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.
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!
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!
No comments:
Post a Comment