Monday 27th May 2013

Today started off quite slow. I got up twenty minutes late and there was zero wind which got me thinking.

The morning was filled with the usual routine, APANSA, email etc. At smoko I asked Luc how long is this no wind going to last? He said probably till about Thursday which got me thinking.

Cookie announced the Colbeck trip was leaving tomorrow (Cookie, John, Peter L, Keldyn, Geoff and Peter C) and I thought bugger, that’s nearly half the station gone so not much chance of any more getting off station. Latter Cookie popped in to get a satellite phone and some battery’s so I popped the question of the possibility of Luc and I going to Auster rookery tomorrow, returning Wednesday and he said no problem as long as we have a fire team in place. So I went and asked Luc and he was stoked.

Next thing was to get all my paper work in and signed as I am now a trip leader so first I had to make it legal and official. Next was the trip plan, getting the quad bikes prepared and all the food and equipment ready. Right after lunch we had fire BA training for two hours which cut into my preparation time. I have got just about everything organised now. Tomorrow I just have to program two GPS units and get another map made up and then load up the quads.

I am hoping to be on the road by 0900 or 1000 at the latest. It should be a good trip and we are both excited to be going although it is going to be very cold out there and we expect full cloud cover both days and possible white out and very poor definition. We expect to see over four thousand emperor penguins there either breeding, looking for a mate or already sitting on eggs. It should be great. We’re taking two bottles of red and a bottle of port so it WILL be great.

Compulsory items we have to take;

• Quad recovery kit
• Quad bivy bag
• Mega bivy bag
• 10 litres of petrol
• 20 litres of water
• Ice drill and brace
• Two packs
• Four sleeping bags
• Two single bivy's
• Two mats
• Fuel spill recovery mat
• Two throw lines
• Two compass
• Two signal whistles
• Two signal mirrors
• Radio
• ELP
• Two GPS
• Spare battery's
• Two maps
• Two field manuals
• Two SAR manuals
• Two first aid manuals
• Two ice axes
• Two helmets
• Items listed as required for the hut
• Two piss bottles
• Two water bottles
• Four shit bags
• Two rubbish bags
• Micro spikes
• Emergency sea ice picks
• Enough food for emergency's
• Two fat basteds

Optional items to take;

• Camera gear
• Back pack
• Drinks
• Snacks
• Extra clothing
• Head torch
• Glasses
• Goggles
• Sun glasses

With all that crap its amazing the tyres don't pop!

And now it's time for some more trivia;

A new lowest windrun for the year happened yesterday 26th May. The windrun for that day was only 116 km. That gives us an average wind speed of only 4.8 kph!

Last month on the same day we had 2680.7 km for the same period with an average of 111.7 kph for that day!

(Windrun is the total distance travelled by the wind over a 24 hour time period).