Very interesting

Check this out...not related to SANAE or me (I haven't seen any leopard seals) but quite amazing.

National Geographic photographer's encounter with leopard seal

Grunehogna

Well we eventually got the opportunity to go on a field trip.  The authorities back home as well as the weather needed to give permission for this expedition.  Seeing that we needed to prepare for any eventuality this, 3-day-50km-from-home camping trip needed quite a lot of preparation.    It therefore helped to rid us of some of the winter rust but was a welcome 'change' of scenery.  Antarctica has two very different characters and we had 3 days of her at her prettiest.  At the moment she is a raging beast yet again.

Newsletter published

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Goose bump moment

Today during some preparations outside I had a little goose bump moment when I noted the first swarm of what seemed like Snow Petrels arriving back at SANAE.  They usually visit during Summer to breed.  I hope they are right in that the winds of September is something of the past and that Spring is here.  It was a nice reminder that despite being alone on the ice for this long there is still life out there.

Struggle potential, high

One thing I wish to remember about this weirdly wonderful place is how much you can struggle in one day.  

We are having a spell of fairly good weather the last few days.  The skies are clear, the sun is already up from 8am to 8pm and the wind is rarely above 20 knots.  In other words dressing very warmly makes the outside accessible for most of the day.  

We also have a long awaited camping trip in the pipeline so we excitedly started with the preparations for this trip.  The plan (with preliminary approval) is to load 2 challengers with all the equipment needed for 3 days, travelling to a mountainous spot 5 hours drive away, spending two nights and returning to base.  Seeing that the base needs to be manned the travelling party will only consist of 4.

So yesterday around lunch we decided to take the dozer, collect a sledge and a 3000 L diesel tank and try and fill it up before supper, a simple and achievable goal.

Luckily the dozer was running as that would normally take 30 minutes to warm up, clear ice and start.  So 3 of us jumped in the dozer heading for the winter depot.  The winter depot is simply a designated spot on the ice where we can store sledges and containers.  This spot should not be too close to the base, to avoid sastrugi build up where it will inconvenience us.  So we needed to drive about 20-25 minutes to get there.  We hooked an empty sledge and pulled it towards the sledge with 2 x 3000 L tanks.  Then we needed to administer some elbow grease, as the old military saying goes.  We each grabbed a shovel and started digging our selected tank out from the winter build up of snow.  This took maybe 25 minutes.  We deployed the crane on the dozer, 10 minutes.  Tried to lift the tanker, still too much snow on it.  Since this tanker is on a smaller sled on the sledge we decided to unhook the empty sledge and tow the tank off the bigger sledge.  This works and 15 minutes later we have the tanker and small sled off the bigger sledge.  We attach the rigging and lift the tanker with small sled onto the empty sledge.  Strap it down and we are good to go.  25 Minutes later and we are in front of the diesel bunker with the empty tanker.  We decide to attach the 15 cm diameter pipes as the filling of tankers can take extremely long.  This turns out to be more difficult than anticipated, the ice has been polished to a shine over the last stormy month.  This leads to a lot of slipping and sliding and the pipes are so cold that they do not want to bend into the right position.  We decide to switch to the smaller pipe used for refuelling of vehicles.  Now the wind starts picking up and the fun factor dwindles into nothingness.  After maybe one and a half hours the tank is only 1/3 full.  We decide to seek refuge in the small pump room, the shivering is a lot less now.  Fortunately the pump is remotely switched on from the base and with a few valve adjustments we learn we can use the pressure to hasten the filling that is normally done by gravity.  Things happen nice and quickly now and we are hoping to be back in the base for supper.  Then after we reached the 2/3 mark….disaster.  Vince notices diesel dripping under the tank.  After some frantic clearing of snow we see the tank has sprung a leak, probably due to rusting.  Now the diesel we filled for the past few hours could contaminate the snow.  After some impromptu disaster management we manage to strap and ratchet and old leather glove over the leak.  Contamination avoided.  We now need to pump the diesel back into the bladders since this tank is  longer usable.  We go back to base to collect the mobile diesel pump.  First a battery needs to be fitted as this pump has not been used during winter.  Maybe 45 minutes later we manage to get the pump running and we can start to empty the tank once again.  This happens rather quickly but we realise the last bit of diesel will need to be emptied from the drain plug, we collected 2 empty drums and a pipe and after we stopped the pumping we started draining the rest.  At around 10 pm we decided we are too cold now and since we have at least one frost nipped finger between us we decided to leave the rest for the next day.

So after a long, hard afternoon and early evening of working and being exposed to the elements we have not only not reached a simple goal but we added more work to that simple goal.  It is quite disheartening to be thoroughly exhausted by achieving the opposite of getting things done.  Also remember we are dressed with 3-5 layers over our heads, legs and upper bodies.  We also wear gloves; also boots about twice the size of anything you have seen.  So all our movement is strained and uncomfortable.  We also walk over the terrain that is never even and sometimes as slippery as 'ice'.

The previous year team also warned us that you never say I am quickly going to do this or that…. nothing is that simple in Antarctica.

Sir Ranulph Fiennes plans to cross Antarctica by foot...during winter

I just read that Sir Ranulph Fiennes is planning to break another record.

BBC article

The article mentions he will have the backup of two bulldozers pulling fuel and sleeping quarters while him and his skiing parter go out in front. It also mentions that he is 68 years old already.

I really admire this man especially seeing that I have experienced the Antarctic winter.

Is impossibility something we conjure up in our minds....? 

Whiteout

The wind is still having a blast.   Currently blowing rather mildly, in Antarctic terms, at 46 knots.  With the driven snow, however, we have visibility of maybe 10 meters.

I am still not 100% sure why it is called a Whiteout...

Winds of change

The weather has changed this past few weeks and the wind has blown nearly non-stop.  I think we probably only had 2 or 3 nice days (i.e. wind below 15 knots).  

What also changed was our (or maybe just my) perspective that this year will be long.  

Previously, some attitudes had the underlying concern whether we will cope with this year, with all the interpersonal differences, all the darkness, all the challenges this harsh continent will offer.

Now the preparations for the next handover need to start and suddenly this year feels too short.  Suddenly we have deadlines again, schedules, new plans and personnel for the next handover.  

Questions that now pop into my head include:
Are we ready to go home yet?  Have we had enough fun?  Have we experienced enough?  Have we grown (other than in waist size)?  Could we have done better?  What is next?  Have we been good and faithful servants?

Fortunately there is still some time left, so the questions answered in the negative can still be addressed.  

This picture was taken the day our team was left on the ice.  

Antarctica through a professional photographer's lens

At the German Antarctic base, Neumayer, there is (by the look of it) a professional photographer over wintering.  Some of his photographs are truly amazing, it is definitely worth checking out.

To Stefan Christmann Photography's Facebook profile 

Antarctic film festival 2012

It seems the site that hosted the Antarctic Film Festival 48 hour movies has stopped doing so.  We are in the process of uploading a few onto YouTube so that the ones that haven't seen these works of art can still do so.  (It will take some time but enjoy what is loaded so long.)

In the 48  hour section some of the favorites where the following:
SANAELand - Our very own (Not really a favorite outside of SANAE)
The Soup Soap - by Neumayer (the German base)
Season of Change - By the Aussies
Dumont D'Urville - The Polar Hangover - By another French base

The winner in the 48 hour category was:
Super Mario in Kergueland - by the French

There also was an open section where the Antarctic bases had more freedom and time to produce their films here are some of the best ones:
One Small Step - by Neumayer (the German base)
The Departure - By Crozet Station - Also French I think
Spinning Round and Round - By the Americans

Aurora

Another weekend is concluded with aurora.  Not the best we have seen but judging by the rate at which daylight increases each day, soon our chance to enjoy this wonder will be over.  

Newsletter 6 Published

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Hull Breach

Being part of a self supported team of 10 members in an inhospitable continent like Antarctica is what we signed up for.  Although we have become familiar with our base and surroundings and do not talk or consciously think about this point very often, in the back of our minds we realise that we are on our own.  We are the fire brigade, the ambulance service, the emergency plumbers, garbage collectors, the water treatment operators, the water melters, the breakdown mechanics, the cargo handlers etc.  On top of that we live in an environment that will not be possible without this base, similar to living on Mars or on a boat.  Without the vessel life is not possible.  This fact becomes very pronounced during storms where it becomes life threatening to be outside this base.

A few days ago we had quite a memorable storm and our "familiarity" was disrupted slightly.  The wind averaged around 90 knots and the whole base was shaking and trembling with the force, something we have become accustomed to.  I walked to the Wet Lab to ensure that the glass lab equipment is safely packed away.  As I neared the lab the doors of some offices were shaking violently in their frames.  I went into the leaders office to investigate only to find the wind howling through the window and the blind flapping loudly in the wind.  It was bit of a shock and it took me some time to compute what happened and what needs to be done.  The window wasn't left open, simply because it cannot be opened.  Living in South Africa the thought of a burglary crossed my mind but there is no one here.  As it turned out some of the antennas broke in the strong winds and one of the connectors of an antenna, which was attached to the stay rope, crashed through our triple layered window.

Luckily Stef was nearby, as I went looking for timber to make a temporary shutter, she spread the word and everyone jumped into action.  After some 30 minutes of flying glass and freezing temperatures we succeeded in closing off the base's breached hull. 

(This post is also published in our coming newsletter)

Antarctic 48 Hour Film Festival 2012 Results

Well I would probably like to write the "man in the arena quote" here, where credit does not belong to the critic but to the man in the arena who is covered in dust and blood but I guess it will portray me as a sore loser.  And lose, we did.  The results for the recent film festival is out and we were very nearly stone last.  The results is based on votes by the participating over-winterers.  Despite the temptation you cannot argue with the scoreboard.

Sorry South Africa....we let you down.

Results

Antarctic Film Festival 2012 - Taking one for the team

The weekend before last was the annual 48 hour Antarctica film festival.  What this entails is each Antarctic base making a 5 minute film within 48 hours.  To keep everyone honest 5 items (to be featured in the film) is given on the starting time and 48 hours later everyone's film needs to be uploaded.  The items were: a queen, a computer mouse, the sound of ice cracking, the phrase "I will save you" and a map of our area.

Our team's idea was based on the movie Zombieland.  We tried to sketch the effects of long term seclusion in Antarctica.  A condition called T3 allegedly makes you forgetful after some months on the ice.  I have not noted a mentionable increase in my own forgetfulness but maybe I am working off a high base value.  The acting was more or less what you would expect from technically inclined folk so keep your expectations low.  I also made my big screen debut in this film but preliminary feedback suggests I keep my day job. 

Follow the link if you want to watch.  Some of the other stations came up with real funny ideas.

SANAE'Land' the movie

Disillusion #1

I know I write very little on my blog and I want to apologise for that.  I decided against group e-mails so that the ones too polite to decline do not need to constantly delete unwanted spam; but now I let the few people, who are actually interested in my Antarctic adventure, go to my blog only to find no news.  

Well I want to assure you that despite my few words, I experience this adventure very intensely.  The landscapes and weather is absolutely awesome and I still feel extremely fortunate to see this place.  With the winter's night fading I can drink these landscapes in with a new thirst for it's pristine beauty.

One thing I do regret, is the naive expectation of a blood bond being formed between the 10 in our team.  To spend 14 months practically alone on the fifth largest continent where support from outside is mostly impossible, one would expect some catalyst for such a bond.  If you think about it objectively, however, you probably won't have such high expectations of the the outcome, when 10 random people get on a boat to Antarctica.  Therefore I admit my naivety.  

On the other hand, I do not want to sound too negative.  We have a very good team and we function more than adequately.  After 7 months into our journey a lot of friendships have formed and what do you know, maybe some will stay friends for many years to come.

In my defence I also find it understandable that one can be swept away where "exotic" words like expedition, Cat train, sastrugi, ice shelf and team member are frequently used.  But what I realise tonight, with a little chuckle of course, the reality without the sugar coating is that despite the extreme "life or death" location I have colleagues, a supervisor and a boss….just like anywhere else.

Above: "The sun's return" - Braam's relief as the sun starts creeping higher over the horison.

Newsletter 5 published

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Snow bath

I recently had my birthday on the ice. Quite a good one I might add; thanks to good teammates who pulled out all the stops with a dinner that would beat 90% of the restaurants in SA; thanks to family and a girlfriend who sent gifts with our team leader, which was a nice surprise; thanks to some of SA's fine wine farms who sponsored our team with a few bottles of wine and lastly thanks to the weather clearing after about a week of storm for me to get my SNOW BATH....

If you read our newsletters you are probably up to speed with the tradition at SANAE that you have the privilege to climb in a freshly dug hole in the ice and being covered by the snow. It was quite an exhilarating experience.

With age comes the unfortunate reality that new things to experience becomes less. I am not talking in spiritual realms where we believe the best is always in front of us, rather physical experiences that we can encounter. The build up to the snow bath had this rush of doing something for the first time. The apprehension of being faced with the unknown causes a certain amount of adrenalin in our blood and this obviously made the experience more memorable.

Here are some photo's of the whole experience:

After the initial shock of the cold, your skin becomes rather numb and you almost start believing you will be able to survive in this cold, when I got back into the base, however, my skin was blood-red which tells what my body thought of that idea.

Frostbite

Just when you think you figured-out or mastered how nature works you sometimes get a little reminder how fragile we humans are... in the greater scheme of things.  A week or so ago we needed to bring something in from outside and seeing that it would only take 30 seconds I thought I would run out in my base clothes grab what we needed and run back in.    That in itself was not a terrible idea but what I did not anticipate was the effect of touching ice-cold metal with my bare hands.  I picked up what needed to be moved and after maybe 5 seconds decided to rather put it down but in that short time the damage was done.  I later learned that I helped myself to a minor degree of frostbite.  This is what my hand looked like after a day or so:

Initially it did not feel as if anything was wrong but later it felt like I burnt my hands on a hot plate.  It stayed like this for a few days before by skin started blistering as shown below:

At the moment they are 99,5% back to normal, with some spots still peeling.  I think the lesson learned is although the difference between summer and winter temperatures does not sound dramatic, (say from -20 to -30 degrees) those 10 degrees have a big influence on our bodies.

Sunday evening service

Windless nights with aurora rocks!!

New Newsletter Published

We published another newsletter, follow the links on my pages to get to it.

Midwinter: 21 June 2012

We will have our midwinter celebration two days from now. On 21 June we will reach the midpoint of our winter's night. The winter solstice, as it is also known, is celebrated by many cultures around the world as it indicates the turning point of the sun, i.e. days will start getting longer and hence, summer is on it's way. For us in Antarctica it also indicates the symbolic midpoint of our overwintering period.

For me personally it is quite an important milestone to reflect on what I wanted to learn and experience with this adventure and how the reality matched the theory.

In Antarctica it is custom for winter bases to send invites for the midwinter celebration, firstly to the other bases but also to friends and family. It is obviously nearly impossible to access us at the moment so there is some tongue in cheek involved. Follow the link below for our team's invite. Please write any witty reasons for not attending the celebration in the comment line or send it to the address on the invite.

SANAE 51 Midwinter invite

SANAE 51 Midwinter invite (High Resolution)

Newsletter 3

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Shop talk

One of my duties as mechanical engineer is to look after the water treatment plant at SANAE.  As all the signees of the Antarctic treaty committed themselves in keeping this continent pristine, we need to ensure the effluent water running from the base is within certain specifications.  Despite the immediate impression of grossness with the idea of working with waste water, I think having something that needs routine attention is probably very good for my mental health.  In this space-like world, which currently is also mostly dark, days can sometimes merge into each other and things that are sometimes taken for granted, like a sleeping pattern, can start taking a beating.  


What I find interesting is the fact that the treatment of waste water is mostly a natural process and our interference with the process is mostly only to create a more ideal environment for the bugs to do their work.  We routinely add enzymes to help with the break up of fats; also some lime to keep the pH favourable for the bugs.  The temperature is also kept as high as possible, if I remember correctly the bugs reproduce twice as fast at 34 degrees than at 20.


Once a month a detailed analysis of the water from various stages in the process is performed.  For this I need to spend a day in the lab.  As I do not have the specialist knowledge to interpret this data, it is forwarded to Cape Town for recommendations, if needed.


You have probably picked up that I have not drowned myself in technical books on this topic as I do not consider waste water handling to be a long term career choice; but sometimes to see something beautiful you need to put up with a little.... "waste".

"DUIDELIK!!"

A good friend of mine (5 years old) described the scenery in Antarctica as "DUIDELIK!", Afrikaans for "Clear".  (Thanks for the feedback Charl, I hope you don't mind me using that as the title of this post.)


As the sun has just crept over the horizon the last few days (with the approaching winter); and since our weatherman insists, despite the current 43 knot winds, there is a storm starting tomorrow; I think the sun has set.  By that I mean we entered our winters' night of nearly 2 months and I hope to see the sun again only in July.  


As children of Africa I am sure the absence of our beloved sun will render some psychological challenges.  


On the bright side we are not ancient Egyptians who may have interpreted the sun's absence as the need for human sacrifice or the like.  I wonder who we would have chosen...just imagine the pressure for social acceptance in those times.  


Duidelik.

Photos

Check my pages for "Photos II" for some newly added photos.


We will have our last sunset this summer within the next day or two so everyone is running around to get the last rays of sunlight on film.

Diet

One of the aspects of everyday life that is severely impacted by a year of isolation is your diet.  With the absence of shops, a quick run to the supermarket cannot replenish your salads or fruits or veggies or address your growing craving for roast whole chicken not even your achilles' heel for the occasional half-poisonous junk food like the old Big Mac or McFlurry or the KFC drumstick or your favourite local take away pizza or the famous flame grilled burger with oily fries or your favourite flat white outlet with those bargain mini breakfasts.....I am getting distracted here.....I did want to make a point....oh yea....


Despite the negatives of not having every imaginable source of food within 20 minutes drive from where you are; we, at present, have our stock of food, although limited, within 1 minute's walk from where we are.  Seeing that many health experts advise having small yet frequent meals rather than infrequent binge sessions;  it is not impractical for us to live healthily by having small meals with every breakfast, lunch, dinner and both teatimes.  One of my fellow overwinterers is also quite knowledgable on exercise and healthy diets and he describes your metabolism as an extra invisible muscle.  In other words keeping your metabolism healthy (by for example eating less more frequently) will increase your daily calorie consumption and will have many positive effects like excess weight loss, more energy, better general well being, you might even want to start to gym.


This post might sound like your run-off-the-mill-diet-plan advert and I do need to apologise for that, it is just that I am mostly in favour of what is practical and could only learn this lesson now.  Previously I was more of a two-meals-per-day-kinda-guy, simply because it is so practical.  In retrospect, I must admit that the difference is quite pronounced and the effort to stick to this regime, once back in society, will probably be worth it.

Told you!!

As seen 23rd of April 2012.  Photo courtesy of Braam Beukes SANAE 51 (i.e. teammate, blood brother, compadre, "for you, I kill the bull" scenario....)

Newsletter 2 Published

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From my side there is not much to report regarding life on base at the moment.  We did, however, have absolutely amazing aurora last night.  My photographs did not do justice but I will borrow some from Braam hopefully.  "Watch this space."


I am very thankful for an upbringing that allows me to appreciate natural wonders and beauty.  I am surprised and maybe a little sad to learn that some people are apathetic towards the wonders of our earth.  That might explain why we are neglecting it so badly.  

Well said

"Antarctica left a longing in my heart beckoning towards an incomprehensible perfection forever beyond the reach of mortal man. Its overwhelming beauty touches one so deeply that it is like a wound."
Edwin Mickleburgh

The above (not the photo) is from an article in the Star which concluded a series on the last handover period at SANAE.

(Star article - Nice one Kristen)

Aurora

We had some very feint traces of aurora earlier but last night it started to show a bit clearer.  What made it great, however, was the fact that it was a cloudless, windless night.  If my camera's battery lasted I would probably still be outside.  

Long weekend hike

With the past easter weekend three teammates and I decided to go for a hike around Vesleskarvet (the mountaintop on which SANAE is built).  The conditions were quite cold so we really had to dress warmly.  We had to cross a section of ice that has the possibility of crevasses so we also had to rope up.  In other words we were all attached to a climbing rope and we walked in single file stretched out over the length of rope.  The rationale is that if one of us falls through a snow bridge into a crevasse the rest will have time to anchor themselves with ice axes into the snow and will then be able to rescue the unlucky one who is probably busy taking pictures of the inside of a crevasse.   

** Note: The 'bandaged' face is only Braam in his 2nd world war extreme weather gear, which he insists is very effective. **

At one point we were sheltered from most of the wind and we dug into our lunch.  I think the cup of tea I had will remain in my top 10 of all time.  It was quite special to sit on the ice with a few mates and nothing to see or hear for hundreds of kilometers.

On the return we had to walk up a rather steep incline directly into the wind and the respect one has for the arctic explorers of yesteryear grew further.

After about 5 hours outside we were very glad for the luxury of hot showers and the warmth of cosy old SANAE.

Photos by journos

Die Burger newspaper's photos of Antarctica


(P.S. These photos were taken during this past handover season, some by journalists and some by the helicopter pilots.)

Day Break

At the moment our daily duration of sunshine shrinks with 10 minutes each day.  This decline will speed up to nearly 40 minutes per day before we reach our winter with no sun.  With seasonal change so well defined it is undeniable that our time in Antarctica is limited.  I am tempted to draw the analogy between this and our limited time on earth but I will not go there.  


I guess a very disciplined approach to fully enjoy and experience every little thing should be reasonable.


The following was taken this morning.

Breaking bread

Today saw my debut in the field of bread baking.  Over lunch I decided to start kneading some dough and after work I got it into the oven.  I went for a 50% rye 50% brown bread and I think it tastes excellent (surprise, surprise).  The real test, however, will be when my team mates need to decide between frozen shop bread or freshly baked rye (albeit by a novice). 

Cold revisited

Today was a lovely sunny and relaxing Sunday so we thought of spending time in the great outdoors.  It was a bit cold, however, -27 degrees Celsius.  Then the wind picked up to roughly 15-20 knots which made the perceived temperature drop to about -40.  Then DVD's inside the base started sounding so much better...after picking out the ice blocks from your beard and after raiding the kitchen of course.  (The cold really makes you hungry.) I hope there is a few nice days left before winter and we do get them but I guess an "almost-nice-day" in Antarctica is still pretty nasty.

Newsletter

With great excitement we have published our first newsletter. 


Please look under my pages for the relevant link.   

Evening sky

The absence of life in Antarctica, more specifically at SANAE, is sometimes still startling.  Occasionally you see a small puddle of water  (few times in summer) or you look in between rocks expecting to see insects or some form of life but you are always met with the sterility of this land.  There are two exceptions, namely an occasional bird and lichen, which is a form of algae growing on some rocks.  Still you are sometimes surprised to not see some critter where you have gotten used to them.  No ants, no flies, no mozzies.  Colds and flu are also rare so I guess there are not many bacteria or viruses floating around.  It probably emphasises one of the unique facets of Antarctica, bugs cannot survive here thus, unsupported life is virtually impossible.

Sunset II

I bought myself a new camera for my visit to Antarctica and I just discovered a new feature...time lapse shooting.  Hopefully this will help with capturing Aurora in a few months.  This is my first attempt.  I know it is not yet to the level I want it but I haven't blogged in more than a week.

With the base to ourselves most of our team moved into bigger or better rooms.  Mine has three windows now, so I spend a lot of time staring.  

Cold

I see the weather link I added right at the start of the blog (yr.no) predicts the weather as a little too extreme.  At the moment the average temperature is around -15 degrees.  The biggest factors in how cold it gets is wind and the height of the sun.  The padded jackets and dungarees together with the "pampoen skoen" (pumpkin shoes - orange multi layered shoes),  one or two layers, proper gloves and headgear make this climate very livable.  My feet for instance has only felt cold once or twice.  When you, for instance, need to untie a knot and you take your gloves of in windy conditions your finger tips become painful in a matter of seconds also your nose tip if not covered can become painful. Your rate of work also affects your comfort levels so we generally don't go into stormy weather to stand around.


Apart from the chill factor associated with wind the winds can also get strong enough to blow you off your feet.  As our base is on the edge of a 200 m cliff you don't want to loose your footing for too long.  In strong winds being a little over-weight is recommended.  The rule of thumb for the minimum weight for a certain wind speed is the wind speed in knots plus 10.  (I.e. for 50 knot conditions you need to weight 60 kg).  During the last storm that delayed the ship's departure we had gusts of up to around 70 knots.


Also bear in mind that we are at the end of our summer so I might revisit this page in a few months.

Colour

Before leaving for Antarctica I was warned that you get tired of the constant white around you.  Admittedly when the sun shines for the whole day most of the surroundings is white.  However, when the sun starts moving lower, as winter approaches, the range and intensity of colours are breathtaking.  Sometimes the scenery is really so big and so beautiful that you can just sit and stare into it.  It also changes so quickly that you can almost get frantic in trying to absorb all of it.  

Update

Such a lot has happened since my last post.  I will try and update as much of my experiences and thoughts as possible.  All posts may, however, not be in chronological order. 

 I have just returned from a Cat train.  As probably mentioned before that involves heavy strong agricultural vehicles pulling cargo and transporting passengers over the ice at a snail's pace.  The purpose was to take the last summer personnel and cargo back to the ship. Seeing that this was the first Cat train for our team as the people taking charge it had a different flavour to it.  Personality clashes, that was easy to ignore up until now, became a bit more pronounced.  With the weather not allowing things to go as planned our trip also took much longer than was anticipated.  So hard work, hard conditions and a lot of waiting had to be overcome and it put some strain on us as team more specifically the 6 that went with.  I do think, however, that some bridges between us as members are now stronger than before but on the other hand some divides seem bigger than was thought.  Division in our team will be a huge downer on what is otherwise a very special experience.  


So, reading between the lines you probably gathered that the days of isolation started.  We are now 10 people in SANAE.  With the Agulhas not able to reach the ice shelf due to 12 nautical miles of bay ice the cargo and passengers (in groups of 5) were flown off to the ship.


It was quite a reality check to see very competent people that have done so much work around the base leave and realising all that work is now on your plate.  It was also hard to say goodbye to some people that you started befriending.


That moment when we are left alone on the ice was something we discussed while still in Cape Town and I really dreaded that feeling and thought the enormity of it might be frightening.  It was quite a moment but I was also surprised how quickly one can grow accustomed to something.  All the terms and concepts that seemed so foreign 3 months ago are now my current normal.  

Check out my links

My blogging is a bit sporadic as there are things keeping us busy and because the internet is not always available.  I have added two other blogger's pages to my links so if you want to check it out please do so.  The one is from a journalist staying for the summer and the other is from my fellow team mate.

Handover

This past weekend marked the official handing over of SANAE base from team 50 to team 51.  It included a formal dinner with some speeches and on the lighter side some sports like tug-of-war, darts and table tennis.

The highlights of the speeches included the DCO's (Departmental Coordinating Officer) message that he no longer wants to encourage teams to be better than the previous but rather for them to become the best team they can be.  Jako's (our team leader) speech had a very powerful analogy for teamwork, namely the fact that geese, in formation, can fly up to 70% further than they can individually.  Both were good messages to hear.

The handing over ceremony was laden with words synonymous to 'responsibility' so I guess my employer wanted to emphasise that point.  I would guess that Antarctic programs will have difficulty with personnel.  It is rather difficult to substitute someone in Antarctica and despite any recruitment evaluation you are always taking a risk with whoever you appoint.  It also seems like some people love the fact that they can see and experience this weird and wonderful continent which amplifies their sense of duty while others tend to focus on their own comfort.  So I guess the emphasis on responsibility was maybe the subconscious holding of thumbs.  

After the dinner we finalised some games and I am the proud to announce that I am the top South African table tennis player in the whole of Antarctica.  Everyone seemed to have a lot of fun and I think the summer and winter personnel have become a fairly tight knit community.  The departure date for the summer personnel is around the corner and it will probably be a sad goodbye.  6 Of our overwinter team members need to go on the last cat train, that is leaving on Sunday, to finalise the back loading and then shut our Summer Station down and tow the last odds and ends back to SANAE.  

I will also join the last cat train and will return to a near empty base where the dynamics of life in Antarctica will probably change once again.

Sunset

Last night we had our first (near) sunset in more than a month.  This picture was taken just after midnight as the sun started climbing again.  I have become busy and familiar with the activities and tasks inside the base but I am still blown away when I catch a glimpse of the scenery.  

Storm

So our spell of good weather did not last forever.  Yesterday evening the wind started to pick up and at the moment it is a complete whiteout, i.e. when you look out the windows you can not see the ground which is maybe 10 meters from you.  The building is elevated on stilts of maybe 4 meters which helps with the unwanted buildup of snow around the base.  In some parts of the building you can feel the structure vibrating under the stress of the wind, which is around 55 knots with gusts of up to 65 knots at the moment.  I am very glad I did not attempt such an expedition 100 years ago.  I like the fact that we are cosy inside a 3300 square meter, 1990's state of the art building.  As a matter interest this building is designed for winds of up to 160 knots.


Here is a short clip of the wind whipping around the structure, just to give some idea of the conditions.  

At the moment, I do not really feel like pitching a tent.

Valterkulten

The day before yesterday I was lucky enough to join the geomorphologists on a field trip to one of the nearby nunataks, namely Valterkulten.  

A nunatak is a rocky outcrop, basically a mountaintop protruding though the ice.  It included a helicopter flight which obviously sweetened the already sweet deal.  

Geomorphology is a branch of science I have not heard of before this trip and as I understand it, it analyses the characteristics of a landscape and try to make predictions on the way it was formed.  On this field trip we therefor assisted the scientist in taking samples of smallish rocks and also taking measurements on rock sizes, orientation and hardness.  The weather was immaculate once again and I hope it will last.  It was such a nice day.  We had nice sandwiches, we each had a beer, I even made myself comfortable on the rocks and had a nice afternoon nap.  

Side note: In the Antarctic, against all your instincts, you try and keep beer warm.  To cool it is never a problem.

Handy man Jo

Few things in life are free and my expedition to Antarctica was made possible by accepting employment with our beloved government.  As you probably know, I am trained as a mechanical engineer; my career, however, could  thus far best be described as denial of that fact.  It felt like bit of a risk to accept employment in that capacity, especially since I am the only mechanical engineer on the team. I am relieved to report that the first few (of probably countless) challenges we have met could be surmounted.  We have two very experienced and  easy-to-work-with diesel mechs in our technical team and their perspectives and hands are obviously unmissable.  Wikipedia, Google and OEM (original equipment manufacturers) manuals also helped of course.  These tests included the setup of a generator's actuator and PLC-like controller, troubleshooting and fixing of a warm container fridge unit, replacement of a few pumps, servicing of two diesel generators, adding some functionality to another PLC (programmable logic controller) etc.  They probably only served as appetizers for the year ahead; so I might regret this blog a few months from now. As in cycling: a strong finish is more important than a strong start.  It is, however, good to know that while juggling fun, growing up and training at school and varsity a few things do stick and if nothing else, maybe just the way in which you think.