I have plenty of pics to share but don’t have my camera handy to do uploads. Safe to say I have been accused of being terse. With this entry I will try and take time to really fill the gaps any readers have on what, where, and how I am.
If it hasn’t been gathered, I left Aus for Antarctica and did so late October 2010. The ship ride on Aurora Australis varied depending on whom you asked. If you ask me… Amazing! Got a bit dry after a while and I could only play so many games of 500 (Plus some of the old guys were way better than me so playing as their team mate ended up being too stressful for me, that and I often had to run off for weather observations). I don’t get sea sick even in 14 metre Southern Ocean swells (only had one day of the big stuff, and “That’s nothing!” so say the yobs) and kept relatively active by running up and down the stairs to the bridge for weather obs. Doing these helped me get practice in before hitting Davis station, got the eye back in from where I left off at training school.
On the ship, we had a significant diversion due to an incident at sea. This cost us about an extra week of travel and the people involved in the tragedy their lives. It was a sombre start to our experience. Good food, good people, trying but ultimately good times. And then there was the “King Neptune” ceremony. Every so often I can still smell the combination of M&Ms, peanut butter and fish oil… not the nicest thing to have smeared everywhere, but it is done and I have a pretty certificate now. Even though the journey really started to drag, all of a sudden we were parked in the fast ice (fast as in stuck fast, not moving fast) outside Davis. In not much more time, we were all off the ship and settling into station life.
As stated in early posts, I have been to Whoop Whoop, the real Whoop Whoop, and it was good. A new weather station was installed there at the airstrip and my first and second - and I guess third and forth - chopper rides were had. Handover with the departing Tech went too quick but thankfully he was really helpful despite the time constraints. On the obs front, the team down here is the best. They help me with the new role above and beyond. They also excuse the help with the line “It IS part of my job” but the patience and input they give me is more than any job description asked for.
I have taken on the community role of hydroponics manager, as you may have noticed, and try and help out every chance I get with anything. A couple of people stayed on from the last winter season and will leave with our summer crew. They help without even thinking around base and make it look easy.
The smoko bell has just chimed. I am hungry and I will post part 2 when I feel like it. I leave that unfinished thought at that and post sooner or later,
B2
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