Well, welcome to summer. The hordes are upon us . We lost 7 winterers and gained 63 summerers !! What a dymanic change. Its so bizzare , after sharing this special place with such a small number , to have helicopters dropping off what seemed to be hundreds of people. I do know they are all internet hogs ,as the server is sooooo slow!! I cant even download a photo of heli operations on to the blog :-( . I will wait until meal time tommorow and do it then.
I got drafted to heli ops again this voyage. We sling loaded 15.7 tonnes of cargo with 3 helo's in two days . That didnt include expeditioners baggage. So it was a busy couple of days.
We were getting sit rep's daily , on the posistion of the ship , so I spent a few days prior to arrival clearing the heli pads of acculated winter snow and setting up the wind-sock , fire extinishers and fuel.
Sling loading is quite a buzz , this heli hovers above your head and we hook up slings to the base and off she goes.
The ship left , and didnt get very far , shes stuck in ice 60nm offshore. Having the helo's on board enables them to do Ice reccies. The helo flys up , and tries to find a crack in the ice , a lead to to speak. It directs the ship to the break in the ice and she trys to ice break its way out of the Peterson ice bank.
Im off to the Wilkins runway again this weekend , so its back into the icy wilderness.
TRy to put more photos on in the AM.