Friday, February 16, 2007

12 February - at sea - 4 degrees Celcius - 56 degrees 18 minutes South

The weather has been quite choppy, 12 metre swells and 20 degree lists. It gets quite tiring and I'm really anticipating some calmer weather and terra firma at Macquarie Island. The good news is that we should arrive early tomorrow.

In the afternoon, a charity auction was held for the Antarctic Heritage Trust, that manages and conserves the huts of Scott, Shackleton, Mawson, et al. The first item up was a Gold Explorer Membership to the Trust, accompanied by a natty plaque signed by Edmund Hillary. Dad had his eye on it and its face value was $1000, so Dad and I were expecting a hefty price to be paid. After bidding, it all came out at $1000 though, and Dad was on top. Going once. Going twice. I was having none of that. The whole point of a charity auction is to make money for the Trust, not let them break even. So I placed a bid. It was a little controversial and Dad raised me, while giving me the dirtiest look I have ever seen and muttering that I better not do that again. In the end, I also picked up a Scott Base cap and a couple of old first editions of Antarctic adventurer's books. There was also some neat old maps that were bagged as a bargain. I think I'll have to explore some of the old map stores in Amsterdam when I get home. In the end we raised over $8 000.

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