After two months of training, two week of quarantine, and two days at sea, I was thrilled to find I didn’t get seasick. It’s my first time down south, which I’ll admit, can fray the nerves. Doing anything for the first time can be challenging, but being plucked from your home and separated from your family for a year is considerably more so. Toss in a pandemic, unpredictable climate, a new ship, and stir vigorously. It sounds daunting doesn’t it? Plenty of my friends, family and colleges thought so anyway. But being an AAD expeditioner is more than what’s printed on the tin.
It takes all sorts of characters to form the two teams I will be spending my time with as an expeditioner post training. The voyage team that I quarantined alongside, above and below our segregated hotel rooms, where we spent our Christmas and New Year’s. Online workouts, online yoga and online meetings prepared us for the time aboard our new ship. The MPV Everest, considerably larger than the retired Australis, was as new to the Southern Ocean as myself, but perfectly suited for the job.
As we cross 60 degrees south the voyage team prepares for the tasks they set out for on this, Voyage 1, refuelling and resupplying Casey Station. And before returning to Hobart to prepare for two more voyages south, four expeditioners including myself will be left behind to close out the summer and stay on through the Antarctic winter. With our winter team. Some I have met and some I have not yet. But if the ones I have are anything to go by - if the AAD voyage team are representative of expeditioners generally, I’m not worried.
Anxiety has replaced fearlessness as I have gotten older, which can make you feel seasick standing on dry land. Adventure seems more daunting. The captain of the Everest tells me that we are 1,433 kilometres from Casey Station and 2,429 kilometres from Hobart. A topographic map informs me nearly five kilometres of ocean depth lies below me. Rocking my cabin. Rattling the walls. Banging on the hull. All I feel is excitement.
Comments