Coral Tulloch`s Voyage Diary

The Voyage Expeditioners

DAY 5, FRIDAY, MARCH 12th.

AURORA AUSTRALIS

910 NAUTICAL MILES FROM FREMANTLE,
ON COURSE FOR MAWSON STATION, ANTARCTICA.

AIR TEMPERATURE 11.2 WATER TEMPERATURE 11.7

Hi Everyone,

We left Fremantle, Western Australia on Monday, March 8th. on Voyage 6, the last of the season, bound for Antarctica.

On board are 24 crew, from the Captain to the Engineers and Cooks. These are the people that run the ship and make it possible for us to reach Antarctica. We make up the rest. There are 25 of us. We are called expeditioners.

Some expeditioners are going down to stay all winter at one of the four Australian bases we will visit. Some people will be doing scientific research on the voyage or on the continent; and some, like me, are observing what happens and what it is like in Antarctica.

There are 7 women and 42 men aboard our ship.

Our voyage is taking down supplies, like food and equipment...everything that the expeditioners will need during the winter, when the sea ice freezes over and reaching the continent is impossible. We will also be picking up expeditioners to return to Australia.

We are like a small family at present and on our return, with the extra expeditioners, we will be like a small community.

We are travelling across the great Southern Ocean, on a straight course to Mawson, 2909 nautical miles from Fremantle. Even though this is meant to be one of the roughest oceans in the world, we have had a pleasant time so far.....people have been wearing t-shirts and shorts and there was a game of cricket yesterday on deck. Today our temperature has dropped, we spotted our first wandering albatross....and an aurora was seen last night....after 5 days on board, we are finally feeling like we are going south.

Most of the expeditioners have finally got their `sea-legs', which means we can move around the ship without falling over. We have our own cabins, where we have very comfortable bunk beds, a porthole (so we can see the ocean and the stars), a desk to work at...a choice of music to listen to, cupboards and a bathroom....(no bath of course, just a shower etc.)

There are laboratories on board for the scientists, a `mess' where we all eat.....and you can go there 24 hours a day to have cake, lemonade and chocolate biscuits!.....conference and work areas, recreation rooms, a gym, a shop to buy t-shirts and film....or you can watch videos, read books from the library, or spend hours watching the changing ocean and weather. We even have a chart up, where we have to guess who will spot the first iceberg.

On the Bridge, where the Captain and officers control our voyage over the ocean, you are high up above the decks of the ship. From here the meteorologists observe and forecast the weather. All communications are sent by the radio officer and there are panels of computers and radars that follow our journey. There are sea charts,(maps of the ocean) and our course is drawn like a highway from one point to another. It is also here that you can watch the birds and whales.

Next week we will go beyond 60 degrees south, where they say King Neptune will come to visit us........until then, ahoy! Coral.

A game of cricket on the heli-deck

DAY 12, FRIDAY MARCH 19th.

AURORA AUSTRALIS

450 NAUTICAL MILES FROM MAWSON.

AIR TEMPERATURE 0.1. WATER TEMPERATURE 0.4

Hi everyone......

Our voyage through the Southern Ocean to our first station, Mawson has been a long but exciting trip. We came into heavy, rolling seas on Monday this week, and they stayed with us for three days.

By Tuesday evening, we feel like we are surfing through the waves.

People are walking at very silly angles just to stay upright, food goes flying off tables and everyone holds on. People roll off chairs and get tossed from their beds. Up on the bridge, the rolls of the ship make you feel we will tip straight over. It's very tiring for everyone, but everyone keeps a great sense of humour....and I must admit...I think it beats any big dipper I've ever been on.

Wednesday evening brings our first snow and in the morning we are woken at 6.15am by a message from the Bridge...."Wake up kids, it's our first iceberg".

Everyone scrambles for the Bridge and on the horizon, directly in front of us is our first berg. It's another hour before we come close enough to see its varing facets. The captain does a victory lap around it and we are busy gazing in awe and clicking cameras.

We had travelled through the convergence, the zone where the warmer northern waters meet with the cold Antarctic ocean currents and now, Thursday morning is calm and sunny. Another iceberg soon follows the first....this time a larger tabular iceberg, its angular sides and flat top a blue-white contrast to the pounding seas at its side. Everyone is excited and comes out to take more photos. Its quite cool now, but being Australian, many of the expeditioners are up on deck, in t-shirts, shorts and thongs. They will be some very funny photos.

We have lectures from the expeditioners each afternoon and on Wednesday we saw slides of Vostok, the Russian station, high up on the Antarctic plateau. The lowest temperature recorded there was in 1983....-89.6. Some of the buildings are made of plywood!...and it's so cold that hot water is used to fuse things together like concrete. (When the water is poured, it freezes solid straight away.)

Sunsets are wonderful here.....and the twilight lasts for a very long time. From the bridge, I see some little penguins dipping and swirling through the waves off the bow of the ship. We also see dolphins and a lonely little seal....off to somewhere.

That night, someone comes running down the corridor....AURORA. An arc of light, like a shimmering creamy curtain hangs between us and the stars, from horizon to horizon.........later it changes to veils and swirling tapes of green and blue. It is truly amazing and ever-changing. The night sky down here is so full of stars and we see shooting stars and satellites.

On Friday, many of us sort the mail. People from around the world send envelopes and postcards, to be returned to them with stamps from the ship and the Antarctic stations. We have adopted a German couple as our official mum and dad for the voyage.........Don't forget to look for our voyage on the Australian Antarctic Divisions web site....there are photos and descriptions and you can keep a chart of our journey.

On board our expeditioners include two visiting inspectors, one from France, one from Belguim, looking at our responsibilities with relation to the Antarctic Treaty, The Chief Scientist from the Australian Antarctic Division, Biologists, studying many things from mosses to phytoplankton and krill. A glaciologist, electrical engineers, technical engineers, meteorologists, a Doctor, a health and safety officer, physicist (studying the auroras), an aerial surveyor, me and voyage management. We have a barge operator, so that cargo can be transferred from the ship to the stations..........and of course.....very importantly, the crew, whom I mentioned in my last letter.

Abstract Ocean painting

DAY 14, SUNDAY MARCH 21st.

AURORA AUSTRALIS

MAWSON

AIR TEMPERATURE -11.7. WATER TEMPERATURE -2.7.

SNOWING

Hi everyone,

Saturday was calm........we are heading towards the ice and the ocean supports, every now and then a small iceberg.

We are told that King Neptune will finally be arriving, sometime in the afternoon.

King Neptune, along with his attendants visits every ship that crosses the equator and the Southern Polar Circle. For myself and 23 others on board...it is our first time and we have to be initiated into the realm of King Neptune.

At 11.45am, an omen is seen and we are all summoned to the Bridge by the 3rd officer. There before us is an icy aqua figure poised thoughtfully above the ocean's swell. "Nice iceberg", whispers someone, but we first timers to Neptune's Kingdom know it's a sign.

In the afternoon we are summoned to the deck......The king arrives, but he is covered in a cloak of plastic littered with unwanted garbage. His tail is smothered by fabric and dyes and his beard is smeared with chemicals.......We feel great sorrow and guilt for how we, humans, have disregarded our world and fouled his kingdom.......and somehow he must sense this, because he doesn't throw us overboard.

The first of his new subjects is called and he is daubed with a foul smelling liquid......perhaps as a reminder of the putrid mess we have made. He must then kiss the fish that is dangling from a sinuous rope around the King's waist....perhaps reminding us that we are all tied together on this planet.

We wince in expectation of what will come next. Neptune calls out the first timers name and he is sprayed with the cold water of the south, which runs down his cheeks like tears.

We are on our way to the only continent in the world devoted to peace and science, a place of purity and the world's protection, so it was fitting that Neptune remind us of our responsibilities.

At 2am in the morning I am woken by one of the biologists......" Ice, Coral, Ice"......I run up to the bridge and we have entered the ice. When the sea ice freezes, it turns to crystals, heavy, salty crystals. As they bump into each other with the ocean's movement they stick together, creating little lumps that eventually look like salty pancakes. In the night, the crystals glitter. Eventually, these pancakes form together to create great slabs of sea ice. The formation of ice calms the water and we look like we are voyaging through folds in the ocean.

Pancake Ice

In the morning I am woken by a different movement of the ship.....We are now travelling through pack ice. Still in bed and looking through my porthole, I see my first penguins, scampering madly across the ice. We are very close to Mawson and soon are travelling through what is called iceberg alley.

All of a sudden the ice is also connected to land.....ancient rocky islands that surround the entrance to the harbour at Mawson. It is a completely alien landscape to me,,, and difficult to describe the awesome beauty. Enormous mountain peaks thrust up from the great banks of blue ice hugging the coast....and the ice plateau seems to me that it just rises straight out of the ocean and up. We start to see the buildings that are the station of Mawson. They will be very happy to see us, to receive their mail, fresh food, new people to talk to....and for some of them, this is their ship home.

All for now....... Ahoy, Coral.

Ocean and Plateau seen from onboard

DAY 18, THURSDAY MARCH 25th.

AURORA AUSTRALIS OUT FROM MAWSON,

ON ROUTE TO DAVIS.

AIR TEMPERATURE -16.5

WATER TEMPERATURE -2.1

Hi everyone,

We arrived at Mawson on Sunday and the ship creaked its way through the ice to stop 80 metres from the shore. The ocean in the harbour is starting to freeze over, so another small boat, called the Aurora Australis 11, was helped out of our ship by crane and it bashed and chugged its way through the ice to make an open ocean highway between the ship and land.

It was then the turn of the barge. This craft had also been sitting on the decks of the Aurora. Without the barge it would be impossible not only to bring people back and forth, but also to load and unload all the supplies. There are large containers of supplies and a crane on board our ship to move cargo. There is also a crane on land that then transfers the load.

Mawson Harbour from bridge

The buildings of Mawson remind everyone of leggo blocks. They are brightly painted to distinguish them in heavy snows and blizzards and everywhere there are heavy vehicles...trucks and special machines to traverse the snow. This man made dump of metals and coloured sheds is a strange contrast to the icy majesty of the plateau and ice surrounding it.

Monday morning .....It's time for us expeditioners to visit Mawson. This is where we really have to put on all those layers of clothes.... We feel like bloated blimps....It is so difficult to put on all your thermal underwear, layers of clothes, freezer suit, jacket, neck warmer, ear warmers, furred hat, gloves and those boots!...then...a puffed out life jacket. And we are all carrying essential items. We must take our first aid manuals, field manual, cameras, extra clothes etc......then we have to climb down a wooden and rope ladder from a hole in the side of the ship to the barge........I was very nervous!

We walk, like moon men through this strange place to 'The Red Shed'.

This is the living quarters of all the expeditioners of Mawson. We walk up steel steps and open the freezer door. This is the most amazing thing......all the buildings have freezer doors, only this time, outside is the freezer and inside is the warmth. You step into a room, where you take off all your cold clothing and hang it up. Everyone walks around inside here with socks on. The red shed has a very large kitchen and dinning area, with big windows looking out over the harbour and the plateau.....It even has a room full of dress-ups! There's a Doctor's surgery, with an operating theatre and a ward.....a library, communications area, a huge entertainment area with games and couches, a library, a cinema and a special little museum which is called 'The Dog Room'.....this is in memory of the huskies that used to be the animals that towed the sleds in Antarctica.

We visited quite a few different sheds in the afternoon. There is a hydroponics shed, where they were growing the best cucumbers and lettuces I've seen!

There is a communications shed, where there is a post office....(I have been collecting a sheet with different Antarctic stamps on it for you all), carpenters sheds, satellite and radar sheds...sheds for just about everything....and of course....all the sheds to do with the various sciences that are conducted in Antarctica.

In the afternoon the wind, Katabatic winds....straight from the plateau start to forcefully demand their way through......bringing with them, snow, which rushes past in gushes horizontally. The winds speed up past 50 knots and the visibility is very limited......a blizzard. It is fantastic to see, but really awful to be out in, although quite an experience. If any part of your skin is exposed, the cold and the force of the wind stings and is painful. It can blow you over, so everywhere you go there are ropes to hold on to. I spent the night at Mawson...and instead of having a room to sleep in I chose to make up a bed out of cushions on the floor next to one of the old stuffed huskies. When I woke in the morning, my view was sensational. It was a clear day and you could see right down the harbour.

Frozen lake on Plateau, glacier behind

In the afternoon I was offered a trip to the plateau. We travelled in a Hägglunds and went straight up the slope of the ice. We visited mountain peaks and valleys with ice lakes and rocky moraines. Walking on the ice is the most extraordinary experience.......and the ice is blue and green, sometimes with large cracks, crevasses, where the ice has been under stress and moved....sometimes, you can see the air and soils trapped within it. It is absolutely beautiful, and all of us on this trip realise what a privilege it is to visit here. We walked across ice lakes, electric blue waves of ice and over rocky screes.

Coral in front of Hagglunds and mobile huts.

Pen on paper as Hagglunds crosses ice and rock

Completely elated, we returned to the ship that night, but went back to the station the next morning.......A penguin biologist took us to a little group of penguins gathered in a rocky ampitheatre. Adélie penguins...they were moulting and little tufts of feathers were bursting out from their necks and feet. They are also meant to be grumpy when they are moulting.....but some of them came very close to us, just to have a look. On the edge of the sea, we played about in the frozen waves.

Leaving Mawson with some of the expeditioners, returning home to Australia, the winterers left behind run to the rocky peninsula and light flares...our ship gives two long blasts and the ice covers up the harbour again behind us. The evening is majestic. We push our way through mostly pancake ice and are treated to a display of icebergs, like an alley that we must travel through...so spectacular, like fallen cities......we also see seals and penguins. The Antarctic continent and its mountain peaks are still visible in our wake and the sunset brings to the ice and bergs every colour imaginable.

We are now headed for Davis......sea ice and icebergs.....now and then a seal and penguin and also some Killer whales today......every moment the ice and our view changes.....every moment is spectacular.

All for now.....Ahoy!.....Coral.

DAY 24, WEDNESDAY, MARCH 31st.

AURORA AUSTRALIS OUT FROM DAVIS, ON ROUTE TO CASEY.

AIR TEMPERATURE -2.1

WATER TEMPERATURE -1.8

Hi everyone,

Well as you can see the temperature has warmed up a lot.....it is almost tropical outside on the trawl deck.....especially in comparison to last Saturday when we experienced -21 degrees, and on Monday, when we had a blizzard that lasted nearly all day and we woke to snowy windows and we warned not to go outside.

We are heading north. It is difficult for any ship to travel through the ice and the journey is also very slow, so we have headed north to travel along side the coast and then will cut into the ice flows again at Casey.

We should have made it into Davis last Saturday but awoke to strong winds and poor visibility......we had what is termed a 'white-out'......where, because of the snow falling so rapidly you cannot tell the difference between the land or the ocean and the sky. We were surrounded by icebergs, so we had to literally 'park' in the ice for the night.

To get to Davis we travelled through the frozen ocean.....so thick that it was just like a huge frosted carpet. From the Bridge, it looked as if we were some alien craft sailing just above the surface of a desert. As we pushed our way through, large cracks in the ice opened before us. But on Sunday morning we awoke to another beautiful, clear day in Antarctica. The skies are so soft here and we could then see how close and how many icebergs there were. Great large flat (tabular) bergs that had broken off from the glaciers, lumpy ones that had grounded themselves and jade bergs....these are the most incredible sight. They can be anything from a limy green to aqua and dark jade to blackish. They are old bergs of frozen sea ice.

Getting to Davis was an experience. We walked down a small gangplank and straight onto the frozen sea ice. With small drifts of snow lying in gutters on the ice, sometimes, in all our heavy gear and boots it made for a tiring walk. One of the things you quickly notice in Antarctica is that our idea of space and time changes. We could see Davis from the ship...it looked really close, but in fact it was nearly a 2 km walk across the ice. I walked with a biologist, and when we got closer to Davis, I could see a brown blobby mass on the ice........."They're the elephant seals", she said. Close to the blob were two black slug looking things rolling and thumping a way forward to the group. Standing before these remarkable creatures, the first thing you notice is the stench. They lie in wallows of poo, snorting and burping and growling and farting.....their breath like steam trains. Some of them can weigh up to 3-4 tonnes. They are continuously jostling and arguing with each other for space and open up their large mouths, displaying teeth that look like little vampire fangs. They are really beautiful and awesome....they are the deepest diving mammals of the ocean and were here (males only) in their wallow to moult.

Davis was similar to Mawson with its scattering of brightly painted metal buildings....but it had smaller buildings that were used as bedrooms for expeditioners, and small wooden board walks between them......and even though at this time of the year everything was covered in a deep layer of snow, we were aware that the elephant seals were wallowing in what is termed a beach and the little metal buildings looked more like beach shacks.

I was taken up to view the area by helicopter. This was fantastic as you could see from a glaciers edge through the hills to the plateau and out to the frozen ocean and icebergs. Davis is set amongst the Vestfold hills. A series of ancient hills and lakes and fjords. Everything is covered in snow and ice now, except for some lakes which are the saltiest lakes in the world and never freeze over. There is also, amongst the Vestfold hills there is a lake — with the world's freshest water. Fresh water and salt water lakes are side by side dotted everywhere. We flew out and around and hovered over the icebergs and then back to Davis.

Leaving the station, we picked up another 20 expeditioners to bring them back to Australia....and everyone waved goodbye to the 'winterers' left behind as the ship cut its way through the ice. They were at the edge where the ice and sea met, travelling on their 4 wheeled motorbikes, called quads......There was a huge orange moon and lots of electric blue icebergs.

Just out of Davis two expeditioners pulled from a crate a big box....inside it was a statue of a seeing eye dog.......this dog has a tale to tell. It has been kidnapped and sent between the stations of Antarctica for years....its name is Stay...so we are very happy to have stay on board with us now.

One day out of Davis and we crunched and drove our way through some heavy pack ice.....some adélie penguins and seals, but mostly birdlife, the petrels and albatrosses......but we were stopped by a blizzard. We finally clear the eerie vacum of the snow and wind and head for the open water. There are little patches of ice, but it allows our Krill scientist to try to catch some krill. Krill form the staple diet of squid, fishes, whales, penguins, seals and birds. Tonight an Antarctic petrel flew onto the deck where they were fishing and vomited up about 8 little krill......our catch was not much better than that.

Ice drawing

It will take many more days, possibly another 4 to reach Casey and I know you will all be heading off for the Easter break. We have not forgotten about Easter and apparently Easter bunny does not forget about us either.........I'll be able to tell you about that soon, but from the air, looking back at the tiny orange speck that is our ship....and in a blizzard....you really come to realise how tiny and lost we look.

I did a drawing for the Australian Antarctic Divisions Web site.....don't forget to look that up. It also has pictures of King Neptune and some tales about our voyage.

I will try to get some of your answers sent back to you before the Easter holidays.......until then.....AHOY, ........ Coral.

DAY 36, MONDAY, APRIL 12th.

AURORA AUSTRALIS OUT FROM CASEY, ON ROUTE TO MACQUARIE ISLAND.

AIR TEMPERATURE 0

WATER TEMPERATURE 0.5

Hi everyone,

The environment is the total master in Antarctica. It is the most inhospitable place on earth for humans to survive and everything is ruled by the environmental conditions.

We, being most expeditioners aboard the Aurora Australis and the ship itself, never reached the Australian station of Casey.

At this time of the year, the ocean surrounding Antarctica is beginning the yearly cycle of freezing. Although some of the ocean remains frozen all of the year, the growth of ice in Autumn is rapid and can be unpredictable.

We were always told that it would be difficult to get into Casey......It proved impossible.

The Captain and crew tried for well over a week to try to bring the ship through the ice. This was an extraordinary experience. The pack ice is very thick and often the ship will have to reverse and try to ram its way through to thinner ice, or to create cracks. The helicopters that we had put on the ship at Davis station, for a winter return to Australia, were sent out many times to look for 'leads' through the ice. (Open patches of water, cracks or thinner ice.)

Apart from the ice, there is the weather. We have meteorologists aboard that make weather predictions and also receive sophisticated satellite images of the ice and weather.........At one stage it was clear where our ship was, but there was a blizzard at Casey. We were then 80 nautical miles from Casey. For days we worked our way through the ice and some days, our path only increased by 6 nautical miles. We stayed 80-100 nautical miles from Casey and could not find a way through.

This meant helicopter flights. Everything, including all the fuel that the station needed, had to be loaded into the three helicopters and flown the distance. All the expeditioners returning home, their work and luggage.....and refuse from Casey was returned to the ship by helicopter also. Everything then, is dependant on the weather.

Blizzards were continuously predicted and so they call any clear weather, 'windows'.

Any opportunity must be taken and everything done fast.

In Antarctica, there is a saying......'Hurry up and wait'......You must continuously wait for the right conditions.....and when you have them....you must GO!

Unfortunately, I did not get to Casey for these reasons but have managed to talk to many of the returning expeditioners.

Ice drawing

But, in the Ice was marvellous. We had days of fantastic weather where the ship was and we would wake and spend the day in enormous, thick ice flows, great icebergs looming out on each horizon....and some animals coming to play around the ship. This is the time of year when many of the Antarctic animals leave the continent to feed....to return again in the Spring and Summer. But we still saw some whales and penguins and the occasional seal, resting on ice flows.

The ice continuously changes and so does the light and it is always fascinating, if not freezing. We received extremely cold temperatures.....but when the sun is shining and there is no wind.....and you are dressed correctly, you can spend quite a bit of time outside.

I felt very sad leaving the continent and the ice and on our last night travelling the edge of the ice flow, the snow was falling softly like a gently goodbye.

We are now heading north east to Macquarie Island. A sub-antarctic island with many and varying plant species and animals. We will only be at Macquarie Island for a day or two.....when I will get a chance to visit some animals.......and then return to Hobart.

Don't forget to look on the Australian Antarctic Divisions web site for more information of our voyage......

Until Macquarie Island.....AHOY,..........Coral.

DAY 43, MONDAY APRIL 19th.

AURORA AUSTRALIS OUT FROM MACQUARIE ISLAND ON ROUTE TO HOBART.

AIR TEMPERATURE 9.

WATER TEMPERATURE 9.3

Hi Everyone,

We made very good time, in the rolling Southern Ocean from Casey to Macquarie Island.....although very sad for many of us......leaving the ice behind.

We reached Macquarie Island last Thursday afternoon, but rough weather prevented us from going into the harbour, or from going ashore. The next day was spent just cruising up and down the length of the island.

Macquarie Island rises up in great mountain peaks from the ocean. 30km long, it looks like some long dark scar. The wind was blowing up to 40 knots and so it was too dangerous to rigg up the helicopters to fly in and impossible to put in the small rubber crafts into the water.

We sailed up the west side of the island from Antarctica, where part of our work was to map the ocean floor. A signal is sent out from the ship, sonar, and is translated like a tracing of the depth of the ocean floor below us. It was all very exciting stuff, especially when, at one stage, the floor below us grew like a huge mountain....very quickly.

Weather changes here rapidly, and on the Friday, Macquarie Island received its first snow fall for the year, making the island a dramatic contrast of white, blacks and greens. We rose the next morning, early, expecting fine weather and I was on one of the first helicopters to the island. It was a very short flight, but quicker and easier than taking a small boat. Flying over the station you could see so many elephant seals, lying like little slugs on the black sand.

Macquarie Island is protected under World Heritage and is also administered by National Parks and Wildlife Service, Tasmania. But the station and the science and support are all part of The Australian Antarctic Division. Most of the day was spent transferring cargo and supplies back and forth to the island......I was lucky, I could go off walking.

For safety, you must always go with another person....and so a group of us walked to a nearby penguin rookery. There are many species of penguins at Macquarie and many seals....and like in Antarctica, there are strict rules to how close you can come to approaching wildlife......the only problem is telling the animals that.

We approached a rookery of King Penguins. Wonderful, curious creatures. Not as large as the Emperor penguins, but very colourful yellow and orange feathers under the throat. They also had some chicks. Lying low and keeping our distance...they still waddled up to us....and called to us continuously.

The elephant seals are everywhere. No one has told them the difference between a roadway and a beach....so you must be very careful as you walk around anywhere. The males are enormous and can be frightening, but the females, although smaller can also be angry with you when you approach. It is impossible to walk around Macquarie without winding your way through the wildlife.

The beaches are black sand and there are beds of black, smooth rocks. Forests of Kelp cling to the island and it is also covered in many varieties of plants. The mosses and cushion plants were my favourites and were growing right to the ocean. The tussocks are fabulous long clumps of grass that act like soft beds for many seals and become dividers in the wet paths....that often turn into wallows for the seals.

Macquarie Island is wet......for us it was the first rain in nearly 7 weeks. It also is very smelly. The elephant seals poo everywhere. The beaches are littered with the bones of dead animals, and the skies are full of birds. The rare wandering albatross also lives here. At night, the King Penguins would swim out to the ship and you could hear them calling out. Seals, fur seals, would swim round and round the ship.

Our cargo finished by Sunday afternoon and we leave Macquarie, heading for Hobart. We hit giant swells in the ocean and many people, including me, are feeling sick....but we are on our way home....our cameras full of images....and our minds. My books full of drawings and writing....and every one of us rewarded for a truly wonderful experience.

Some of the expeditioners have not been back to Australia, or their own home country for nearly two years....for others, it is only a few months, but everyone now is excited by going home.

Thank-you for all your emails and for sharing the voyage with me.

Ahoy,

Coral Tulloch