I've made it to the bottom of the world!

First mission was to make a snow angel....and no I actually did not fall over doing this!

 

As I write this blog I am sat in my new off-ice (office) that over looks the runway and sea oh and mountains... however, at the moment all I can see is snow, as the snow is built up and covers the window!









                                       

                                                                   ANTARCTICA!!!!!!

My view out of my bedroom window over looking the runway and mountains!

I absolutely love this place so far! Everyone has made me feel very welcome and the job is so exciting!

This is my new desk that Sam, the now old (hehe) Marine Assistant decorated for me!

I am basically living on an airfield in Antarctica surrounded by seals and penguins. There is also so much to do on and around base like bouldering, skiing, walking...literally anything you want! There's even a music room.

 

The past few days have been training and getting used to the base, so we've had tours, aircraft orientation, learning how to use tilly lamps, put up specific tents, how to be a co-pilot!

Allan Meredith, the chief pilot then kindly took me around the twin otters & dash-7! I was so excited, they are amazing pieces of kit, especially a new display in one of the survey otters! Can't wait to get out and do a co-pilot trip!

Last night we had a black & white party that Terri had organised! It was so fun :D

A Zebra in Antarctica!

On our lazy Sunday off work we spent the morning chilling, then Ben tested his ROV!!!! It works and is almost ready to have a dip in the sea.

Ben & I testing his ROV called DEBRA!

So next week we're going camping, going out in the boats ..as Sam is starting to hand over to me so I'm going to learn the sampling methods for the RaTs data and then go diving eeek.

  

 

 

 

p.s. I'm saving my Penguin photos until my next blog ;)

PNR.

PNR stands for, "Point of no return...." today for the first time (yes his first time whilst all the years he's worked at BAS) John our captain decided to turn the aircraft around as he had received a met update from our Rothera met woman about the conditions at Rothera.

 

 

PNR means that we would have no fuel to turn around and land back at our original airport..so the decision is critical.
 

Before this point I had been lucky (and annoying enough to keep asking) that I got to sit in the jump seat for take off. This absolutely fascinated me...everyone knows I love flying and after speaking to Alan Meredith (Chief pilot of BAS)alot this summer whilst at lasham I knew what I was expecting but the extensive collection checklist and then watching the four props start up individually. ..and then the take off speed, cruising speed and stalling speed for that way were amazing for such a big piece of kit.

Me in the jump seat. Thanks John Law for the photo!

Today with a very high all up weight and tail wind our stalling speed was 72kts, that's only ~30 kts less than the gliders I fly! Ridiculous.

 

 

Anyway you can probably tell I've had a few mojitos at this point point of writing my blog.

After a strong tail wind (22 kts) and only 5 kts of wind at rothera (which i swear is unheard of), the temperature and dew point changed from being 2 degrees different when we set off...too a completely different airmass swooping in and emerging Rothera in thick fog.

 

  

  

We turned back for Punta Arenas just before our PNR in time for pizzas and mojitos. Tomorrow we will try again.  

Broken glass & a concreted foot!

After the pilots decided in the afternoon that it was not possible to fly as there was high winds and snow fall we all moved hotels (hopefully for the last time).

Alex and I decided to hire some bikes, luckily these were mountain bikes, we ventured the Patagonian Highlands along the coast.

It was definitely an adventure as we trekked across the beach, had to climb steep hills just to get back to the road ....

... We even stumbled across some dinosaurs ...

eventually ended up in a tank and army training grounds somehow  which was mighty exciting as we went further into the course (hopefully not covered in unexploded items) as wanted to get closer to the mountains (which was so worth it)!

The adventure didn't end there as on the way back I managed to somehow get my foot stuck in newly paved concrete and then after a Pisco Sours on our way to dinner with the group I managed to legendarily and annoyingly smash a glass. I am a firm believer that everything travels in threes (especially bad luck) .... the third thing that happened to me today is that I've lost my lush blue Chilean headband !

I'm hoping that tomorrow we will go to Antarctica as I'm definitely on edge waiting for the unexpected. 

p.s. 

  

 

 

WE found the MAGIC SCHOOL BUS!!!

Journey to the last city at the bottom of the world.

Transit from UK - Punta Arenas!

After having a great evening with Emily Mulligan & her parents, my Mum and Dad took me to the airport, we had lunch and then met the rest of the team. Ben & I had to drop off our bags to the large luggage section because apparently mine was ''too long!!!'' haha....to be fair we are both carrying a lot of scientific equipment, especially Ben with heavy metal ready to start ROV (Remotely Operated Vehicle) when we arrive; I ended up saying goodbye to my parents 5+ times!

Tony and I totes comfy on the flight.

John, Me & Ben

This weekend has felt extremely long. We have been through so many airport securities, baggage areas and different planes in the space of a short 40 hours that is has felt surreal.

Torres del Paine

WE embraced Madrid with Rioja and paella. After a very long flight with lots of new movies, attempting to sleep and moving around to prevent a DVT we arrived in Santiago in Madrid where we had Pizza and a traditional Pisco Sours. After loosing Ben (who tried to exit the airport instead of going to the connection gate), it has become a common question to ask ''where's Ben? What's Ben doing?''

 After one final flight of the day to Punta Arenas in Chile we arrived at a fancy hotel where we had a flight safety briefing ready for our flight on the Dash - 7, we then all had a well deserved meal at the hotel; in-between this I had managed to sneak out to the square where there were Chilean stalls and haggle myself a thumb ring ( I keep loosing them)!



After a well needed sleep and awoke ready to find out if we were going to fly to Rothera on our set date of the 23rd of November, alas the weather was not our friend so we were granted a working day within Punta Arenas.

This photo of Ben & Kate makes me so happy

We spent the day walking around the town, the view from the furthest southern city in the world is incredible, with the sea surrounded by snow peaked mountains and incredible cloud formations.

There are so many street dogs here, for our walk we made a friend called MAx, he was beautiful. After walking around we then went shopping and ate some churros! I <3 churros

That afternoon we moved the most beautiful hotel, each room incredibly decorated with specific Chilean professions.

After Antarctica I plan to come back to Punta and buy this bed - most incredible thing.

We ate at our new hotel last night as we knew it would be traditional Patagonian style - it didn't disappoint! Kate & I then went a bit crazy and we shaved the sides of her hair off so now she has a Mohawk - I love it! I even shaved it evenly! We then celebrated her shaven head and the fact that we may be flying tomorrow, by going to the Shackleton Bar where we had what one must have in Chile, Pisco Sours. Shackleton had visited Punta Areanas seeking help.

John, Kate, Alex, Ben, Michelle & Me (I bought that headband yesterday and I've already lost it ;(

As you can see I am a firm believer in embracing each countries culture, which is usually by sampling the traditional food and wine haha.

So as I write this blog I am packing my bag as at 0830am we find out if we're definitely going to fly to Rothera - from what John our met man has been saying I think will as the weather system that was hindering our departure has moved away leaving us with weaker winds.

I'M FEELING VERY RESFEBER (EXCITED/SCARED AT THE SAME TIME)!!!!!!!

  

  

Ladies, gentlemen, I bid you adieu!

The time has come for me to catch a flight tomorrow to go to Madrid, then northern Chile then down to Punta Arenas in Chile where we could be stuck for a few days due to a backlog of dash-7 flights and then weather dependant for our flight!

You can email me if you fancy...: sareed@bas.ac.uk 

Apparently post gets to us too:

Rothera Research 

Station British Antarctic Survey 

Stanley

 Falkland Islands 

FIQQ 1ZZ 

South Atlantic

I'm excited to travel down with the rest of the marine team (Ben & Kate!) and John our met man ....also to join the rest of the team down south. From now on I have no phone so only contactable by email or my blog...Facebook should work, but during the summer there's too many people for the Internet to work properly. The next time I post I will be from my off-ice  (a poz joke right there):D  

See you all in 18 months, you've all been telling me to keep safe and have fun - please could you all do the same ! Lots of love x 

WE'VE got our tickets!

It's definitely real now!

 

WE have our tickets - we are away on the 21st of November. I've been in contact with a few people on the team and the requests are for bananas & the Sunday Times!

 

 

 

Lorry loader...yes I can operate a small crane!

In the yard of BAS Ben, Emily, Jess, Richard and I completed a lorry loader course.

This was the most frustrating course I've ever done. Frustrating in a good way though! In order to learn how to operate the crane in an efficent way our task was to place a metal screw that was attached to the hook and drop it into the hole on the top of a cone!

The trick was to operate the crane from extending the inner and then the outer boom from there the extension was used!

We also learnt how to be banksmen - using signals to direct the operator!

We will be using this qualification to load off the ships, also loading the boats off the warf into the water.

BOATS & ENGINES

Ben & I spent the week at Powerboat training UK in Poole. At the cobbs quay marina we completed our PB2 (powerboat level 2).

We then refined these skills to learn advanced boating techniques. Like MOB in high winds, holding the bow onto a cliff face in high tides and winds, anchoring, high speed turns to avoid ice bergs and Stopping the boat a high speed in a safe way.

Engine upkeep is an important task to do whilst we're down south, so we had a short practical session on what to look out for and how to fix it!

We tested out our new drysuits by jumping off the boat near the shore - happy to say that they didn't leak, hooray! 

Thanks to powerboat training UK for a great week - can't wait to get on the water at Rothera!