Sunday 4 March 2012

All abo-ard!

This will be the final entry from Mawson Station.  We are almost certainly all going to be on the ship from this afternoon, and so we should only to make essential emails and phone calls from here on out. The most likely departure time is this evening, but it could be another day or so.

Resupply has been far busier than I expected, so sorry, no images to offer, but will put some words around it when I can.  I will draft up some closing entries while on board the ship, and upload them when home in Aus.

Bye for now,

Rolf & Peanut.

Tuesday 28 February 2012

Guess who came to dinner!

I am more than a little bit excited, because there's a ship in the harbour! :-D
check out the web cams at:
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/mawson
and
http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora
 More words, and some of my own pics of tying up the West-arm lines tomorrow...

Monday 27 February 2012

A sad day on the frozen continent.

It is sad to learn that Brazil lost two people in a fire at their base "Comandante Ferraz" yesterday.
Knowing how careful we have been all year to manage fire risks at Mawson, it is not difficult to see how a tragedy such as this might occur. 
We are thinking of the families and friends of the deceased.
R.

Saturday 25 February 2012

The Weather's parting comment: "I'm still Wild!"

Hi again.

I mentioned that I went for a walk on the 23rd, after working on the anemometer mast. The following pics will show just how lovely the day was...


View North-East

View South-West

such clear water...
And from our walk...

Dave, and the Station

West

David Range

Casey Range

Mt Henderson



And now, we have today's weather...

Friday 24 February 2012

A head for heights!

Here's a pic of me checking the calibration of the wind vane for Mawson AWS yesterday.
Yes Mum, I'm wearing a harness, and tied on securely.  I'm only about 10m up. 
It was the most beautiful afternoon, with no wind, clear sky, sunshine, and a balmy -5-ish degrees, penguins playing and feeding in the water nearby, seals swimming past.



I went for a walk up to the plataeu with Dave, Julie, Clint and Josef later that evening, pics to follow tomorrow.

We are now in final steps of preparation for the resupply operations.  The Ship is waiting off the coast to the East for a major low pressure system to go through.  We are bracing for two days of blizzard, with winds of over 75 knots, and visibility down to probably only a couple of metres...

Monday 13 February 2012

Last craft item completed.

The final little project had to be finished last night so I can pack the tools and left over materials today for RTA (Return to Aus).  It is a replica sunshine recorder, as a gift to Dave M for being such a great boss this year!  Probably one of my best efforts yet, if I do say so myself :-)  The spanner in the first pic is 100mm long, shown for scale.




Thursday 9 February 2012

Packed Already. Yes there is a first time for everything!

Well, almost, anyways.
I have a last craft item to make and my computer monitor is on loan to someone, but these items too will need to be all packed, consigned, and delivered to the stores building on Tuesday.  I will be living from the bag of things I can take on the ship, plus some clothing I will have to throw out at departure. 
This is made trickier by the knowledge that it may be about eight weeks after we get to Hobart before I see the stuff I consign as cargo.  And so for the time I'm looking for a new home, and probably for the motorbike road trip to QLD in April, I will only have the clothes and toys I can take with me as cabin baggage, plus whatever I have stashed at Mum & Dad's place (not much!).  All my other household goods are in deep storage, awaiting delvery to either my new home - wherever that will be - or accessible self-storage.

Less than two weeks until ship arrives, three weeks until planned departure from these shores, just under five weeks until arrival in Hobart.