piratepete'sbesteverantarcticadventure-t

Pirate Petes best ever antarctic adventure - the sequel

Antarctca 2009 - Diving in New Harbour

The task - Go and dive twice a day at New Harbour, Antarctica whilst living in a tent.

Renown as a maniac photographer - Me and my Olympus Mu with two x 2 gig cards are capable of, and likely to take 2000 photos on this trip. I was allowed to only take one photo a day for the web site.

So I will try my best ......

We are a team of 7 divers, scientists and Trish Korth, a Royal Society primary science teacher fellow on sebatical. Trish is from Waitati, just North of Dunedin. I keep telling her that 'she will be fine' because the weather down here won't be alot different from her average Dunedin winters day. I think the joke is wearing a bit thin.

Trish has her own site going and it will give a good insight on what we are up to and certainly a different perspective to my gonzo style blog. Trish's site is:

Trish's Antarctica

This trip is my second time in Antarctica. Last year the team went to Granite Harbour quite a bit further to the North of where we are going. I condensed the 1000 photos I took, down to about 150 in a Picasa website:

The pirates best antarctic adventure yet.

While we will be doing much the same things this year, the trip will still be challenging. At Granite Harbour the sea ice regularly breaks out and we were living on and diving through ice that was only about 2 m thick. In contrast, at New Harbour, the sea ice hasn't broken out for a few years and is reported to be 6 m thick. Certainly a re-birthing experience for divers and a mission for the people 'drilling' the holes. With ice that thick we expect things to be pretty dark underwater, but you never know?

Last year the nearest open water was about 150 nautical miles to the North [don't bother bringing a kayak], but this year the sea ice has already broken up in the vicinity of Cape Royds, not very far north of Scott Base. This could ceate a logistical nightmare of getting a mountain of gear to where we want it (New Harbour and then later to Cape Evans) using the sea ice as a road. And if the ice breaks up too much, it could bring nasty bities just that little bit closer (leopard seals - but don't panic, the Pirate actually surfed with a leopard seal at Taylors Mistake a few decades ago ... at the time it was hard to know who was the meanest: me or the leopard seal).

So, it could be an adventure with many twists and turns.

Watch this space ......

Day 1 Christchurch to Scott Base

Flying to Antarctica was the culmination of a whir of activity. Starting with a plethora of medical checks, dental checks, preparing and checking gear and shipping it down to Antarctic NZ. On arrival in Christchurch we picked up the swag of u-beaut Antarctic clothing from Antarctica New Zealand. The gear is comprehensive and really good, based on a layered system and brilliant for every activity on the ice. Once again I brought too much stuff, but it is hard to shake off a lingering primal natural survival instinct that demands you at least bring something warm!

This summers flight started at a reasonable hour - up at 0530 hrs and in the air just before 0900 hrs. We had a smooth flight and landed in perfect, calm sunny weather on the 'ice runway' just infront of McMurdo Station. The Boogie men fears of not flying at all; flying halfway and turning back because of the weather; and any of the other flying-related gremlins were put well to bed.

Photo of the day was out of one of only 4 accessible windows on the C17a Globemaster as we flew down the western side of the Ross Sea - about 75 mintes out from McMurdo Base.

After a short drive to Scott Base, the team went straight into a safety briefing and tea - we were here!

Day 2 Scott Base to Cape Evans for AFT (Antarctic Field Training)

A Cruel and unusual punishment 

The rules were that you have to do AFT every 3 years. I had to do it last year. Now, don't get me wrong AFT was useful to acclimatise myself to the -20 C odd cold, gear, procedures and vital to identify the many Antarctic hazards. But while I was out there freezing my butt off, my colleagues that had done the course the year before were back in the comfort of Scott Base, drinking at the bar and 'wondering what the poor people (me) were doing?'

It was going to be 'divine' justice that I might be able to sit back, kick my feet up at the bar or at least make an 'impression' at Saturday nights McMurdo Sound Base party while my colleagues were out freezing their butts off completing AFT. But alas, not so. The entire team was scheduled for AFT.

In the end it wasn't a bad thing. Team bonding and all. Plus last years AFT sea ice component was dramatically truncated by a storm and me loosing a glove (which came back in the post like a boomerang about 1 month later - long story). Since we will be spending most of our time on sea ice the Team was treated to a customised and sea ice focused AFT and the experience was a valuable refresher.

Todays picture was breakfast at Scott Base with the vista (White Island, THE FLAG POLE and the 4000 kilometres to Wellington sign) framed by the reading lounge window. At that stage I didn't know about the impending AFT experience.

'but I still can't believe that I am really here'

Day 3 Cape Evans to Scott Base (complete AFT - Antarctic Field training)

Not a bad day. I survived the night in a Scott Polar Tent in comfort and almost incredibly, was too hot at times in the double sleeping bag system. We had an early 0600 start and broke camp - which is never easy - but with minimum gear (learn't from years of kayak touring (me) and camping on ice (everybody else) and team work we had everthing sorted in double quick time. Photo of the day had some serious contenders starting with a seal in OUR dive hole. Usually interloping dive hole stealing Weddel seals take one look at me and duck for cover [bit like most women really]. But this one stayed around and I got some reasonable photos.

Photo of the day is three emperor penguins that we happened upon on the drive back to Scott Base. They were wobbling along the 'flagged ice road' that we were travelling over the sea ice in a hagglund snow vehicle. We stopped and they walked close by us. They were 'team work' personified: walking, stopping and moving together. Emperor are big but they definately move 'majestically' compared to little blue penguins [that at times move with all the grace and dignity of 'thieves in the night'].

Emperor penguins are fairly rare in these parts and I didn't see any last year and they were an unexpected bonus to todays Discovery Channel AFT experience [I think we have to pay extra money for that sort of service].

Also vying for photo of the day was a quick peek into an ice cave. It was pretty much a cauldron of hore frosted icicles and would have to rate as 'fairly spectacular'. I won't mention last evenings interesting walk around the vicinity of Scotts Hut and a fine portrait of myself with a 'like an Alpinstock' harpoon in a classic Inuit .. about to throw a harpoon at a seal pose. Of course I wouldn't! but our AFT instructor is a vegetarian and only brought vegetarian dehydrated meals for the team. Vegetarian - been there and done that, I needed meat!!! and a 'like an Alpinstock' harpoon probe could have been the very meal ticket that I needed.

Either that or my inner-carnivore might have been soothed by chewing on one of the many mummified seal carcasses that Scott had strewn around his hut.

Tough times indeed, at -20 C

Day 4 - Vehicle licence training and a walk among the ice ridges

Today started by tidying up our gear from yesterdays AFT; having a logistics meeting ... getting tons of gear to our New Harbour site (literally 11 000 lbs of gear, although estimates vary from 4 000 lbs of gear at the very minimum to as much as 11 000 lbs. The reason for the descrepancies are because the 4 000 lbs estimate doesn't include food or water or fuel or much of the camp gear that we will need when we are New Harbour).

Every last bit has to be flown over rough sea ice to either the camp site or the dive hole (roughly a 50/50 split of all our gear). I personally don't think that it is logistically possible. But the Scott base staff have seen it all before and reckon our enormous pile of equipment is fairly modest and won't be a problem!

After lunch we had hagglund, Toyota landcruiser, ski-doo and 4 wd motorbike driving lessons = now we are all licenced to drive in antarctica. Afternoon tea was disrupted by a fire alarm and evacuation outside (I think the authorities weren't impressed by me whipping out my camera and taking photos of the fire alarm drill - but it happened last year too ... and might yet make photo of the day). Then we made a start on sorting out our gear for loading onto sleds (tomorrow) to be taken most of the way to New Harbour on Wednesday. Todays photo was taken by Trish Korth, the Royal Science teacher fellow. We went for a walk on the marked ice ridge trail directly infront of Scott Base. The sea ice is in tension with contact with the land, the Ross Sea ice shelf (just to the east of us) and influenced by tides. So it gets pretty contorted and quite spectacular ice formations occur. The walk is a pleasant break from Scott Base incarceration and is a good way to help acclimatise oneself to the rigours of outdoor living ahead.

Since the photo of the day didn't come from my camera, I feel no remorse in sneaking in another photo:

This is the 2009 Scott Base rugby team doing a training session. Apparently New Zealand has won

every game for over 30 - odd years and that constitutes the longest successfull international sporting feat of any New Zealand sports code. Last year I came upon a squad of about 5 McMurdo Base Americans doing very impressive rugby drills and I feared for the New Zealand team. However, last night I saw the New Zealand team practicing and they had almost a complete team out training.

This may be a key factor in why the New Zealand team won again last year despite the fierce odds.

I guess the moral of the story is that a core of 5 well drilled and trained players won't beat a team ... and that has to be the secret to New Zealands winning edge in this international event.

Day 5 - Packing, repacking, weighing and loading

The whole day was spent with interminable packing, re-packing and weighing our gear.

Why all the packing and repacking? Well we carefully labelled, sorted and weighed all our gear in Wellington and put them on easily handled pallets. But the pallets were broken up, mixed up and repacked randomly by the American groundstaff for the flight to Antarctica. Also being good little kiwis we weighed everything in kilos. Americans work in pounds. So un-pack, re-pack, pack and weigh again ... all par for the course and something that just happens every year - you just have to get used to it. Fortunately we made very good progress and the traverse train of sleds is pretty much packed and secured (with ingenious cunning), ready for hooking up to the hagglunds for the trip across the frozen Ross Sea tomorrow, probably bound for the entrance to New Harbour. There the gear will be shuttled by helicopter to our base or our dive site.

So the stage is pretty much set. We fly out to New Harbour on Thursday.

Todays picture is of Luca in his shorts. Bastard hard. Well actually the bastard stole (or was it just an honest mistake?) my black Carharts bib trousers (which in Lucas defence were black and exactly like mine) while we were loading in -20C in a wind. However, once the wind stopped he ventured out in his shorts as self punishment?

Behind Luca is the AFT bulding with a 'staging area' inside for field parties to get their gear together and prepared for field trips. It is a brilliant facility and where we have been spending most of our time while at Scott Base.

Day 6 - Haglund Road train is off to New Harbour

The sled train was brought down to the sea ice by a giant bulldozer, hitched to the hagglunds and they bootled off for the horizon just before midday. It was great to see them on their way with our gear bound for New Harbour. Also seeing them go means a serious reduction in gear packing, because our mountain of gear is packed. Just a bit of personal gear to be packed and repacked. My strategy of fairly minimalist gear should mean that will be no chore.

However, I am just a bit wary of maybe not having enough socks for a two week stretch.

Photos of the day is seeing the hagglunds off on their way.

H4 = Haglund #4 starting out on a slow 8 hour journey for New Harbour. Hayden in the front passenger side hams it up. Hayden will be staying with us for a few days drilling our dive holes. Tom, from Scott Base will stay over too to supervise the helicopter shuttle of our gear to New Harbour.

H4 is one sled short of H2's road train. But impressive enough. Just imagine being hauled up with something like this on New Zealand roads. Hello, hello, hello ... where are your wheel hub odometers? ... come to think of it where are your wheels? ... Hang on a sec ... HOW MANY TRAILERS ARE YOU TOWING!!!???

The Haggland road train team pretty much go straight ahead over unmarked territory. Their only guide is a helicopter route (which counts for didley squatt) with these behomeths. Scott Base Staff have to negotiate perilous tide cracks lying in wait for unwary travellors ... and a compulsory AFT sleep-on-the-ice while they wait for us and a helicopter to ferry the gear to New Harbour.

The rest of the after noon was spent doing some repacking (I think that was out of sheer nervousness) and going for a brief cross country ski. Unbelievably in -21 C temperatures I managed to work up a sweat, particularly on the down wind run for home.

Nothing is certain in Antarctica, and the weather forecast is for a little low to lurk around Scott Base tomorrow. Hopefully we can fly off 'under the radar' first thing in the morning before the storm hits.

Otherwise there will be more entries in the blog.

By the way, communications at New Harbour are completely unkown but there is a remote chance that I can continue the blog. Otherwise you will have to follow Trish's site.

Ciao

 Day 7 Scott base bound instead of flying to New Harbour

An early start to the day was all for nought. Although the weather was stunningly sunny, calm and fine at

0430 (how do I know that? - an early morning comfort stop from drinking too much beer and whiskey last night maybe??).

But only moments before our helicopter was due to arrive (20 minutes out) the weather clagged in.

Although Antarctica is a desert and any snow that falls is only in the form of the occasional snow flake, when the wind blows, it shifts the ground snow around and creates a ground blizzard (cold -50 C wind chill and zero visibility, but it could be sunny only about 300 - 500 m above. However these are not great conditions at ground level and definately bad flying conditions.

For most of our stay at Scott base weather condition 3 has prevailed (3 = good do anything you want, 2 = bad and 1 = STAY INDOORS) was reduced to condition 2, which basically means foot travel is limited to Scott Base environs only and limited vehicle travel at  the discretion of the base commander.

So, our helicopter take off time was going to be reviewed at noon. In the meantime, the team helped assemble 15 sleeping kits and set up and inspect 7 tents in preparation for a traverse in a weeks time to Granite Harbour for another research party (which includes some of our NIWA colleagues - so the time filler was partly altruistic).

So we are stuck at Scott base for another night.

Aussies Incarcerated - Wednesday night a group of Aussies waiting to go to Camp Davis (pretty much on the opposite side of the Antarctic continent) came over to visit Scott Base. They arrived on a Quantas airbus complete with hosties, in-flight meals and windows! Sadly the season has been disruptive for flying and schedules to the South Pole are well behind. So the poor old Aussies, about 60 of them, are stuck in 'transit limbo' at McMurdo for the best part of a week, chomping at the bit (to get on with things at Camp Davis) and going stir crazy. So to relieve the monotony they were invited over to Scott Base for a tour and a few drinkies in the bar.

'Transit Limbo' ? The Aussies are pretty much confined to McMurdo Base and aren't even allowed to walk on the ice ridges. But in the morning a couple of intrepied Aussies must have sneaked out early and managed to climb to the top of Observation Hill which has spectacular views. But when the weather clagged in suddenly, the SAR team had to be called out. Apparently it was pretty ugly up there with winds gusting at storm force and 'cold as' - 'BUSTED'!  It was a good real life exercise for the SAR team and a sober warning of how quickly things can turn ugly in an unforgiving land. I don't think too much harm was done, but the rest of the Aussies will pretty much be under 'House arrest' for the rest of their stay .... and on a good day that WILL drive them nuts.

Apparently the aussies on top of lookout hill might have been a fabrication for a make believe routine Thursday morning SAR exercise. So never trust what you read on the internet, but the "house arrest" bit will pretty much summarise how our Australian buddies are feeling being trapped in a strange and foreign land for at least a week.

In contrast we just lost a day due to the weather.

Murphy's law - The weather moderated to a brilliant sunny evening. But the wind is still blowing. However, I reckon we should have no problems flying tomorrow. Fortunately I am scheduled on the second flight and can have a sleep in.

Day 8 - another day .... another go???

DAY 8  a great day for flying!

Up early again to see off half the team on their way to New Harbour. In complete contrast to yesterday, the sun is shining, the winds are light and it is a breathless day in Antarctica. I can strip my bed with confidence and 'hurry up and wait'. The first flight came early, so while we are scheduled to fly at 11:45 we will have to be on tenter hooks and ready to 'scramble' at any time. 

We arrived in New Harbour with all our gear. The impossible happened and I am left suitably impressed. The permanent US base at New Harbour is not as flash as I imagined in my wildest dreams, but it is plenty comfortable enough and warm (especially after we lit up the propane heating units).  We have enough gear and dive holes to deal with without having to set up our own temporary base. Being able to use the base has been a great boost to our programme.

Day 9 - Dive hole #1 completed

Yesterday was a long day followed by a  very late night. The rough sea ice is only about 4 m thick and not the fearsome 6m plus that we had been led to expect. But the ice is pocked with layers of dirt and gravel. The dirt and gravel quickly blunted our drilling equipment and made drilling an inspection hole a nightmare. However, before we turned in for the day, a promising site was found and the hole melter ( heated glycol pumped through a stainless steel wand) set up and running. We set shifts amongst ourselves to check and refill the heater and generator to keep the operation running non stop.

We were pleasantly surprised to find that great progress had been made by the next morning. The rest of the day was spent forcing another inspection hole at what was to become our main dive site. Then we shifted all our dive gear by ski-doo and sled and started melting hole number 2. All things being equal, we should be diving on Monday.

Hayden the hole melter checks the size and shape of the dive hole with some dive weights on the end of a piece of rope. In the back ground, Chazz Marriott prepares a drop-cam to have a first look at the ocean floor.

This is a picture of Mt Erubus through the tortured and gravel pocked 'multi-year' sea ice at New Harbour. Being able to find a suitable dive site in this terrain was nothing short of miraculous.

Day 10 - working like Navies but ready to dive

It has been really hard work set up our dive site. I had always suspected that an awful amount of effort had gone into last years camp at Granite Harbour before we arrived like movie stars in a helicopter ....and now I know first hand. I might like to think of myself as bastard hard Pirate Pete but, I am definately not a 'pile driving man'. Last night I was driven to tears trying to drive tent pegs into a cross between perma frost and solid ancient rocky foreshore. Since then I have been shovelling snow, chipping ice, setting up the dive tent and pumping tanks.

This morning there was a frosting on my long johns - evidence that I have been working up a sweat.

" I only snore when I am tired"! So I have been banished to one of 4 tents and this is my home for the next 2 weeks. Actually it is pretty comfortable and I am neither too cold or too hot outside snuggled up in my Antarctic NZ issue super two lofted sleeping bags.

 Vonda, the project leader often walks the kilometre to the dive site. After lunch I wobbled along on foot, rather than the customary ski-doo ride and discovered why she walks so often. The tortured old New Harbour sea ice is quite spectacular

 This poor old scallop shell is a victim of anchor ice. Insidious stuff for sessile and even relatively mobile benthic organisms (scallops can move around by clapping). Anchor ice forms on the sea floor and sometimes entraps animals (way to ruin your day) and floats them to the bottom of the sea ice. Eventually the poor little dead animals migrate to the surface of the ice and the scallop shell picuted above is one such poor soul.

 The whole team were manning the pumps (quite literaly at one stage -  because we were pumping out the fresh water layer from our dive hole to help stop it freezing) to set up the dive site. This involves 'ingenious rocket Scientists do dam building' activity. Apart from a couple of 'back flows' threatening to freeze the tent permanently to the sea ice, everything went well. At days end our dive site is ready for action and we are set to 'hit the water' tomorrow. 

Day 11 - Finally in the water...... and it was spectacular

Well, all the preparations are done and we got dives in the morning and afternoon with a brief spell at lunch time waiting for a helicopter to drop by with some extra supplies. The diving for me, went well with no dramas (being a veteran antarctic diver now, one would expect no less). What is it like under there? indescribably spectacular and unfortunately beyond the limits of my little underwater camera to even begin to illustrate. 

Photo of the day is at about 15 m and shows some antarctic fish -'bernacs'. They are quite a bit bigger than the ones I remember from last years Granite Harbour site and I am thinking that maybe there aren't so many seals around these parts. In behind is an orange starfish and some yellow sponges caught up in that deadly anchor ice. In the fore ground are some antarctic scallops.

 The water is crystal clear except for a fresh water halocline down to about 6 m. Where is it coming from, I don't know!? maybe ice melt from the dry 'Taylor Valley behinds us or some underground spring. But I suspect the water around these parts is colder with the presence of anchor ice on the sea floor and the underside of the sea ice above is a myriad of indescribably spectacular ice crystal structures.

Foot note, the little olympus mu in an Ikelite housing with strobe seemed to have survived the extreme ordeal and come away with a few useful photographs. First dive under the belt .... not a bad day at all.

 I am probably doing stand down duty tomorrow, but diving for the next three days after that.

Day 12 - Standby duties

Weather at New Harbour, Antarctica continues to be pretty good with temperatures up in the high -10 c z. If there is no wind, it is quite tropical. Inside the American New Harbour hut the temps can get as high as 10c which feels extraordinaryily hot. So despite the extreme conditions, things can be pretty comfortable at times.

I didn't dive today, we are cycling through a fairly aggressive 3 days on; one day off diving sequence, and it was my misfortune to be stood down for today. That is ok as long as we take turns. So no diving for me today, but despite that oversight, the dive team made huge progress and the experimental 'encosures' are all but in set in place. We just have to prepare the telemetry that goes in them and set things running tomorrow. 

 A picture is worth a thousand words and you just have to hope that I can get my camera into the water in the next couple of days to get a photo of what we are up to.

 Photo of the day - the diving tent in the middle of nowhere in a hostile environment. Pretty remarkable if you consider how far we are from anywhere and how much effort it took to set up. As standby diver, I got to spend most of my time in the tent which has a diesel heater and can get quite toasty at times.

 Bonus photo of the day (from yesterday): a scallop entrapped in anchor ice floating on the way up to the surface. Doh!!!!!

 Day 13 - diving, heads down bum up

No under water photos today. I dived in the morning and the evening. We have an absolute dive time limit, irrespective of depth, of 40 minutes. The dives are terminated at 35 minutes which enables an ascent to a 3 minute safety stop at 5 m. That leaves precious little time to achieve the tasks at hand, so no rest for the wicked and underwater, things are very disciplined. Not a chance for any under water photos today .... but maybe tomorrow.

13th day of the expedition. Only a few murphy's law problems. My inflator hose showed signs of failing and needed replacing, along with my regulator hose that blew an o-ring after my first dive. The old o-ring looked like it had been chewed on by a rat but had failed from over-use and old age [No need to be too nervous Pirate Pete ... even though that might be applying to you!!!]

Diving in -2 C conditions, despite having all the best gear does come at a metabloic cost. Apparently, after dive two, my body temperature had dropped about 1C .  Theoretically that made me hypothermic, but I felt ok.

 Todays photo was taken on the way to my tent at 2 am

Yup it is day light 24/7 this time of year in Antarctica. The only reason for the shadow is that the suns oval orbit above the horizon has taken it behind some hills to the south of us. This is dark as it gets. Back at the New Harbour hut, we were preparing a bunch of data loggers to put in the underwater microcosms that we had set up under water. Yesterday was a long, long day and today wasn't much shorter.

 Talk about eating disorders. After the second dive of the day, pumping tanks and tidying up for the night and cooking tea for ourselves - tea was at 10:30 pm

 On the bright side, we have our experiment set up and we have only a few, relatively easy dives to complete tomorrow.

Whats the weather like? Well continuously sunny and light winds, once again we are living the life of Riley in near perfect conditons. Today the temperature gauge outside the hut indicated that it was +4 c. This was possible because some of the surface ice covered with sand, on the 'moat' melted to water for a while. But then the wind kicked in and within minutes the temperature dropped to -6.7 c and it quickly refroze.

But don't get me wrong, everything and anything outside the hut freezes. The facecloth that I used for a bird bath 3 days ago remains frozen in the rafters of my tent . I had to bring my personal wet wipes into the hut because they were a frozen block and not very useful. In ways, it is remarkable that I can wake up in the morning, warm and alive in such a hostile environment. That last ice age has made a big impression on our fundamental metabolism - modern man [with the right gear] can comfortably habit -20 C. 

........ who would have figued????

Day 14 - diving going well and the weather remains fine.

All is sweetness and light, except Scott Base sent out a helicopter at luch time just to pick up our sheepskins which we aren't supposed to have. Apparently you are only allowed to have sheepskins if you are in Alpine Antarctica or camping on ice. It would seem that sleeping on frozen permafrosted rocks in a tent just isn't the same ... old people are expected to be gratefull to be sleeping merely on a thermarest without whining too much.

There was a time when I could sleep on cold hard ground with roots and rocks in the forest with little more than a scrap of snow foam and be comfortable. But I was young then. The old aged Pirate found out a few years ago, that the old bones aren't what they used to be. 

I immediately purchased a veritable arsenal of sleeping mats, EXPED airbeds, camp stretchers and thermarests that enabled a comfortable outdoor experience. I could have easily brought any or all of my arsenal with me AND a sheepskin if I had only known that Scott Base was going to be titchy about such things.

Definately not looking forward to the next 9 days as my arms were going to sleep despite the combination of the precious Scott Base Sheepskin and the thermarest blown up to the MAX.

Doh! woe will be me!!!!!!

Enough of the old bones whining. Todays diving was spectacular and so was the weather. Photos of the day, time lapse shot looking up the slope to the sea ice and Rod, coming to the end of a video transect.

Day 15 - The American Invasion

Well, not really, we are guests at New Harbour of the US, using their fine and comfortable facilities. At 0900 Sharon and Galit turned up in a flash helicopter from McMurdo Base. They are here to melt holes for an American diver team coming out next week. We were kind of hoping that the hole would be adjacent the fabled 'ice wall' which an enterprising kiwi might be tempted to vist with his snorkel 'during their lunch time'. But as far as we can make out Sharon and Galits dive hole will be the 'Tile hole' which won''t be so very different to where we are already diving.

This is a panorama stitched by Chazz Marriott. It shows the full extent of the facilities at New Harbour Camp. Luca and Drew sleep on the floor in the pictured 'east wing', a similar sized 'west wing' is the kitchen area. Completing an "H" is a little corridor linking the east and the west wing tent. The link has the communications corner, some stores and work benches (presently crowded with lap tops, dive cameras and camera gear). Very few luxuries, but very comfortable while the heaters are on. Right now I think the east wing heater has run out of gas and I will have to go out, change tanks and re-light it.

No rest for the wicked.

Did I say one photo a day ... yeah right. Above photo is the view from the New Harbour toilet facilities. I think that everybody belives that New Harbour, being a US field station is something like a mini McMurdo Base with hot running water, showers, a chef and domestic staff to cater for every whim, not to mention waffles and maple syrup for breakfast ... and a combusting toilet system that would make NASA nervous. 

Absolutely not so! While the facilites are very comfortable and well set up, the loo is a bucket and chuck-it affair. It has a potentially functioning urine system but unfortunately the plumping is well frozen, so we have to use a funnel over a 20 litre jerry can. Poos in a plastic bucket. 

Because of the very sensitive nature of the dry valleys, all refuse will be flown out by helicopter, stored for a while and eventually shipped out to NZ for incineration. One cannot begin to describe the joys of having to bag, seal and then carry around a whole bucket of frozen poos. 

At least the New Harbour latrines are heads and shoulders above having to crawl into a Scott Tent. ... and the photo above is testimoney that the view from the toilet isn't half bad ... at times.

Day 16 - another beautiful day in paradise

Diving is proceeding without too many dramas and work is going well. There is absolutely no sign of the fabled BBC movie crew which in many ways is just as well. Things are going so smoothly that our team would make for lousy 'reality TV' footage.

However, diving twice a day, late nights working, early morning starts [and although nobody is ever going to admit it, the sacrifice of the sheepskins and subsequent sleepless nights] are starting to take their toll. Picture of the 'Big Guy' Rod the diver plum tuckered out at lunch time ....

Bonus photos: Trish has been beavering away on an igloo project for some days now .... and she finally did it. I am not sure what an Inuit would think of it, but I reckon she did well with a degree of difficulty of 8, given that she was using sea ice snow. Plus I think there is a bonus for effort.

Day 17 - Snow balls chance in hell

I woke up this moring just before 7:30. The usual foot traffic and occasional race to the toilet facilities were strangely quiet. When I poked my head out of my tent, it was snowing! Now Antarctica is effectively a desert and the most snow fall I witnessed last year was an occasional classicalyl formed snowflake wafting about on its own when we were at Cape Evans.

This mornings effort was serious snow and a good amount fell during the day coating everything with about 2-3" of fresh snow. That would be about as much 'precipitation' that you are likely to see in these parts in years, especially since we are supposed to be in the dry valleys.

New Harbour Camp, East wing coated with snow first thing this morning. Now I wasn't expecting that!

 This is not diving in Bermuda! I needed a full case of 'harden the hell up' AND an attitude to face diving in the early morning snows. Actually it was relatively warm (compared to what it has been) and just required some delicate ballancing and gear choice in my outside changing room

 Photo of the day, a crinoid and sponge on 'another' rock. You see, while the bottom is sandy, there are some isolated rocks about the place. There is 'The' rock, 'A' rock and 'Another Rock'.

bonus photo of the day is a pencil urchin adorned with pretty much everything including anchor ice. I reckon this is the Antarctic version of a 'lion fish'.

 Day 18 - Powder coated blazing sun

It was quite cold last night till about 0400 when the sun came out from behind the hills to the south of us and pretty much roasted me in my tent by rising time. When I extracted myself from my tent, the place was a glistening wonderland with all the new powdery snow showing every sign of hanging around for a while. However, the sun was back at in blazing eye-squinting force today and not much wind. Curiously I was cold underwater for the first time.

Most of the team were stood down today, but Rod Budd and I got to take the routine water samples from the chambers. Apart from a few easy and low task-laden dive samples, we got a moment to ourselves to try and get some photography in. I am happy to say that my little camera in an Ikelite housing is becoming quite the ice diving veteran and coming through with a few useful photos.

Yesterdays snow has made it considerably darker under the ice and it was quite hard to get any meaningful photos. However photos of the day gives an impression of what is like under there. There is some seriously moody lighting going on and you can see just a hint of the fantastical ice/brinacle formations on the underside of the ice. For me it is reminiscent of the underside of some storm clouds ... which doesn't make sense in the tranquil serenity of the under ice world.

 If you look closely, you can see a few scallops trapped in anchor ice, suspended underneath the ice roof. Mind you, I saw a scallop 'swimming towards the light' of its own accord the other day ... I thought that it was going to its peril, but maybe hanging around under the ice is good for both divers and scallops???

Spartans!! present your shields!!!!!! This is either a mutated scallop on steroids about to start a war or .... most likely? an enterprising urchin using a dead scallop shell for camoflage. Personally, with all the anchor-iced floating scallops in the water column, I would be using something with a safer track record myself.

 Day 19 - American invasion Part 2

American Divers Stacey and Bob arrived with a 4 person dive team to dive the 'tile hole', New Harbour for the day. They seemed to find Sharon and Galits first time dive hole construction more than adequate for their mission. The American dive teams day went well but was tempered by a couple of flooded cameras - one of the cameras was 'never going to fly again!!!!" .... Cameras and 'o' rings are always a very real Antarctic diving hazard with the extreme conditions defyin'g the best efforts and equipment on a regular basis. Doh!

Stacey and Bob have been coming to New Harbour for a while. Among the many inscriptions on the New Harbour 'Graffiti Wall", not far from "Haydn Harringtons collosal hole melting  extraordinaire" contribution, is the poignant note: "Nov 20 2004 [still married 2009] I asked, she said yes! What a safety stop.Bob Zook and Stacey Kim"- Bob had proposed to Stacey underwater here at New Harbour -  way to go!

American dive hole drillers extraordinaire Sharon and Galit left on the helicopter that brought Stacey and Bob's dive team.

 The big American Helos kick up a bit of a down draught on take-off and sensible pirates hide behind doors to take action photos.

The American dive team in action. Bob and dive buddy are underwater diving while Stacey and her dive Buddy stand by. Definately much more streamlined diving and a considerable contrast to the New Zealand dive system:  with a standby emergency diver rigged and ready to go at a moments notice and the divers linked to the surface by tenders with lines. However, for all the complications of the New Zealand system, the measures combat almost every possible eventuality and has to be ultra safe.

Stacey and Bob's team left on a helo bound for the comforts of McMurdo at 16:30, leaving us to the tranquility of New Harbour all by our own. Another American Dive team might visit New Harbour overnight Thursday/Friday, just before we are scheduled to return to Scott Base.

The local fish are characters. They look ugly (but in a cute kind of way). They really, really like lights and seem to have been free of harassment from seals for sometime. So they think divers are the most interesting things 'ever' and they often follow us around. 

Today we were starting to dismantle the under water chambers and we decided that things could be more efficiently achieved by deploying and retrieving equipment via the safety hole. As I swam toward the safety hole, I noticed a ring of curious fish all aligned to the beacon of 'light' lighting up the ocean floor immediately underneath, like a search light. The fish were all orientated towards the 'sacred' beam like some sort of a 'light worshipping cult' . I can't imagine how long they would stay there like mesmerised possums in car head lights .....if they were given half a chance. Fortunately we put a cover on the safety hole in between dives. That way my little fishy friends hopefully won't be too distracted for too long.

Day 20 - Ice bergs, Weather and Radio etiquette

The Team (Trish took the photo) Toast Simon Thrush, one of the team stalwarts who is away overseas for the second year. During this trip we have managed to miss out 2 Wedding anniversaries and 2 kids birthdays as well, so a few brownie points have been burn't just to be here and do the work.

The 'Pirate' subscribes to a policy of maintaining strict Radio Silence at all times. If you hear from me on VHF ... it is probably urgent and it probably means trouble. However, in Antarctica for safety reasons, groups travelling on ice have to report in hourly by radio and field teams have regular radio 'scheds', so there is no avoiding using the radio [indeed effective communications are a crtical aspect of any operations in Antarctica].

Scott Base maintains a 24 hour listening watch with rostered communications staff. One of the communication staff down this season is a character that has a radio presence close to my own philosophy: Pure military precision, No chit chat, no jokes, efficient and not likely to leak any information to the enemy: An example transmission might be "Scott Base, Scott Base, this is H4 [Haglund 4] ....."receiving", comes the reply ..... How's it going? We are passing the ice tongue, there are emporer penguins out here, the sun is shining brilliantly and 'Terry' just ate the last bumper bar, we are making great progress"  .... "roger that" completes the exchange.

Some old school Antarctic staff reckon that the radio operators need to be a bit more chatty and at least tell a joke now and then.

So I was flattered when it was my turn to do the Sched: "Scott Base, Scott Base, this is K082 calling on channel 3, are you receiving?" ... "receiving" came the reply .... "Just doing our evening sched, any messages?"  ..... "no messages ... but I have a weather forecast" .... [Crimminey ... the guy is pouring out his heart tonight] .... "great, it would be good to hear a weather forecast", I reply .... "its going to be a cracker, there is a high pressure system over the Ross Sea" ... "cheers for that" I reply [repeating the information, to confirm the message got through] .... K082 out" .... "Scott Base listening", concluded the evenings 'sched'.

Moments later, it dawned on me that I had been kidded by a fiendishly clever 'whit' - that was a joke, customised for the NIWA team who ought to know something about the weather! You see, a high pressure system known as the 'Antarctic High' sits over the region all the time. Normally a high pressure system means good weather back in New Zealand, so at face value a High sitting over Antarctica might mean good weather. However, the weather in Antarctic is changeable and sometimes dramatically so, because of areas of low pressure within in the High, Katabatic winds and features I can't even begin to explain .... what a kidder ... you gotta like the guy. Respect!!

Day 21 last dives at New Harbour

I can't believe it has been 3 weeks since we left Christchurch bound for Antarctica. It has been a very busy time with hardley a moment to catch our breath.

Today was the last days diving at New Harbour. The mission and weather have gone perfectly and much has been achieved. Tomorrow the forecast for packing up the gear is not so great. So maybe we have outlived our welcome but it has been a blast. 

Diving has gone 'swimmingly' with very few 'dramas'. But we have had more than our fair share of minor regulator free-flows. We put this down superstitiously to the Brine layer, a wicked halocline under the ice down to about 5m. This is sort of reminiscent of diving through the fresh water layer in Fiordland and your vision 'swims' [never tell that to your diving doctor!] until you get below the 'interface' where vision becomes dramatically clear in the clean sea water below. If you hover in just the right place you can see the halocline from below as a ceiling of shimmering waters. 

The amount of anchor ice around the place indicates that the water must be pretty darn cold, so maybe we have been using the gear at the e!treme MAX!

Speaking of gear. Rob Robbins (the American Diving programme Doyen of 30 odd years) and Brenda turned up in a helicopter for a couple of days diving at New Harbour this morning.  Both Rob and Brenda have little Ikelite AF35 Strobes, like I have and both have had theirs flood catastrophically in Antarctica recently. The BBC film crew have been having the odd camera flooding 'issues' too. So the Antarctic sea conditions are on the outside of extreme for my little strobe, which miraculously seems to have somehow survived its few undersea immersions down here. Maybe I am pushing my luck?

Day 22 - Batten down the hatches and ... wait ... 'me hearties'

The forecast winds and driven snow appeared just after 0800 hrs and built steadily throughout the morning. It probably is blowing around 40 knots outside right now. The winds hit Scott Base early and the word came through that all flying has been 'canned' for the day. 

This has rammifications:

For a start, there is a crowd of Researchers due to get out to Granite Harbour from Scott Base. Then Tom and Karo (Scott Base Helicopter cargo handlers) have to be flown here to supervise our 'sling loads' [Left to our own devices we would be inclined to overload the poor old helicopters] before we can begin to have our gear ferried out of New Harbour. 

At least we are 'on site' and have completed our work .... the Granite Harbour crew haven't even started their work! 

American divers, Rob and Brenda were to fly back to McMurdo at 1100 hrs, but that didn't happen. Rob confessed he has something of a reputation for getting 'hut bound' [Gee thanks Rob]. But Antarctic weather is fickle and being 'hut bound' is not an unusual event. Indeed, we have been living 'the life of Riley' with our extraordinary run of brilliant weather, so this little interlude is just a reality 'wake-up call'.

If the system passes quickly we will have lost very little time. Indeed it provides an opportunity for a bit of a breather and gives us an opportunity to pack up (for a change) with some leisure. However, if the storm lingers, we are on the cusp of troubles should we not fly tomorrow (Saturday), because we are then effectively stuck here till Monday [because the helicopters have a break on Sundays with a NO FLYING rule].

Doh! Stranded in Paradise ... what a dilemma?!!

Pictured above, the divers pack up gear (battening down the hatches) as the wind increases to uncomfortable strengths, just before lunchtime. The wind driven snow in the background makes a dramatic backdrop.

Day 23 - Stranded in Paradise

The worst news possible came through last nights radio 'sched': priorities were with the Granite harbour group and because of the no Sunday flying rule, Caro and Tom would be unnecessarily bidding their time at New Harbour camp. So they are not coming until Monday. All things going well, at the earliest we could expect to be flying out would be sometime on Tuesday.

So we are stranded in Paradise for quite a few days. 

This mornings phone calls offered little relief: Confirming that all flying was cancelled for the day. Rob and Brenda are stuck with us at least until Monday too.

Rob and Brenda are starting to be a bit more sociable now, but I don't think they are altogether happy to be spending enforced time with a bunch of rotten kiwis smelling like polecats (from not having a bath in quite some time now). Sensing some international tensions, most of the team have since made an effort by at least changing into fresh clothes.

I secretly have to admit that my Carharts Dungarees were beginning to get a bit out of hand. The novelty of them 'walking by themselves' was wearing off as their agenda was sometimes quite different from mine ....and it was begining to become irksome to keep them on track!

There were reports that visibility at Scott Base has been less than 150 m for over 24 hrs with Gale force winds. Access to McMurdo is only possible by Hagglund snow vehicles as the road is impassable.

As we left Scott Base, I had told Trish, that last year, when we got back to Scott Base from our two weeks at Granite Harbour, that we didn't recognise it, because all the snow had gone ... now apparently, we are unlikely to recognise Scott Base because it is half buried in Snow Drifts from the current round of weather.

The Weather over here at New Harbour was mostly warm with the temperature hovering around -1 c. Yesterdays strongish (gusting 30 knot) winds eased in the morning and then snow (sounding like rain) kicked in and has been falling steadily for the day.

Not much to do except re-hydrate and read 'Endurance' - the greatest adventure story ever told - about Shackletons ice shipwreck and ultimate escape by small boat. Reading, that here at New Harbour is something that I can curiously relate to (albeit, with all the assurance of having a huge stack of food, modern equipment, warmth and comfort, with salvation just a helicopter ride away). 

Occasionally our tranquility is shattered when the phone rings with mundane requests from 'the world as we know it'. One insistent woman from McMurdo was demanding Rob Robbins time sheet information. Since Rob was 'out for a walk' at the time, we were in no position to help her. Being Saturday morning and all, I don't think Rob was too keen to help her much even when he got back.

My poor little tent home is begining to look a bit cold and forlorn ... crawling inside is not looking so inviting tonight.

Day 24 - Sunday strolls and kiwis gone feral

 Standing on top of the Morraine behind New Harbour looking up the Taylor Valley at the Commonwealth Glacier (foreground) onto Lake Fryxell and the Canada Glacier in the distance - fairly scenic!!!

 Sunday dawned warm with menacing clouds lurking, particularly over Scott Base. But the winds and the constant snowing had eased up. Apart from all the fresh snow lying around, it was a pleasant day. The team pulled together and dismantled the dive tents and packed most of the dive hole gear into rough sling loads. All Caro or Tom have to do is say which pile goes with which and figure out how things get attached to the helo and the gear will be ready to fly out.

Work was disrupted by snowball fights erupting periodically, but generally with minimum disruption or damage. However, Drew while appearing to be carefully packing equipment behind the 'grey cuba' was actually caching an arsenal of snow balls. The first barage caught the rest of the pacifist team unprepared and a heavy toll was extracted until a swift and merciless barage of retaliating snow balls subdued the mischieveous one.

Kiwis gone feral? Rob and Brenda are still keeping a safe personal space between themselves and us stinking kiwis. We have to admit that after two and a half weeks of not bathing we just HAVE to be a little bit stinky. Water is a premium and being an ASMA - Antartic Specieal Management Area) we have to fly all our waste, including waste water out. 

While it might be tempting to throw, say dishwater onto the sands .... IT IS A WILDERNESS and unlike back home, the sands are permafrosted ... so the waste water would not percolate anywhere. The contaminated water would either freeze and be around for a long, long time. Or if it thawed, it would become an alien food source that would promote bacteria. - which oughtn't be here in significant numbers.

So the Kiwis smell ...... like polecats. With the warm weather (sometimes climbing into the +1's or 2's, any smell that might be masked by raw cold is festering away to say the least. Ah, the cold harsh reality of Antarctic Research  - they don't say that in the brochures!

Enough to drive anybody crazy, the Kiwis have a Carpe Diem seize the day sort of attitude. Heck, when is the next time any of us are likely to be in Antarctica? Coupled with 24 hour sunshine, we are prone to doing things at a fiersome pace and keep pretty weird hours. Yesterday was no exception. The day started at 0800 hrs. After sorting out the dive site we had lunch at 1600 hrs. More packing, being movie stars for Trish's web page and then we went for a walk with most of the party getting back at 23 hours, having tea and getting to bed at 0200 hours.

 Apparently Inuit kids are a bit like that. They go wild and it is not unusual to see bands of kids roaming the streets playing games at 0200 hrs in the Arctic .... so that sort of 'pour' behaviour in 24/7 light conditions isn't entirely abnormal.

But in contrast, Rod and Brenda are veteran Antarctic visitors, who are here for the long haul and are keeping more civil bioryttms (going to bed at a reasonable hour). 

Our antics must be driving them nuts!!!

Day 25 - Helicopters flying left and right

Helicopter New Zealands flash, flash new blue Euro Copter landing at New Harbour. 1st day out and going well

Todays weather was blazing sunshine and no wind. The helicopters that had been grounded by the weather for the past 3 or so days were out in force. It was a bit like South Westland at the height of the deer hunting days with helicopters flying backwards and forwards with sling loads almost constantly. 

An American helo came by New Harbour and picked up Rob and Brenda to rescue them from their enforced incarceration with the kiwis. Vonda hitched a ride with them and took some samples back to Scott Base, bound for New Zealand on the next available flight, probably Wednesday.

A short while later, Caro and Tom arrived from Scott Base to sort out our gear into sling loads for ferrying to the hagglunds waiting out on the smooth sea ice. They arrived with 'Rob' from Helicopters NZ in his new shiney blue Eurocopter, complete with 3 rotors and a tail fan .... to make it harder for kiwis walking around the back of the helicopter to get into trouble. 

Suitably flash and style-ie.

After a cup of tea, Cara and Tom seemed suitably impressed with the gear at the dive site and it wasn't too much effort to sort the sling loads. The next challenge will be to break camp and organise our personal gear in the New Harbour camp first thing tomorrow morning.

Gossip of the day, was that one of our kiwi colleagues going to Granite Harbour camp had locked baggage with them [Crime is not normally a problem in Antarctica so the locks were hardly necessary]  .... and ...... left their key at Scott Base. Duh!!!!

Day 26 - Safe As

Above the New Harbour team demonstrate the safety helmet approach to cool runnings tobogganing  ... and life in general at New Habour.

Two and a half weeks diving in a really, really remote place and apart from a couple of fashion disasters, my only injury was a finger sprag from a ratty stainless steel wire ... which didn't need a plaster, indeed, there is no sympathy scar of proof either [and Rod took 3 fish bins of serious medical stuff not to mention 6 bottles of Oxygen just in case - better to be safe than sorry!!!].

TODAYS PLAN - Wake up, pull my tent down, pack my gear and supervise the Helicopter sling loads from a safe distance and then get flown like a movie star back to Scott Base. 

REALITY - Atmosperic conditions to throw a 'fly-ball' and 'put a spanner in the works'!!!!

Global warming. Snowing in Antarctica and other 'I-didn't-expect-that' phenomenon have caught me out of left field routinely during this trip. Salvation from New Harbour and my own fetid underwear took another twist when proceedings ground to a miserable halt because of FOG!!!!! rolling in with a light NE wind over the newly opened ice pack adjacent Ross Island.

The helicopter shut down and we made polite conversation for the best part of 3 hours while we waited and waited and waited. I was starting to get more and more nervous about spending yet another night in New Harbour.

Fog is something I can't predict. Blindly optimistic blazing sunshine weather reports from all points North and South of us didn't help the peasouper that we were experiencing. I was particularly edgy because our sleeping bags and food had gone out on the very first sling load before the fog descended and stopped any flying. If the Fog were to persist ... it might mean a long and uncomfortable night for me and the New Harbour team.

Fortunately the fog did lift later in the afternoon and Rob, rob, Caro and Tom worked the flash blue helicopter rocket into double over time to fly our mountain of gear out of New Harbour to the Hagglund Road train waiting off shore on the smooth sea ice ... and then get us safely back to Scott Base.

Happy to report that after several spectacular 25 minute Helo rides across the Ross Sea we all made it safely back to Scott Base. The Helo ride was followed by an equally spectacular 10 minute shower. I feel 'human' again and I can honestly report that it is possible to wash off two and a half weeks of grime. Two industrial washing machine loads of ferocious underpants and thermofleece later ... and they too are no longer pose a 'significant threat'.

Happy to be back at Scott Base and back to modern comforts. But already I am starting to miss the spectacular scenary, remoteness and quiet of New Harbour.

Our next mission is to prepare gear and get ready to go diving at Cape Evans.

Did I mention ..... that the beer tasted good too. 

Day 27 - Damn the torpedos, thinking of home and communications

Todays photos looks East from Scott Base at the ice ridges that seem particularly active this year (perhaps a portent of a big sea ice break up this year?). The slopes of Mt Erebus are on the left, Mt Terror on the right.

Damn the torpedos - well not all science in Antarctica is glamour diving under the ice and fighting off leopard seals. There are a great many and diverse research programmes going on while we are down here. I missed Brian Karl, an old friend and colleague from DSIR Ecology Division by a matter of hours yesterday. He left  Scott Base for a long term study of Penguin Biology, just before we returned .

Then there are a group of intriguing dudes on base with all sorts of flying thingy magiggys, including a flying torpedo shaped electro magnetic senor for measuring the thickness of sea ice. Rob the Helicopter NZ pilot is very accomadating and keen to try anything, including towing the flying torpedo at low altitudes over a grid pattern - which I imagine, will be fairly demanding when they get a round tuit.

Today, there was much preparation, rigging and ground testing of the flying torpedo and a very near 'sea trial'. Asking myself what could POSSIBLY go wrong here? but still prepared to be impressed, I kept a close eye on proceedings. Surely if the thing was going to fly, I would almost certainly get my "Photo of the day", if not the Century. However, the flying torpedo crew were not a slick operation and by the time it was close to ready, the winds of change had picked up and the visibility had deteriorated and it was deemed to be too windy ... so the intriguing flying torpedo was brought back to its hanger unused and the helicopter went away leaving me dissapointed, yet somehow relieved for all concerned.

Runner up photo of the day was the radio antenna array immediately outside the 'Container of the damned'. It was a nice photo and a reminder to the wonders of modern technology that enable regular phone calls to the 'mainland' and internet connections to the outside world ... and .... a pang of homesickness.

Our last few days in Antarctica will be frantic with a push to save time and project budgets by the team doing a days diving trip to Cape Evans Tomorrow, bag drop and pack up all our gear for shipping back to NZ on Friday and catching a plane back to Christchurch on Saturday.

So today the team was flat out unpacking all the gear from New Harbour and preparing our gear for Cape Evans tomorrow. Tasks were many and varied but included a lengthy and amusing (for some) attempt to tow 1/2 a tonne of wees and poos from the sleds to the "Container of the damned" behind the sewage processing plant. The snow drifts from last weekends storm made a simple 4wd motorbike and trailer trip a complete mission of pushing, unloading, reloading and general toil that took hours ... and left an indelible impression on all concerned.

The Container of the damned is a normal looking Antarctic Green container, but it gets filled with barrels of pee, buckets of poo and hazardous waste for disposal back in New Zealand. Despite the temperatures being in the -6 C today and 'my shit doesn't stink', the container is already pretty 'wiffy' and one can only begin to imagine the foul smell that might greet the person who opened the container back in New Zealand after a summer sea voyage back to the mainland .... bags it isn't me!!!!!

Day 28 - Last Antarctic dive at Cape Evans .... and I saw an angel!

This is without doubt the cutest sea monster in the world! It is a tiny (5mm) mollusc called a Pteropod that swims as part of the plankton in mid water under the Antarctic ice. The little wings scull back and forth and they are usually pink. Quite possibly the closest thing to an angel you are ever likely to see ... so the old dive doctor can just relax.

Well talk about burning the midnight oil in the land of the midnight sun. It is 0300 hrs on Friday morning. The trip to Cape Evans was a long and arduous one. Not helped at all by the weather doing the 'left field thingy'. What was supposed to be a fine day was a roaring -10 C x 30 knot ground blizzard with no visibility in places. An early morning reveille by the team counted for nought. Things looked to be clearing up at 1000 hrs and I managed to choke down a coffee (in expectation of running out the door) before things were put on hold 5 minutes later.

Eventually we headed off to Cape Evans at 12:30. Diving went smoothly and we managed to complete our underwater tasks. My little underwater camera and strobe finished their last dive in extreme Antarctic underwater conditions flood free and in good condition ... a bit like their owner. Diving can only get easier from here.

The animal life at Cape Evans is quite a bit more diverse and more colourful than New Harbour. With the ice being only 2 m thick, there was much more light and under ice algae growing. It is a pity we only got the one long diving day there.

Now, if the team can get by with 4 hours sleep and get up in time for breakfast tomorrow, we will be back on track for the Friday Noon 'bag drop' - send all your personal gear to McMurdo for the flight back to New Zealand on Saturday. No last minute packing around here .. the bag drop is 'hurry up and wait' gone mad. Especially if you consider the very real possibility that the plane might be delayed on account of the weather or mechanical problems. Then before you know it is Sunday ... and they don't fly Sunday. Then the next thing, that one pair of undies that was all you thought you needed, starts to get angry and it is all begins to get ugly from there!!!!

Day 29 - wrapping up loose ends

Todays photo is actually from yesterday and is cheating a little - but I am Pirate Pete after all, so I can do what I want. Today was head down, tail up at Scott Base sorting out my personal gear and then helping sort out the rest of our gear to be shipped back to New Zealand. The photo is of is a 'kick ass' Anemone at Cape Evans. The Anemone is about 20 cm x 20 cm and would have to rate as pretty spectacular.

I reasoned that considering I had promoted myself as a diver, there have been few UW photos in the blog, so consider the 'kick ass' anemone as a bonus. I do hope to set up a link to a picassa album with more photos once I get back to my 'homey' computer in Wellington which has a bit more bandwidth and is much faster than what I can access at Scott Base.

Here is the promised and random collection of photos. Something of a snapshot of this years whirlwind tour:

Pete's Antarctic2009

The reality of diving in a remote place like Antarctica is one of almost overwhelming logistics. So on reflection, the blog has faithfully portrayed that most of our time has been dedicated to the 'mundane' topside activities of preparing to dive. The in-team terminolgy for this is "faffing". Even when everything is set up for diving, it is certainly not a matter of throwing on a tank and leaping in, so "faff" away we have - that is just the way it is.

The unsung heros of the trip have really been the staff at Antarctica NZ and almost everybody on Scott Base who have enabled our work to go ahead. Scott Base staff were involved in long overland trips hauling our gear to and from New Harbour. Others drilled or melted our dive holes. Base staff coordinated the logistics and kept the inner fires burning on the occasions we were 'On Base' and generally ran around after us ensuring the success, comfort and safety of our mission. So we salute them and say thanks a million.

BACK HOME TO NEW ZEALAND TOMORROW!!!

Post Script

Time has flown while we have been down here and it all seems a little unreal. Perhaps the events and people depicted in this blog were unreal and just the wishful musings of a tired old man with access to a film studio and a cast of actors.

Moral of the story: Never trust the internet ........

photo by Trish

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