In November four of us took a trip to an old Geo field station at Grunehogna, which is about 55km from Vesleskarvet.
The purpose of the trip was to test some of our field equipment before take-over and to assess the condition of our caboose, which had gone unused for almost a year.
By this time, having spent almost a whole year within the confines of SANAE IV and surrounds, we were desperate to take in some new sights and to get away from the base for a while, so this trip could not have come at a better time.
Wishing everybody all the best over this holiday season. I hope you have a happy Christmas and a prosperous 2013.
I was deeply saddened to learn of the passing of Oom Koos on the 28th of November. This man was a true SANAE legend, with sixteen voyages down South under his belt.
Koos touched the lives of many SANAE over-winterers and takeover personnel, including myself and the 51st overwintering team, over his many years of dedication to the Antarctic Programme. In fact, he even missed the birth of his first grandchild, to join us on the “final voyage” of the Agulhas I.
Koos, you will be sorely missed down South and I look forward to raising my glass in your honour at this year’s takeover function. Rest in peace bro.
With the 2012 summer season only weeks away, make sure to check back often to see what 'cool' activities S51 is up to. We have several trips planned for November followed by the arrival of the SA Agulhas II in Antarctica in December and then more take-over madness in January and February...
Meanwhile, you can check out what we have been up to in our new Newsletter Vol 7.
Fancy over-wintering in Antarctica? Make sure you read my Survival Guide for lots of useful tips.
SANSA Space Science is looking for two suitably qualified Engineers to over-winter in Antarctica with the SANAE's 53rd team.
Please see the official advert below.
SANSA Advert
Disclaimer: Many of you have mentioned to me you have noticed that alcohol features heavily in this blog. If this has offended anybody's sensibilities, then I apologize. But your sensitive nature also offends me, so we are in fact even!
The fact is, I am not here for a holiday, but to work! But work related stuff does not make for very entertaining reading, so you will find that a lot of what takes place in these pages, happens when I am not on duty.
We are not in a prison, so when we are off the clock, we are free to engage in a wide variety of social activities. The philosophy is - we work hard, we play hard. That being said, we have to purchase and bring all our alcohol ourselves, so you need not worry about your tax money being used to sponsor my binge drinking!
Under no circumstances are we allowed to operate any heavy machinery or do base work while under the influence. Accidents can happen easily here so we are always very careful and safety conscious.
So we have had a few parties throughout the year. Here are a few snaps of the festivities... enjoy!
The latest newsletter has just been released. Browse to the Newsletter page and click on Newsletter Vol. 6.
I particularly enjoyed this month's contribution by Mcabango on the weather/climate in Antarctica.
Challenger 3 makes her way towards Summer Station.
After nearly six weeks on the ice, the summer take-over had finally come to an end. During this time the take-over personnel had managed a great a deal and with only a few short weeks of summer remaining, it was time for them to make their back to the SA Agulhas for the return leg of the trip.
This brought about mixed feelings; many were now anxious to get back to their families and loved ones; some had up-coming work commitments; others had not quite had their fill of Antarctic adventure and were still running around taking photographs.
The flight lists were posted and while people were still trying to trade flights, attempting to steal just another few hours at the base, the weather rolled in. All air-travel was suspended.
This left us with a bit of a debacle. How were we going to get everybody back to the ship? Fortunately, there were still two scheduled CAT trains that had to depart from SANAE towards Summer Station, carrying the cargo which was to be back-loaded onto the ship. It was therefore decided that the people still at the base would become human cargo and travel with the CAT Train in the caboose.
Summer take-over is a very busy period at SANAE IV. Towards the end, when most of the crucial work has been completed, the base prepares for the take-over function, during which the new team formally takes over the responsibilities of the base from the old team. It is a cause for much celebration, especially for the old team, as it marks the official end of their tour down South.
To reward ourselves for a summer of hard work, the base personnel engage in some friendly rivalry with a series of competitive sport matches collectively called ‘The Take-over Games’.
Johan Du Plessis, our mechanical engineer, celebrated his birthday on the 25 of June. 10 days later, due to bad weather, he took on his snow bath like a champ! Happy Birthday.
Johan - the abominable snowman - scary, just plain scary...
FACT: If your head is warm, your body is warm
On the 21st of April our Cosmic Ray Engineer, Stefanie Strachan, celebrated her birthday at SANAE. As per the tradition, the festivities took place around lunch time on a curiously warm day. The wind was below 10 kts and there was a light snowfall the night before.
The eager team of diggers consisted of Johan, Mcabango and yours truly. Vincent was the brewmaster and Jako, Braam and Elrich were the photographers.
Happy Birthday, Stef , and many, many more!
Here is how a typical snow bath ceremony plays out...
Step1: The diggers prepare a bath-tub sized hole
Skidoos parked at the windscoop.
Occasionally, for good behaviour, the expedition and take-over members are allowed to venture down from Vesleskarvet and explore some of the surrounding areas. One such place is called the Crystal Palace due to the vast, blue-ice structures, which the wind has gradually carved into its frozen walls.
The Crystal Palace is located in the windscoop, which is on the left hand side of the nunatak, if you are facing Vesleskarvet. Windscoops are depressions reminiscent of an ice-cream scoop in the ice that are formed near obstructions, when the wind is deflected around it. Mountains, such as our nunatak, can host very large, spectacular windscoops.
It took a while, but the weather has finally arrived. Today, the wind speed reached 50 Knots for the first time, since my arrival at SANAE IV.
Obviously, the weather can get a lot worse, so this was just a taste of the wrath of Mother Nature. We are confined to the base in these types of conditions because visibility is extremely poor and you can easily get blown off your feet. When you become disorientated, you can get lost outside, which is very dangerous because the edge of the mountain is so close by.
I have added some information about the SuperDARN radar to the pages section. Hopefully it will give you some insight into what I do here at SANAE IV. Just click on SANAE IV SuperDARN in the menu bar above.
One of my duties on the SANAE 51 team is to look after the climbing and rope-work equipment and to ensure that the team is adequately prepared to use it, should the need arise. This is done by regularly performing drills and by holding exercise sessions, in which the team re-familiarise themselves with basic knots.
All the team members received basic rope-work training in Cape Town before we left. However, one has to absorb quite a lot of information in the three weeks leading up to the departure and it is easy to forget what you have learnt during this short time.
Our fearless leader, Jako, turned 29 on the 13th of January, the first SANAE 51 birthday on the ice. Happy Birthday and many many more!
The birthday boy enjoying one of SANAE's birthday traditions.
You’re listening to live commentary, coming to you from the opening game of the SANAE IV “tip & run” cricket series. Good evening everybody. The conditions are perfect for a night game here at the A-Block Oval, the sun is shining and we expect the temperature to peak at a toasty -10C so I hope that everybody remembered their sunscreen. We only have a slight 8 kts breeze coming in from the east so we should see a sell out crowd in the stands. Our reporters in the field have just informed us that we can even expect some of the denizens of C-Block to be at today’s game, so it’s wonderful to see that people are really coming together in the spirit of cricket.