Saturday 23rd November 2013

I had a nice sleep in today and forced myself up to go and do ARPANSA only to discover Richard had already done it. It was a really nice day outside but as usual there were no vehicles available so after a bite of lunch I headed down to the radio shack to see what was happening. All the bands were alive and I spent most of the afternoon working about ninety stations all over the world including Australia, Japan, USA and Europe. After dinner things were jumping at Kulb Katabatic and I ended up having a very late night.

The Emergency diesel generator

Friday 22nd November 2013

We rolled out of  Macey around nine thirty headed for Auster rookery. Once again the track wasn't too bad as we followed yesterdays Hag tracks as the snow was very deep. The sky started out nice and blue but soon the clouds crept in and it got very overcast. It didn't take very long to get there and like yesterday we passed many Weddell seals with young pups along the way laying around the numerous tide cracks.

The rookery had completely changed from last visit again, as they move when the area gets too messy. This time they were in two big groups, the one that we stopped by and another one way out in the distance. I walked about three hundred meter from the quads and moved in close and just lied down. In no time I was surrounded by about twenty curious Adult Emperor penguins.

The chicks were enormous and their wings were now as long as their entire body looking out of proportion. It was about minus three degrees and most of the chicks looked dead or dying laying on their backs or stomachs contorted with wings in the air, but they were just hot and trying to cool off. Their down must be so efficient keeping them warm and I was pretty hot myself.

It was great to just lay there and watch all the action. Their mannerism and antics are really amusing. The adults were hot too and all the birds were eating snow and trying to stay cool. After a while an inquisitive chick walked out of the crèche and came right up to me. It stayed with me the whole time and the adults had to keep it from touching me. It was great to watch it rolling in the snow and eating snow to stay cool. Maybe it recognized me?

After spending a few magic hours with the Emperor's for probably the last time, I walked up to where their tide crack used to be. I had closed up but there was another one open nearby that had a heap of seals around it with their hungry crying pups. They make a sound like a human baby trying to get a feed all the time. A couple of seals came in and out of the water while many Emperor's looked on.

Finally it was time to move on, so I headed back to the quads where the other guys were waiting with a group of Emperor's surrounding the bikes. We headed further east through the bergs to an interesting berg Darron wanted to get to for a close look. We had to negotiate deep snow and the other three blokes kept getting bogged requiring digging and pushing to get them out. After a while I got sick of this and rode ahead to blase a trail all the way to the berg and all the others just followed. Darron was the trip leader and I was responsible for riding in the rear to look after the two summerers. Anyway we got there quickly and it was a very interesting berg. It had a lot of moraine on top that was eroding it fast causing a huge pillar to be formed. It was quite interesting and we stayed a while to explore and take photos before heading off back to the coast.

On the ride back Darron lost the Hag track and the wind came up and the three of them kept getting bogged to the axles. I spent the next three hours constantly stopping to dig and push them out. One guy couldn't ride for quids and it was so frustrating, I must have pulled him out eighty times while I got bogged three times. On the way back we stopped at a striped berg to have a closer look and take some photos. By the time I got home I was exhausted and had a bad head ache but even so it was a great trip and so good to get off station after such a long time.

Thursday 21st November 2013

It was a perfect day today, zero wind and nice blue sky. Peter L took a few others out to Auster rookery and it must have been terrific out there. I spent the morning catching up on emails and sorting out a few small issues. The new tide gauge that the guy’s sent to me from Hobart arrived but the box was empty, so I’m still trying to sort this mystery out.

After doing ARPANSA I got my kit organised to head out to Macey hut tonight and onto Auster rookery tomorrow morning. In the late afternoon I did this week’s geo-mag observations and sent the results off. After dinner I rode the fifty kilometres to Masey hut with Darron, Ashley and Dean. The ride was pretty easy as we rode in the Hag tracks that returned this afternoon. 

I was surprised to see the hut surrounded by Adélie penguins, with some of them even sitting on eggs. The hut was pretty cramped with four people so I decided to sleep in the Apple on my own. I was having a really crappy sleep until I changed beds and then I slept like a baby.

What are all the extra people for?

When the Basler came in on the 5th November it took away five of our wintering team. The Doc, a plumber, an electrician, a deiso and my Communications Technical Officer. Off the plane came our summer crew consisting of a replacement plumber, a replacement doctor, a replacement Communications Technical Officer, two extra deiso’s and two extra electricians and a penguin biologist. 

We also got extra people only for about one month to complete two projects. A geophysicist and a field assistant that wish to install several GPS on remote Nunataks out at Richardson Lake about eight hundred kilometres south west of the station. So far the weather has been too bad for their aircraft to go out there to prove the landing so they might end up going all the way back to Canberra without doing anything. 

We also have a project manager, a glaciologist and an army surveyor who are here to do a feasibility study on the possible placement of a new hard snow ski way. So far they have only been out a couple of times and nowhere near the locations they were intending to go. If the weather improves this week they might be able to get out and complete their tasks. 

We also have an optical physicist who comes here every summer to do work on the Fabry-Perot Spectrometer. 

And finally we have an artist who has been sent down here to do paintings for a private exhibition.

Unfortunately I wasn't sent to Canberra with Chris my previous CTO to do geo-mag training before coming down here, and Chris’s replacement Richard was not trained either, so I had to do a crash course by Chris shortly before he left to keep observations happening until the new wintering crew arrive on V4 in February.

With so many people on station all having to do field training and survival training, sea ice travel training etc etc there has not been any vehicles available to get off station and it will be this way till seven of the project people fly out in about a week’s time, then with a smaller crew we can get to know the new summer crew better. 

Officially the sea ice will be closed next week even though it’s still over sixteen hundred mills thick, so I am hoping to get one more trip back out to Auster rookery to see how the Emperor penguin chicks are going. After this we need to write a JHA and have good justification and drill holes where ever we go.

Wednesday 20th November 2013

I woke up very tired this morning and was quite slow to get moving. After doing a lot of emails I decided to reinstall the new tide gauge sent down on V1. I went for a long walk down to the sea ice to inspect the conditions and walked into a big sea ice melt pool under the snow and got soaking wet. 

I had organised with Barbra to release Stefen to do some survey work for me and I started to prepare the equipment. After doing ARPANSA and having smoko, I went back to the workshop and opened the heavy box containing the tide gauge only to discover the box was empty! 

They had forgotten to put it in or had sent the wrong box? 

Hmm, some red faces over that one. I got another job done that has been sitting on my bench for the past few months. I installed a circuit board into a diecast box and mounted a DB9 connector on the outside. This is an external peripheral interface box for my Flex 5000.

Tuesday 19th November 2013

I’m finally getting on top of things with the help of Richard and I now have time to do a few of the smaller jobs around the place. I made a new service and maintenance manual for the ANARESAT. I made a new amplifier and antenna tuning chart and went down to the transmitter building and filled in all the results. I checked the web camera and found a missing IP connection to the Mawson Intranet website that needs repairing then I did ARPANSA.

It has been snowing heavily most of the day and it was nice to sit out in it and watch the flakes coming down instead of sandblasting your face sideways. Everything is nice and white and there is deep snow everywhere again but it’s so warm it’s all melting causing puddles that freeze over. Just before lunch I dropped into wombat to see how John the artist is coming along. He’s been pretty busy and has knocked out quite a lot of paintings.

After lunch I played a good prank on Terry the new chippie, he was hammering in Weddell doing some restoration work and I was on the outside. When he was hammering, I was hammering in time on the outside wall and I started doing one extra bang after he finished. He must have thought the place was haunted. I wish I could have seen his face. It went on for a while, and then he would do one and I would do one, then he would do two and so on and so on. Eventually he did the old door knock and I finished with knock knock and walked off. He never knew who did it. Late in the afternoon I went for a long walk around to check for damage after the big blizzard on the weekend.

Monday 18th November 2013

This morning I made a new operation and phone number list for the BGAN emergency satellite phone. I also typed out my geo-mag notes once again making a few more changes here and there and then attended the weekly meeting.

John the artist’s sea container broke its anchor and blew away in Sunday’s big blizzard and it was found smashed to bits on an Island about three kilometres away. After lunch I fixed the back door TIRIS Gate controller from Bechervaise Island and then I finished the modification to the fluxgate compass on the geo-mag theodolite. At ten o’clock I went down to the shack as I had a sked on 40m with VK7JJJ and I also worked heaps of EU stations as well. It's nice to have VK0JJJ fully operational once again after all these months of dramma.