What keeps us going..

 

It has occurred to me recently that all of things that I have seen, the work I have done and all the leisure time we have enjoyed is only because we are not dead. Now that's a weird thing to say I know and kind of obvious but as I have said several times about living here in Antarctica, its a beautiful place but it will kill you dead very quickly if you don't watch what you are doing. And the biggest reason we aren't dead is because we have this wonderful Station to live and work in. So I thought I would spend some time sharing about what it is that keeps us not dead down here on Station.

    So what we need to be alive is shelter, heat, water, food and it's also nice to have things to do so you don't go insane and become the Antarctic Axe murderer. So probably the thing that we dread most would be a power failure.. namely the Main Power House (MPH) stopping its wonderful chugging away. Whilst it is very pleasant to get off Station and go out to the white wilderness and hear... quietness ( well when the wind isn't blowing which is I admit a rare occurrence ) quiet here is a bad thing on Station because it means we have no power! Inside the MPH are four diesel engines driving four Electric Generators providing enough electricity to keep us going comfortably. 

    One of the reasons we dread silence from this building is not just the power going off, but the engines also create plenty of heat to keep our buildings warm. Perhaps more importantly they provide power to keep all the various pipes around the Station warm enough so the water/waste water etc doesn't freeze in the pipes. After all, the ambient air temperature is well below freezing point for probably 4/5ths of the year. If the pipes freeze up, the liquid will expand and break said pipes and then we will be in a world of problems!

Above: The Main Power House Generators. Four 10.5 Litre Caterpillar diesel motors each driving a 120 Kilowatt Generator. This is enough capacity to have three running and one in reserve to cover shutdowns of the others, one at a time for servicing or breakdowns.

    If for some reason the MPH does shutdown ( and it has happened four times so far this year ) we have about an hour of battery back up power for our critical systems to function before things start shutting down and liquid starts freezing. We do have an Emergency Power House which has one 27 Litre Caterpillar Diesel motor driving a massive 420 Kilowatt generator which will power the whole station. Aside from that there is also the Wind Turbine at the top of the hill that when turned by the wind ( which is 95% of the time here at Mawson ) can also provide about 300 Kilowatts of power. So we really should be OK if something goes wrong... we hope! No good ringing the Electricity Company down here when we have a blackout.. we've got to fix it ourselves.

Below: The wind turbine above the station.

There is so much wind here at Club Mawson that the turbine is only 2/3rds of its original design height... no need to go higher when there is enough wind to do the job here! Originally there were two wind turbines here.. but one .... fell off the top of the tower. Hopefully this one is bolted on a bit better!

Next after power and heat is water. Antarctica is believe it or not,  the windiest, coldest and highest continent on earth as well as the driest! Great place to come for a holiday eh. So as it only sometimes snows, and never rains ( well exceedingly rarely anyway ) we have to get our water by melting the ice! 

Up the hill near the the wind turbine is the Melt Bell. This is basically a big lump of metal shaped a bit like a bell that is lowered about 7 metres down into the ice. It is then heated up with hot water from the MPH motors and this melts the ice around it. Once melted we can pump this water into our holding tanks for use. But we can't just go nuts with water useage even though there is more ice than you  can poke a forest full of sticks at. There is a delicate balance between heating the water around the Melt Bell and pulling it out for use. If we suck up too much we reduce the thermal mass of heat around the bell and it stops melting the ice. So we have to leave enough there to keep melting the ice while taking a bit for ourselves. So its three minute showers for us once a day and go easy on flushing the loo if you don't have to.

Above: The platform holding the Melt bell suspended in the Ice Plateau that gets us our water. One  pipe going into the hole is for providing hot water to melt the ice and the other is to suck the precious liquid out.

    The water is so pure and soft that we actually have to add a little water "hardener" to it. When we wash our clothes we only use a tiny bit of detergent, otherwise we will have an explosion of bubbles pouring out of the washing machine. 

    The plumbers sent a trusty Go Pro down the hole the hole the other day so you can see what the Melt bell looks like below. The water is murky due to the trapped air in the slushy ice. When it melts properly it is crystal clear.

    So the other thing keeping us going is of course food. Naturally 99.995% of our food down here is of a frozen variety as it has to last for multiple months before we use some of it. However, there is one source of fresh food.. we have a Hydroponics hut which produces a limited but wonderful supply of some herbs and vegetables.. cucumbers, tomatoes, spring onion etc. I never imagined that I could get so excited about a small red tomato to put on my plate! The Hydroponics hut is not far from the Red Shed accommodation building and a small band of dedicated expeditioners keep an eye on the water levels, nutrient levels and acidity.

Above:  Inside the Hydroponics Hut.. good for fresh food and also a great place to hide away on a blizzard day.. its about 30 C inside, brightly light and most importantly... has  GREEN things it it!!! Such things are counted as heaven on a stick here in the land of white ice and snow, grey clouds and brown rocks.

    At this time of year as well, most of the wintering crew are thinking about going home. We have by now gotten used to the new Summer expeditioners and at times their energy and enthusiasm can be a bit grating and tiring. We have been playing the long game in order to get through 12 months here and they have all burst in the door shouting "we're only here for three months.. hurry up and do EVERYTHING NOW!!"

    And it does feel like we are required to everything now.. countless trips out to the sea ice to get Scientists to count bird populations, take samples, do training, drill holes in the ice and even pick up penguin poo ( yes they really do that.. when asked if I wanted to go and help I said I was pretty sure I had come down with Ebola or some other nasty disease and probably shouldn't go in case the penguins caught it off me ).

    We have also just recently begun the process of organising our UPE ( Unaccompanied Personal Effects ) which is all the things we sent down to keep ourselves amused here. So it really feels like things are coming to an end.. of our small 20 person winterer community, the really cold weather ( most days now have a top temp of 1 or 2 degrees C above freezing!!! ) and soon, due to melting ice, the end of trips to the Emperor penguin colonies.

     I have noticed recently more of an appreciation within myself for the people who have shared this whole journey with me and find it a bit special to just sit and talk with anyone from the 77th ANARE Winter team without being interrupted by the pesky summerers.. who are fine by the way.. just a little bit of hard work though compared to the old crew. I probably have just got a bit lazy.. So one very important thing that has kept me going are the other Winter expeditioners. Its a long time to be away from the people you love, and we have to help each other out to keep going when it gets a bit tough.

Above: Jason D, the BoM Weather Observer and I out on a walk up the GWAAM track north of the Station on a warm and windless evening. The box is an emergency food/shelter cache in case the weather kicks up and we cant get back to station about 1.5 kms away.

Below:  Aaron M, Electrician and I discovering we have finally worn our matching t-shirts on the same day. Its only taken us 9 months.

    Apart from finally getting temperatures above zero C, we have now also begun our land of the midnight sun season. About a week ago the sun did not set and will remain above the horizon until early January. This gives us better chances to do bigger outside tasks that have been delayed because of cold, dark, blizzards and other nasty Antarctic type things. I took the chance last month to grab three volunteers to help me climb up Mount Parsons, about an hour from Station in the Haggs, to repair an antenna on a repeater that had broken off in the winds. It was a very difficult climb of about 1.5 kms, steep and covered in loose scree which can have you going backwards even when you are sure you are walking forwards.

     

    After much huffing and puffing we made it and took a minute to look at the view which was pretty good . Then, due to the fact that it was still about -5C and the wind was starting to bite, we removed the busted mast mount, swapped the repeater onto the standby antenna, and slid and stumbled our way down the mountain to the patiently waiting Hagg at the bottom.

Above: First section of the climb up Mt Parsons. You can just make out the Orange Hagg ( two dots ) on the edge of the ice at the bottom of the hill.

Below:   Me on the only flat-ish bit of the climb.. about 2/3rds up. What looks like clouds below is actually the ice plateau.

Photo: Bryce K

    

Above:  The second climb... we have to get to the very pointy bit right at the top.

Below: Finally there.. testing the standby antenna before connecting it up to the repeater... no point connecting it to another dodgy one.. that would mean another climb which I was not keen for.

Photo: Ben C

Above:   The support crew of Bridget, Bryce and Ben stepping out on the way down. Yes having a name starting with B was a pre-requisite for being on the team.

So, we are rapidly approaching the end of the Antarctic adventure. In just 4 days time the Nuyina Support Vessel will be leaving Hobart to begin the journey back to Mawson, albeit a roundabout trip via both Casey and Davis Stations before finally arriving here around January 18th 2025. But that's a whole Christmas and New Year away yet so we'll leave that till next time.