The Way Back

I have to apologize for not posting recently. I was going through penguin withdrawal and was very busy... and lazy. I'm writing this from New Jersey with access to far quicker internet which is also very motivating.



Our departure from McMurdo was very undramatic. We went around the turning basin that the ice breaker had formed for us, and maybe a few kilometers off shore we parked for more than a day to refuel the Vladimir Ignatyuk.

This meant we got to sit there, and look longingly ashore.

 

Refueling In Ice

The Turning Basin

We also got a chance to take some pictures with that banner I mentioned way back, which I completed with Kate.

 

 The Awesome Engine Room

When all that was said and done, frankly, we were all tire of ice and the sun. Looking outside at one in the morning to find the sun up high was maddening rather than exciting at that point. Thankfully the weather on our way back north was mostly cloudy and snowy/rainy, so we weren't to see much of anything anyways.

The Fantastic View From My Window

Sunset!?!?

In the meantime we had stopped being tourists and returned to our duties as cadets.

 

D. Simmons!

The banner also lead to some interesting side projects....

 

Our next port was Brisbane, Australia. Then it was up in the air whether or not the Peary was headed for Singapore or South Korea. We had to make a decision at this point where we were going to get off ship. While South Korea would have been awesome..... we wern't allowed to miss the first few days of our semester so Brisbane became our final destination. Since Brisbane is more or less directly above McMurdo, this also meant that our return journey would be quite shorter.

This meant we had to cram in some life-at-sea moments. We succeeded in seeing groups of fly fish (they look like bubbles at first glance) super man across the water infront of the bow and were keen on catching the green flash, but it was too cloudy for that to happen.

 

Learning to navigate with Stars