Our week since the ship left Davis has kept us all busy but not before we had a rest day in between ship departure and starting work again.
There are now 81 of us on station and it was great to get the team who had been working beside the ship on the ice managing cargo on and off the vessel ashore and settled into the station to bring us up to full complement.
First on our agenda this week was exercising our search and rescue and medical capability and making sure we were ready to commence field operations.
Under the guidance of our doctor, Kate, and senior field training officer Marty, we practiced deploying a search and rescue team, recovering a patient from the field by helicopter and returning them to the station medical facility. Included in the exercise was our incident control and communications systems. At the end we had learnt lots and felt well prepared to start field work.
The trade team have been busy with maintenance and also commenced work on getting our reverse osmosis plant running so we can make water later in the summer. Here at Davis we currently have 3 x 3 minute showers a week each to conserve our water as best we can. Given where we are on the planet, and the energy cost of making water, it’s pretty good really.
The aviation team have spent time up at Woop Woop skiway getting the camp and skiway prepared for us to move flying operations there once the fast ice disappears.
We deployed three survival training groups this week by Hägglunds and helicopters to get our high priority projects up and running to start fieldwork.
It hasn’t been all work for us, as many managed to get out for a walk to Gardner Island to see the penguins. Check out the story below from Sam.
Robb (station leader).
