Mindset Adventures With Saz

March is flying by! Next week Rothera turns to a wintering base as all of the summers are leaving on the Shackleton which is due in on Wednesday, there are then three days of relief where we unload some freshies and various other goodies to keep us winters happy and then load on all of the now ex-winters P-box's and gash. The past few weeks I have been busy finishing all of the summer sampling, collecting my own microplastic sediment samples, finishing off the hand over with Sam, lots of snowboarding , climbing and walking. So lots of random bits in this summer of fun blog..      There have been so many fledging penguins around the Point, the elephant seals seem to have left us until next summer; I'm quite happy about that because they are rather smelly.      We had a visiting yacht, I was so excited; we were not allowed to go sailing though much to my dismay, I did stand on it though so technically I've been sailing in the Antarctic,... right....

At Rothera there is a type of cleaning rota where by everyone on base takes it in turn to have a day where they help out in the kitchen and clean certain areas around the base. It's a great day to get involved with the kitchen and do some of your own cooking, give your own back to the base and it's nice to have a day off from your usual job to do something different. So we actually call it the gash rota, and it rotates around like below. We then do various cleaning jobs, but then we work in this awesome kitchen for the day. When you are in the kitchen doing the dishes there is a pretty good view. Haha, no there actually is a good view. You can watch ice bergs float past or pieces of pack ice drift by with seals sleeping peacefully or even watch a penguin waddle on by and if you're lucky you can watch the planes land! You are given the option to make what ever you want if you're keen so I mixed some herbs together to make Herbs De Provence ...

Before winter begins (in 6 weeks time everyone leaves 22 people on base for 7 months)...us winters get to have a little holiday, well it involves work but mostly it's about having a bit of a relax and alone time before the fun begins! I was co-pilot for the trip there and back which was INCREDIBLE. On the way there it was very sunny, the scenery was breath taking. On the way back 4 days later the weather was not so kind, however I thought this was awesome as I got to do some instrument flying, Ian even taught me how to feather the prop and adjust the torque. We also found some wave to climb up in!  So for 4 days I was based at a place called Fossil Bluff which is in the middle of nowhere. It is the most idyllic and historic place I've ever been to.  Below is Bluebell Cottage. This was mine, Samways, Bryony and Joe's cottage for 4 days. It was over looking King George IV sound placed on Alexander Island just off main land Antarctica. Whilst at B...

My line manager Dave Barns has been given a grant to look at sea ice movement from the Sheldon Glacier which is <50 km to the West of Rothera. I have been tasked with the mission to look after this camera over the winter.  The aim of this project is to look at how the ice breaks away from the Sheldon Glacier and then which direction it goes, also to see if it looks like it scours the bottom of the sea bed as it moves. In a years time there is going to be sea bed mapping project in front of the Sheldon glacier, with these two techniques coupled together we can start to look at how ice bergs scour the sea floor and damage the benthic species.    Dave Barns explains: ''This sea ice camera will remotely photo sea in front of a rapidly retreating glacier and help understand how sea-ice loss in the polar seas is helping life on the seabed grow more, capturing more carbon and fighting back against climate change.  This fits into work by a multina...

Anna and I decided that we couldn't have another lazy Sunday, so we had our brunch (an incredible fry up) which gave us the energy to grab some Nordic Skis and head up the flag line away from Base. Again we are spoilt by having all of this to use as we wish! So much cheaper than a resort. This was us before... Not in a negative way, but it was great to get off base away from the chaos of lots of people, we are currently have over 80 people at the base with people coming in from the field. So it was amazing to have all of this to ourselves today.... Our mission was to make it to the caboose for hot chocolate!  WE had to melt snow to make it!! haha WE had what would seem like a WI meeting in the caboose at the top of the ridge which is called Vals. Such a mission going downhill on Nordic skis!!!!! Us at the end still smiling :D 

I have the time to write this evening as there is snow flying in every direction, even a step outside will get you soaked head to foot. The theme of this blog is visitors... Penguins are always the most friendly and funny visitors to Rothera. We have had lots of visitors this week, including one of the most amazing experiences that not many people can have, but I feel so honored to have witnessed... Orca orca , one of the most incredible predatory species, especially in Antarctica. Whilst, we were out water sampling, the panda like whales were out hunting. I radioed the dive boat to tell them that they were hunting in the bay, this resulted in the divers having to get out of the water as we cannot dive when Orca are around. We paused our water sampling to watch the Orca who were very close to our boat, the Orca were spy hopping the icesheets for seals; such an incredible sight !! My second favorite was an american taildragger; a Basler BT - 67 ! We have been blesse...