Australia’s Antarctic supply ship “RSV Aurora Australis” icebound for three weeks

This mornings webcam from the ship shows a little clear water off the stern as it works at pushing through pack ice.
See my post from 23 Oct.
Their SitRep pages has them in pack ice in mid October. First reported by the ABC on 23 Oct – has anybody seen a report anywhere else ?
On 31 Oct AAD announced the voyage was delayed.

8 thoughts on “Australia’s Antarctic supply ship “RSV Aurora Australis” icebound for three weeks”

  1. Tuesday’s notes from the ship (www.antarctica.gov.au/about-antarctica/history/exploration-and-expeditions/modern-expeditions/diaries-and-stories/spotlight-on-the-sea-ice/breaking-the-ice) include…”A few of us have discussed ways of trying to free the ship from the ice, including dynamite (apparently it doesn’t work in ice) and putting all our energy into shovelling and drilling a big trench in front of the ship. However the pre-primary boys at Christ Church Grammar School in Western Australia have turned their problem-solving skills into some great ideas for our release. Here’s what they had to say.”….use a rocket, poles, drill, digger, steam, fire, knife, muscles, laser., boulders… to break the ice.

    Surprisingly not one of the students or crew suggested pumping out carbon dioxide to heat the local climate and melt the ice. Perhaps our junior school science education system isn’t as bad as I thought!

    Shsh AAD – do not mention climate change or a reason for this unseasonal ice build-up.

  2. They don’t seem to have reached Casey Base.

    Today’s sitrep

    For a while yesterday we were moving swiftly, however we have encountered a number of pinch points between ice floes which have significantly slowed us down. One pinch point alone took 11 hours to break through. Nonetheless we have steamed 30 miles north and west. We are making progress!

    So they are heading away from Antarctica.

  3. Well, this incident clearly proves that global warming is rubbish. Absolute rubbish.

    Actually, I was quite taken with the recent article on the Casey airstrip. I am sure that Warwick will have mentioned this one as well, but here is a synopsis :

    The Wilkins runway — carved into ice near Casey station, about 3400 kilometres south-west of Hobart — was commissioned under the Howard government and hailed at its 2008 opening by then Environment Minister Peter Garrett.

    But unexpected surface melt has sharply curtailed use of the summer-time airstrip.

    Instead of the up to 20 chartered flights by an Airbus A-319 predicted by the Australian Antarctic Division before the runway opened, only four flights landed last season. In 2010-2011 there were two.

    Read more:

    And this melting on the airstrip has been going on for two years. Hmmm … should I be concerned … no, this single pack ice incident means that I don’t have to worry.

  4. I’ve been arguing for years that the Arctic ice melt is primarily due to black carbon, almost completely absent in Antarctica. Except for that Casey airstrip. Planes taking off will nicely coat the surface with a thin layer of black carbon.

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