Shaneo's Antarctic year: June 2006

As we are isolated , with no outside help , we depend on each other for skills learnt before we came down . This is our fire team . We had extensive training in confined spaces , Breathing apparatus and fire fighting . We had an exercise yesterday , searching for a missing worker , and to extinush the simulated fire. We didnt charge the hose as water is a hard to come by commodity.

Pete and I in our BA gear.

The exercise was carried out under the science building

The team !!

An interesting cloud formation gave us these impressive images this past weekend. A few of us went for a ride on Quads to Jacks hut , then a venture to the sea ice in O'Brians bay.

Mid Winter Maddnes !!!! Today the 21st of June , 2006 , the day of the Winter Solslice , a hand full of us mad ones did the leap of maddness into the ice slurry. I leapt in with a hat , and it came off , all I could think about was exiting that H2O a fast as humanlly possible !!! The call went out , " Your Hat" My stammered reply was FAAARRRK the hat!!!!!. It was invigoriating though , the body tingled for a good 5 mins afterwards.

Here, I am digging the swimming pool for our mid winters swim , which will take place , weather permitting on Wednesday.The sea ice is over a meter thick at this spot , so it was a chain saw to cut a stencil , then in with big gear.

Look who came to pay us a visit!!?? Seen 'March of the Penguins'? well these Emperors are single males out cruising the Antarctic waters. They popped up on the sea ice near Jacks hut. The last Blizzard didnt break away any of the ice in the Swain group of Islands , and this photo was taken near there.

Sea ice travel is again limited due to the last blizzard blowing all the ice out again. At our current temps it refreezes quick , but we require a week of constant cold , with no to wind for it to build up thickness.

Sunrise today , although its hard to tell between sunrise and sunset.

Dusk images in the windows. The sun just peeks up over the horizon for a couple of hours , then vanishes again, leaving us with surreal twilight for about 1/2 an hour, then darkness.

This is what happens to machines during a blizzard. The snow is blown so hard it finds its way into the smallest gab and procceds to fill the cab and engine bay completely with snow.A huge amount of time is taken to 'de-blizz' the engine bay. All the snow has to removed away from the fan, belts and pullies.Failure to do this can result in a chunk of ice being driven though the radiator .

With the days becoming shorter (suns rises at 11am and sets at 2pm), and a blizzard blowing 70 knots of driving snow we have had time to build these model planes called hanger rats. They are made of balsa and have a rubberband as an engine. Theres been a few maiden flights and a bit of carnage , but a fun way to kill a couple of hours in the evening. As you can see there was some interesting parking .This light is 20 ft in the air !Somethime in the near future , we will have flight duration time trails.We arn't bored , really were not !!

More ice crystals in the air produced some sun dogs and a distant solar pillar .This was a end of the week present from Mother Nature.

Some our amazing cloud formations.(and eqaually amazing summer sparkie !!!!)

What greenery I hear you say ? Well during summer we do get moss growing around station and the outlying huts. This part of Antarctica is one of the few places on the continent that supports plant life, although this is about as lush as it gets.

The only Polar bear we find down here !!!! Location , Wilkins international ice runway construction site.

A small hole drilled in the snow reveals the glacial ice beneath.Location , the Vanderford Glacier.

The main power house , or MPH. These are 3306 CAT engines with Stamford alternators. 2 are needed to run at the same time to supply the stations need , which during winter is about 200kw.one other may need to come on during times of peak power useage.We have four as a back up.2 weeks ago one of the alternators burnt out , causing in the first instance, a power cut, followed immediatly by a fire alarm.It was action stations as a fire in the MPH can spell big trouble!!Its a good thing that the vester fire alarm is so sensitive.

Usually I post a photo here evey couple of days , an update on the weather and the stunning views that CAsey Station has to offer us in million dollar views. I even talked to an electriction from one of the other Australian bases yesterday ,Mawson. She was complaining about the constant winds , lack of snow , the quarry like apperance of their station . I couldnt help but to rub in the fact that we have had virtually no inclement weather to speak of for the last 4 weeks. Stunning days, amazing sunsets and equally stunning auroras.It was almost as soon as I put the phone down , the winds here picked up , the snow started to drift , and now we are in the middle of our second day of blizzard conditions !! Makes for interesting movment around station. As I type ,the wind is at 111kph which is 66 knots. It has been over 100 knots , but lucky for me not while Ive been on power station observations. Obs have to be done 4 times a day , no matter what the weather.