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Indica's Antarctic Adventure journal * 2
    #15607709 -

Well I'm going to use ol' faithful Shroomery to document this trip. Might keep a blog on tumblr or something as well but figured you guys might appreciate it.

So today just got down to Hobart. After a couple of ship delays from bunkering issues on Macquarie Island getting fuel ashore, she finally docked today on Hobart. 4 of us crew members were flown in early to Hobart, Tasmania to do helicopter safety training, basically just how to work around helicopters, some of our work will involve loading passengers and cargo/luggage from the vessel onto these helicopters both by long line and compartment storage.




Pictures from training at the airfield

The helicopter training was pretty cool, to have this helicopter come flying in at full speed and having to walk underneath it as it's hovering and have it inches from your head and having to attach the long line to the hook underneath... I've been told at sea this can be pretty exciting because of the movement of the ship as well as the helicopter and in wind can get quite dangerous...


So after the quick little one day course we went to do a quick drug & alcohol test (all clear..) and shacked up at a nice hotel for the night and wait to join the vessel tomorrow morning. We will be sailing Thursday night at 2200. It will be a 6 week voyage to drop these scientist, surveyors & politicians/camera crews off down at the ice and then do 2-3 weeks Marine Research which is basically just trawling the ocean for whatever they can pick up for study. Other than this I have no idea what to expect, all I've been told so far is;

24 hours of daylight down in Antarctica this time of year (so won't get to see any Aurora's :sad2: )

we will be working 12 hours shifts, back to back with a day and 'night' crew

We will be doing a lot of loading, chipping ice off the deck/helipad, deck maintenance, a lot of refuelling work and whatnot. Been told we do get to get off onto the ice and fuck around/take photos and whatnot

Seeing as it's summer down there there is going to be heaps of wildlife, the helicopter pilots today said there is 'shitloads of penguin activity' so they've been asked to keep their helicopters away from colonies... also there will be heaps of whales, seals etc down there as well.

On the trip back there is a chance we might see the japanese whaling fleet as well as the Sea Shepherd's, a mate of mine who used to work on this ship said there's been times when they've had to go and aid the Sea Shepherd's if they run into strife.

Looks like I've been lucky enough to land a really good crew, the guys I did the training with today are good blokes, and I've been told the rest of the guys are really really good fun as well...

I've been told there is a chance I might get to stay on when the voyage ends and do the second stint which will basically lead to a 3 month swing. I'll see how I feel at the end of it...

I don't get internet or anything until we actually get down to the ice and pick up wifi off the base. So I'll come back and update/post more pictures as soon as I can



I got myself a canon 7D with some really good lenses and microphone, as well as HD GoPro Hero2 camera so I'm looking to get some really good footage.

I'll keep you guys posted... try and post tomorrow night or Thursday as we're leaving with some pictures/videos of onboard and what we kind of do and shit....

Speak soon

Edited by indica (01/02/12 09:39 PM)

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15607739 -

lucky bastard. :grin:

have a good time mate


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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: rackem]
    #15607766 -

Keep us updated on your adventure man, id like to know what happens
:awebig:


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http://i.imgur.com/kv7JN.gif

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: rackem]
    #15607787 -

Thats awesome man, Glad you ended up with the all clear.


Looking forward to some koota pics with the new camera.


I'm bloody jealous ay.

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: Shroomeup]
    #15607796 -

haha I only know a few people that say koota :thumbup:

I reckon we would know a few of the same people being from the same town in tassie.. (dev)

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15607904 -

How did you manage to get a job like that?

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15607945 -

I wanna go to Antarctica but will probably be starting in Argentina.

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: ganjasmuggler]
    #15607965 -

I've been working on ships for about 5 years now. Usually a shipping company will advertise through a union or 'word of mouth' or if they are desperate they will advertise for jobs on board, ranging from cooks/stewards, deck/engine room ratings (me) or deck watchkeepers/officers/cadets/engineers.

Usually a shipping company website will have job applications on their websites... I'd forewarn you to research the company you apply for before applying because there are many many notoriously scrupulous companies that are absolute cunts to work for and have no problems letting their crew suffer under hard conditions (low wages, ships running without provisions/stores for long periods of time, massive amounts of time away with very little shore leave and general working conditions etc), cutting corners in the budget leaving ships poorly maintained and dangerous to work on etc which is a massive problem and is the main cause of a lot of shipping incidents at sea that you see on the news. Most if not all of those vessels you see hitting reefs and whatnot are what's called "Flag of Convenience" ship which is basically a ship registered in a third world country so the owner/company can dodge taxes and avoid having to pay certain set minimum wages or taxes on their cargo/ship etc... which result in a lot of other problems like poorly trained crew etc.

AUstralia is pretty lucky we have some of the best conditions and wages in the world to work under in the maritime sector due to our unions constantly sticking up to companies trying to take advantage of immigrant workers coming in on low-wage work permits or even just whittling away at conditions on board. We've been pretty lucky and our union has done a great job keeping our conditions up to a respectable standard.

Edited by indica (01/02/12 10:29 PM)

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15608798 -

Nah bruv, I actually grew up in melbourne and most of my relos in devo are older cunts so I doubt we ever ran into each other

I suppose you'd need a fair bit of experience to score a job on that boat though ay?

Edited by Shroomeup (01/03/12 04:10 AM)

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: Shroomeup]
    #15608824 -

well I just went out with the new joining crew and the crew fresh off the ship off the last voyage... such a laid back bunch of people. the Bosun (my 'foreman') is an absolute tripper.... loose as cannon, was weird to rock up to this pub and have the captain, chief engineer an 10+ crew members absolutely loose as just catching up... such a change from the last ship I was on which was stiff as... all reports say this trip is going to be really fun and pretty casual with lots of laughs along the way... everyone is sweet.

Really looking forward to keeping this updated...

probably had a few too many bevergies so I'll leave this alone..


enjoy the festive season, fuckers

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15608835 -

does this mean you'll have internet access while on the ship? thats fairly cool.


did you get to fly in the helicopter??


i love being in helicopters man. it's a really strange feeling when the helicopter takes off, it just kind of rises up, almost like your levitating. and its awesome how if the helicopter has to move in any direction it has to like tip or lean and all that.


sounds like some dangerous shit though dude. be careful



and lol, koota is wide spread around my area as well


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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: Dosile Kouki]
    #15608845 -

no i won't be riding in any helicopters on this trip but in my job if I do any work in the oil&gas industry I will be flown in & out of rig tenders/survey vessles/AHTS in choppers which you have to do a HUWET course (Helicopter Underwarter Evacuation Training) which is a few days of god fun I hear... a few of my mates have been flown in & out of jobs on choppers and said it's a good rush but sucks when you know you're finishing a stint on a ship and not getting close to land so all you're waiting to see is a chopper coming in from the distance to pick you up and take you back to land....


choppers look like good fun,.. the pilots coming down with us basically load their choppers (we're taking down 3 choppers on our ship; 2 '76;s' and a 'squirrel') for ice reconnaissance and stores ops and basically just cruise down on the ship doing fuck all but basic maintenance, drive the birds then cruise on back and get paid out the ass for it...

if you want a sick job... get your chopper license!!! sounds like the biz!

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15608848 -

i don't know if i'd have the nerve for it to be honest. i'm easily shook and i dont think i have a steady enough hand to fly the helicopters properly. i have enough trouble on battlefield 3 tryin to fly the damn jets and helicopters as it is. lol. it looks really difficult to land a helicopter. i've been sitting in the front seat next to the pilot, and when your landing, you can't really see where the ground is properly or where the two leg sort of things the helicopter lands on are placed.

that seems alright though, kind of like being on a cruise ship before they have to start doing their flying and stuff.





i went on a helicopter tour in the nothern territory over ayers rock and the olgas, and that general vacinity. it was an amazing experience. only cost something like $80-150 or something too !


i remember when we were being briefed by our guide/pilot outside the helicopter at the airfield, he was saying to us something like don't worry, the helicopters blades are like 9 or 10 foot in the air, you can't get accidentally decapitated or anything. but i dunno i was always shit scared when entering and exiting the helicopter, full crouching down like gollum and shit just to be sure hahah



also i don't think what i was in was a full on chopper, it was some sort of smaller type of helicopter, not like one of the big search and rescue or reconaisence (spelling??) helicopters that you guys would probably have on the ship.


one cool thing about helicopters is they can hover in the air without really moving much. thats also a pretty cool feeling. take off is definately the best though. theres not really much g forces assosciated with the ride either, but then again we probably had a relatively tame pilot.


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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: Dosile Kouki]
    #15608859 -

you may have done your tour in one of those smaller choppers... im not too clued in on terms but the choppers we are taking are two '76's' which are 7 seaters which are the big fuckers


a medium lift chopper with 8 passsenger capacity

and a 'squirrel'



so three choppers in total which are going to be tightly stowed in the on-bard hangar which are there for strict purpose of ice-recon (flying ahead of the ship into the pack-ice to relay the condition of the ice so the ship knows where to navigate without getting stuck in thick sheets of it) and also primarily for taking passengers and cargo to the bases.... so its not tourist expedition shit it's pretty operational.

've dont a couple of chopper rides too and it's sick... unfortunately it looks like i wont get to do any flights down on the ice because obviously fuel resources are limited and they need to keep it pretty strictly operational but nonetheless we'll be working pretty closesly with them so it'll still be a bit of a buzz, plus we met the four pilots coming down with us today and they are all really cruisy dudes... can't imagine how much of a good job they must have

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15608861 -

btw the ship in the background of that first pic is the ship i'm working on

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: Dosile Kouki]
    #15608865 -

DosileFlynn said:
i remember when we were being briefed by our guide/pilot outside the helicopter at the airfield, he was saying to us something like don't worry, the helicopters blades are like 9 or 10 foot in the air, you can't get accidentally decapitated or anything. but i dunno i was always shit scared when entering and exiting the helicopter, full crouching down like gollum and shit just to be sure hahah



Yeah a friend of a good friend got his head taken off while getting picked up on a slope after a remote deer hunting trip in NZ. Its nothing to take lightly. A freak gust of wind could be all it'd take.

Still, choppers look koots fun! lol

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15608866 -

and you should have seen the way this new pilot they just took on was flying this choppper today in the training course... even the senior pilot said "this guy knows how to handle that fuckin thing" he threw it around like a toy it was trippy as to see... apparently he had heaps of experience using them for the bushfire water-dumps and longline operations and it was just insane to see how he flew it like a toy.... looked crazyy!

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: Shroomeup]
    #15608868 -

they showed us the videos.. the '76's in the first pic has a really low rotor pitch which means the blades hang and spin really low over the front (as you can kinda see in the pic) of the chopper meaning you can only approach from the sides... the squirrel is pretty safe in that it spins evenly you can approach from side and front.... always need to keep head low and watch your surroundings though...

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15608887 -

Ive seen those bushfire pilots in action. Ya can tell those guys know there shit. doing that flat out days in a row they'd end up some of the best there is.

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Re: Indica's Antarctic Adventure [Re: indica]
    #15608890 -

indica said:
btw the ship in the background of that first pic is the ship i'm working on


The Aurora Australis. Ive seen that docked down Hobart next to Salamanca. Thats the CSIRO research ship right?


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Useful bulk substrate calculator

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