15 February - at sea - 15 degrees Celcius - 47 degrees 21 minutes South

It's really starting to warm up now! We took a tour of the bridge this morning, which I found quite interesting. Most of the equipment is for safety rather than navigation, but the maps and charts are pretty cool.

Everyone is wondering when we will get into Hobart. I think a few of us would be pretty excited to get in the night before and look around Hobart. Still, an extra half a day in Antarctica would have been good too, but I guess you can't predict the weather well enough a week out to know we would have had such a good run back. Since Macquarie Island, the weather has been pretty calm and swells haven't been bad. The deck chairs are out and people are enjoying the sun.

We won trivia again, so we have now secured the title of overall trivia champions. Prizes, kudos and various hazzahs!

Now it's pretty much just a case of sorting out my photos, packing and relaxing before we get in. I am looking forward to warm weather, old friends and dry land.

At the end of the evening briefing, we got a call that whales were spotted off the port side, so we raced on deck to see three minke whales spouting and breaching through the water. The photos were pretty hard to capture, so it was more fun to turn it off and just watch the show. The captain cut the engines so that we wouldn't spook the whales and it was nice to have the silence and stillness of being at sea. I hadn't realised that I had got used to the vibrations of the engines.

In the evening, I wangled an invitation to the crew mess, which was probably one of the most fun nights I've had so far. Dad has come down with a little cold so he had to turn in early.