This week, Station Mechanic, Dylan Hill, shares his experience during the darkness of winter and welcoming the sun back to Davis

Suns out, buns out

They said one of the hardest things about being at Davis Station is battling through the 6-7 weeks of “darkness”. They forgot to say that you will also be living in a bakery with fresh bread each day along with fine quality home brew at your fingertips.

We have made it through those weeks of “darkness” here at Davis Station, seeing the sun breach the horizon at 1335 on Friday 10th. When I say “see,” I mean it was completely covered with cloud, roughly 6-8 octas of cumulus, maybe cirrus clouds, they were clouds...

When you envision the sun not rising for 6-7 weeks, one presumes that it will be dark/night. Luckily, we still have twilight for roughly 6 hours a day which made it always feel like a gloomy Sunday. Roughly 6pm, counting down the hours until work starts back up again on the Monday.

It has been an awesome few weeks experiencing Antarctica in a completely different light, pardon the pun. Bit of a challenge, none more so then trying to keep away from the bain-marie on a daily basis. It’s good to have the big ball of burning gas back now. The days will continue to get longer, as the sea ice grows thicker, leaving us to adventure the Vestfolds much more freely now.

Dylan Hill

Mechanic and Barber

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