Sitting by the dock of the bay…

January 5, 2010   

sealwatch

Don’t worry I didn’t hurt myself again! This was taken before christmas when I was pretty useless with one hand and wasn’t allowed on the boat so I became queen of seal watch.

Seal watch is required before every dive we do. It means standing on the shoreline if the dives are done around base or sitting on the boat at the dive site on the islands for 30 minutes and looking for either lepoard seals or orcas. Sitings of either mean that diving is cancelled and no diving can occur in the next four hours. The only exception is if it is a lep sitting on an ice floe. If it is on an iceberg diving can happen somewhere a distance away but someone has to stay and watch the lep and if it goes into the water the divers have to get out.

More on leps later…

However, seal watch can be a relaxing way to spend an hour or so sitting on the side of the runway watching the planes take off and land about 50 feet from you. When there is no flying you sit there listening to the ice move or to music on your ipod with one earphone in so you can hear the vhf. On the beautiful sunny days there isn’t a better job on base in my mind!

Diving in the last two days

  

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.

The gym

January 4, 2010   

gym

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 varied days at rothera

January 3, 2010   

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.
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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.

At work – Clive

January 2, 2010   

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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.

Happy New Year

January 1, 2010   

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The pub sign outside the garage

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The band

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Claire and I at midnight

DSC_0630 Midnight 2009-2010 a beautiful sky

glacierice

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!

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Mini New Years Triathalon

December 31, 2009   

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After the run and before the 15km bike ride.
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Super woman terri

2009 10k-5Today was the annual 10km run and I think 21 people started and 19 people finished. Claire and I finished with two of the boys behind us having been lapped a few times by Matt Doc the winner. Claire dressed up as a brownie in her original brownie outfit.

I went for a 5km row this morning and then was meant to go diving however, there was a lepoard seal so instead I bicycled 15km on the runway. So to see out 2009 it was 5km row, 10km run and 15km bike ride and I am going to regret it for sure tomorrow morning!

It really was a beautiful day for it. Time for dinner and then the garage New Years party. Happy New Year to all of you.

Boating Shed

  

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When I got to Rothera in November there were 6 boats on base. However, we have parred down to 3 RIBS. The three flat bottomed inflatables were a little worse for wear. Two were not really repairable and were taking up room in the boatshed while the three good boats were sitting outside in the UV. So now we sent two back to the UK for disposal, one to the falklands for a project on some lakes and to be sold and are left with Erebus, Stella and Terra Nova. A nice little fleet that can fit in the shed. Hoping for a new boat next season as there are four major uses for the boats so another would make life easier – Diving, Terrestrial science, Seach and Rescue and CTD work.

Elephant Seals etc.

December 30, 2009   

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Elephant Seal
at Lagoon – there are lots of them and they are very smelly and noisy. They dont have much speed or stamina and can cause a lot of damage to the huts etc. They have also sunk one of our boats in the past by mating with it so we are now no longer allowed to leave the boats on the islands and stay in the hut overnight. Instead the boatman i.e. myself has to act as a taxi service.

Yesterday at Lagoon there was a whole pile of them and you could see the warm air rising off of them creating a mirage above them.

Today for the second day in a row my dive was called off due to a Lepoard seal and then an orca. So instead the floors are getting mopped in the boatshed and the boats are getting a powerwash and the engines are getting serviced. We don’t have SAR or any island science going on and we did all the depot work on monday and tuesday. Tomorrow is a half day of work and then the 10km run in the afternoon. The New Years Eve party will be in the garage and the band have been practicing.

Bubba the Skua

December 29, 2009   

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Meet Bubba the base bird or more accurately Clem’s bird. Bubba follows Clem around like a dog it is really cute to watch he comes back each season and is 28 years old. You can read about skuas here. At the moment they are nesting so are more agressive than usual so when we are on the islands or walking around the point it is best to have a stick to fend them off. There is a melt pond at Anchorage which about 100 live around and wash in in the sun. I have video of both Bubba and the other skuas to show people when I get back.

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