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!!!