The view from the porthole is overcast and dull. The rise and fall of the horizon through the window tells me that the trawl deck is closed. This is a chance to read in bed and I am immersed in an account of Mawson's Australasian Antarctic Expedition, “Lady spy, gentleman explorer: the double life of Herbert Dyce Murphy”, by Heather Rossiter.
In 1911 in the same month as we visit these latitudes, a ship, also called 'Aurora', was on a scientific quest. With just 0.04% of the continent edge ice-free, there was jubilation when the rocks of Cape Denison in Commonwealth Bay and its small harbour were sighted and the expedition could make a landfall to set up a base for exploration. On arrival "The Aurora lay listless in an azure sea, in the blue sky only a few fleecy clouds stole away southward. The sun blazed down..." a view of Commonwealth Bay that we shared.
As Mawson's group began landing stores the weather suddenly turned. Gales sprang up and the katabatic winds howled off the ice dome relentlessly as they would for the next year, turning the hut into a prison, frustrating work plans and making the Home of the Blizzard legend.
The decks of the Aurora Australis stay closed and it is not until lunchtime that a large low pressure system passes over us. In the middle of the system conditions calm and a course is set for station 59 in the hope of sneaking in a quick trawl. The first failed but a number of CTD drops were made and a later trawl at 60a was successful.
By 2300hr the low is sweeping across us, the gales are back up to 50knots and we are bumping down the backs of steep waves again.
Work remains on hold.
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).