Hello there to the Students of Winthrop School, Ipswich, Massachussetts, especially to the classes of Ms O'Reilly, Ms Smith & Ms Adamo!!!!
 

PRESENT POSITION:  56 degrees South Latitude, 118 degrees East Longtitude
DIRECTION HEADING:  234 degrees (South West)
DISTANCE FROM TASMANIA: 1393 nautical miles (1582 miles)
DISTANCE TO ANTARCTICA: 627 nautical miles (712 miles)
AIR TEMPERATURE:  2.9 degrees Celsius (37 degrees Fahrenheit)
WATER TEMPERATURE: 1 degree Celsius (33 Fahrenheit)
WATER DEPTH:  1438 metres (4716 feet)
WIND SPEED:   28 Knots (31 Miles per Hour)
 

Well I'm still down here on the ship heading for Antarctica, it's a long trip!  We left Tasmania a week ago and still aren't there yet!

Even though we are in the middle of the Southern Ocean, there are still many things to see.  I go up to the bridge everyday, which is where the captain steers the ship from.  From there you have a great view over the ocean as we crash over the waves.  You wouldn't think there would be life out here, but there is!  There are seabirds flying around the ship all the time.  The biggest is also one of the biggest birds in the world, the albatross.  They look a bit like really big seagulls.  Their wings are so big that they almost never have to flap them, they can just glide over the waves.  In olden times, albatrosses were good luck to sailors, and they would never hurt them.  In fact when I was at school at about your age, we read a poem about that, "The Rime of the Ancient Mariner" by Samuel Coleridge, see if you can hassle your teacher enough to get her to read it!

There are also smaller birds flying around, graceful petrels and prions.  Some people have even seen penguins swimming in the ocean beside the ship. I haven't seen them yet, but I hope to soon.

Last night our ship, the Aurora Australis, lived up to its name.  My friend Dave was walking on deck at night, looked up and saw the Southern Lights (also called Aurora Australis).  He came down and woke me.  It was great!!!!  The Southern Lights light up the sky at night sometimes when you go far south.  It looked like a bright green cloud, which shimmered next to the stars.  It moved in waves across the sky.  I think it is caused by supercharged particles hitting the earth's atmosphere high up.

Yesterday was also an important day because we crossed the Antarctic Convergence.  This occurs at between 50-60 degress south, and is a section of ocean where the mostly cold fresher water of the Antarctic meets the warmer salty water from further north.  This has the effect of causing a big thick cloud bank where the hot and cold meet, so we couldn't see very far for a while!  Many very small animals and plants live in this nutrient rich part of the sea, so many birds, seals, whales and fish come here to feed at certain times of the year.  It stretches all the way around Antarctica like a big circle.

Yesterday was very important also because it was the day of the Melbourne Cup, the biggest horse race in Australia.  Australians love horse races, and more importantly they love an excuse for a party.  A tradition is to where a fancy hat, so many people made up hats out of cardboard.  One person made a model of our ship and wore it on her head (she won the hat contest!).  I just had a baseball cap with a small toy penguin and polar bear (yes, I know they are only in the North) tied to it. My horse didn't win the race, but it didn't matter as we had fun. We then had a barbecue on deck, which was cold but very yummy.

Talk to you soon.

Tim Page