The last sunset here was on 2 June, albeit behind cloud and blowing snow. Last Sunday (11 July) at 1329 hours, it rose for the first time in 38 days. Although it hid behind a low band of cloud, those of us gathered up on the rear deck of the heli-hut could still bask in its light.
Feeling warmer and lighter already, the station has made it through the ‘long night'. Happy days.
Each month on a Wednesday, the station gathers in the theatrette after smoko for a briefing from Dr Jan, our expedition medical officer, on various medical topics intended to complement the first aid training we received prior to departure. This month, we received a crash course on splinting covering various methods of splinting for different injuries.
Each week Adam C heads out on to the sea ice in front of station for sea ice measurements. This entails recruiting a new volunteer to assist in the works, and after lunch the pair depart with a Hägglunds, a drill with a long sea ice drill bit and a tape measure. The team return to the same seven sites, providing excellent longitudinal data for researchers. Locally, it also assists us with knowing the condition of the ice that we use as our access to the north and south of the station. Currently, across the seven sites, the ice ranges from 107 cm to 120 cm thick.
The end of the work week was upon us, the plans were in place and with our trusty trip leader Aaron ‘Maws' C at the helm we set off into the field for a weekend away. On the way out, the opportunity was taken for Alex to complete his Hägglunds driver training by navigating using the radar and GPS only, with the driver’s window blacked out to simulate blizzard conditions.
The first morning came and, with what has now become a hut ritual, ‘Maws' was up at the crack of dawn doing his daily yoga and vocal scales. After some delicious French pressed coffee brewed by Alex R we travelled to Mikkelsen’s cairn to watch the first official sunrise of the winter. This proved to be a spectacular viewing point.
The day was capped off with Alex R waving the flag at Sir Hubert Wilkins cairn, which is something of a rite of passage for Davis expeditioners. The night fell on us as quickly as the sun had risen.
Another night and morning spent out in this beautiful spot, another great opportunity for us privileged few to see some more of this beautiful white land.
Ducky, Assistant to the Trip Leader
In this, the fourth instalment of the ‘Davis Winter Olympics', the competition heated up as the teams took to the road behind the living quarters for the ‘quad luge’ event. In this event, each team nominated a driver whose task it was to steer a quad with its engine off (and in neutral) as far as possible along a marked route, propelled only by the forceful pushing of their teammates from behind the starting line.
Limbering up at the commencement of the competition in the early afternoon of last Saturday, competitors and spectators alike were ‘treated’ to the vision of Mr Chris G sauntering out of the living quarters in a St Andrew’s cross inspired blue lycra morph suit. Comfort and warmth being sacrificed for aero-dynamicism, Chris took to the course, achieving a respectable fifth place.
Whilst all the teams finished within a matter of inches from each other, the out and out winner was the sparkies who edged out in front (and had track officials inspecting their quad for an electric motor).
Congrats to the sparkies and, thanks to the diesos and Chris for organising the event. Stay tuned next week for the last installment of winter olympics action.
As everyone knows, there are no calories in birthday cake. So with that in mind, what’s better than one birthday cake? Yep, two birthday cakes!
Monday saw the double celebration of Geoff W and Shaun ‘Ducky’ G’s birthdays. With a combined age of [Ed. 148?], it was thought that that many candles would overwhelm the smoke detectors so none were used as a precaution.
A very confused, and confusing, rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’ was sung and more than one person subscribed to the ‘no calories’ theory and had to try both cakes.
