Friday 21st March 2014

Today was a very busy day today. I had a lot of small jobs to get done and I worked hard and fast all day. I cleaned the whole operations building ready for the new crew and sorted out a heap of emails and last minute stuff. The ship has now left Davis station and is now sailing towards Mawson so we could expect the first flights on Monday.

Slushy FM hasn't been working for the past couple of weeks and I tracked the fault down to a faulty instreamer, so I reprogrammed a new one and replaced the faulty one and it seemed to work fine. After this I did what might be my last geo-mag observation. Once again today was bloody cold at around minus seventeen. The weather this year is colder than last year but with less wind and so far we have had only one mild blizzard. Compared to last year there is very little snow laying around also. I knocked off just in time for dinner and then later a heap of us watched a couple of David Attenborough documentaries.

Some statistics on the amount of fuel used at Mason station between JAN to DEC 2013:

126 x 200L drums of ATK (Special Antarctic blend jet fuel)

Out of these 126 drums, 68 were for Aviation, 2 for the outdoor Spa, 6 for "KATHY" the D7H Dozer and 50 for the Hagglunds = TOTAL 25,200L.

394,985L of SAB (Special Antarctic blend diesel)

Out of 394,985L, 344,024L was used in the power generators and 50,961L were used in boilers, incinerator, vehicles, plant, etc

The massive foundations of one of the wind turbines

This monument is part of the old station. I'm not sure what it is, I think it is a compass or represents the globe. If anyone knows the history, please let me know.