Two weeks ago I felt very ordinary as we had open mic night in the bar. There really is so much talent here at Rothera and lots of it is hidden under a bushel as it were.

Lots of people got up with immense talent playing instruments. Unfortunately due to the bandwidth limitation I can’t put a video up. We had banjos, guitars, electric guitars, piano and Mel’s beautiful voice. It went on until late friday night.

My presents – a fruit bowl from Clive and a painting from Matt Doc

Claire and Adam at dinner

Clive and I at dinner

My present to Claire the bookcase finished and filled!

Back to work this morning Boxing Day at 7am with two hands stitches are out. Christmas was amazing day off. I have this evening off and tomorrow. Already done one SAR today for the airplanes and will be taking a group to Lagoon to stay on the island tonight at lunch time. Meantime catching up with some work in the boatshed and helping in the kitchen. It is a beautiful day down here and I need to go work off christmas dinner! Love to all.

All day you can hear the ice shifting and sometimes at night you will hear what sounds like thunder or artillery fire. The other night I was sitting up at the memorial at 10pm and saw a little bit of snow moving on the ice cliff at south cove. Unfortunately I didn’t get my camera out quickly enough but this picture shows the brash ice and the waves created by a large calving from the cliff and you can see the fresh blue ice.

It reminds me to stay a sensible distance away when I can in the boats.

After the nativity play last night which is the best I have ever seen and mince pies and mulled wine the four of us headed up for some christmas eve skiing and vals. The snow was really beautiful for skiing but unfortunately with my stitches it was a no go for me.

Claire, Adam, Clive and I spent the night in the caboose and woke up to presents on christmas morning. The bookcase for Claire was too big to get up to the caboose so some elves put it in her room for when she got back in the morning.

Adam and Claire had to be at work by 9am so they left early Clive and I stayed till past midday we had to take down the pyramid tent and I wanted to make a snowman.

We had some visitors Ant and Simon came up and as Clive had the guitar we spent an hour just listening to three talented people and made our way down for brunch.

Phone calls and opening of gifts and before you know it it was time to set the tables for christmas dinner. I got some beautiful presents – Clive made a fruit bowl on the lathe, Claire made me a gingerbread house kit and lots of yummy things from home, Adam gave me a flight in the UK with him on the planes he flies and Matt Doc my secret santa dd a beautiful water color of a twin otter over Jenny Island framed. Wow I am a lucky person.

After too much food and chocolate it was time to watch some 007 in the form of Casino Royale and then bed time at 11pm as I had to be at work this morning.

Hope you had an amazing day with friends and family.

Love
Ash

The sea ice and brash is in Hanger Cove pushed against the runway right over the sediment plates that needed changing out. We also needed to do some collections. I picked up 50 urchins while Terri took pictures of the sediment panels and did some other collections. The north side of the runway is very different diving from south cove as there is much more scouring by icebergs so it is not as diverse in terms of species and what there is a lot deeper. There are lots of nemertean worms along with the urchins.

Looking out from the Caboose last night at the tents.

Tents dusted with snow this morning
The station this morning covered in snow.

Last night Adam kindly took me up to the caboose at Vals as I can’t drive a skidoo yet and I stayed at the cabin. It snowed all night and was really beautiful this morning with the light on the Bay. This morning the snow was a foot thick and with not a single track pristine as far as they eye could see.

The station has a sewing loft which is a great place to hide away and do projects if the weather is not good for boating. I spent the morning making fire extinguisher covers admitedly one and half handed as my stitches come out on christmas day.

The christmas present for Claire moved on a little further this weekend. I will try to get the back on tonight. I put a contrasting solid wood frame on the face of the plywood shelves. The table planer is really great here – I love the workshop with all the great tools laid out neating and organised.

It was my weekend for SAR but seeing as I can’t get into the boat with my hand like it is I spent Saturday afternoon and Sunday afternoon making cookies, lemon meringue pie and mince pies one handed! This isn’t a small task on base as there are 80 people to feed at the moment so that is 160 mince pies for two each…

It was a shame as it was such a beautiful weekend to be out skiing however, I had a little bit of a lie in on Sunday till 9:30am which was nice.

At the moment we have around 80 residents at Rothera Station. With the ship coming in two times in the last month, two Dash 7 flights and numerous field parties coming back in we have a constant turn over of people.

As you can see from the picture with in a 1km radius there is a boatshed, wharf, hanger, runway, apron, fuel farm, accomodation blocks, garage, electrictian, carpenters, docter, science lab, mountaineering equipment store, sewage treatment plant, library, laundry, gym, post office, shop, IT department, darkroom, sauna, music studio, bar, movie theatre… etc. So basically anything you might want or need.

The station sits on Adelaide Island to the west of the Antarctic Peninsula. Temperatures have risen to +7C in the summer and drop to -20C in the winter. In an average year gale force winds are recorded for 70 days with snow or sleet 200 days a year. It very very occasionally rains otherwise it is a very dry environment. Sunshine averages at 1100 hours per year.

After John Rothera and Peter Gibbs surveyed the point in 1957 working form the UK Horseshoe Island Base there was an attempt to establish a base in 1960/61. Due to sea ice this didn’t happen so a station was established at the southern tip of Adelaide which remained in use until 1977 when it was made into a Chilean Base.

In 1975 the skiway up at Vals was used by BAS aircraft and the first building was erected with four people overwintering in 1976. This building is now the joiners workshop. In 1977 Old Bramsfield was erected and it served as the main building until 2007/2008 when new Bramsfield was opened.

At the start of the 1990’s the gravel runway was built up to this point everything had come in by ship making stays at base a lot longer than currently! The runway enabled a direct air link to and from the Falklands and the Dash 7 was purchased for this purpose. Also the fuel farm and Biscoe Wharf was constructed allowing ships to moor at the station and easier unloading of relief.

The last sledge dogs were removed from base in 1993 in accordance with the Antarctic Treaty. They had been replaced by skidoos for a number of years – the dogs were for recreational trips. The last two teams were Admiral and Giants hence the naming of the two accomdation blocks. In 1996-97 the Bonner Lab and Giants were built. In 99/2001 Admirals was built which is where I live it is a really comfortable accomodation block with two beds per room every room is en suite and has a window.