Yesterday I dove over at Leonie which is a hard dive site to do as it requires quite a number of things to all happen i.e. the ice has to be clear, the weather window has to be good both to allow the run time from the site to the decompression chamber to be less than 35 minutes. Also the divers have to be within their 3 day dive period and not dove out. So yesterday this all worked out and Dave and I dove Leonie for the first time in many years. Dave is the only person who has dove their before on base. We were doing a biodiversity study at 20m and at 5m. There were some amazing animals I hadn’t noticed before probably because this is the first dive in a while that I haven’t been helping with collections etc.

All over I noticed this spider web type filament it turns out to be the tenticles of a worm that burrows in the mud. There was also a marine equivalent of a wood louse that Dave hadn’t seen before. I will write more about these two species in later blogs.

Today I dove with Terri we were meant to do two dives one to replace her logger (again more detail later) and one in Hanger Cove doing collections. The logger was reading errors so we didn’t replace it however, we did get out to collect sea lemons, brittle stars (more on those later date as well) and nemotean worms. There was also another animal we were meant to collect but none were around. We were diving pretty close to a grounded iceberg at 30m which was interesting to see not only the large underwater mass but also the scarring to the bottom due to the icerberg.

We surfaced after 23 minutes and within 4meters a lepoard seal that was very large surfaced behind us. Needless to say we both got in the boat very quickly when JJ the dive supervisor told us firmly ‘get out of the water fast’. We hung around for 5 minutes watching the lep glide through the water and he followed us for a little ways.

I go to the gym every morning at 7am and do 5km on the rowing machine. I think I might have to get one for when I get home. The gym is in some extra food bays in old bransfield pretty well set up considering we are down south. I go in the morning so I am the only one otherwise it can be a bit crazy.

My days at Rothera are very varied everyday of the week. On Wednesday I

Went diving at Hanger Cove jumping in between the sea ice (that looked like a slushie) to help with collections and putting down new sediment panels.

Repaired the sewing machine at Fuchs last week and so I sewed up some parts for the Air Mechs for holding flags in the plane and for covering a tube of some sort.

Went to the woodwork shop for several hours and started making a book case for Claires christmas present. I also made Henry and the girls some christmas tree ornaments – cut outs of a seal, whale and penguin.

I was meant to go for another dive to measure limpets but a leopard seal appeared just as we were about to jump in.

Two boating trips one to north cove to collect sea ice for two different studies. One trip to Lagoon which was a long one as we had three different studies to do out there – soil sampling and searching for liverwort species of plant.

My normal morning of 5km rowing in the gym and then a walk around the point in the evening.

Met Training to learn how to do field met obs for aircraft operations.

A talk by the Larissa scientists who just got back from the Larsen about their project.

Once a week I will be putting up a picture of someone on station at work.

This is Clive from Ireland he is a field assistant he is holding the flag to fend off Skuas who are nesting at the moment and will mob you causing bad injuries if you arent careful. A field assistant is attached to a science project some might be deep field for up to 90 days. They are experienced mountaineers especially in glacier travel and keep the breakers alive! A beaker is a scientist.

Clive Roberts, is a seasoned guide and mountaineering instructor with a contagious passion for the mountains. Clive has guided all over Europe and Nepal and and speaks French, German, and Nepali. In his free time, he enjoys canoeing, woodworking, and playing the banjo.

The pub sign outside the garage

The band

Claire and I at midnight

Midnight 2009-2010 a beautiful sky

Anyone for a Gin and Tonic with 3000 year old ice!

For christmas and new years drinks we get a request at the boatshed to fill the boat up with bits of clear galcier ice when we are out and about. So just before christmas we grabbed some large bits of ice and they were stored in the -80 freezers for the parties. The ice when it is put in the drinks cracks and pops releasing air that has been trapped in the ice for 1000’s of years.

We had an excellent party in the garage with two different bands playing most people were in fancy dress. I dressed up as my roommate as everyone decided that if I was in a skirt that was fancy dress for me!