When the AA comes to town

Hello readers!

I'm finally writing again and apologise for the delays, they have been caused not only by my lazyness but also by me trying to obtain software that wil allow me to extract some still images from my diving videos so I can update everyone on the FOCE project we've been setting up.

The other thing that has most recently been slowing me down was the presence of this huge orange ship in the bay at Casey; Aurora Australis on it's annual resupply voyage.

The Aurora Australis, a 311ft long Icebreaker that generally resides in Hobart, made it's 16day trip down through the southern ocean and ice to bring a few passengers, a bunch of cargo and a bunch of supplies to Casey. It is also starting it's marine science voyage, during which it will meander through the southern ocean collecting oceanographic and marine data and samples. In fact, here's a link to see in live what the view of the ship is: http://www.antarctica.gov.au/webcams/aurora.

 With this big orange blob on the horizon, a lot of things changed for us at Casey. Resupply means that the local bar was closed for the duration of AA's presence to not distract the crew whom have been deprived of alcohol during their voyage down. It also makes it easier for the Casey staff to be on time for our 'round-the-clock shifts 7 days a week.

Some shiny new Haggs

some of the alcohol order

The first part of resupply involves the unloading of all the cargo the ship brought down, that can include new Hagglunds (our main transport vehicle for long distance field work, and what we use for all our diving gear), new heavy machinery, but also new science gear and personnal effects for summerers and the new batch of winterers. This means we also all finally received our alcohol allocations, but had to wait until the ship left (last night), to delve into them.  

During the cargo portion of resupply, the FOCE team was allowed to continue with our project and do some diving. This meant we were not as actively involved in the transport of tons of shipping containers to and from the ship. We were however required to stop all other activities and help when it came to the time of refuelling.

Icebergs catching on the fuel line

Casey station runs mostly on Diesel, but uses some unleaded mixes for their light vehicles (quads and snowmobiles), and this is the only opportunity for any refuelling to take place for the next year, making it a critical event. 

Watchful morning crew on
the lower fuel farm

There are no other sources of power here, unlike Mawson which also runs some wind 

power. Over the course of about 36hours, we pumped approx 940,000l of fuel through a narrow (~20cm diameter) hose from the ship to the fuel farms on land. 

the fuel line is visible here as the ripples change along it

Due to the topography, the ship has to stay out in the bay, and cannot physically dock at Casey, making the whole process much more challenging. All cargo is moved using a single barge taxi-ing back and forth, and the fuel line has to be kept clear of all the icebergs and pieces of floating ice that may snag it.  

Because the process involved includes the installation of tension anchors to hold the fuel line in place while the boat may swing, and to keep it clear of some of the reef structures in the bay, the refuelling process involves an extensive set-up and pack-down process. Ideally these are only done once, but this year we got 1/3 of the way through refuelling and were warned of oncoming high-winds so the whole installation was packed down and refuelling put on standby for a day and a half.

My role in all this was to take on some iceberg and fuel-line wrangling responsibilities, from 4:00 to 8:00 and then again from 16:00 to 20:00 over the whole refuelling process. Since the standby period was weather dependent, we were never quite sure how long it would last, getting up in the morning to find out whether we could go back to bed for a few hours, or hop into our mustang suits and sit in a zodiak for 4 hours.  

driving icebergs around

Thankfully weather was very clement over the days we were pumping fuel, and it was actually a very pleasant role to have. I do often say I'm much happier on or in the water than I am on land (I could skiing as being on water for those wondering about my love of the pistes– it's just frozen water!). And so I spent a few days zipping around in the bay on a little boat (IRB), wearing a full flotation suit called a mustang suit, looking for any evidence of spillage from the fuel line and moving ice floats either under the hose or using the boats to push them out of the way of the fuel line. I never thought large chunks of ice could move so quickly as when you are trying to keep up with them, and definitely got quite a workout from lifting the heavy fuel line over many small icebergs.  

Sunrise behind the red shed

Casey at about 04:00

Now I know those shift hours just seem downright cruel, especially starting at 4am, but I was quite happy to be getting on the water at that hour, when the sun is just below the horizon, and the light is stunning. 

Watching the orange hue illuminating the side of the icebergs, then creeping down the height of the Aurora Australis was quite spectacular, and almost enough to distract from the cold on slow mornings.  

Glassy conditions on the morning of Aurora Australis' departure

Unwinding after a long week of work

After about a week and a half in the bay, the Aurora is now back on it's voyage north. Last night we sent it off amidst a bunch of expired flares, and celebrated the tension that left with the ship. 

Anticipating last night's big night of celebration, today was declared a rest day so we might catch up on some sleep. In the FOCE team we are anticipating the next two days being pretty busy as we try and sort out some technicalities before Christmas is upon us.  

....And here are some bonus ice-cliff photos taken during one of my shifts to wish you a Merry Christmas.