Polar Bird 13th November 2001

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The sleep was uneventful and the first night's sailing was fairly smooth. After a delicious breakfast the receding Tassie coastline could only be perceived by the dark grey clouds over the SW Ranges some 40km distant. The first day was surprisingly calm and sunny, dark blue sea. A large variety of different sea-birds could be seen all around the ship including several graceful albatross and shearwaters, gliding over the swell for minutes at a time. There was the first fire muster drill at 1p.m. and a group of us climbed up onto the bridge, bedecked with an impressive array of instrumentation. The Beaver Lake group poked around our WOV (Wanted on Voyage) stuff (primarily to see where it was) with Andy Cianchi, our jovial Field Training Officer (FTO). The recreation (TV) room on B deck was converted into a computer room with all and sundry furiously zapping off emails ahead of the 4 p.m. upload through the ship's satphone link. During the afternoon the swell picked up and the Polar Bird was starting to shudder as the bow crashed through the translucent green waves. Margie showed me a pictorial beaufort guide and we deduced the current status was Force 5, not too bad. Dinner was surprisingly good; Grilled Salmon, salad and cheeses. The bar was open tonight, down in the bowels below A deck and being near the centre of mass of the vessel, conducive for steady handling of the $1 Cascades. I took the pipes down to No.2 hold and gave them a birl, concluding that more practice was required and that the bag needed dressing again. A quiet evening watching videos in the rec room (Gattaca) while playing around with some new Garmin GPS software.

Position at 23:58 local time (UT +11hr) S 46°02'03" E 143°33'26"
460km SW of Hobart

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