Day 20 - Live Horse Races on Board - Melbourne Cups

The morning on board of the Aurora Australis started with another Recci flight of the helicopter, checking on the route we have been taking and ensuring that we are actually following the leads which will get us out of the heavy – thick sea-ice and out into the polynia and closer to our destination. The Recci flight confirmed that the direction we have been taking has gotten us closer to our destination and provides new imagery for the ships crew to find the best way out of this constantly shifting maze of thick ice, which we can pass, thinner ice, which we can push away and cut across, and small channels along we can cruise like a cruiser boat on the channels of Ireland.

Aside from the routine operation of breaking ice and making progress towards our destination, today is Melbourne Cup. Assemble a bunch of people of all ages and all trades on boat and you will unleash a lot of creativity. Events like Melbourne Cup are most suitable for such an unleashing of creativity. We had a live horse race with one horse and one jockey, a lot of nicely dressed up people of the High Aurora Society, we had bets running and most of the money was going towards the good cause of Camp Quality, the fundraising favorite on the ship.

The afternoon I spent an hour or two on deck. We were sailing through some thinner – may be 20 cm thick - sea-ice – making great progress. Standing on the back of the ship looking out over the ice, watching some penguins and philosophing about how old this ice may be, I was fully aware that this most likely will be our last day cruising seemingly effortless through the ice. It was stunning to watch the unique pattern of each ice floe, to watch the reflection of the sky, clouds and sun.

A briefing in the early evening after dinner confirmed that we had made excellent progress and that we are expected to arrive at the fast ice edge close to Davis Station in the Early Morning. While most of us will disembark and stay at Davis Station a few of us will be heading onward from Davis to Mawson Station by aircraft. The delays caused by the slow progress through the heavy pack ice zone – prediction of us encountering some of the heaviest ice conditions in a long long time were correct – gave some urgency to a speedy onward travel. With this we were asked to prepare for a fly-off in the early morning – weather permitting off course. With this we had a couple of busy hours ahead.

Making sure that everything was packed properly, correctly labelled and accounted for. Emptying out our closets and packing everything into our bags. Sorting through our equipment and packing a few selected items which had been in our WOV – Wanted on Voyage – cargo to have the equipment ready for the fly-off. Some of the equipment which we wanted to have handy was some camera gear and associated accessories. Flying along the coast line I wanted to get good imagery of the Amery Ice Shelf as well as the adjoining coastal area. This also meant to top up and double check our batteries and making sure that everything is fully charged and ready for take-off in the morning. Taking a few more pictures of another spectacular sunset, was just obligatory. Then it was off to bed, mostly the last night for some time on this ship.