Winter is going very quickly here at Rothera, the whole base have lots of jobs that we have to complete before the summer. We have been lucky with the ice in the bay and the weather so far, we have completed lots of diving and sampling every week since winter started almost 6 weeks ago! As part of one of our wintering duties we each do night watch for a least one or two weeks over the winter period. The reason for having a person on night watch is primarily to alert the base if there is a fire, as a fire during winter could be catastrophic to the running of the base. Secondly, the major job seems to be cleaning whilst everyone is asleep! More importantly than the cleaning is that we have to be in the tower at midnight, 3 am and 6 am if there are field parties out on winter trips. In theory if they had an issue they would ring the tower on the SAT phone. I got very bored so made everyone some muffins, I usually burn or completely ruin the mix...
This Blog started in Antarctica where I was a Marine Scientist for 18 months. Since then, it has followed my progression into a Professional Marine Scientist, Diver and Skipper. Now I am a Freelance Marine Scientist, and director of my own company and offer my services of diving, skippering, deckhand and Open Water swim coaching. When not working I enjoy going on remote adventures mountain biking, climbing and freediving. Read here for my random stories of adventure and science!