Sunday 17th March 2013

I slept in late, did my washing and then wandered down to the green store for a spa to sooth my aching knees. It was fantastic; I relaxed reading my Cruising Helmsman magazine then wandered back to the red shed for some brunch. It was such a glorious day, blue sky and no wind. I was surprised to see half the harbour had frozen over. It wont be long till we are riding quad bikes over it.

After brunch, I took advantage of the good weather to finish off the six meter antenna and cables. I have put a pulley on top of the six meter mast so I can hoist up the antenna in good weather and lower it when it is windy. The system works well and hopefully it will last the year through all the blizzards and cold. By the time I had this finished I wandered inside the shack and made a few contacts and by then it was dinner time.

I woke about three o’clock and looked out the window and there was an Aurora taking place so I got up and went outside to have my fist attempt of photographing one. It was bloody freezing and I wasn’t exactly prepared and suffered the consequences. The photos looked good on the view finder, but I was disappointed when I got back inside and viewed them on the large screen. My focus was all wrong and I need to do a bit more home work, but I did manage to get a couple of reasonable shots for my first attempt. As far as Auroras go, this was a pretty piss weak one, but I want to hone my skills for when the really good ones light up the sky.

Horseshoe harbour freezing over

Sir Douglas Mawson and my first attempt of photographing an aurora