Boys and their Toys

Last Sunday, started out as any normal Sunday. After a busy Saturday night, a drink in the bar, a good film and bed, i was well rested by Sunday morning having had a bit of a lie in until 9.30 am.

Sunday is always a fairly easy day as we don't start until 10.00 am and do not have to produce bread or smokes.  Lunch is always  a fry up consisting of bacon, sausage, black pudding, beans, tomatoes, mushrooms and egg, which is served at 1 pm.  Dinner is a roast  served at 6.30 pm, and as long as we are organised and prepped in advance we can normally take a couple of hours off in the afternoon.

This Sunday The Halley Driver Challenge took place.
This was a chance to get to drive most of the vehicles on base.  The vehicle ops set up mini courses for the Challengers and John deer Tractors, the Bull Dozers and Diggers and the Quad bikes.

So at 2.30pm, with lunch finished, the Roast Beef put in the oven on a slow heat, Veg and Gravy prepared, yorkshire pudding batter made and the crumble just needing to be put together I donned my boiler suit, boots, hat and gloves and walked across to the where the course had been set up.
 

 

Pat and myself walking to the course

A briefing on the safety of controlling the vehicles

The first machine i had a go in was the John Deer, the controls where very sensitive and responsive. The contrast was bad on this day and you could not see the terrain you were driving on. I can now understand how easy it is to drive into a crevasse or a hole. you just do not know they are there

The Quad speaks for itself. This was great fun

The Bulldozer was a very hard machine to control and i will never forget the immortal words, said by Pete, the vehicle operator who was Instructing me.
"Oh F***  I think we're gonna get stuck" (in a Yorkshire accent).

At the controls of a Dozer..It was just like using a playstation

We didn't get stuck, but Pete had to re-level the course for the next victim…

This was also harder than it looked. It was great though, I've dug a big hole in Antarctica and filled it in again

Ian our Comms  guy on the Quad

The Challenger was awesome. I  opened her up full throttle and cruised down the drum line with Bryan sat beside me. And just for my mate Martin Capel back in the UK.
I did a do-nut in it Mart!

Chris on the Quad, taken by pat. If you look behind Chris you can see me in the Challenger..    Fantastic!

Pat having a go in the digger.

While the Driver Challenge was taking place one or two of the others took advantage of the wind to play with other toys.
Here Ian was snow boarding behind a Skidoo

another guy Kiting

This was Funny, Steve and Ben the Mechanics were trying to paraglide.
Here Ben is attached to the parachute and they were towing him behind a Skidoo, they did not have enough weight or speed on the Skidoo as every time the chute rose it was taking the skidoo with it,  and Ben ended up on his backside being dragged.

Time for a drastic change. They connected the Chute to a Challenger, this time with Ben driving and Steve in the harness of the chute.
It went a lot faster, but still the chute would not lift off the ground.
Steve's legs were going like the clappers until he got dragged over. Ben wouldn't stop and kept dragging Steve, it was funny…

Then it was time to leave them to it as i had Dinner to get ready for when they had all finished playing…
The good thing about being a chef in this instance, is that you get to jump the queue in everything, or they don't eat….
Bonus



That was Sunday, it is now Thursday and i am enjoying my day off. They have started to move the Modules to the new site, and yesterday the Science Module was the first to be towed the 15 km to it's new home. It was very successful and in the evening we had a presentation by Karl Tuplin, the project manager for Halley VI.
Karl has been working on this project since 2003, and the whole evening was a very informative talk on the New Build, from the very beginning. Why we need the new base, the design competition, why this design was chosen, How it was planned and executed, right up to the current day. It was fascinating and real Star wars type stuff.
 Kirk has been filming the entire process and we were treated to a showing of the film to date. We have all been given a copy of Halley VI Build Season 2009-2010 which in itself is a great keepsake, but this seasons footage so far is pretty amazing stuff and not yet for public viewing.
Once all Modules have been moved which will be in the next couple of weeks, the season will end and we will all be shipped home, leaving only 11 or so winterers to keep the base ticking over, until next summer season. This will be when the team will return to not only start working on the new base, but also to start demolishing the old base, Halley V.

In the meantime everything still needs to be maintained, and i wandered over to the Garage earlier to see what the Mechanics were up to.

The Garage Where all the Mechanics hide out

Inside I find them working on a Sno-cat

I don't know why i was surprised to find the inside like any garage back home.
They even have an office where they can go and have a cup of tea. In this picture  Steve is looking through the recipe for the Sno-cats gearbox or something similar.

So while Steve tries to find the right recipe, Jack does some welding under the machine

Jack looking for the right nut and bolt

It may be in here somewhere…I thought i was tidy and organised in the kitchen, but these guys no where every nut and bolt is.
I was impressed.

Meanwhile, Andy is outside working on one of the Excavators

Oh Oh! this looks like a big job. Ben using one of the Challengers to pull an injured Mantis crane back to the garage . this is an important job and has to take priority, as the crane is needed by Morrisons for the new build and they can't afford to lose any more time.

Ben masterly manoeuvres the Crane into position, while Steve is ready to have a look at the problem

Steve looking at the cause of the problem

This is a great garage forecourt, and i gave Steve and Ben my recommendations for the crane….."Exchange and Mart"

Steve knows he can fix it. And it wasn't long before it was back in service.

2 Challengers and 2 John Deers on the Forecourt.

Another day and the Ski-doos are in for a service. Brett the Wintering Mechanic is working on this one

Andy and Steve both hard at work

The Bombardier engine of a Ski-doo.

Brett wondering where the wheels go!

Steve angle grinding a bracket to hold a shovel onto the ski-doo

Steve now spot welding the same bracket. These guys are amazing, being in Antarctica you can't just nip out to B&Q if you need anything. So if they don't have a part they make it…

A Ski-doo

Looking at the controls

The list needed to be done for a service

And Finally the skidoos are put into what is called Bell End for the Winter to protect them from the elements.. This is a man made ice cave, dug out and built up using the dozers and diggers



Bell End.. This is where the skidoos are kept for the winter.