Written Sunday 16th December 2007

By Margot Foster

V3 finally left the Macquarie wharf in Hobart at 7:00pm after a delay of some hours.

We are sailing along the south-east coast of Tasmania. I spent some time on the bridge watching the coast slip by and houses thin out into the bush. It's now nearly ten at night and this is the last glimpse of land until we hit the Antarctic continent, pretty well due south.

This trip is all science and climate change. There are 52 on board involved in a range of projects. There are scientists from all over Australia, from France and the United States. The teams are setting up labs on the ship and running through gear because the first mooring deployment takes place tomorrow.

I have so much to learn.

A key word is 'benthic'... that is to do with the sea floor. The acronyms CEAMARC and CASO are the other big ones. We are contributing to a census of Antarctic marine life (or CAML), which involves trawls at great depth and a close examination of the catch. We are focused on the eastern part of Antarctica with CEAMARC (Collaborative East Antarctica Marine Census), trawling the ocean floor. As we go we are measuring the currents and sampling the seawater hunting for clues to climate change as part of the CASO project (Climate of Antarctica and the Southern Ocean).
The scientists are very excited and so am I. The ship is buzzing.

I am hoping for a white Christmas and if dreams come true I will be gazing up at ice cliffs from the monkey deck above the bridge on the 25th.

Margot Foster is a journalist currently on board the Australian Aurora Australis, an Australian research vessel currently participating in the Census of Antarctic Marine Life (CAML, IPY project 53). She works with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC).