This week at Macquarie Island: 24 February 2012

SCTO (Senior Communications Technical Officer) Dan set off on the 12th of Feb for a nine day journey down-island to finish off the upgrade and repair works at the Mt Jeffreys repeater site.

The CH21 Marine VHF Radio Repeater, located on top of Mt Jeffryes, services the southern end of Macquarie Island providing an important radio link between field parties, hunters and field huts back to station.

The renewable energy systems powering the site have been struggling to keep up with the power demand after the main wind generator unfortunately lost half a blade during high winds back in October last year, and two of the three solar panels suffered failures during the winter.

It has been a three month, marathon effort to get all the necessary parts manufactured and transited down to Mt Jeffryes, to enable an attempt to upgrade and repair of the site, with a huge team effort from all the station staff and MIPEP field crews.

It all started back in November when, with the help of the IRB boat crews, Dan and Wayne physically carried two solar panels and an assortment of tools up to the site from Four Water Falls Bay, located just under Mt Jeffryes on the coast — a grueling 384 meter accent.

Over the next few months brackets were constructed to seat the solar panels in, and a make-shift wind vane was designed and constructed in an attempt to get the wind generator back online.

With all the parts ready to go in late January, IRB and MIPEP crews slowly transited all the necessary hardware and tools down to Windy Ridge, some of the way by water and the rest by foot.

With Tony’s generous and much appreciated help, Dan completed the works up at the repeater site, installing two additional solar panels and the make-shift wind generator vane, which has now restored the renewable power generation system to full capacity.

Dan would like to thank all the people involved in the construction, transit and organisational support who made the project all possible.

It is still eight weeks until the Aurora Australis returns to Macquarie Island to resupply the station and deliver the next team that will manage the island.  We have started getting ready — stock takes of all the food, field hut requirements, etc, have been done and the shopping is getting done in Hobart. The new team has started training, and we are busy ensuring that the station is ready for them.  We have started getting ready – stock takes of all the food, field hut requirements, etc, have been done and the shopping is getting done in Hobart. The new team has started training, and we are busy ensuring that the station is ready for them.

Glen (our storeman) has been hard at work getting ready everything that needs to be returned to Australia. Over the last couple of years there have been some major projects completed on the island and the cleanup phase is now happening. Storage is limited, and because we live in the midst of an elephant seal breeding and moulting ground we can’t store much outside unless we can protect it with heavy fencing.

Even the fencing doesn’t stop some of them. A large bull managed to get inside the station boundary, and when he couldn’t get out he just went over the fence — or rather through the fence, as you can see in the photos below.

Every expeditioner who comes to the island for any length of time will do field familiarisation. This week our two newest arrivals, Lisa and Robbie, headed out with Trish for three days of training. While the weather was typical of Macquarie Island — cloudy, windy and rainy — it was still a fantastic time.  We got to see a Wandering Albatross fly metres over our heads and Orca whales close in to shore at Green Gorge Hut — sorry, we were too busy watching to get photos! We had more time to photograph king penguins and their chicks, watch the elephant seals play fighting and giant petrels and skua on the lookout for their next meal. We were so engrossed in what was happening all around us that we were late getting back for dinner on our last day.  We got to see a Wandering Albatross fly metres over our heads and Orca whales close in to shore at Green Gorge Hut – sorry, we were too busy watching to get photos! We had more time to photograph king penguins and their chicks, watch the elephant seals play fighting and giant petrels and skua on the lookout for their next meal. We were so engrossed in what was happening all around us that we were late getting back for dinner on our last day.