15-March
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| We're famous! |
Ship’s Log: All secure alongside Birch St. Wharf.
Ship’s Position: 45°52.8’S 170°30.4’E, Voyage 1751 nm
Our last day in Dunedin. Unexpected weather courtesy of Cyclone Pam has kept us in port, but it’s the opportunity to have a final field day and clean up from the thousand feet who had tramped our soles. A sole cleansing is good for soul cleansing. Assignment deadlines are quickly approaching, and many of us our wrapping up our research papers to turn in. Lauren’s cooking never ceases to amaze: meatloaf! Our final episode of landlubbing included an adventure to the botanical gardens.
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| Look we're famous! (Photo credit Geoffry White) |
16-March
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| Emily and Chris in foul'ies |
1315
Ship’s Log: C watch has the deck, steering 325 psc. 1330: gybed to 020 on a starboard tack, passed the stays’s. Wind SSW F4, seas S 2ft, lookout posted forward
Ship’s Position: 45°47.1’S 170°43.3’E, Exiting Otago Harbor, Voyage 1762 nm
A delayed departure due to heavy rain allowed us to present our oceanographic research projects down below. All hands in foul’ies at GQ to get underway. The passage was not as magnificent as coming into the harbor with the fog and clouds, but at the mouth of the harbor C watch took the deck and set the sails, catching the cool southern breeze. It was a cold and windy watch, but it felt good to be sailing again.
Crew ready for weather, mollymook swooping
17-March
0300
Ship’s Log: Steering 055 psc under stays’s and stormtrys’l. Speed 6.7 kt, winds S F6, seas SSW 6’, clouds 8/8.
Ships’s Position: 45°04.7’S 172°23.8’E, 59 nm of Oamaru Harbor, Voyage: 1847 nm
1900
Ship’s Log: Steering 060 psc under stays’ls, speed 7.2 kts, wind SW F7, seas SW 8-10’, clouds 4/8.
Ship’s Position: 44°36.6’S 173°17.1’E, 45nm SxE of Banks Peninsula, Voyage: 1907 nm
Final Dawn Cleanup this morning, the wind has been picking up over the day, and at several points we were hove to in order to change sail plans, including the setting of the stormtrys’l, a small sail that takes the place of the main and is easier to handle in heavy weather. After a while of drifting, we set our compass for north again, the ship was taking some rollers of up to 30 degrees! Waves crash over the side, and in the darkness the deck blinks with flashes from the upset copepods. Several hours after sunset, our mate Stu soon realized the horizon was still illuminated with an eerie green glow. We soon realized we were seeing the aurora australis! Green yellow and red bands came out from behind the clouds, and many on deck simply stared south in awe.
Rainbow off the Banks Peninsula
18-March
0700
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| Helm star Helen! |
Ship’s Position: 43°49.3’S 173°22.8’E, 13nm from Lyttleton Pilots Station, Voyage: 1982 nm
Per usual, C watch is ready to bring the Seamans into port. We spent the morning furling sails, downrigging safety lines, and doing wakeups. At lookout I got blasted by sideways rain, but off to port was the Banks Peninsula, with rare spots of sunlight on the hills, and a rainbow ahead guiding us to port. A pilot boarded the ship outside the entrance, as they maneuvered in the seas to come alongside. The rain eased as we were called to general quarters, and we performed a successful docking, hands to docklines and fenders. Unfortunately, our neighbor on the wharf is a bulk carrier of wood pulp, raining down in clouds of dust upon the home we so pridefully kept clean and shiny. Tonight an emotional swizzle (farewell party) included a toast to Neptune by our captain Eliot, singing, poetry, acting, and ship-trivia. Standing my last dock watch, I navigated the maze of the engine room and said goodbye to the nooks and crannies of my little home, not quite ready to disembark into the wider world.
Swizzle party with MC's Matt and Chris, Eliot's trivia
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| C watch! (photo Helen Dufel) |
0900
Ship’s Log: Ship secure in Lyttleton Harbor, Class S257 Departs Ship
Ship’s Position: 43°36.3’S 172°43.2’E, Voyage: 2005 nm
Today marks the last of Lauren’s cooking, a farewell to my cramped bunk, and a condemnation to dry land. Luckily, my shipmates and I shared a rainbow over the quarterdeck wishing us well, group pictures on the foredeck, and goodbyes to the crew who taught us so much. All of us are bound for Christchurch, where the final farewells would eventually take place, but we all crammed into a bus to leave our floating home behind, soon to be loved by a new group of sailors, who will keep her shipshape and mung-free. These farewells aren’t forever, since we are all sure to cross paths again back home, but it seems that the voyage has come to an end, and I nor anyone else is likely to be the same again after our adventure on the sea.
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