Christmas Already?

Is it that time already. Well it nearly is anyway. Just goes to show how fast time flies. After friday drinks last week, up went the Christmas tree in the Wallow. (the wallow is a lounge kind of area, near the bar and kitchen)

Friday night drinks at the MPH

Ok, I understand you are probably sitting their, reading this asking yourself;

What is the MPH?
What are drinks?
What is Friday?

Well, I will try to explain all of the above.

Friday night drinks are a tradition at the Antarctic stations. As most people would not get to see where everybody else works (luckily in comms we end up going most places), each Friday one group hold drinks in one of their buildings. This gives people a chance to relax and see parts of the station they wouldn’t normally get to.

The chefs also make quick easy food or take away food, and often it is served in the drinks location.

Last Friday it was in the MPH. MPH stands for main power house. It is the place where all the electricity for the station is generated. The mechanics and electricians had the MPH shut down for the week for servicing, with the EPH (emergency power house) providing all the electrical needs of the station.

With the engines shut down it provided a perfect time to get in and see and area that is usually off limits.

The chefs in full force provided hamburgers for dinner that were delicious.

Brewing

As you know, I am the brewer for the station this year. This turn out to be a very busy job. Producing enough beer for 80 people is a pretty big task. We have made 1200 litres so far (in about 4 weeks).

Luckily it is not to bad. We brew in big batches (60 and 180 litre fermenters). As you can imagine wit this volume we can bottle over 500 long necks in one night. Luckily there are always people willing to help.

The  brewing setup is very good, with plenty of space and all the tools you need. It is in the basement under the sleeping quarters, and the only down side is that this is also where the sewerage is processed. This means you sometimes end up with some unpleasant noises and smells.

I have taken some photos of beer production in action.

Anyone for an after dinner walk

One of the good things abut summer in Antarctica is that it never gets dark. This means that it could be midday or midnight and still perfectly bright outside, . In fact this has got me and a few other people on station several times, whereby waking up at 2am to go to the toilet or such, you look at the window and it is so bright you think it is the middle of the day and get a sinking feeling you have slept in. Lucky there are good curtains on the windows.

Anyway, this is good, as if it is after dinner one night and you are not sure what to do you can go for a walk. This is a good time to go for a walk as the light is often best after dinner. This is exactly what I did one night. This was a good walk though as some penguins came right up to us.

I also took my Sydney Uni BioSoc shirt to get some pictures in it for Clarissa.

Field Training

Haha, the time had finally come for my field training. This would mean I would be ale to go in the recreation areas around the station by myself, go on trips outside the recreation areas, and ride quad bikes.

We had to pack out Survival kits to take with us. These are basically a kit to survive out if you are stuck and can not get to a hut or back to base. They consist of;

A backpack
Sleeping Bag and Inner sheet
Roll Mat
Bivvy Bag (a wind proof bag you can crawl into to sleep if you can not get into shelter)
Water
Pee Bottle and Poo bag (you can not wee or poo on the ground)
De-hydrated meals
Map, Compass, whistle and mirror
Ice Axe
Rope (to help people out of the water if they fall in)
Spare clothes (in case you fall in)

 

The plan was to ride quad bikes up to Platcha hut, then down to Brookes hut. OK, I know these place names don’t really mean much to you, but you can look them up on Google Earth and I will put a map up here soon.

From Brookes hut we would walk to deep lake, camp the night there in out bivvy bags, then walk back to the quads at Brookes hut and ride back to Davis.

Along the way we would learn survival skills, and techniques to test the ice etc.

Everything went as planned, once again here are some pics.

Law Cairn & Anchorage Island

Law Cairn is the furthest north it is possible to go once you are field trained without being on an approved trip with a trip leader. This means that you can walk or jog to Law Cairn whenever you feel like, as long as you take a radio for safety.

Unfortunately I had still not been field trained so I was unable to go on a whim, and was at the mercy of others to get out. Luckily there was a trip organised sunday 29/11 to walk up to Law Cairn, then out to Anchorage Island across the sea ice (Anchorage island is about 3km out from Davis) and then back to Davis. All up between 12 and 14km.

There is not much to say on the walk, it was nice with good scenery, here are some photos.

 

 

My First Helicopter Ride

Ok, so it was not really my first helicopter ride, but it was my first helicopter ride in Antarctica.

The mission was to go and do some work on some of the radios or more specifically the battery systems powering the radios in several field huts and then go and scope some work that needed doing on a radio repeater at Tarbuck Craig.

 

The party for the trip consisted of myself and andy, team combs, Clint the helicopter pilot, and Amy one of our weather forecasters who had the day off and was coming along for a jolly (slang for a trip that you do for fun rather than work)

This was exciting for me for several reasons.

a) I would get out and see some things away from the station

b) I would get to see some field huts for the first time (field huts are as the name implies little huts out in the field, that scientist can stay in when doing research, or normal people like me can use to get away on the weekend etc. They have cooking and bedding in them, as well as radios to talk back to the station, hence the reason for going to them on this trip).

c) I would get to go to Tarbuck Craig, this is the site of our radio repeater and for those of you that do not know radio repeaters are located in high places, and this one was reported to have great views

d) I would get to go in a helicopter.

e) I would get to go in a helicopter in Antarctica

 

The plan was to first go to Hopp Island, an island south of Davis station where there is an apple (a round shaped hut) next to a lake, a hill, and a penguin rookery.

 

After having a look round and replacing a solar regulator at Hopp Island it was time to head for Law Base.

Law base is approximately 70kms south of Davis and very close to the Russian and Chinese Bases.

The only problem we had was finding it. We arrived at the GPS point that was supposed to be the base, however there was nothing their. We flew round a bit to a refuelling depot at the old Russian base, to look at the map a bit better and try to work out were to go.

 

Luckily a Russian guy came along and pointed us in the correct direction of law base, about 2km away. Another quick flight and we were their. The snow was very soft, and it was a bit bizarre landing in it, however the pilot Clint assured me that snow is the easiest to land in as you just sink till it stops.

 

After that is was a quick 45 min flight back to Tarbuck Craig to look at the repeater.

After that is was a quick trip back to base, however I will throw in some pics from the flight to make you all jealous.