Thursday 3rd April 2014

I left the curtains open last night so I would gradually wake up when the sun came up but I didn't wake up till about ten o’clock. I decided to clean my porthole window and it was about minus twenty five outside and a bit windy and by the time I had finished I had frostbite in my fingers and all my hair and beard was frozen. At least I can see a bit better now.

I spent the day chatting to people on the radio and catching up with Luc who flew out today. Yesterday we made great progress and we managed to get another 33 ship to shore flights in which moved 25,154kg of cargo ashore. At the completion of operations yesterday, our discharge/back loading stats was as follows:

- 100% of Priority 1.1 cargo now discharged

- 96% of Priority 1.2 cargo now discharged

- 83% of all Priority 1.3 cargo now discharged

In total, 93% of all Priority 1 cargo has been discharged from the vessel

100% of all Priority 1 RTA cargo is now safely stowed on the ship.


That means that all my personal gear is now on board, so I am happy.

Wednesday 2nd April 2014

Today was a cold one. Minus twenty seven with very little wind, so there will be a lot of flying done today. Last night was another very good night with very good Aurora displays over the ship. The clear sunny conditions we have at the moment have bought on some spectacular mirages. The type of mirage we are seeing at the moment is known as a “fata Morgana”, which is a complex mirage in which objects are not only distorted, but elongated vertically as well.

Our horizon looks like we have a vast number ice berg “skyscrapers” at the moment when in fact that is not the case. It is easy to see how these types of mirages caused navigation problems for early explorers.

I spent the morning working on my annual report, fixing up my email account and editing my radio log. I also had a chat with Kim on 10m who was driving around Perth. After lunch I spent the afternoon chatting to people around the world on my radio and I worked on my annual report till about ten o’clock at night until I was satisfied with it. Around three o’clock I got up to look out the window and there was a pretty good aurora display going on. I watched it for a while and then went back to bed.

Tuesday 1st April 2014

Last night I froze. It must have been about ten degrees in my cabin and there was ice all over the inside of the singe glazed window and there was a constant banging of something outside above my roof. I woke up about three o’clock and got a cup of soup and went for a walk up stairs to see if there was any activity on the radio but all I could hear was noise with nothing on the low bands at all so I went back to bed and shivered until about eight o’clock.

 
After a shower we had a ship induction and then practice putting on a dry suite and by then it was lunch time. After lunch I set all my clocks back by an hour and put a second doona inside my doona cover and then went and had a listen on my radio. There was still heaps of noise but I could hear a couple of stations on 10m so I put a few calls out and created a huge pile up. I worked many Australian stations as well as African and European stations, probably about thirty in all. To my surprise I heard my good mate Don calling from South Australia. We had a nice chat before my software crashed and I lost him.

Later I spent a bit of time working on my blog and also on my annual report. I went outside for a while but it is very limited as to where you can go at the moment and to be honest there is absolutely nothing to see, although I could see a small group of Emperor penguins in the distance. One thing here, the food is great and it’s so nice to be eating fresh salads, fruit and prawns.

Leaving Antarctica 31st March 2014

Well the time has finally come, after 419 days on the Antarctic continent; I am finally leaving Mawson station by helicopter to make the hundred kilometre flight out to the Aurora Australis ice breaker. While waiting for the resupply to be completed I will be able to be contacted by phone and email, but I will not have any Internet access so I will not be able to update my blog until I get back to Hobart sometime around the 2nd of May. My email address during the voyage will be craig_hay@aurora.aad.gov.au

Progress of my voyage back to Hobart can be followed here:
http://its-app3.aad.gov.au/proms/public/schedules/voyageTrack.cfm and web cameras on-board the Aurora Australis ice breaker can be viewed here: http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora

Monday 31st March 2014

This morning the blizzard is still raging outside and although visibility is improving I don’t think there is going to be any chance of flying today. Looking at the ships web cameras, visibility is even worse out there. This gives me more time to work on my annual report and to pack another box ready to fly out.

Sunday 30th March 2014

Today we have a blizzard gusting to sixty knots with visibility down to about five metres. Temperature is only minus eleven and there are no flights today. I have spent most of the day confined to my room writing my monthly report, getting my blog up to date and packing my gear ready to fly at short notice. This blizzard is long overdue and if the weather remains like this for the next few weeks it will cause some strife. 

Most of the new people are shocked at the raw power and energy of a blizzard. With all the blowing snow there should be a few new blizz trails around tomorrow. I have just learned the ground crew will not lift anything over fifteen kilograms, and my large Pelican case weighs twenty six, so tomorrow I will have to offload eleven kilograms into a cardboard box just for the flight out to the ship. We will have a meeting tomorrow at ten thirty to discuss the plan for tomorrow.

The view outside

Saturday 29th March 2014

Well today was a big day, we received our fifteenth thousand litre delivery of ASB which is the minimum needed combined with what is already here on station to run the station till November. After this the flight delivered cargo and food all day as well as some more fuel. It was a very busy day with thirty three flights in total. I think the fuel was increased to about twenty two thousand litres too. In the morning I had to do a fire team handover and after this my team got taken off the fire roster. After lunch Richard and I ran through the final handover for the new guys and in the afternoon we were pretty much redundant and it was a strange lonely feeling. Richard had to go for a fitness session on the running machine to get a bit of time out while I went off for a walk on my own.

I watched an Adélie Penguin appear from nowhere walking across the harbour so I went down to meet up with him. I caught up with him at the wharf and he was sitting on the sea ice asleep. I had a bit of a chat with him but he wasn't very talkative so I said goodbye and headed off for a walk up to Cos-ray. It was an awesome day for this time of year, no wind, 1/8th okta’s of cloud and only about minus eight degrees. It was like bloody summer. I laid on the smooth glacial worn rocks and listened to the west bay ice cliffs cracking for while and also took a few photos before wandering back to the red shed for dinner. 

After dinner we had an official handover ceremony where I received my Antarctic service medal which I am so proud off. It means so much to me and is going strain in the pool room. After the ceremony we got stuck into the booze as there will be no flights tomorrow due to the weather forecast. It was a good night but we are all left with this empty feeling of not being required any more. I will enjoy a sleep in tomorrow without a care in the world, but like all the others I feel my time is done here and it’s now time to move on.

Rememenants from the dog error including dog fur