28 January 2025
We arrived at the refinery in Geelong and embarked stores, including fresh fruit, vegetables, milk, and bread. All crew members were called to the gangway to help bring the stores aboard. The stores were spread out from where they were placed on the wharf, all the way to the freight lift, which then transported them down to the chefs. It didn’t take long for everything to be on board. As we passed the stores along, we got a good look at the fresh fruit and vegetables we’d be eating over the next two weeks!
Next day we took on fuel, specifically polar fuel, which will be used by the personnel in Antarctica.
We then sailed from Geelong. It took about four hours to navigate through the harbour and back out through the Rip. Once clear of the harbour, I went to the bridge to get the Rutter navigation system up and running again.
As we left Geelong, we conducted a MOB (Man Overboard) muster, followed by a "Fire" damage control exercise in the evening, which was just a drill.
Sunday was a ‘Sunday Sea’ day for the ship. For those not on duty, after breakfast and cleaning stations, they were free to dress down and relax. For the rest of us, it was a busy day working with the Rutter nav system, going through manuals, and sending updates to DST for further analysis.
We deployed the first SOFAR wave buoy and our first Global drifter was deployed soon after.
The science team has been discussing the journey of seawater as it enters the ship, passes through the sea strainer, and then moves through the ship’s systems. Since the water passing through the strainer may contain creaturs, algae, it’s possible that we could be getting eDNA samples from them.. To better understand what’s coming through the ship’s systems, we’re planning to collect a few samples directly from the ocean. We’ve been brainstorming ways to do this—one idea is to use a bucket, though the handles aren’t strong enough for towing behind the ship. We then thought about putting sponges in a bucket or pipe, dragging them behind the ship to let water pass through holes in the container. The sponges will go into a bra bag inside a laundry bag, and this setup will allow us to compare water samples directly from the ocean to those that have passed through the ship’s systems. We still need to clear this idea with the Command team—especially since we’ll be dragging a laundry bag of science behind the ship for an hour. We also have to consider the discharge from the Sewage Treatment System and its location on the ship.
That’s all for now :-)
-Sara