Earth Hour

We even decided to join in on earth hour in Antarctica, And thus had a night with candle light. I took the opportunity to try and take some more artistic pictures.

Field Travel Training

You are possibly thinking, field travel training, hasn’t Nichol already done that? If you were thinking that you would be correct. However I have been appointed as the Search and Rescue leader down here which means that I am in charge of looking after the search and rescue team and training, along with managing any SAR activities that go on.

One part of this role was having to train the new winterers that just arrived on V4. So off we headed. The plan was to go to deep lake for a night in Bivvies, the spend the second night in watts hut after walking there.

Staying in a bivvy at –17 is not the most pleasant experience. In fact the actual staying in the bivvy, and sleep was not to bad. It is just cold before you go to bed and when you wake up in the morning.

Needles to say everybody was happy to spend the next night in a hut.

 

so Hello, Goodnight and Goodbye

Well, after much anticipation the final voyage for the season has shown up, brining with it new faces for the winter but also taking away most of the station population, dropping the numbers from around 100 to only 25.

We all went out in the cold to wave good bye to ship as the last helicopters flew out to it. Now the winter begins, hopefully the sea ice will form soon as walking is the only form of transport we have until this happens and we can use quads.

It is just us until next November when the ship comes back bringing with it people, helicopters and supplies.

Of Snow, Snowmen and Dogs

This week saw us have our first decent snow fall. With snow everywhere and temperatures dropping it is starting to feel more like the Antarctica I expected. Of course with snow comes snowmen.

This week also saw Clint in a fit of inspiration decide the station  needed a pet, so in has most Frankenstinesque impersonation he headed off to the workshop.

More Sar

This week we did some more Search and rescue Training, but this time looked at rocks rather than snow and ice.

My first Aurora and the LIDAR

Today was an exciting day (ok it was actually night but who is being picky).

It was dark enough and the conditions were right to see an Aurora Australis or the Sothern Lights.

Jeff also had the LIDAR running which is a big laser that shoots into the sky to measure atmospheric conditions.

I have not yet perfected my camera skills on taking photos of the Aurora so I do not have many good shots, but hopefully there will be more opportunities.

 

The receiver Hut

Ok, well, I know i said I would slowly document all the buildings around the station. This is one of the more boring stations however it is a little distance away from the main station and I had to visit it for work today so I took my camera along.

With the long range HF radio systems we use, we have a transmitter hut and a receiver hut. These are connected to aerials that transmit and receive the radio signals. Each hut is located at different ends of the station and a bit away from the station, to limit interference. We mainly use these radios to talk to aircraft and field parties out or normal radio range, but we can also pick up radio Australia with them.

In the past these radios were the only way to talk back to Australia, however with satellite links phones and internet are all available now.

I am not sure if I will ever show the transmitter hut as it is nearly identical to the receiver hut.

The Medical Suite

A while ago I told you that I would try to document different sections of the station. Today seems appropriate to document the medical suite for two reasons. Firstly Friday drinks were held here today. Secondly several days ago I fell down a ladder and had to visit here myself for some x-rays (luckily nothing was broken, just sore).

The medical suite is located in the SMQ or sleeping medical quarters (very original name I know). as you can probably guess as well as the medical stuff the SMQ is where we all sleep. I will go over the rest of the SMQ on another day.

When you first walk into the SMQ you come into a room that contains the self help bar, which is where common items such as band aids, panadol and sunscreen are kept.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Off this room there is the doctors consulting room which also contains the dentistry chair.

There is also a surgery and a two bed ward.

Love you long time dinner

As Chinese new year and valentines day fell on the same weekend, we decided to combine the two into themed night “Love you long time”.

I was hopefully going to spend the evening at the chinse base Zhong Zhan  50km down the coast for Chinese new year celebrations, however the wind was to strong so flying was not possible.

Back at Davis the kitchen was done up, chinse style food was prepared including dumplings (yum) and everybody dressed up. (Linc as usual in very disturbing attire)

Bugs and Drinks

This Friday drinks were hosted by the biology team. They picked a very imaginative spot of the bar. However it was made more exciting with jars and tanks of life that had been pulled out of the Antarctic water around Davis.

In fact to be fair the spot for the drinks was meant to be in the aquarium. The aquarium is a converted shipping container that has all kinds of tanks for storing thee creatures in and experimenting with them, however as it was a very cold and windy day, it was decided it was best to have drinks inside out of the weather.

Training

One of the things that happens down here is training. The week we looked at polar pyramid tents. These are a tent designed to work in the cold conditions. We also looked at Honda generators. These are not new to me as  have one myself back home, however it was good to start to understand all the different equipment that is available to be used if we need it.

Icy News

Icy news is a news snippet that is published on the Antarctic Division website detailing what has been happening in each of the Antarctic stations. It is written by people at the stations. This week it was my turn to write the Icy News, and I thought i would share it here. Not it was edited by the powers that be slightly before public exposure, but rest assured this is my original version.

This week at Davis has seen another hive of activity.

The Aurora Australis pulled in again last Friday bringing with it fresh faces, food and much awaited packages from back home.

We have a new team comprising of people from both the Navy and Geo-science Australia who are doing a hydrographic survey of the ocean floor around Davis along with a second boat the Howard Burton.

A flock (is that what you call them) of new divers and researchers also arrived to work on the various science projects.

Chris Wilkinson, our extra wintering mechanic, and Philip Samartzis here on an arts fellowship  completing some sound recordings until V4 also walked of the ship.

New faces coming in from the ship and container being craned off the barge.
Photo: N. Hill

Kim the Chef looking pleased with a delivery of mangos
Photo: N. Hill

  
The always exciting mail delivery
Photo: N. Hill

The down side of the ship being in town is that people that we have all become friends with leave, and this was no exception as we waved goodbye to twelve of our friends.

Waving Goodbye to departing expeditioners
Photo: N. Hill

Our senior IOAC (ice, ocean, atmosphere and climate) scientist and resident LIDAR  expert Klucky (Andrew K) has departed and left Jeff Cumpston, LIDAR operator, to fend for himself. Jeff was very excited as on his first solo night observation, he got some great data and observed some long-lasting noctilucent clouds, which appeared at about 9 pm and lasted for almost 7 hours. Klucky was viewing the same clouds from the Aurora Australis, then at Mawson station, and probably hoping that the LIDAR (also known as the Giant Frikkin Laser) was on at the time.

These clouds occur at around 85km altitude and are a measurable indicator of climate change. They occur only at the poles during the summer months, and can only be seen with the naked eye for about two weeks in the year. These sights are so rare that previous lidar operators have spent their entire year down here without seeing them. Let’s hope these great results prove to be typical of the observation season ahead!

 

Noctilucent clouds
Photo J. Cumpston

 

The Lidar in action
Photo J. Cumpston

Klucky was also one of the seven Andrews on station. Having seven Andrews out of around eighty total people seems a bit high to me. Co-incidence or not?

The seven Andrews
Photo K. De Laive

Poo has also seen a bit of interest this week at Davis, with Pete one of our plumbing team having to enter the sewerage ‘VAT’  to fix a faulty pump and Margaret donning her suit to sample the sewerage outfall in the name of science.  Microgastropods and amphipods where also collected for the Sewage Treatment Project ecotox experiments.

Pete and Tom working on the sewerage system
Photo: P. Hargraves

  
Margaret at the sewerage outfall
Photo: M. Powers

Bianca and Margaret Collecting samples.
Photo: A. Spurr

On top of all this our usual station atmosphere and antics continued unabated with the Davis band appearing Thursday night for a live rock performance.

An unscheduled appearance of the Davis Celtic Quartet "Numb Fingers" was appreciated on Friday night.

Spaggers (a.k.a Spagettio, a.k.a. Rob Lemme) trying to prove just how much he loves muesli went a whole week eating only muesli for every meal of the day, finishing on Wednesday’s hot smoko. He still claims to love muesli.

 Hellboy (Nick Helmore) bought an expensive set of darts, with precision flight control designed by NASA, guaranteed to improve your play, only to find he was much worse with them, and promptly offloaded them to Matt Azzopardi.

The Davis Band
Photo: N. Hill

 

The Davis Celtic Quartet
Photo: B. Sfiligoj

 

Spaggers with his muesli and hot smoko
Photo: N. Hill

Hellboy in the front and Matt Azzopardi in the back with their darts
Photo: N. Hill

Finally it is starting to feel more like Antarctica with temperatures dropping to -7 at night, more windy days, and darkness starting to appear at night.

Sun setting at Davis
Photo: G. Johnstone

Over and Out
Comms Davis