A journey’s end

By: Chad King

As at 0600 on Thursday morning, we have finally started our voyage back to the RV Investigator’s home port of Hobart. After a bumpy start with roughish conditions (by my standards anyway), we have been blessed with clear skies and smooth conditions ever since. It does take a few days to find your groove dealing with the constant motion of the ship, however once you have found your routine and your system has adjusted to the changes everything becomes normal pretty quickly.

Personally, I felt like I was on a learning binge for the whole time I was on board. To be able to have access to highly specialised scientists who were fully immersed in their areas of expertise has been a unique experience. In addition to the sea bird and sea mammal surveys, we mapped over 450km² of marine seafloor around Wilson’s Promontory, attained and investigated sea floor sediment grabs, and were provided with detailed explanations of the inner workings of the ship and crew. All this has given me an abundance of ideas to take back into the classroom for the benefit of my students.

I’m looking forward to staying in touch with my fellow educators and scientists I have met on board and overall it has been a very worthwhile and valuable trip. Nevertheless, I am looking forward to getting home!