This week at Davis: 7 October 2016

Now on to something that’s dear to my heart. October is a particularly sad time of the year for me as on the 1^st of October it was my mother's birthday and a little over two years ago I lost my mother after a very long battle with breast cancer. It's still very fresh for me and emotions bubble very close to the surface whenever talking about it.

I was at Macquarie Island at the time I received word that I needed to get home and what the AAD did to get me back home was something my family is very thankful for.

October 1^st is also the start of breast cancer awareness month. In 2016 Cancer Australia estimates that 16084 new cases of breast cancer will be diagnosed in 150 men and 15934 women.

To increase awareness, the super special guys I work with at the Australian Antarctic Division Social Club have been working very hard with BreastScreen Tasmania to unveil a new piece of kit for us down here at Davis station, the pink Hägg.

With the support of BreastScreen Tasmania one of our beloved Hägglunds has undergone a makeover and is now pink! The boys down in the AAD workshop have been working hard to get it ready for its unveiling at the AAD pink breakfast.

The Hägglunds will travel down to Antarctica on the Aurora Australis, hmm just a bit of a colour clash there with pink and orange, thankfully there are black tracks in between the two. But that being said I’ve done an artist’s impression of the Aurora Australis in pink and not the orange we are all use to… what do you think?

Before it leaves on its adventure south, those at the Australian Antarctic Division in Kingston will have the opportunity to leave a tribute for a family member or friend who has survived, is living with or who has lost their battle with cancer, on the inside of the Hägglunds. It’s going to be departing on voyage one bound for me where I’ll be doing exactly that for my family.

You'll be able to follow the travels and adventures of this special Hägglunds by searching for the hashtag #wheresthepinkhagg. I’m sure to be taking it out for a spin, where I’ll probably have a sombre moment or three!

Michael Goldstein

With all the expeditioners healthy and happy I had ample time this week to help Ladge with the weekly sea ice drilling and measuring the thickness of the sea ice at seven locations offshore.

We are told that the sea ice along the eastern Antarctic coast is, this year, breaking up prematurely so I was reassured that around Davis it is still thickening and is now at, or over 1.5 metres.

Whilst Ladge was servicing the sea ice monitoring equipment, I was tasked with measuring the snow depth on the ice over a 20 square metre grid. Each time a measurement was taken, it was automatically aligned with a GPS attached to my back, which automatically created a profile of the snow cover. This is part of an ongoing survey, collecting data of snow and ice conditions.

Dr John