Working on and through the ice.

Not many people in the world work on sea ice. There is a reason why. Sea ice forms when the sea temperature is -1.8 0C, the air temperature must be below -5 0C and when it first forms the wind must be <5 knots. Over time with these perfect conditions the sea ice gets thicker and thicker.

Looking from the Ramp at Rothera with the sea ice in North Cove (Left of the photo)

Before we are allowed to work on the sea ice we go out with the field guides and test it. Before we go on the sea ice, we check the past three days of weather conditions and if it's going to be stable for the length of time the sea ice party is out there. When you get to the edge of the ice we call opps to let them know our intentions. We then use a bog chisel to check the ice is fully fasted to the land, tide cracks form around the edges and out into the bay made by the movement of the tide, we hit this tidal crack with a bog chisel to test it.

WE then test the thickness of the ice out from the tidal crack and past the areas that we need to work. It must be >20 cm for us to walk on and >40 cm for us to skidoo on. So on the first time we go out we do everything on skis.

First you removed the snow.

Then you drill through the sea ice with a hand drill. We then use a handmade measuring tool that has a little arm that you hold vertical to the pole when you drop it through the hole, then once you've got through the thickest part you release the arm and measure the depth of the ice.

Once the weather conditions are perfect and the drilling had been complete. WE then get the go ahead to work on the sea ice from the feild guides, our station leader and people in Cambridge.

WE tested the ice in south cove and north cove this week, it's >40 cm in Hangar cove but <25cm in south cove. So we conducted a CTD at site 3 which is our closest sampling site to base.

We manhauled a nansen sledge to which we had attached the CTD winch from our boat Stella. This was really fun, but hard work over the brash ice that had formed the fast ice.


WE walked through an ice rose garden...



Bradders using an axe to cut a small hole to fit the CTD through.



I'm using a bog chisel to sort out the sides of the hole

WE then sent the CTD to 100 m to get a temperature, salinity and fluorescence profile.




Controlling the rate at which the CTD drops so that we get a good profile.



Beautiful scenery. 

Sampling complete with the help of Bradders and Kate! A tropical -18 air temperature that day, as you can see by our frozen hair, beards and eye lashes!

The other work that we've been doing regullary is assisting Emily with her Dutch projects. She completes ice cores in both South cove and Hangar cove weekly.


Using a zarge box to get more pressure to make the first cut.

Emily loving it!

55 cm thick this ice core was!! Going to get more and more difficult as it freezing from beneath!

One of the most exciting things we do here is that Kate, Ben and I dive through the ice in both Hangar cove and south cove! But first we need to cut the dive hole which is an epic mission! The ice was finally stable enough at the same time that the weather was good enough for us to drag a chainsaw out into Hangar cove.

Adam our boaty is currently out of work with an injured ankle so Kate took the very willingly liberty of cutting the first dive hole. She was so excited. I think it was because she was the one holding the chainsaw whilst the boys had to watch as she was the only trained personnel on the ice! Very awesome.




First she did a small cut to get the rough shape.

After cutting a rough shape we attached ice screws into each block.

Kate then used a systematic way around the blocks to cut them individually. We then attached a piece of rope to the ice screw to pull out the blocks. The main thing about this job is keeping the chainsaw warm, it had been run for 30 minutes before it was brought out onto the ice. We were then fast at putting in the screws and then pulling out the blocks so she could continue cutting!

What a pro!



Check out how thick that is!

Nice one Kate...now the fun bit....we got to dive through it!

We cover the holes with boards to try and insulate it slightly from the air temperature to decrease the freezing time, but with it freezing from underneath it is still going to freeze up quickly. So now our job every day that we can get out onto the ice is to bash out the dive holes so it does not get thicker than a bog chisel being able to go through it!



Marked by flags. The main dive hole and then the emergency dive hole closer into the shore.

Emily doing an epic job of bashing out the dive hole!

The first time we dived through the hole was last week. It was actually pretty scary because as you can see from the photo above it looks pitch black. Our only worry is that a big leopard seal had been hanging out a few weeks previous to us cutting the hole, but with the sea ice formed way past the islands and down to the south and north we were fairly confident that all seals had followed the ice edge away from Rothera. Kate jumped in first and did a quick seal check, we then descended into the darkest depths to complete the monthly collections. It was an awesome first through the sea ice dive!



My head on the ice ceiling.

The most terrifying thing about sea ice and the reason why we have strict weather conditions is that for the past few days the wind increased to 25 knots gusting 50 kts and the air temperature has rises to 1.5 degrees C....as you can see from the photo below the sea ice that we had been working on in south cove just a few days before to complete a CTD has now fully blown out and is all open water! Very changeable conditions but very manageable and perfectly safe when the conditions are right, but now you can see why we drill before we work!

Midwinter celebrations!

Midwinter gave us the break we all needed. Usually celebrated on the third week of June during winter solstice, however after the medivac was successfully completed we celebrated during the last week of June. 

 

We started off our first weekend with a well needed rave!

 

 

Throughout the week we also had the JCB challenge.. to get a tennis ball into the holes the fastest! So much concentration!

 

We also had winter Olympics which included tug of war and various other hilarious antics

 

We started off our day of celebration our midwinters day with bacon sandwiches and champagne!! It started well. As is Antarctic tradition we each had a secret santa style presents!

At the start of winter we drew names out of a hat and since then we made a present for that person. There were lots of creative idea using the tech service guys for help in the chippy shed and the garage.

 

I had a lovely painting given to me by Callum our comms manager - will look great on my wall at home!

AliRose

 

I spent many hours in the chippy shed learning how to biscuit, use a chop and bansaw...it was so much fun! I made Kate a model version of Rothera!

 

AliRose

After watching the 'thing' as per tradition we got glammed up and then sat down for a massive meal! Lewis our chef did such an amazing job....look how many courses we had!

So much wine and cheese!


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We had a break after the main meal (after 7 starters) and went up to the tower to listen to the midwinter broadcast...their were amazing messages from our friends and family back at home. It was such a great thing to listen to and really did put everyone in a good mood. In addition to that BAS HR had kindly organised for our families to pack a shoebox full of gifts for us for midwinter, they had been packed back in September as they came down on the ship - a lovely surprise.

 

AliRose

 

 

We gathered for a group shot on the couch...

AliRose

....this one is better!

AliRose

 

Thank you to all Rotherans and people back at home for an awesome midwinter! Now fully refreshed and back to work.

.....Obviously we ended the night dancing!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Darkness

Before I write about our midwinters celebrations I feel the need to finish off talking about the medical evacuation that we recently helped with but to also talk about the darkness in Antarctica and how we've been coping. 

Weekly sampling on Stella, I'm preventing the CTD from falling too quickly so that we get a good profile of the salinity, temperature and fluorescence in the water column. 

Before the medical evacuation we have been able to get out sampling once every week since winter began, this is pretty rare as usually high winds, or sea ice prevent us from getting the boat in the water so this has kept us busy and focused. Emily and I have really pushed each other to make sure that we are prepared to go out sampling but also make a plan for the week with everyone else at the Bonner to insure all of the work is completed - so far so good and with no shouting! 

The sea temperature is now -1.8 degrees which is the freezing point, however, the wind has been so strong and variable that there has not been a long enough calm and cold period for the sea ice to form. We have had a few days of young fast ice here and there that have prevented us from getting onto the water - but only for a few days at a time!

During the medivac week Emily, Ben and I managed to fit all of our weekly water sampling gear and Debra, Ben's ROV onto Stella - this was the only weather and light window we had for the whole week and to complete our winter sampling before midwinter celebrations began. We also completed world ocean sampling day! It was a tight squeeze but we worked well together to get it done.

The medical evacuation went amazingly well, the twin otters landed at Rothera and within 24 hours they left for the South Pole on the 21st of June (midwinters day),

I marshaled the twin otters into position on the apron...adding that to my CV!

Matt Bell & me...major plane nerds.

 

Changing from wheels to skis to make the trip to the South Pole

 The next day they returned with the patients and with another quick turn around the SAR (search and rescue) otter which had stayed behind encase the other otter had got into trouble, changed back to wheels and took the patients straight to Punta Arenas in Chile as the weather window was good and the SAR crew were well rested. After a days rest the other otter waited for a low pressure system to move off the Peninsula and took off when the weather looked good.

The south pole sent us a lovely email and this photo thanking us for assisting with the medivac.

 It was incredible to be part of such an amazing mission, it was the first time a plane had been so far south during mid winter. It was great to see what could happen when nations pull together (something I wish people back in the UK would realise that things are better when people and countries work together...).



As the medivac happened during the darkest time in Antarctica I just thought I would talk about what it's been like to deal with the darkness.

Ali Rose and I knew that soon we wouldn't be able to see the sun, so during the middle of April we climbed up middle Stork (a ridge just behind Rothera) and caught a glimpse of the sun. This is me sitting in the snow realizing that it would be the last time I would see the sun for a few months. 

  The clouds keep me very occupied, I can watch them for hours - especially on windy days when wave forms and all I want to do is chuck a glider up there!

 Night time photography is a great thing to practice here, luckily there is also lots of talent here to teach how to improve shooting on manual!

Polar stratospheric clouds

The other thing that keeps me sane is walking around Rothera point, as by walking around it you can't see base and everytime I walk around it there is different wildlife, different snow/ice conditions to walk over and the sea is variable with some days with large waves, some with over powering icebergs or snow petrels soaring searching for food. 

Still some Weddles, crabbies, leps, snow petrels and shags around! All of the penguins have left us. 

The best thing about winter is the colours that the sky creates and the lenticulars that form over the mountains most days. We get around 3 hours of twlight. For the past few weeks it has been getting light at 11-11.30 am and then we start to get the colours of a sun rise, by 1300 this has turned into a sunset (we never actually see the sun just the colours or the sunset/rise) by 1500 it is dark.

The first few weeks of darkness were very hard to adjust to. The worst thing was that we can't have outdoor fun after work anymore, so no snowboarding or a quick climb/even a walk! It was also very hard to get your self motivated to do work and get up in the mornings. Our team of 21 people are pretty tight so we all talked about this and the fact that we felt tired alot of the time, we have been having vivid dreams but also motivation has been lacking but we all managed to work through it. By midwinter we were all getting used to not seeing the sun and now that we have had a week off work for midwinters celebrations (I will write about this next week) I think the whole team are now feeling revitalized, and more motivated to get our winter jobs completed. Most people have taken up a new hobbie or have worked on improving their skills in the carpentry or mechanic workshops by making things which has been keeping us out of the bar!

Now we are over the longest period of darkness, so the sun will be coming back to us!!!