Just look at the latitude! We will be back in Australian waters tonight and arriving at the Hobart wharf early tomorrow morning. Everyone’s focus is on home now and those who can have been losing themselves in movies or sleep, willing the hours to pass.
Emails from managers are flying around the ship thick and fast. Quarantine paperwork is being finalized, the labs are packed up and cleaned, project reports are being written.
The day is mapped out for us. We have our Australia day morning tea at 1000. After lunch our last shipboard seminar will be a screening of a DVD of Jeff Hoffman’s work on the Sorcerer 2 yacht voyage with Craig Venter. (Jeff’s pitch is the great travel footage, but I know there’s also fantastic animation explaining how DNA of microscopic life forms is mapped.)
Straight after ‘Sorcerer 2’ we must return our Antarctic clothing issue in the ‘tweens behind the galley. The ice boots and gumboots and freezer suit and sunglasses, woollen shirt and fleece jackets must all be returned after lunch. The handy thermals, beanie and socks are a gift to us…a practical memento of our time south.
But there’s no time to be idle. The Master, Voyage Leader and Chief Steward will be conducting cabin inspections at 1530. So bathroom must be spick and span and floor vacuumed. May as well pack at this point.
The demanding schedule has me reaching for the diary again, something I’ve not done for six weeks. Must be nearly home. I’ll head to the deck and see if I can smell eucalyptus in the air…
ENDS (with thanks to all crew and expeditioners. I cannot imagine a more successful and happy voyage or a group of people more generous with their knowledge and expertise.)
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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).