At last, the beginning of August enabled you to run outside without a head torch, and seeing the sustrugi before you fall over it.
With a glimmer of light in the distance, and the sun still a few degrees below the horizon, the inevitable "Sun up", was once again on its way, to signal the end of the dark Antarctic winter and the start of another Antarctic summer. So what better way to celebrate, with a Hawaiian theme cocktail night. Although some were celebrating more than others, as Jules nursed his broken Fibula, (ankle), when he fell foul of bad wind and kiting play.
Jules's left foot swollen, moments after the incident. 9th August.
Dr. Richard and Dave (Met. Babe), patching Jules up, as good as new.
Job well done. Dr. Richard, Dave and patient, giving the plastering work, the thumbs up. Some might say a possible career change? Anyone need a plasterer?
Me and Dean raising a cheer to the "Pre Sun Up" celebrations, 9th August.
This was as good as it got on Friday 10th August 07, the first sun rise after winter, at 13.40. A small fraction of the suns disc looming menacingly on the horizon, before tiring and setting for another night at 14.30, an hour later. It was as if it was all too much of an effort, the sun didn't want to overdose us on its rays just yet, it didn't feel ready to blanket our landscape with a full on disc. But rest assured, with an average of 20 minutes extra each day, 24 hour daylight, wouldn't be too far away.
As the Halley flag came down for the start of the Sun's cycle, of setting below the horizon and staying there for our 105 day Sun deprived winter, on the 2nd May 07. It was once again time, for the tradition of the youngest member on base, (Jim aged 21yrs), to raise the flag in celebration, of the long awaited "Sun Up", (Friday 10th August).
The well rested flag pole, now submitted to another job of flag waving, and the flag once again being the onslaught of another batch of Antarctic weather.
To mark the occasion of Sun Up, i thought i'd try my hand at another BBQ, but this time, one of the coldest i think many of us will ever experience, at minus 44 Degs C.
The calmness of Sun Up was short lived. The clouds gathered and lingered the very next day, the winds changed and grew in pace and the drifting, blowing snow pummelled you like the grains of sand in a sand storm. Another blow and possibly the glimpse of a "White Out". The visibility was scarce, every other step your feet would disappear in the howling blowing snow engulfing them - this was the weather NOT to be caught out in, any disorientation could lead you in any opposite direction, away from the safety of base.
Me preparing to do battle with the elements, in 41.5 knot winds, at minus 25.2 Degs C and a windchill factor of minus 45.3 Degs. I'm not taking any chances! Do i have enough layers on?
Can you see me?
I'm only about 10 metres away from the Laws.
The Laws in a whiteout. It shows just how little you can see, when you venture yards from the base, considering you can still see Halley from Windy creek, 20 km away on a clear day.
August would prove to be quiet a busy month B'day wise, with the celebrations of Kirsty, myself and Alex. Although, not a bad thing by any means, it just means most of the Saturday's in August are related to parties chosen by the Birthday people.
The first of which was Kirsty's "Action Hero Party" on the 11th August.
Richard and Dean following Jules's accessory for the party.
Kirsty's Birthday saw the game "Cereal Killer" come into play. "How low can you go", in order to pick a cereal box up off the floor, that gets shorter and shorter, inch by inch, with both feet staying firmly on the ground and without any use of your hands, and nothing else touching the floor.
Is that knee touching Tom?
However, during the flow of the evening, it would seem "Harrison Ford" was getting too rowdy for "Lara Croft", although she proved to be able to take care of herself!
But just to make sure the Gladiator, "Aurelius Maximus", proved his worth, with the sharp point of his sword.
Kirsty celebrating her 23rd Birthday on 15th August 07, with a "Hello Kitty" cake made by the Doc. and another fantastic photo shop card courtesy of Dean.
As it was my Birthday the next day, which coincided with my day off, and considering it was my 30th, i thought, how else could i spend my landmark Birthday - by sleeping rough, outside, on the Antarctic ice shelf itself. So on the eve of my Birthday, with the weather closing in for another night of howling winds, and the thought of our warm pit rooms all too close for comfort, we prepared our "Bivvy Sacks" in the Laws corridor, along with warm refreshments of tea flasks and chocolate, and not forgetting the all important thermals!
Preparing our Bivvy bags, consisted of a foam sleeping mat, Therma rest mattress, sheepskin rug, fire proof outer bag, which your feather down sleeping bag fits into and a Bivvy bag, which is a Gortex bag with a zip at the top which all of the above slides into, not forgetting me - cosy?
Me modeling the all important thermal cat suit and Mad Bomber rabbit hat, with our prepared Bivvy bags.
The Bivvy contenders, Pete, Richard, Dave, Sune, Matt, Dean and myself, Ant.
A surprise bottle of Champers, appearing as a gift from Dave. Cheers! Although opening a glass bottle with large mitts on is almost impossible, as is bare hands in minus 35.3 Degs C, unless u want them sticking to the glass.
"Heads up. Cheers. Sorry Matt, hows the head?"
Welcome to our bedroom.
Preparing for the night ahead, just as the wind and snow picks up - Great.
There we were, 7 brave souls, burying down for a long, cold, noisy, sleepless night.
Goodnight, sleep well??
"Snug as a bug". Even with the snow building up around me, and the temperature dropping to minus 39.7 Degs C and the wind blowing at 16 knots.
Thursday, August 16th 2007, my 30th Birthday celebrations, at Halley Research Station, Brunt Ice Shelf, Antarctica. The melt tank cake curteousy of Richard and the card curteousy of Dean.
A German tradition, as instructed by our German UAV Scientist, (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) is the sweeping of rubish outside the Town Hall, when you reach 30 and are still not married, and you continue sweepinf until a kiss from a virgin releases you. Since we havn't got a Town Hall here, Tom threw all manner of shredded paper in the corridor and made me sweep it up with a nail brush attached to a broom stick.
With the immenence of a pub crawl for the Saturday night of my Birthday, i thought it'd be quite fun to dig a real snow cave, in the Drewery snowdrifts and use it as one of the stops for the pub crawl. I managed to coler Dean the Comms Manager, (who rarely gets out much, due to work commitments) and on Friday afternoon we started the mamouth dig. It soon became apparent we should have started it weeks ago, but hey, heinseights a great thing. Knowing what a huge task we'd both taken on, and considering i was popping to and fro from the kitchen, (to cook lunch and diner), we thought we'd inlisted the help of Richard, another free sole for the day. With the three of us happily digging away, on and off from Friday afternoon till saturday early evening, and stopping only to go back to work or for food. We eventually managed to finish what we started, and keeping it a secret from the others, made the excitement all the more rewarding when they peered round the corner on the last pub stop, to see a candle lit cave you could walk around fully upright in, with no neck crouching, shelves for beers and a window for passers by and a centre pillar, featuring some dainty candle light but more importantly as an element of safety to the structure.
Dean, at the Drewery snowdrift, approximatly 12ft high. The site of the mamouth dig.
Me using the snow saw. "How much further".
Another hard day and night of digging, over.
The finished arcticle, well worth the efforts.
The pillar inside the cave.
Halley Pub Crawl, 18th August 2007
The venues, in order of safety first.
The Codis Dome, which houses our satelitte and our link to the rest of the world, and me sipping some hot gluhvein.
The first floor of the melt tank.
The shaft leading to the melt tank Silo.
Caslab - Simpson -
The "Pleasure" Haven, used to house the Blimp.
Its ok for some. Complimentary "Taxis" available for a select few, or those with a broken leg. Destination Piggott -
Drewery Ice Cave -
The architects, welcome you, to the "Drewry Ice Cave".
We even catered for Jules with easy "Disabled Access".
With the return of the light and good weather towards the end of the month, came the increase in workload for some. As the long awaited light provided the opportunity for Jim to level the Laws legs. Which requires a substancial amount of jacking up or down, depending on which way the level is required, 10 jacks equals 1mm.
Sune, the Field GA, was also kept particulary busy in August, with the hauling up of sledges from the conatiner line back to the Laws, in order to carry out routine maintence prior to our 2nd winter trip.
One of the major tasks for August, with the coming of the sun light, was the assembly of the weather haven, which houses the blimp. The Blimp is an airship style balloon equiped with weather instruments for recording, temperature, pressure, humidity, wind direction and wind speed. It's then filled with Helium, and raised to a height of approx. 400 metres up into the atmosphere. The Blimp also records additional data of ozone depletion at different levels within the atmosphere, which occurs when the sun hits newly formed sea ice.
The Met team and helpers assembling the weather haven.
The Blimp being raised.
It would appear the August light and good weather, give or take a few frigid days, would be the start of the Precious Bay recci's, and a chance for Tom and Neil to install some ozone experiemnts there. Precious Bay is a site where Polynya's occur. Polynya's are large areas of open water surrounded by sea ice that are found in the same region year after year, created by upwellings in ocean currents, making the sea more salty. It is also a sweet spot for "frost Flowers" to grow, a tiny microscopic chemical called Bromine being blown in from the sea onto the frozen ice, and over time ataching themselves to each other forming flower like formations. These "Frost Flowers", react like free radicals in the atmosphere in the new Spring light, which cannot happen without the catalyst of sun light. One of the instruments being used is a Spectrometer, which collects data on what series of reactive chemicals are causing possible ozone depletion. The experiment equipment will be powered by batteries, which in turn are being charged by both solar panels and wind power.
Sune guiding Tom on some last minute checks, before heading off to Precious Bay.
Tom and neil off to Precious Bay, to set up their experiments.
An example of some of the equipment involved, on a half unit sledge, that maybe taken into the field for survival.
The caboose in the background inwhich they will both stay in, amongst there experimental plot.
The end of August soon came around, along with Alex's 27th B'day, with a party theme associated with "The Rocky Horror Picture Show", taking place the weekend before and some very suspect wardrobe ideas.
Halley Samba Band. Marking the occasion of the Notting Hill Carnival, 27th Aug.
29th August, Alex with another of Richards designer and much sort after B'day cakes, marking his 27th year with a "Rocky Halley Picture Show", Here at Halley, Antarctica, 07.
The opportunity arose wright at the end of August for a recce. trip out to Windy Caboose approx. 20km away from base. A trip designed to flag a safe route down from the ice cliff onto the sea ice and also to dig out the Caboose, in readiness for the much anticipated look at the Emperor Penguin colony. Most of the empty drums along the route were buried, and those visable were as flush with the ice as man hole covers. One of many drum raising jobs, required to help map out, various places around Halley. The caboose is there as a shelter just incase bad weather hindered any return back to base, and is fully stocked with dryed food and a stove for survival in the field.
Inside the caboose, a welcome shelter in times of real need.
With 2 anchors hammered into the ice, and a Shunt attached to our harnesses which was clipped into the anchored rope, we each set off, one at a time down the ice cliff onto the sea ice. A Shunt is a device which requires manual pressure in the form of a lever, to release rope, thus making you able to travel both upwards or downwards along the rope. By the time all three of us had traversed onto the sea ice, we were already being greeted by inquisitive Emperors, that had travelled 1.5km away from the colony to perform, one of the most incredible and rare photgraphic sessions on earth. It sudenly dawned on me, staring into the dark eyes of these creatures, that this was the first living thing i'd seen for approximatly 5 months, other than my fellow base members. And i was looking into the eyes of a living creature strong and tough enough to survive and endure every hostile weather, that Antarctica had to offer, with no food, no shelter, just the pure natural instinct to keep huddled together, in order to survive. Here i was wrapped up in the best Antarctic clothing man had to offer, comfortable, just as long as i kept moving, certainly not if i just kept still.
The Emperor pwnguin is the tallest and heaviest of all living Penguin species. It is endemic to Antarctica, and is the only penguin species that breeds during the Antarctic winter, when the temperature can get as low as -40 degs C. Adult Emperors average 1.3 m in height and can weigh between 20 and 45 kg, making the Emperor penguin the 5th heaviest existing bird. Emperors start courtship in March or April, and are monogamus towards each other, in staying faithful to their mate during each breeding year. Dispite their efforts for the same partners the following year, most simply cannot find each other and so choose another mate. In May or June, the female penguin lays a single 450 gram egg, in which she transfers to the male, who incubates the egg in a pouch for approx 65 days consecutively without any food, surviving on fat reserves and spending the majority of the time sleeping to conserve energy. The awkward transfer of the egg, can mean many couples drop the egg in the process, when this happens, the chick inside is immediately lost as the egg cannot withstand the low temperatures on the ice shelf. After approx 2 months of feeding at sea the females make their way back to the colony, where the chick is again transfered back to the mother, before the males leave for a few weeks of feeding. Each trip becomes shorter than before, due to the melting sea ice in the warmer summer temperatures, gradually decreaseing the distance between the breeding colony and the open sea. Which is why the Emperors travel and breed so far inland, as any shorter distance travelled to breed would result in the sea ice melting, still with Emperor chicks on it, too young to take to the icy Antarctc waters. Eventually, all adolescent chicks and parents return to the sea and spend the rest of the summer feeding there, and at the end of the summer the whole cycle is repeated, for all those penguins of breeding age, while the younger ones stay at the sea edge.
Matt shunting down the ice cliff.
The inquisitive welcoming party.
Follow the frozen Penguin poo, with the colony in the far distance, a sure sign they have started taking the long ardeous journey to feed.
A lone Emperor crossing the pressure ridges from feeding in the sea, towards the rest of the colony, some 300 metres away - quite a short distance in comparison to some who may travel up to 90 km to their breeding colony.
Welcome to the Emperor Penguin colony at Windy Bay. A Emperor zoo, on ice.
Lunch with an Emperor, or 2!
Can you see me?
Emperor chick, probably no more than 3 weeks old.
Matt and Sune using the VHF radio with a whip antenna to contact base, both before and after going onto the sea ice. In the far right distance you can see sea smoke, a phenomena caused by the sea, which averages a temperature of about 0 Degs C, clashing against the -30 Degs C ice shelf. The freezing point of seawater is -2°C.
August statistics:
Max Temp. -13.4 degs C on 28th
Min Temp. -44.4 degs C on 10th
Max Gust 64.3 Knots
Total Sunshine Hours - 30.7 hours
1 comment:
Keep up the good work.
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