Popped in for a Coffee with the Met Team and Played with Balloons!

One of the Weather Observers is a red hot Barrister so I had the second coffee since leaving Oz and settled in for a chat! Back out there at 16:00 as they release weather balloons every twelve hours (04:15 and 16:15). I was even able to do the release but only after donning the special flash suit due to the extraordinary dangers that I would face! 

The weather balloons are filled with hydrogen just like the Hindenburg Airship (blew up in 1937) which is made on site. They are highly flammable as a result so there are some safety procedures to follow. This is where the Hydrogen is made by passing an electrical current through water to seperate it out into oxygen and hydrogen (the O2 is released and the H2 used in the balloons).

Here is one of the forecasters, forecasting for the Casa aircraft that are trying to get about with the Treaty Inspection Team at the moment.

This is one of the observers who useually releases the ballons and monitor its travel up into the atmosphere for about 1½ hours and have GPS, air pressure, air temp, wind speed and some other stuff to record. The balloons are not that expensive but by the time the unit is on the bottom it is all up about $400 a shot ($400 x 2 per day x 365 days a year x 40 years of observations or more = $11,680,000 to date which does not account for the 2-6 that don’t work or get caught up on stuff or just smash).

This is their building and surrounds on the station.

Swimming and Closure of the Fjord Ice

Here we are walking along the Tierney River on the Way to Crooked Lake Apple.

Not a bad day at the office!

This was not me but a Taswegian who felt the need to do. I had my fingers crossed that he would not go into cold shock as I did not want to go in after him with the ice still on the lake.

The Fjord ice is on the way out and was officially closed today. This was close to where we crossed in Ellis Fjord and looks hideous which is why it was closed after we returned to base. The last ones to walk on the ice for the summer. No more boot chains and ice axes from here on!

High Fashion in Antarctica

Who is that masked man?

A big day in the sun and heat much like it was last time although I did bust out the Frill-neck that it is not really a fashion show down here but some images have to be maintained and is really crossed several fashion rules of mine. Really more like putting a bag over your head. Thank goodness no one knows who you are once it is on. I did have many flashbacks to the torn pillow cases of New Zealand at the start of last year with George. The pillow case does have a little more panache!

This is what it looks like under the ice, under one of the large windscours. Using this highly complicated technique of stepping through into the water you are able to then pu the camera in for a better look. Notice how it is thinner closer to the rock but that it also slopes away or undercuts the area that looks solid. This is a common trap for young clacial walkers who end up with wet boots.

Just some funky bubbles in the ice under the surface. No ide how they form like that!

This is just one of the many glacial lakes that can be found at the bottom of depressions or in this case a windscour. I love the glacial blue it just makes you want to dive in!

Another Day of Pirates on the High Seas

Perhaps one of the funniest things that I have seen so far happened today! A penguin jumped in the other boat while we were sitting next to it. The poor little Adele had his first shot at it and failed miserably as he bounced off the rubber boat as if it were a jumping castle. Undeterred he had another go with a bigger run up and cleared the side of the boat landing in the lap of the passenger. Both of the people in the boat had very little idea of what was going on so it was a great surprise when they realised what it was. I believe that shit scared was the initial reaction and leopard seal is the first thing the dive crew think. Adele is funny though. Initially it was very short of breath and a little terrified as were the crew. However, it squawked about and had a bit of a look around the boat before getting up onto the side of the boat and walking to the front before jumping off. Loads of laughter and a few photos to boot!

Here are some of the fish and yes they do look a little like flathead but I am told they are Antarctic Cod. Apparently they flap around for about five minutes after they have their heads chopped off as they have very slow systems due to the cold. Did I mention that the water down here could be colder than Hugh Gorge?

The Starfish of the day. What a whopper!

Cirrostratus clould is very common down here but it does not usually mean much. I do like how it looks i the sky though.

First Day of Boating

The silver pole is not for pole dancing but is a Daviid arm! The other thing is a little like a rabbit trap when it is set but it snaps shut when it hits the bottom. Ideally it gets sediments off the bottom without getting wet!

Back to the boats, there were just four of us going out to do some sediment sampling which as it suggests is getting some sediment off the bottom to see what is there. Not a very glorious or sexy (sexy science are things like tagging seals or weighing penguins full of glory and danger) piece of science but far better than the shed. Two boats have to go out each time so Mike and I were boat hands to help with the Daviid arm which is just a bent pole stuck in the boat that helps to get samples up and out of the water. There is a bit more to it but the rest of the scientists were cutting up sea urchins again so were unable to go out for the afternoon. We were able to get a few funky worm like thingy’s out of the sediment and the description of what they could do was far scarier than the sight of the 10 cm worms! The best finds for the day were some big fat juicy sea cucumbers that were bigger than tennis balls and were caught with the anchor. This is not the preferred way of catching them but they just came up on a large piece of kelp when the anchor was pulled from the bottom. An opportunistic find so in the bucket they went!

There is the fatest and juciest sea cucumber I have ever seen!

Its Been a Hard Days Work

An important part of getting things done and being the all knowing guru of the outdoors is really just preparation! Yes some may say that it was not really needed to do practise sessions for ropework but it does help to know the areas that you are working in. Below is Mike with our cluster of ropes set up for a SAR trainning exercise that we will have them do later on in the year.

This is a photo of my boots while waiting for the taxi to arrive and take us back to the base with all of the rock climbing gear. It was actually very heavy comprising of a couple of 20-23kg (this is not an exaggeration as it had to be weighed) plus our survival gear. You can see that the one and a half hour wait for the taxi was a bit hard to take.

Here is the taxi landing which is just to the other side of my pack!

As glorious as it may seem we had also been down to a depot (that is just a big box full of emergency gear) to clean out unsuitable items. What luck some questionable fuel and a pee bucket with a couple of floaters bobbing up and down (yuk)!