Friday 7th February 2014

Today was Putu's 40th birthday so I spent the morning making up a “Happy 40th birthday Putu” sign. After smoko six of the guys helped me hold the sign up outside for a photo. It was meant to look like we all were  in the nude with the sign in front of our tackle but most of the guys were afraid of getting it off or didn't hold the sign high enough. It was about minus fifteen wind chill at the time so I have to be happy with the photo I got.

After taking the photo, I then placed the sign out on the ice and turned the station web camera onto it for all the world to see over the weekend. After the photo shoot I went and did ARPANSA. I went to do magnetic observations in the afternoon but I had left the battery switched on from last week and I had flattened the battery so I had to give it a miss and take the battery back to the operations building to charge it. 

I went and got my ice axe handle from the chippies workshop which seemed to be dry enough now and assembled the head and end and it looks fantastic. I’m pretty happy with it even though there is not much colour or grain in the hard wood I used for the handle. 

I went for a walk out onto the sea ice to measure the sea temperature and a seal poked it’s head out and sniffed the temperature probe and a few hours later when Luc and I were enjoying a few coldies out on east arm my waterproof camera rolled down the rocks and landed in the water and as I reached out to pick it up again a seal poked his head out to sniff my camera. I reckon it was the same one.

Thursday 6th February 2014

Today I was slushy (Swapped with Terry) once again and let's hope it's the last time ever. I worked extremely hard all day including about three hours cleaning the bar fridge with bleach which had mould growing in it.

Life has become very routine lately with everybody doing all the last minute jobs and tidying everything up before we leave. Some guys are trying to squeeze as much field time in before we go and we are all in leaving mode. The ship is due on the 24th but we all think it won't be able to get through the sea ice and we have a mindset that it will have to come back for us in April. If it does get to us on the 24th I don't think any of us will be mentally ready, although we are all packed up ready to go at short notice.

Wednesday 5th February 2014

Today is exactly one year to the day since I first arrived at Mawson station, but it certainly doesn't feel that long ago. In the morning I made some preparations for our 60th year celebration of the settlement of Mawson station which will take place Thursday 13th. I spent a bit of time downloading some more media files off the media server and then worked on the yearbook for the rest of the day pretty much completing what I have to do. After dinner Luc and I watched the last two documentaries in the series on Australia.

Tuesday 4th February 2014

Once again apart from doing ARPANSA, my whole day was taken up with working on our yearbook. This book with be a large coffee table book about every aspect of our lives wintering at Mawson. The only break I took today was to walk over to the chippies workshop to give my ice axe handle another coat of lacquer. After work I was so brain dead I went and had a spa spa to relax for a while before dinner. After dinner Luc and I watched the first two documentaries in a series on Australia which were excellent.

Monday 3rd February 2014

This morning after going through all my emails, I did ARPANSA then after smoko I went down to the chippies workshop and painted my ice axe handle again and then back in the office I started work on our year book which I have been putting off all year.

This is going to be a huge job and I spent the rest of the day on it. First I have to pick my best one hundred photos out of 11,000 photos and them out of these photos, pick about ten for my profile page, some for team comms, some for ARPANSA, some for geo-mag, some for training, some for landscapes, animals etc etc. Next I have to write a personal profile of myself, write a section on comms, a section on ARPANSA, a section on geo-mag and a section on Mawson history etc etc.

Sunday 2nd February 2014

After lunch today I went down to the trade's workshop and finished the head of my ice axe. I had to silver solder a threaded rod onto the head which screws into the handle. After this I went over to the chippies workshop and painted the handle with a wood sealer. Later after a long walk I went down to the transmitter building and made a few contacts with my radio, but conditions were not so good once again. After a toasted sandwich for dinner I watched coast and a then Jose put on a movie. I couldn't get to sleep, so around 11pm I went down to the shack for a couple of hours. Conditions were really good and I made dozens of contacts into Europe.

Saturday 1st February 2014

This morning I had a huge pile of washing to get done. For Saturday duties I had to sort out books and magazines in the library and I also spent a fair bit of time cleaning both my room and also my spare room. I had a sked with Don at two thirty but conditions were not so good. I had a great copy of him but he had trouble hearing me. I hung around for a couple of hours but things didn't improve much. After dinner I watched a few documentaries with Luc.

The sea is still frozen out to a distance of 30 miles and then there is heavy pack ice out another 20 miles. Nothing much has changed, The Aurora Australis is now heading to Casey and is planning on arriving at Mawson via Davis station on the 24th. If the Aurora Australis is unable to reach us it will return to Hobart and attempt to extract us some time in March using helicopters.