Wednesday 5th March 2014

This morning the weather was perfect and around nine o'clock three boats and nine of us headed off down to the Rookery Islands. We headed down in about a ten knot following wind that gradually died down to nothing and by the time we got there the sea had glassed out. It was one of those magical days on the water that don't come around too often. On each Island we would drop of four people as that is all that is allowed onshore to audit the Adélie penguins and to look for debris while the rest of us went berging while we waited for them to call us on the radio to come back and pick them up.

The scenery was really spectacular yet it was sad to see hardly any wildlife. On each Island there were no Adélie chicks at all and only a few Adélie adults moulting. We were lucky to see a few Weddell seals sun baking here and there on the sea ice and also a couple of Weddell seals in the water. It was a fantastic day and one of the best I have had down here. We didn't get back to Mawson until about seven thirty and by the time we packed up and cleaned up we were all very cold, tired and hungry.

Enjoy

Tuesday 4th March 2014

Today we were meant to go boating down to the specially protected area of the Rookery Islands about seventeen kilometres to the west of Mawson to do and audit on the Adélie penguins and to do a debris audit. After doing ARPANSA I spent a couple of hours getting things ready to go, and after while waiting for the wind to drop below fifteen knots, I worked on my monthly report in my room. I didn't have faith in the wind dropping today and thought tomorrow would be a much better day and sure enough the trip was called off around one o'clock. Late in the afternoon I checked out conditions on the radio and 10m (28 MHz) was going nuts and I made many contacts all over the world.

Monday 3rd March 2014

Today I was the cook and the slushy which is quite a task for twenty one people. For smoko I cooked some sausages, baked beans and and toasted ham? and cheese sandwiches. The meat was sort of a red colour and I had no idea what it was and there were quite a few complaints but what can I do. The meat was sliced and cryo vaced and I have no idea how old it was. For lunch I put out the usual disgusting spread and tried to jazz it up as best I could. For dinner I made Nasi Goreng and Mee Goreng, salt & pepper squid and stir fried vegetables and for sweats I made rice pudding.

I thought the Mee Goreng came up OK, but some people were horrified that I used two minute noodles. I was disappointed with the Nasi Goreng as our rice cooker blew up and I had to cook it in a pot and it turned out quite sticky. I didn't have a lot of the ingredients either and I had to use powdered eggs which are crap and I had to substitute the bok choy with purple cabbage. Everyone woofed it down and I received a lot of good comments but personally I was disappointed as I know I can do a lot better it I had the ingredients. I was on my feet and working nonstop from sunrise to sunset and was totally buggered when I finished.

Sunday 2nd March 2014

After a nice sleep in and some brunch I vacuumed my room and the bath room for the last time as we are not allowed to use vacuum cleaners any more to save on fuel. I will break the rules and make sure I vacuum my room before the new winter expeditioner moves in. Conditions on the radio were great today and I spent about four hours on air and worked about sixty contacts from all around the world. Later I went for a walk around east arm to check out what was happening and didn't see any wildlife at all except for the baby snow petrol I have been keeping an eye on for the past several weeks. Dam this sea ice.

Lately I have fallen so far behind with my blog and I am really lacking in motivation. Everybody is in a going home frame of mind and the new fuel savings measures are taking a toll on everyday life. It's way over time for efficiencies to be introduced down here but if you start affecting the standard of living down here no one is going to want to come down here. This is our home for a year. It's not like a camping or field trip where you don't mind going without things for a while, this is our house and home and we need our comfort.

Saturday 1st March 2014

For my Saturday duties today I had to do the gash run on my which took me quite a while. All the kitchen waste stored in the sea container had me dry reaching while I was loading it all in the ute and again while I was unloading it in Warren. While down at Warren I saw a seal and we had a bit of a chat while he swam about around the sea ice. When I got back to the red shed poor old Steve was on his hands and knees scrubbing the floor in the foyer with a scrubbing brush. It was his sixtieth birthday today. What sort of mongrel would do that to someone on their sixtieth birthday? I would have given him the day off.

Mid afternoon I went down to the transmitter building but conditions were not so good, but I still managed to make a few contacts. After dinner a birthday cake was presented to Steve and we celebrated his birthday up in Klub Katabatic. When they put on Footrot Flats (Steve is a Kiwi); Luc, Geoff and I made our way to the cinema to watch a few docco’s.

Before

After

Homeless beggar or castaway?

Friday 28th February 2014

Today was minus ten degrees and the katabatic was blowing twenty two knots. Almost every day it’s getting colder and the days are getting shorter. I did a bit more preparing for cooking on Monday and some more job hunting. I worked on my annual report and I had to do audits on a lot of the equipment down here to include in the report. In the afternoon I did the geo-mag observations for this week and while I was there I thoroughly cleaned the building which probably hasn't been done since it was moved here from Heard Island in 1956.

After work I went down to the transmitter hut to see what was going on but there was a radio blackout so I thought I would check out the spa on the way back to the red shed and to my surprise it was still turned on so I jumped in and read my book for an hour. It was so relaxing and such a pity it will no doubt be my last spa.

Another solar halo today

Thursday 27th February 2014

This morning it was minus nine degrees and the katabatic was blowing twenty knots. At nine o'clock we had a meeting with the engineers in Kingston to discuss how to save fuel. Mawson has a two year storage capacity, but last resupply they didn't bother filling our tanks and now this year with the resupply vessel not being able to reach us has left the station low on fuel reserves. They plan on flying in only fifty thousand litres and combined with what we already have will only allow the station to operate until November where it is hoped more fuel may be flown in from Davis Station. It's a complete stuff up and a few people have red faces and have now gone into panic mode. This is all based on the assumption that both wind generators are out of action.

Anyway the meeting was not really called to ask us for suggestions, but to tell us what they want done to start saving fuel. Basically they want to shut down every science program they can and cut power and site services to the buildings. For all other building they want to reduce heating to just above freezing, restrict all lighting and use head torches were possible, electrically limit showers to two minutes and used water will be caught in a bucket and used to flush the toilets. They also want a roster made for power police to do walk arounds to make sure everything is turned off. In the red shed freezers will be turned off and food stored outside, no bain marie, coffee machine, water chiller, zip boilers and even the light in the bar fridge has to go. Well all I can say is I'm glad I'm going home and I don't envy the new winter crew and if I was them I would be doing a runner and finding another job. Even their work program has been scrapped and all they will be doing is replacing lights and fitting timers and other fuel saving devices. We have even been banned from using the hag's out in the field anymore. 

I spent most of the day working on my annual report. Just the template is sixty seven pages so it is going to take a while to get done. Today there were three Weddell seals lying on the sea ice in east bay which was great to see. We had a blackout this afternoon too which lasted for quite a while. After work I went down to the transmitter building to check out conditions on the radio and it was going nuts. 10m was wide open and I worked many stations in Australia and also in Europe. Later before dinner I had what might be my last spa in Antarctica.

Just for something different. Here is a jaw bone from one of the husky's I found