After several months of training and preparation, we sailed out of Hobart harbour at dusk on October 20th in calm seas on the good ship Aurora Australis... affectionately known as 'the big orange bath-tub'. After spending a month training in the dead centre of Melbourne City, Hobart seemed a very small place... beautiful, but small. However sailing out through the mouth of the River Derwent on October 20th... watching the last streetlights and houses fade into black from the ship's trawl deck... that is where you start to comprehend what isolation is.
The first few days were perfect: calm seas, clear skies, plenty of bird sightings. This is where I saw my first wandering albatross, a pair in fact, flying (or rather gliding) off the back of the ship's heli-deck for several hours. In one particular period of unblinking observation, at least an hour, I didnt see them flap their wings once... amazing. 
Among other birds we saw several of these cape petrels (below). This one just hovered there for a good few seconds, about 2 metres away from me.
The small 2-3 metre swell also gave most people a fighting chance to find their sea-legs before the higher seas hit. 
Once the weather did turn, the winds picked up to around 50 knots and the seas peaked at around 8 metres... really quite manageable. In fact I was expecting a much worse trip, however due to luck more than anything we managed to evade the infamous wrath of the roaring 40's, fearsome 50's, and screaming 60's... in a way, much to my disappointment.
Aside from weather, we were fed well... too well; we had unlimited access to a small cinema (and a good choice in DVDs); a gym (although even in a 4 metre swell it was hard to use anything in there); darts board... again, interesting in a swell; and a small library. Despite all this my favourite past-time was to sit at the bridge (especially at night) and watch the birds and seas, or talk to the captain and crew... very interesting people if asked the right questions.
There is only so much time you can spend watching waves go under the ship though. Once my fears of seasickness passed I would sometimes pass the time helping out in the kitchen. Another interesting place. I was rewarded later be being given a cake they had cooked for me on my birthday. One night I didnt offer to help was October 25th. Despite some decent cloud cover this night, and a rising full moon, I was treated to an amazing light display. Sorry folks but no amount of youtube searches can really measure up to what a real aurora australis looks like. Even though I was told by some of the ancient mariners onboard that this aurora was just a teaser of things to come, to say I was impressed would be an understatement... think of a lime green ghost-snake weaving its way through the sky... no sound... very cool. One of the most amazing things I have ever seen! 
