

of team game with The Albatrosses being myself, John (Kriller), Peter

(Birdo) and Neale (Hydrochemist). We had to compete with four other teams

in a weird food contest. I reckon I had the best of the lot being first in

line, but it was so hard! Just try and see how fast you can eat two whole

(four squares) Saladas sandwiched with thick vegemite and some anchovies in

between. I didn't mind the taste, as I like vegemite and anchovy (although

I've never tried them at the same time before!), but it was the dryness that

was so tough.... we were not allowed to drink anything while eating the

food, and again, not until we had also blown up a condom until it burst!

Crazy stuff,

but the other three had to eat (also without drinking 'til the end), (2) one

stale lamington+various pickles (in that order!), (3) two cold vegetable

strudels, (4) a huge tray of green porridge with three hard-boiled eggs (the

aim being to only eat the eggs, which John didn't realise until having eaten

a few mouthfuls of lurid cold green porridge)! But John was later very

clever and

mushed up the eggs and mixed them up with the porridge under the surface, so

that it appeared as if he had eaten them (don't worry, there aren't any more

such descriptions in this email). We had some decent fun doing some bush

dancing to live music in the helicopter hangar (we will be picking up two

choppers from Davis later on), after having had a traditional Aussie BBQ

using a modified

44 gallon drum, with smaller tins welded together to form a chimney. In

addition to all this we had to try and dress up with a colonial theme in

mind, so I went feral and became a swaggie with heavy eyebrows and a very

full, furry, beard. I also made pipe and a hat with some cardboard gum

leaves stuck into the headband (scented with eucalyptus oil of course!).

We have had some beautiful days with very little swell (less than 0.5m), and

almost clear blue skies. But even when there are clouds, they often come in

fascinating forms. Sometimes in a string of fairy-floss with flat bottoms,

others are brilliant striations across the sky, with even spacing. The

icebergs seem to go so well with some clouds, and I have tried to capture

this on film, hopefully my black and white photos turn out. I also used red

or yellow filters, to bring out the blue of the sky and make it contrast

more sharply with the clouds. It is such a pain that I cannot see how my

photos turn out until I get back into Hobart or Melbourne! But I have been

able to copy quite a few digital photos, although I hope I won't have to use

these as back-ups for my own photos.

There is so much that I cannot find the time to even try and describe, but

these images will remain etched in my memory forever. We have had some

wonderful whale sightings. One time, there was a pod of about 11

Orcas/Killer Whales about a mile away from us, and they seemed to be putting

on a fireworks

display, there would be a blow (the 'water fountain' when the whale surfaces

to breathe - it's actually a spray of very fine water droplets, like steam,

as the whale breathes out) here, there, and here again, all in quick

succession. There would be a lull, and then suddenly, a row of blows would

appear, closer. I've not had the luck of seeing whales up really close yet,

but there have been a couple very quick and quite close views, particularly

of Humpback and Fin Whales. I've also seen Sperm, Minke, Sei, and

Long-finned Pilot Whales - more species than I could have imagined. The

Sperm Whales have an impressive fluke (tail), it is huge, and the whales

often hold it up like a fan, as they put their head down to dive thousands

of metres below the surface. Sperm Whales have been known to dive to 3000m

(that's deeper than Australia's highest mainland mountain, Koscuiszko, which

is little more than 2000m). But there are many days where there are no

whales, even on some calm, flat-sea days, and the whale observers get rather

frustrated - a bit like watching a soccer match, when there are no goals

being kicked, an intense environment with nothing much being achieved.

For those of you who think I am on a holiday, think again! Working 16hr

long days is not many people's idea of a holiday, although we only do work a

total of 8 hours, it mostly means being awake in those 16hrs and having no

long breaks, as it's 2hrs on/off! But as I am not required to do bird

observations when within 2 nautical miles of the ice-shelf or mainland, I

can relax and take in the scenery (well, at least as much as my camera

does!).

We have just had a few days moored at Australia's Mawson Station (Lat: 67°

36'; Long: 62° 52' E). It was so irritating being confined to the ship,

just

a hundred metres or so away from land on three sides of the ship (the

harbour is called Horseshoe Harbour, for obvious reasons!), and not being

able to get off the ship. We were actually there for five days, and we were

only on land for 6.5hours. Most of this time was spent waiting for the

almost non-stop katabatic wind (strong COLD winds coming from the continent)

to drop off, to at least 15knots, so that the Aurora Australis could perform

a rather risky manoeuvre.... edging her way towards the Polar Bird (another

icebreaker), until they were side-by-side. Since we were running low on

fuel... (where did it all go - who knows?), we were to obtain fuel via a

ship-to-ship transfer. After several hours of careful zigzagging, our

Captain Les had the AA moored just 1.5m away from the PB! As VL Steve so

descriptively reported in the AntDiv's weekly, Icy News, "the two largest

chunks of metal for several thousands of kilometres slowly and nervously

inched their way closer together. There's something about sitting on 10,000

tonnes of steel plate specifically designed to cut through ice like butter

when it is moving slowly through the water towards another 10,000 tonnes of

steel plate specifically designed to cut through ice like butter, that made

those on board rather nervous." The transfer itself took 12 hours, and we

were pretty much cooped up to the interior of the ship, with the flying

bridge being the only external area we were allowed in, and it was the most

exposed to the katabatics.

Well, after all this it was just FANTASTIC to finally get onshore, and step

onto Antarctica, although even after 6.5hrs, it still didn't seem real. I

guess I just have to wait for the photos to be developed so I can convince

myself that I actually did get off the ship. The first things I noticed was

the penguins. They were just anywhere, not confined to the edge of the

station. As we walked towards the big Red Shed, we came across a young and

curious Adélie Penguin which squawked it way past our small group as we

stood in awe. I couldn't believe how big and solid these birds were, having

become so used to the diminutive Little Penguins back home in Australia.

The Emperor Penguins are even bigger! Being the world's biggest penguins,

they stand just under 4 feet (112cm) in height. As we were allowed to get

up to 5m of lone penguins away from colonies, their size was very apparent,

and filled up the frame of my camera - I can't wait to see how the photos

turn out. The weather was rather ordinary, very overcast and not much

available light, so don't expect bedazzling photos when I get home! But

most of the time I spent ashore was spent just sitting down quietly on the

rocks, bedecked in a warm freezer suit and beanie, just watching the

animals, and admiring the view.

We had a a quick tour of the buildings, and signed in ourselves in the big

Red Shed for a Hagglund (caterpillar-wheeled oversnow vehicle) tour a few

miles up towards the plateau above Mawson. When we hopped out of the

Haggie, it was ice, and more ice, which was white, with sutble blue hues.

It was also very weird, as there didn't appear to be any shadows near our

feet, so it looked like that the people around me were standing slightly

above the ground. The views were fantastic, on our left there were awesome

ice cliffs stretching for miles, with a lone pillar of ice acting like a

sentinel, a short distance away from the ice cliffs. On our right, we could

see the other side of East Arm (of Horseshoe Harbour), where there was a

small, low, ice shelf, and a score of Weddell Seals, that had hauled out

there to rest. I couldn't wait to get back down the slope and get a closer

view. Directly below us, Mawson's colourful sheds sprinkled the rocky

brown, ice and snow-free, terrain. There's one shed called the Rosella Shed

(the new Carpenter's shed), that is quite resplendent in bright

primary-coloured panels, I reckon it had to be my favourite, not necessarily

because of the name! The geodesic radar dome is also an interesting

building to look at, it looks like a more modern form of Melbourne Uni

Mountaineering Club's hut next to Mt Feathertop, in the Victorian high

plains. Although there aren't any snowgums at Mawson, there is some

Antarctic forest, if you look carefully enough, as this forest doesn't grow

much taller than a centimetre or two from the ground! The tiny forests are

entirely composed of very hardy lichen and moss, which adds small splashes

of green among the dark brown of Mawson's volcanic rock.

In a brief warm-up interlude, I found that quite a few of my fellow marine

expeditioners took up the opportunity to scull down some stronger beverages

(we are limited to 3 light beers or 2 wines on the ship) at the Station's

bar, on the top floor of the Red Shed. I don't know how they could have

stayed inside so long, when there was so much to do and see outside...

although I guess some of them had been to Mawson previously. It is very

comfortable inside though. There is a lovely view from the recreation room,

from a row of comfy chairs all facing towards the windows. Very much like

my grandmother's at Fort Nelson!

This email is already a bit overdue, so I will finish up here and send

another one sometime in the near future. I can't believe we have passed the

halfway mark in our voyage already, that is, if we get back when we hope to!

Take care all, with love,

Alice.

P.S. My inbox has always got room for emails, there's no limit on how many

emails I get, only what size they are (and no attachments etc). ;o) I will

endeavour to reply to all personal replies, as they are much appreciated,

and I am also keen to know what's happening at your end! A.

-- Alice Ewing --

Seabird Observer

ANARE Voyage 4 - Marine Science

RSV Aurora Australis

3 January - 15 March 2003

Reply to:

alice.ewing@aurora.aad.gov.au

___________________________________________________________________________

Hi All,  Email received 23rd Jan 2003

Trust you got my last newsletter without any glitches. Do let me know if

I missed you, and I'll forward it to you straightaway - as I lost track of

who I sent the first one to. Oh, and I made an unbelievable mistake, I

actually left Hobart on 3 Jan not 3 Dec! So if you were under the

impression I had a white Christmas, sorry to disappoint! I had a lovely

Christmas Day with my family at my Grandmother's lovely glass hilltop home,

south of Hobart, along with 270deg views of the Derwent River and a

beautiful white Grey Goshawk that came to visit.

Sorry it's been a while since the last newsy email, as I have been rather

busy, and also, there are many better things to do than sit down at a

computer for hours - I just have the make the most of my trip down here, as

there is no comparable place anywhere else in the world. Already I am at a

loss of words to even try explaining what I have seen so far.

At the moment we are carrying a krill transect survey in a region just north

of Australia's Mawson Station on the Antarctic continent. I'm closer to

South Africa than Australia now! We're also a little further west of Heard

Island. Check it out on a map. If you were confused about the numbers I

gave in my last email, they are map reference points, check out a handy

atlas or globe and follow the latitude and longitude given below until they

cross-over - it will show you approximately where I am now, as I am typing:

Lat: 66degrees 10' SOUTH

Long: 062degrees 20' EAST

As you may have gathered from this, I am not far from the Antarctic Circle

which is around 66deg33'39''S (and shifts about 3" a year). I've been told

we now have no complete darkness, but 2 hours of 'twilight' between sunset

(approx.1am) and sunrise (approx. 3am). (Ship Time = 5 hours behind

Australian Eastern Standard Time). I can't confirm this myself, as I'm

usually asleep at this time, but sometimes I do spend some early hours of

the morning in the bar chatting and playing cards, or darts. I'm glad that

there's a limit of either 3 light beers or 2 wines per person/day, as it

makes for a much nicer atmosphere - and it's a non-smoking zone - hooray!

But I have seen a couple of spectacular sunsets when there were few clouds,

and very little swell. The light reflected on nearby icebergs by the

sinking sun is just exquisite, the icebergs almost seem to emit their own

luminescence.

So much has happened since the last email, with a large number of firsts;

icebergs, seals and penguins being the most notable! The first little bit

of loose pack ice was amazing, and one of the most beautiful scenes I have

seen in my life. The white blocks of cracked, or chunky, flat ice

contrasted with the deep blue of extremely calm and slightly rippled water.

These patches of water reflected the ice and sky like a mosaic as the ship

gently trundled through the pack ice. Every now and again we pass by a

block of ice with a penguin or a seal on it, only a few metres away! Most

of the Crab-eater Seals just affix a reproachful glare on their boofy, yet

almost Labrador-like heads, as they lazily 'caterpillar' their way across to

the other side of their piece of ice just as the ship comes right next to

it. The Adélie Penguins are just awesome! Their black and white plumage

is just stunning, as are their sturdy little pink feet and brilliant white

eyes. I have seen up to 20 on one bergy bit as we steam past. Sometimes

we'd see a penguin or two on a tiny chunk of ice trying to keep upright, as

their piece of ice rolls and bobs wildly in the ship's wake. Usually they

give up and waddle precariously to the edge, and after a moment's

hesitation, they dive lithely into the ocean with hardly a splash. I so

wish I could see them 'flying' underwater, but guess I'll have to make do

with these awesome swimming images that stay so vividly in my memory from

numerous nature documentaries!

For some more current news, I actually haven't done any work today, as the

weather has been disobeying what our Voyage Leader, Steve Nicol, has asked

of it. As I am typing, we are sometimes rolling to 20 degrees either way.

There are some people around me who have to grab hold of loose papers as

they slide away! Just a couple of hours ago, there were loose papers

falling like leaves in an gusty autumn wind, as the first big swells came by

us today. Steve, a krill biologist, had his kiwifruit jump off his desk and

roll several times each way across the floor before anyone could catch it.

It was a rather comical sight, watching him chasing a runaway kiwifruit!

Every time we get into swell like this, I have to make a mental check of all

my belongings and see that everything is secure. Generally laptop computers

are ok if sitting flat on a sheet of non-slip material on a desk, but this

one particular night, when we were rolling rather heavily, I just couldn't

sleep

until I put my computer away, so got out of bed and went up to the top deck

to check it - the thought of having to be reliant on the two communal

computers was a bit threatening!

Right now, the ballast water is making very loud moaning and whining as the

ship rolls, like some sort of large animal trapped in a basement, except

that it also makes low, deep humming and rumbling vibrations! Sometimes it

makes a different sound, as if another boat was scraping along the side of

the ship. The ship also sometimes shudders suddenly as it's bow gets caught

by an oncoming swell. What I have also found fascinating is the sight of

water rushing into the porthole windows on E Deck - which is the lowest

level to have windows, as F deck is fully enclosed by the hull. As the

water swishes around these round portholes, it looks like a very powerful

front-loading washing machine.

This is actually a multi-day email, being composed over a couple of days,

and the weather is still not being amenable! So we're doing laps near the

start of the next transect, waiting for it to clear up so we can continue

with our work. I don't know how much effect being 2 days behind in schedule

will have on my return date, but it doesn't matter! It's great just living

day-to-day here, and not having to worry about mundane little details. The

bad weather has given me the opportunity to talk more and play cribbage and

spit, catch up with emails and just playing around with numerous digital

photos that people have shared!

Better shut up now, as I am now rambling on...

Take care, and hope you are all well.

Love,

Alice.

P.S. Thanks to all who replied to my last email, and I'll do my best to

answer your many questions! Oh, and if you do reply, please delete my email

from your reply, as it makes the email size a lot bigger than necessary.

-- Alice Ewing --

Seabird Observer

ANARE Voyage 4 - Marine Science

RSV Aurora Australis

3 January - 15 March 2003

Reply to:

alice.ewing@aurora.aad.gov.au

(no attachments or RTF/HTML please. 30kB per email limit)

_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

I know that this email has been a while coming for some of you, but that is

the way it is! We had email problems early in the week, but it seems to all

be working just fine now. So here is a start to the spiel about my

southbound adventure.

I'm now at 56 degrees south (latitude) and 119 degrees east (longitude), and

hence am in sub-Antarctic waters. The air temperature hovers at about 4

degrees, as does the sea surface temperature. It is not expected to get

much colder than minus 15 degrees in the average Antarctic summer, but this

all depends on wind chill factor of course! And we've been kitted out

accordingly, with thermals, woollen gloves, mitts, socks, jumper,

polarfleece jacket, traditional Antarctic-style 'ventiles', which are yellow

windproof over-clothes, heavy-duty snow boots (the kind of stuff they wear

in the Northern Hemisphere, made in Canada 'Sorel Boots'), glacier glasses,

a sheepskin sledging cap (which I get to keep - a novelty hat!) and a

positively cavernous canvas kit bag to put it all in!

We left Hobart at 1730hrs on Friday 3rd December, which is almost a week

ago, and it doesn't feel like it! Most likely due to the fact that I've not

been able to lie back and treat this voyage like a cruise. I did my first

seabird observing shift after a very early dinner (6pm). Since then, we

have passed through three time zones, and are now 3 hours behind Melbourne

time. When we get to Mawson, we'll be 5 hours behind, as it is nearer South

Africa than Australia!

I've been learning a fair bit about what my fellow expeditioners ('expos')

are doing on this voyage. From a motley international background (people

from approx 13 different nations), there are oceanographers, whale

researchers ('whalos'), krill dynamic researchers ('krillos'),

hydro-chemists, phytoplankton researchers, and of course, seabird

researchers (the two 'birdos' are myself and Peter). There's a total of 45

'expos', 16 being women, and something like 25 ship crew, of which 3

chefs/assistants are women. So the 'fairer sex' is certainly a minority on

this voyage, and I happen to be the only deaf person, ha ha, as if I'm

surprised!

In fact, most people have been pretty good about letting me know what is

happening, although it's all still a bit 'new' and there are still some

things that need to be resolved. The emergency paging system is now in

action, although the vibrating feature on the pager is nowhere as strong as

my mobile's, so it won't be able to wake me up above the vibrations of the

ship, so Maya, my cabin mate will have to be my alarm. Just as well I

thought ahead and brought my own bed light and digital timer so I can wake

myself up for work at 5.35am! So far, I've been able to encourage 6 people

into learning the fingerspelt ABC, and some other basic signs! It will be

interesting to find out how many of the original 45 expos will know the ABC

when we get back. I say original, as we will be picking up about 40 or so

people from both Mawson and Davis Stations before we head back to Hobart in

the last couple of weeks. The other night, we had a DVD night, with the

movie being projected onto a screen. After a bit of hassle, we were able to

get the subtitles working, which was cool. People didn't seem to mind, and

were pleased that it worked out. Hope there will be other DVDs with

captions, as I am under the impression that there are a lot of pirated

copies being used hehe! It's all very informal on this ship, with crew and

expos mixing at meal times. It is lovely, and I am sure it will be hard to

let these extra 40 people 'into' our floating home for the last 2 weeks, and

it will be just as hard for them to be with new people I''m sure.

My cabin mate, unlike me, has been suffering mild sea-sickness almost from

the time we left coastal waters, and is in bed most of the time trying to

keep her head level. Hopefully she can be up and about a bit more soon,

particularly since it's almost a week now! I only took the one sea-sickness

tablet on the first night, as I reckoned I couldn't afford to be seasick, as

I had to work. I didn't have to worry. But from what I saw, for the first

few days only a few people turned up to all the meals. All of which have

been of fantastic quality and variety. And I must admit, on par with Mum's

home-cooking!

On the first day, before we left Macquarie Wharf in Hobart, we had safety

briefings all day, for which I was lucky enough to have two interpreters

present, courtesy of the Australian Antarctic Division. We had a quick tour

around the ship and unpacked our (heavier than what we were supposed to

have) bags in our cabins. It still didn't feel real then that the ship

would be my home for the next two and a half months! We also had a practice

drill getting into immersion suits and hopping into fully-enclosed

fibreglass lifeboats, which are self-righting as long as people use the

seatbelts! I have my first practice emergency muster, at sea, tomorrow. It

will be interesting to see how far apart the warnings are from the alarms

and the message on the pager. I'm lucky to have the one of the cabin

nearest to the helideck, which is the muster station. I'm sure this was one

of the things they considered with regard to my deafness.

You'll be wondering, "So what work am I doing exactly?"

I share bird-observing shifts with Peter, 2hrs on/2hrs off from 6am til 9pm

(the last shift is 1hr for those of you who are pedants!). What we do is

sit in the best seat on the ship all day, looking for birds within a

transect 300m forward of the ship and 300m to the left of the bridge. We

have this brilliant, comfy bucket chair, one of which the captain also has,

except ours overlooks the side of the ship, as the wings of the bridge jut

out about 2m from the side of the ship, so we have water directly below us!

But recently we've been having to stand as both the windows we use from our

seat are hopelessly impossible to see through as both window-wipers are

malfunctioning! So we have to share the whalos' window, which is a bit of a

crowd. We have to wait til we get into calmer waters before one of the crew

can harness himself and walk around the outside to carry out the VERY

necessary maintenance. We identify and count the birds that pass through

this transect, and we have to try and make sure we don't count the same

birds twice (yes, we do have a system for this!), and enter in the data

real-time into a very geriatric laptop (Toshiba T1000SE, I remember some of

my friends had these cool back-lit computers, in grade 5 at school in 1992,

when I had to put up with the even more slow and simple T1000!). I just

hope the computer will last the voyage. Mark my words, we do make sure we

save the data onto floppy all the time! Meanwhile, I have the luxury of

using my own laptop connected to a LAN outlet in my cabin. Although I do

have to share this LAN with Maya!

I won't bore you with a complete list of birds we have seen so far, but do

let me know if you're interested, and I'll email you the current list, which

IS AT HAND (but some of you may already find it in your inbox)! So far,

we've seen 25 different species, including 6 species of albatross! I must

say my current favourites are the Light-mantled Sooty Albatross,

White-headed Petrel and all the Prions and Storm Petrels! I was also lucky

enough to see a type of 'beaked' whale for less than half a sec, seeing a 2m

brownish patch at about 50m away. These whales are very cryptic and don't

make a show when they surface! The whalos saw 4 Fin Whales the other day

(when I was off-duty as it happens!). I can't wait to see more, as there

will be heaps as we get closer to Antarctica, which will be within a week.

This is such as long voyage, as it is dedicated to Marine Science. As most

round trips are only a few weeks or a month long, going directly to stations

and returning immediately. Whereas, we will spend a few weeks doing

transects in the waters off Mawson for krill, oceanography and plankton

studies. Although the work won't stop for us birdos, we are the ones that

work most of the voyage, whereas others will do a few weeks only.

It's now 9.30pm and I want to see what's happening on the social side of the

ship, so will finish up this email and have a look! So til next time, take

care!

Love, Alice.

-- Alice Ewing --

Seabird Observer

ANARE Voyage 4 - Marine Science

RSV Aurora Australis

3 January - 15 March 2003

Reply to:

alice.ewing@aurora.aad.gov.au

(no attachments or RTF/HTML please. 30kB per email limit)

___________________________________________________________________________

Australian Antarctic Division - Commonwealth of Australia

IMPORTANT: This transmission is intended for the addressee only. If you are

not the intended recipient, you are notified that use or dissemination of

this communication is strictly prohibited by Commonwealth law. If you have

received this transmission in error, please notify the sender immediately

by e-mail or by telephoning +61 3 6232 3209 and DELETE the message.

Visit our web site at http://www.aad.gov.au/

___________________________________________________________________________