Holiday season

Happy New year!

Hello, I must apologise for this entry being so late, but this place is so wonderfully exciting I've been busy enjoying all the opportunities it offers me rather than sitting and writing about them!

I'm having a bit of a lazy morning though, so here's an update.  

FDO's on our way to look for a lost snowboard

Work has picked up into full swing for me in the last few weeks. We've gone from the four divers that I started working with to about a dozen scientists with different projects and ideas. I officially took the handover from my awesome predecessor Emily on the 31^st of December, starting this new year as a team of two Field Diving Officers until she leaves in March. 

Hyperbaric facilities we have on site

The two of us have been working hard on keeping the gear ready for any opportunity to dive, supervising divers and training divers up to operating the hyperbaric chamber we have on site. For me there has been a lot of wrapping my head around the way things operate here, putting my finger on the little things that could use changing and generally getting to know where everything is!  

Icy dives

The team I am currently working with are fantastic, a whole range of backgrounds and experiences, some on their 16^th Antarctic diving season, some on their first. Everyone seems to be genuinely excited about the opportunity to be here and get in the water though so for now it seems like we are off to a great start.  

Diving-wise we are limited by many factors so some days it looks like the most beautiful weather and yet we can't get out and make use of it. If there is too much brash ice or sea ice pushed up into the site we want to dive or on the wharf we are restricted in our boating abilities and that coupled with the wind directions might prevent us from diving even when the ice is still a ways off in case we get trapped. 

Perfect example of a Lep
frustratingly spotted before a dive

Diving on the James Clark Ross

We also have to be weary of leopard seals, which are one of the apex predators that live in Antarctic waters along with Orcas. To keep our divers out of danger, we post a lookout “sealwatch” to keep an eye on the site we are diving at for the half hour before the divers get in the water. If there are any leopard seals or Orcas spotted we'll postpone any diving for four hours. This also means we need to be able to see far enough to be confident we'd see any approaching dangers so heavy snow days are usually a challenge.

I will do my best to write a separate entry about the different diving projects and technicalities of our diving operations so you can find out a bit more detail but it might be a while.  

When the conditions are simply perfect

New addiction!

So, when I'm not at work on a boat supervising divers or diving, filling tanks and fixing gear or just avidly watching the weather trends I've been milking the rest of this Antarctic experience as much as possible. One of the best features of living and working in Antarctica is that the people you work with seem to mostly be of the same ilk. I have colleagues who are kite-skiiers and happy to teach (I'm absolutely loving learning kite-skiing!), avid rock-climbers or ice-climbers.

Ice-climbing on a sunny sunday

Skiing is as easy here as waking up, walking over to set up a pair of skis and walking across the runway to our closest ski slope. If there's two of us we can grab a skidoo and take turns pulling each-other up the hill, or you can just walk up the hill, or get some skins on your skis and ski up. If you're feeling a bit more athletic you can go for a 14km trip around a marked flag-line, either on skis or on foot.  

Adelie showing off

Rarely spotted Chinstrap

Another option a bit closer to home is to go for a walk around the point on which Rothera sits. An easy path along the water's edge, picking your way past elephant seals and adelie penguins towards a beach from which you can see the mountain peaks of the Antarctic Peninsula behind a stunning array of icebergs. 

Yes, it's absolutely breathtaking here.  

Antarctic Peninsula behind some icebergs.... the usual

The JCR approaches

I might have to stop here for now as this is starting to drag on a bit and I know you're just excited about seeing the photos. I'll just quickly mention we had the James Clark Ross in port over New Years, resupplying the station in fresh food and fuel and supplies. This put a halt on any other work as everyone pitched in together to get the cargo unloaded as swiftly as possible and put away. We then got to relax and enjoy a fantastic New Year's eve party in the boatshed where a stage had been set up and some extremely talented colleagues performed. Shouldn't come as much of a surprise that I danced and drank my way into the new year.  

Rothera Base

All that being said, I'll get back to the exciting things life has to offer down here, including the Sunday brunch that awaits me and the potential ski trip that will follow it. Hope everyone had a most wonderful holiday season and has 2016 starting out wonderfully.

TERNS!