The weather has been lovely here the last few days and really warm with the temperature today at 1.6 degrees centigrade, there is still a lot of sea ice and nothing really happening. The Dash 7 went north with people heading home having either completed their season or not being able to finish what they started due to circumstances. Jo for example, one of the scientists got into the field a couple of weeks ago only to find all of her equipment on the ice shelf had been buried by snow and had moved. She had lost all of her science equipment plus 3 skidoos and a fuel bladder, it was left last season with 3 metre lengths of bamboo cane with flags on the top marking the site but it still got buried. Even with GPS, careful calculations of the ice flow movement and a lot of digging, they were still unable to find her gear.
Her team was called back and her science has had to be postponed, Jo is now on her way home.
With no sea for the boatmen to play with their boats and no relief happening any day soon, Zach, our winter boatman was sent out with 2 field guides armed with shovels and metal detectors to try and find Jo's equipment. This would have meant less mouths to feed over Christmas, but the Dash 7 came back in with another 12 people on board. These are the guys that should have come in on the ship, but as the ship got turned back and they are needed on base they were transfered to the Dash where they were flown in along with important equipment needed for scientists to get into the field.
It it good to eventually have these people on base however, it has now pushed the number on camp up to 71 with 48 in the field and still no extra food. The Dash with a heavy payload had no room for any freshies, we did however manage to get 3 cases of 'Nido' (milk powder) which we are desperately short of. This means we can now start making yoghurt again, which will be good for Christmas.
We have been told that the ship will be attempting to get to us by 13th January, this is good news although it would have been nice to have had some freshies for Christmas day. At least we will be able to enjoy the Christmas festivities without all the work that relief brings. We have a quiz night on Friday, the eve of Christmas eve then on Saturday it will be carols and mince pies in the bar, then Christmas day will be a non stop eating frenzy.
The latest news from the team sent to recover Jo's equipment is that they have found it and are in the process of digging it out, one thing for sure is that they will definitely be in the field for Christmas, along with 10 other teams, well done guys here's wishing you all a good Christmas.
Her team was called back and her science has had to be postponed, Jo is now on her way home.
With no sea for the boatmen to play with their boats and no relief happening any day soon, Zach, our winter boatman was sent out with 2 field guides armed with shovels and metal detectors to try and find Jo's equipment. This would have meant less mouths to feed over Christmas, but the Dash 7 came back in with another 12 people on board. These are the guys that should have come in on the ship, but as the ship got turned back and they are needed on base they were transfered to the Dash where they were flown in along with important equipment needed for scientists to get into the field.
It it good to eventually have these people on base however, it has now pushed the number on camp up to 71 with 48 in the field and still no extra food. The Dash with a heavy payload had no room for any freshies, we did however manage to get 3 cases of 'Nido' (milk powder) which we are desperately short of. This means we can now start making yoghurt again, which will be good for Christmas.
We have been told that the ship will be attempting to get to us by 13th January, this is good news although it would have been nice to have had some freshies for Christmas day. At least we will be able to enjoy the Christmas festivities without all the work that relief brings. We have a quiz night on Friday, the eve of Christmas eve then on Saturday it will be carols and mince pies in the bar, then Christmas day will be a non stop eating frenzy.
The latest news from the team sent to recover Jo's equipment is that they have found it and are in the process of digging it out, one thing for sure is that they will definitely be in the field for Christmas, along with 10 other teams, well done guys here's wishing you all a good Christmas.
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