On Our Own

So, here we are, all alone at the ends of the earth! Over the course of the last two weeks and a bit, we have said goodbye to the 76th ANARE team and the Nuyina. Then we have said hello again a week later to the Nuyina ( from 2 Nautical Miles away ) as well as a lone helicopter from said Nuyina. Then we said goodbye again.. we think for the last time... but who can ever really tell!

Let me elucidate for you ( elucidate is a word I first learned at Yarram High School in about 1983 from perhaps one of the first "AI" self help psychologist programs we found on our not quite state of the art Apple IIE Clone computers that we were lucky enough to have a room full of... if you typed into the computer running the Self Help program some phrase that the software didn't understand or recognise, the response would be " Come, Come... elucidate your thoughts!" Anyway, I digress )

The re-supply event designed to stock up our station with all the goodies we require to survive, thrive and work for the next 12-18 months ( 18 months perhaps if the weather or some other unforeseen circumstance occurs preventing a re-supply this time next year ) was not as smooth and uneventful as we had hoped. First , although we were blessed with four days of wonderful weather as soon as the Nuyina arrived ( well wonderful by Antarctic standards... less than 25 knots of wind and temperatures of around -10C ) it seemed to us on Station that there seemed to be a distinct lack of action from onboard Nuyina resulting in a distinct lack of equipment from said Nuyina arriving in our hot little hands to squirrel away for a cold and rainy day/month/year.

This lack of activity persisted for most of the four days of good weather much to our consternation, and then the inevitable happened and the weather decided enough was enough and it was time to return to cold, blowy normal weather. This meant no goods could be moved at all off the ship. The weather lasted a few days but in the interim, it became apparent that the two cranes on board the ship that could lift the shipping containers out of the hold onto the single barge in use from the Nuyina were broken! There are in fact two barges but only one was being used... again much to our further consternation, disbelief and bewilderment. Consternation by the way is my word of the day if you haven't gathered that already.

Then it became a case of what the ship could provide using the small rubber inflatable boats and the slightly larger and more robust PTT watercraft ( no idea what PTT stands for if you are wondering) . After a few days of back and forth it was apparent that the freight we had received ( about 50% of what was expected ) was about all we could get as the cranes were deemed not safe to use lifting the big containers. Further to our woes was the fact the the method of storing the containers in the hold meant the doors could not be opened to manually remove some of the more important equipment required for some projects and maintenance due to be done this year.

BUT.. the good news was we could still fill up the fuel farm with our SBA diesel from the ship! SBA being Special Antarctic Blend diesel.. special because it has either got some waxy stuff removed so the diesel doesn't freeze and clog up the generator engines or because it has the waxy stuff inserted... the Mechanical Supervisor here did tell me which way it was but I forget to be honest and am too lazy to ask him again.

Above Left: 3 Inch fuel line coming from the Nuyina, across the lump of cold and windy rock called West Arm . The yellow and black seal lying down is in fact not a seal but our Mechanical Supervisor trying to get a Pulitzer prize winning photo... not sure how he went.

Above Right: Fuel line heading over West Arm to the Fuel Farm on Station. It had another stretch of water to float across between West Arm and the Fuel Farm.... probably another 200 metres or so.

I was fortunate enough or not ( generally I think not ) to have the task with the our Mechanical Supervisor of 4 hours of patrolling the hose line that was draped over West Arm between the ship and the stretch of Horseshoe Harbour that lead to the fuel farm. All I can say was that it was windy and it was cold and we had to keep moving to stay warm. There may have been a considerable amount of arm flapping, star jumping and even push upping as we set about finding the most efficient and effective way of staying warm... oh and also making sure the hose wasn't leaking.

Left: When on hose patrol on West Arm some things are more important than others.

1) First, put on as many clothes as you can. Once you can't move, remove one layer and you know you're as good as it gets.

2) Chocolate. Doesn't matter whether its a type or flavour you like.. take lots. Eat it. The specimen I am holding is a rather uninspiring peanut and milk chocolate effort from Mr. Whittaker.

The trip from Station to West Arm involves traversing a rather tricky piece of blue ice... very hard and very slippery. So some appropriate footwear is required. We have three versions for our selection. First is the everyday 2 Wheel Drive method of boots with no additional traction devices. Rubber soled boots such as these Sorrell's are good.. the rubber sole won't freeze and get too hard around -15 C like standard boot soles. When the soles freeze and get hard they are just as slippery as the ice ( and also sound like you are wearing tap dancing shoes ) and this combination is a recipe for multiple undignified and painful trips to and from the ice.

Even rubber soles aren't enough for the super hard blue ice though, so you need tyres with grip... see below.

Below Left: 2WD boot option for everyday commuting around the station.

Below right: Flip your stretchy 4WD hubs with pointy bits around and you have some traction for the ice!

But even our 4WD boot options are not enough for the really nasty ice. You need a whole heap more pointy bits for that stuff so that's where our Low Range 4WD boots come into play (See below ). You generally wear the big moon boots with extra insulation with these stretchy crampons when you are out in the field. They are still no guarantee of a no slips, trips and falls adventure however.

So at the end of the week of re-supply, the Nuyina headed off in a hurry with it's tail between it's legs for Davis Station and then Hobart. Some of us wondered whether it was in fact de-supply as we may have given back more stuff for Return to Australia - RTA such as rubbish, old Hilux utes etc etc than we received.

However, more exciting things took our attention at that moment. Traditionally, when a wintering team leaves to go home, the new team will stand on the wharf or prominent point and wave goodbye. We also get to set off flares etc in a fireworks display of great joy, using out of date old flares not fit for proper use anymore. Spectacularly for us and the 76th ANARE leaving, the departure occurred at about 9pm in the dark so the result was quite amazing as you can see below. I got out my Bagpipes and attempted to play a couple of tunes as they left to add to the atmosphere.

The atmosphere was certainly added to but not very salubriously at first as the pipes were very cold and grumpy, almost bordering on mutinous. Nevertheless, I pushed on past the first tune Scotland the Brave and tried tune no.2 which was titled Going Home ( most relevant I thought ) and by then the pipes submitted to my instructions and sounded passable considering it was about -15C. After two tunes however, my fingers got temperature dyslexia and stopped working in any co-ordinated fashion so that was it for musical accompaniment of the 76th ANARE teams departure.

Top Left: Launching parachute flares.

Top Right: Our parachute flares descending and hand held flares as seen from Nuyina

Bottom Left and Right: Our handheld flares and me trying to coax the pipes into tuneful life. The Nuyinas' lights can just be seen in the upper right of the right hand photo.

After all the excitement we retreated to the dining room and felt like real expeditioners as we were now seriously all alone. Whilst not getting everything we expected from re/de supply, we had enough stuff to get by with no trouble and could settle into the routines we could decide worked best for us. Over the next few days we sorted ourselves out a bit and then got news that Nuyina was heading to Davis Station to collect the Summer crew from there.... but would then return to us to dump some more freight via Helicopter flight ( they were picking up two helicopters from Davis ). This was all news to us and we wondered what that meant. We duly sent off a wish list of the things that we figured would be most useful to the station as a whole ( considering a helicopter can't hold that much stuff even in a few trips ) and waited.

Eventually the day arrived and the weather was .....rubbish. So we waited till it cleared enough. We had heard that in fact there would be only one flight.. which bemused us yet again... why sail three days from Davis to Mawson to deliver only one load of critical cargo...surely you can do as many flights as possible seeing you are here??

Consternation arose yet again but as rumour had it, one flight and one flight only arrived. We were interested to see what goodies they had been able to squeeze onto this precious and expensive flight! In the end we received some batteries which were very welcome in the comms workshop, some grease to keep the wind turbine going which was also welcome, and then to top it off enough silicone sealant to seal every possible crack, opening and hole in all the icebergs in Antarctica. Not quite so sure about the usefulness of that one but who knows! After the whole one flight, Nuyina said goodbye again and this time really did turn for Hobart.

So where do all the goodies that we get go? Well to the supermarket of course! We can go "shopping" and collect it like everyone else. This is the entrance to our local branch. Well as far as branches go its more like a twig... but it is a cupboard where we can get basic stuff like toiletries, tissues etc etc. If we need hand moisturiser ( its is very dry here in Antarctica ) to keep Polar Finger at bay ( basically your skin drys out and your finger tips crack open ) you can head down to the public medical store self help bar and get that sort of thing. Funnily enough, treatment for Polar finger is ... super glue. Well medical grade super glue. You fill the crack up with glue and it holds everything together till your skin repairs itself. Maybe we could use all that silicon from the special helicopter flight for that as well.....

Since Nuyina left for real, we have started training for Field Trips which allow us to get inland and see and do more things. This will take quite a while for everyone to do and the priorities are first for our Search and Rescue Team to get up to speed first and then everyone else. My turn is yet to come. We also have set up our Fire Team roster, cleaning rosters and work groups have their own On Call rosters to work. Given the fact that there are only 20 of us here, a field trip taking four people out for one or multiple days can mean a lot of re-jigging and covering of rosters to keep everything covered that needs covering every day. But that is all part of the challenge and privilege of being here. To do and see some amazing things, you have to do and see some ordinary and mundane things as well.

But to finish, one not mundane thing to see and do here is look at the Aurora Australis which is easily visible in these clear Southern skies! The photos below were taken on a clear night but with a full and very bright moon. Cameras always seem to make the auroras seem brighter than they are to the naked eye, and I was surprised how bright they look in the photos. Still, come clear nights with no moon they will no doubt be even more spectacular!!

So that's it for the moment. I will leave you with a conversation I overheard between two Emperor Penguins near the fuel farm whilst I was checking on a hose during re-fuelling. They had just wandered up from Horseshoe Harbour to see what progress we were making.

P1: Oy, Reg, what's happening?

P2: Hey Stan... been watching these new 77th clowns.. not sure they know what they're doing... think maybe we better vacate the premises to be safe.