Emperor Penguins at Windy Creek

With very little or no Internet It has been very difficult to post anything for a while but here i have managed to upload a few pics of the Emperor Penguin Colony at Windy Creek taken before Christmas. Enjoy.

 Our Taxi awaits to take us to Windy Creek

It took us nearly 2 hours to get to Windy Creek this time, as the base is now 30 kilometers away and the Sno-cats are not the fastest of vehicles.

Myself, Miami and Les standing on the Ice cliffs

overlooking the Colony

It was a good day, most of the penguins were on the Ice shelf with small groups out at sea fishing to feed their young.

The Colony of Emperor Penguins at Windy Creek

They have their chicks with them this year.

There are approx 8,000 in this colony

The Chicks are nearly as big as the adult Emperors

This is Sana and Kirk the 2 GA's that guided us on the trip to the

 Penguin Colony Sana is the wintering 

GA while Kirk is the Summer GA and BAS Camera man.

Standing on the Ice Cliffs looking down

Morrison's Works Foreman Ian Prickett

Kite Snow Boards back from Windy Creek to Halley VI

closely followed by us in the Sno-cat.

He was much faster than us. Here Ian has arrived at base 

and is waiting for his kite to drop.

Still Waiting

Wednesday 21st December and I have a day off

The weather is scattered Stratocumulus clouds, with light easterly winds. 

The Temperature is -2.7 degrees C which is warm for where we are.

 Conditions are good for flying and yet we are still waiting for the plane from Rothera to come in with much needed supplies. It was supposed to have arrived yesterday with 200kg of meat, which will see us through until the ship arrives so we continue to produce food with very little, hopefully it will be in tomorrow (Thursday 22nd Dec).

While Paul and Rory are on the roof, we ask them
If they can see the plane

Ant Wondering what to do for lunch.

Andy Mac the Mechanic looks out into the vast expanse of white
Still no sign of a plane

Desperate for food Karl (project Manager) and Ben 
(Winter Base Commander) resort to raiding the fridge.

Ian Tris and Gary discussing the day in the dining tent

Andy the winter meteorologist arrives from Hally V
with a few supplies.

 With lunch over and dinner already prepared, myself
and Ant armed with our cameras go to see how the workers 
are getting on. The picture shows under the modules where 
the snow is has to be cleared, as wind tails form 

The modules in position with machines under the link bridge 
clearing the snow

Me sat on a Skidoo outside the red module

Ant walking from the modules back to the Drewry.

 

With Christmas just around the corner everyone is looking forward to the time off.
However! Christmas Day this year falls on a Sunday, which means the guys lose out on a day off. Sunday is the one day off they have anyway. 


This does not affect the Chefs as we still have to work, the workforce though, do get to finish early on Saturday and have a good meal to look forward to as all the food stuff and Ingredients for the Christmas dinner was put aside earlier in the year.
So plane or no plane Christmas Day is covered.


 Apart from the Drama of having no food all else seems calm. 
The Morrison Construction guys are busy with their own trades and making good progress.


 The nuts and bolts all seem to be going in the right holes, the cables and wires are being pulled and connected to the right terminals, share array and towers are being checked for correct alignment and tightness, generators are being maintained and monitored and all seems to be on track and progressing nicely.


 Which is good news for the 14 strong wintering team as it looks like they will be in the new modules by the end of the summer season and not as was expected back at Halley V for the winter.

 And so, after a busy days work we retire to our pit room
and to bed. I have the bottom bunk

Ant in the top bunk with a cup of tea, leaning against the head board
that Carl the chippy made him in the shape of a chefs hat.
Carl also made him a shelf for his laptop so he can watch his films 
In comfort.

Back In the Thick of It...

Having been at Halley now for 3 weeks, It has not taken long to get back into base life and doesn't seem 6 weeks since I left the UK.


With the Drewry building now situated at the new site and the Annex built to the side of it the accommodation block is fully operational and all rooms occupied with It's full compliment of summer staff.
We now have 60+ people on site that need feeding and to cater for this number there has had to be a logistics tent erected on the back of what was the Drewry dining room. This tent is now the new dining area and a walkway has been put in linking the two rooms.
 The old dining area has become an office for the base commanders, the computer room and lounge area for the workers.


Nothing has really changed from last season, I am back in my old room but this time sharing with Ant, he Is the wintering chef this year and will be the first to stay and work in the new modules. This will be his 3rd winter and 5th summer here on Antarctica and I have to say, "It's a real pleasure working with this guy" he is a good chef, but completely bonkers. 

 

Ant standing outside the Drewry, with snow mounds

 pushed against the melt tank ready to be shoveled in 

to provide us with fresh water.

The Annex is against the side of the building providing 

extra rooms.


 There has been a lot of activity here at Halley VI, the construction guys are working flat out on the Modules to catch up on lost time, the vehical operators are busy with snow management keeping areas groomed and clearing snow build up from around buildings, the comms are up to their necks in getting the communication systems up and running and the Chefs are not only busy keeping everyone fed but have the added pressure of trying to create menus with no Ingredients.


We are running really low on food now, the Ship is not due in until end of December and we are already using food from what should be the emergency containers.
The last few meals produced have been using, what we call Munch! This is manfood that comes in packets, you just have to add water and is what all explorers take on expedition as an emergency keep you alive rations.


It is getting very tight, but we are still managing to come up with a variety of inventive
and creative cuisine. Nobody has complained yet, they still get 5 meals a day, although it is not always meat.


We have a plane coming in within the next week with supplies from Rothera to help us out and the ship will not be far behind. So no need to panic yet!


The system we are using for communications is the Iridium system, which is very slow and uses different satellites which keep dropping in and out of signal. Because of this facebook has been blocked to prevent the system getting clogged. Therefore to post this blog is quite a chore and takes an age to upload any pictures.


In order to keep you updated I will write my posts and upload pictures when I can.
I have a day off tomorrow (Wednesday) and i am going to take a walk over to the garage, where Martin Bell the Deputy Project Manager is going to give me Skidoo training, so i will be able to drive myself to Halley V the old base camp 16 clicks away.
Something to look forward to. I will also try and upload a few pictures of my trip last Sunday, to the Emperor Penguin colony at Windy creek, which was awesome with over 4,000 Penguins and their Chicks. 


I'm off to bed now as it is 12.00 midnight and everyone else is tucked up fast asleep, which is an Ideal time to use the computer.
So until my next post, stay cool!

Film Footage

http://kirkoftheantarctic.wordpress.com/2011/11/17/the-journey-to-halley/

I have added this link for you to follow. It will take you to Kirk Watson's Blog.

Kirk has been comissioned by BAS to film the building of Halley 6 here on the Brunt Ice Shelf.

This short film is of our journey to Halley via Union Glacier, just to give you an Idea of what we went through. You will also see a short film of the Solar Eclipse which happened last Friday at 5.00am plus a few other films of Halley..

It is a good insight into my working environment...

Enjoy..