The normal method of launching the RIBs is to use the ‘Noddy’ or Nodwell Crane off the wharf and then using the rope ladder to get down to the boat. The only problem we have is when we have a southerly or easterly which creates bad swell conditions at the wharf. Now and again we will also have a large iceberg in the way but with the current which swirls around Ryder Bay we can normally wait for a while and it has moved clear.

Sunday was a great day. A bit of a lie in followed by cooking oatmeal and raisen cookies and chocolate chip cookie bars for the 112 people currently on base. Then Clive and I went skinning up towards the caboose and I got a call to go flying. So I turned around back to base and jumped into flight clothes. Off I flew with Alan in the twin otter to pick up a load from the Larissa project. It was a beautiful flight and I even got to land on the ski way on the skies while I was talked down. The pilots here are awesome.

I am off this morning to the field to stay at Fossil Bluff for a week. I have blog posting scheduled but I am not making them from the field.

While I am at Fossil Bluff the Rothera half marathon is going on to raise money for the East Anglia Children’s Hospice. I am taking Field Skis and instead will be sking a half marathon so please dig deep for terminally ill children.
http://www.justgiving.com/rotherahalfmarathon

For the second time this season we had open mic night last night.

Mel, Tris and Ant

Justin and Webbo

Ewan and Ant playing a song Ewan learnt in South Africa growing up. He was taught it by his fathers batman (father was chief of police) who was murdered for working for a white family.
Above is Clive and Ant playing duelling banjos.

Little antarctic fish (max length 9.5cm) basically that can be caught by divers as they aren’t really that fast. We haven’t been catching them for experiments however, on a dive a few weeks ago Terri handed one to me to look at and when I put it back down it got captured by a nearby anemone and when we left it was being eaten. The one I saw was a lot more colorful than the one in the above picture.

The knob in the bottom right corner of the above picture is what I turn in an emergency when I am diving. On my BCD there are two bottles mounted one I use as a working tank and the buddy bottle is my emergency supply. The air from the buddy bottle will just freeflow into my full face mask and I can then slowly and safely surface.

We have had humpbacks in Ryder Bay over the last month they really are graceful and magnificant. They grow up to 52 feet and weigh up to 76,000lbs. They are loved at Rothera because they often breach and show their tail flukes and also they will sing which is thought to be a mating call. Their singing will go on for 10-20 minutes. They migrate up to 25,000km a year coming down to Antarctica to feed on krill and small fish during the Antarctic winter they move north and live off their fat reserves not eating but breeding.

On our return from Leonie summit we sat next to three humpbacks and watched them lunge feeding. It was unusual as they were in 35-50m of water in between lagoon and anchorage when we started watching them. There were three and they would come up for 6 breaths at the surface and then dive showing us their flukes and feed before returning to the surface about 5 minutes later to take some big breaths again.

Boat/dive meeting board this morning

Going in for my birthday dive at Anchorage – a great wall dive.

In the bath tub in the dive store. The family tradition even gets to Antarctica except this was full of -1C salt water from the Aquarium.

All kitted up ready to hit the hills!

Where the risk of crevassing exists we have to be roped together as an Alpine pair. The picture above is the equipment we carry for being able to rescue your partner if they go down a creavasse. Two snow stakes, ice axe, ice hammer, harness, a 50 meter dynamic climbing rope, jingly janglies (13 different caribeners with lots of different tools), a climbing helmet, backpack, crampons to fit on plastic mountaineering boots and of course a backpack with first aid kit, extra gloves and warm clothes, water and food.

This is Clive and I roping up we have walked away from each other in order to divide the rope into three. We then carry a third of the rope around each of us in coils and are connected by a third of the rope. This ensures a gap of 10meters or more between each person and allows us to have sufficient rope to set up a system of rescuing our partner out of a crevasse.

On Sunday we climbed Badger’s Butress which had amazing views to the mountains on Alexander Island over 100 miles away. Around my body I am carrying 1/3 of the rope in coils which shortens the rope and creates a chest harness so that I would hang the right way up if I fell in a crevasse.

At the end of our little climb it was fun making a snow angel! I have to admit to lI am looking forward to rolling around in a carpet of green grass.

Rothera Dive team (-Terri) on brash ice – myself, JJ and Mel

Several times this month with the crane has been in service or needed somewhere else on Base so we have had to launch the boats in North Cove for diving. The problem is that if the tide is falling the brash ice gets left on the beach and our trailers can’t get over the ice. We were moving it away by hand but seeing as it was taking too long I decided to call in the heavy machinery! It comes to something when you need a JCB to get you out diving.

I have changed my morning 6:45 session to the runway instead of the gym unless it is a really miserable weather day. There is a bike on base and I am biking 10km every morning which is 5.5 times round trip around the runway. Sometimes I will do it in the evenings as well.

It allows me to collect my thoughts and I start the crane and tractor up on my last lap so that they are warming up before we use them in ernest to launch boats at 8:45. Sometimes I will even move some of the boats into position in front of the labs so the beakers can just load up and we are in the water quicker.

Today there was a lone Emperor Penguin sitting on an iceberg off the north end of the runway. They are very rarely at Rothera only seen once or twice a year having got lost.