13/02/13 Lauren & Melanie's Blog

So far week 5 has been a pretty hectic week. There has been a lot of diving – many turtle and shark sitings and some have started moving on to their methodology already, which means they will probably be surveying by the end of the week!  It was a very fun weekend with carnival happening in Victoria and our usual bbq night. There have been some decent donations towards the Cap T Charity Challenge putting James M in the lead, followed closely by Kate and Eden – hopefully there will be more donations this week so come on team!! To help out the volunteers feel free to donate at this link: http://www.justgiving.com/capTcharitychallenge.

We had to say goodbye to our dearest friend Bill, the fish geek extraordinaire. We saw him off with a special song called the “Cap Ternay Blues” composed by Billy with some verses dedicated to Bill. We will miss him heaps!  Here are some sample lyrics of the Cap Ternay Blues:

“Let me introduce you to Bill B

A fish geek extraordinaire can’t you see

He also loves sea urchins, but maybe too much

Hey Bill B, maybe next time you better not touch

Bill B loves his gin and tonic,

It makes him talk loud, which for a librarian is pretty ironic

He’s a laid back dude who goes with the flow

Hey Bill B we’ll miss ya, we don’t want you to go”

Week 5 has been very exciting also, as with the leaving of Bill came the arrival of some new volunteers Melanie, Maja, Rolph, Denise and Kais. It has been awesome having some new faces in the camp and we have been getting to know them over the last few days.

We, the new arrivals, got into everything pretty soon. We have already started our fish and coral studies and did some skills underwater for our advanced diver courses. Our first theory test is on Thursday and we are really looking forward to starting our fish study underwater.

There is also a lot of stuff to learn about life on base. Weekly duty groups got started and we did our first work on the compressor. We have been on our coconut and fruit walk, too. From the coconuts we picked up during the walk we made some amazing granola for breakfast which has been delicious. Today is our navigation diva at Port Launay and we’ll see if we are all getting back again.

13/02/13 Lauren & Melanie's Blog