Basler Crash

If you look at my October blog you will see this plane at Rothera in better condition.
It was the first plane to touch down at Rothera after winter.

What happened is, as the plane went to take off and it reached flying speed, one side of the plane went up and the other didn't. The left wing got caught in the ice and sent the plane tumbling.
(As Quoted by Mitchel, passenger on board, Click on to go to Mitchel's blog)

Nasty

This plane was the show piece of the Borek fleet.

Happy Hogmanay to you all.

Ice View

Wishing you all a happy Hogmanay with health and happiness for 2008.

Hopefully we'll get some better weather in 2008 as the last few weeks have been very dull.

The Pine Island Glacier Mob

These are the people at Pine Island Glacier the camp that I helped set up in the spring.
Julian, Rob, Richard and Feargal.
They would have had a Christmas to remember, in one of the most remote places on earth.
But not long now and they will be back on base.

Tech Services disco photos

As you can see we had a great night at the tech services disco.
Of all the party animals the largest group is the tech guys.

The free drink went down well as you can see by the crowd by the bar.

from Left to right
Mad Aussie Will, Scott of the Falklands, Dangerous Dave, Main man Andy,Manos, Jase,
Asa
Jeoff.

Cyril throwing Jamie around I think they were both slightly worse for wear.

Boxing Day my 37th birthday

Well thats me 37 now ,I shared my birthday with Stephen Constantine one of our Saints he was 39.
I just went around the point and again had a quiet day.

Christmas day

I hadn't slept a wink as I was excited about Santa visiting my kids back home so at 4am (7am UK time) I phoned home only to find them still asleep.
The rest of the day was a really lazy day as you can see by the photo not just for the humans.

After brunch most of the base watched Indiana Jones. I phoned home again to speak to the kids where they told me what they had received of Santa.
Iona said she must be a really good girl as she had lots of presents.
Euan just wanted to carry on playing with his toys.
Ashely had a great day as well.

Christmas dinner was at 5pm so we all dressed up and had a traditional dinner Cyril and Nicola did a great job, we then ended it with a few glasses of wine/port.

An early night was had by most.

Tech Services disco

Well the tech services disco went down well, everyone had their fill off drink and danced the night away.
DJ "the Main Man Andy" did us proud with his Ibiza style Rap DJ'ing
Pictured above Left to right Dangerous Dave, Geoff and me.
More pics to follow

There will be more photos to follow

Festive plan

Although its been blue skies at Rothera but most of the other depots and camps have been under low cloud so flying has been hampered, which means some of the field parties are having to wait to be picked up and might miss Christmas on base.

We are having Christmas and Boxing day off then back to work then and early finish on New Years eve and New years day off.

A time we will all be thinking of family and friends.

Around the point

Its good to see all the new comers getting out and about Skiing and boarding.
It's amazing how once you've been here a year you always wait for brilliant conditions,
when your new anything will do.

Around the point we saw plenty of penguins, mostly Adelies.
Adelie penguins are truly Antarctic penguins spending most of the winter on pack ice,they also have shortest breeding season due to the harsh conditions.
They can dive over175m for food but mainly catch krill at the surface.
Average weight 5.3kg and average hight 71cms.

They're so comical to watch, but seeing them hop about on and over rocks shows what a hard life they have.

Chinstrap Penguins.
This year we have had a large number of visiting Chinstraps who have ventured further south than usual.
(Global Warming)?

Chinstrap Penguins are probably the most abundant penguins in Antarctica with an estimated population of nearly eight million pairs concentrated on the Antarctic Peninsular.
Chinstraps form a strong bond,returning to the same nest site with the same partner.
Their average weight is 5kg and average hight is 71cms.
I managed to get within a meter of these Chinstraps to take this photo.

Party on

Well we have had the go ahead for the party on Saturday so Party On, tech services are all treating the rest of the base to free drink, that should get it going.
Watch this space for some more embarrassing pics.

No sign of Christmas

Well theres no sign of Christmas here yet at Rothera everyones working hard.
Hopefully Tech services are trying to plan a disco for next weekend to kick Christmas off.

Flying South

A flight heading to the South Pole.

Relief cont.............

Well yesterday was a cold snowy day which made for a miserable relief.

Scott going for recycling.

What did cheer us up was the sight of a pod of Killer whales going past the ship.

Today was different again the sun was shinning and blue skies, all the fuel bunkering is now finished.

JCR Relief

Well the JCR is now in and relief began this morning at 8am.
My job along with Scott, Will and Matt is refueling the base today it took 6 hours and tomorrow its an 11 hour shift.

The first things off were the containers then the new diggers.

The Bob Cat is for Sky Blu to help clear the blue ice runway.

JCR due anyday

Well the ship is due in in the next few days, that will be a busy time but it also means we get fresh food, I've never been into fruit or veg before but when you can't have it everything changes and god I could murder a tomato.

Party time cont...

What a great night.

We didn't understand what they were singing about but hay who cares.

We were all having a good time.

Unfortunately they had done their work so had to go back which was a shame as they were good fun.

Party time

Well the weekend started off with a BBQ in the snow.
After that we went to the sledge store for a comedy night which went well.
Then the band played and in true style Plumbers inc took to the dance floor.

If nothing else it kept the comedy going a little longer.

Cyril and the band.

Once the band had finished and most people went to bed around 12 the Chilean air crew that have been staying at our base came to life singing and rapping.

The Rapper