Halley 2017-2018

Still in Cambridge. Flight from Cambridge to the Falkland Islands on the 4th December 2017 delayed and then cancelled due to bad weather. The next flight is 4 days later. Keeping my fingers crossed. Finally a flight to the Falklands via Cape Verde.

A 7 hour flight to Cape Verde with a 2 hour stop over. Temperature in the high 20s. It definitely beats the cage in the Ascension island.

The Air tanker

Setting sail from Mare harbour after an 11 hour flight from cape verde. No time in the Falklands this time but looks like the sun is shining at the moment.

First sign of sea ice on the way to Signy and the temperatures drop.

Signy research station in the background.

A young elephant seal enjoying the warmth of the midday sun.

The Ernest Shackleton docked in the middle of the bay

South Georgia and KEP (King Edward Point) station

The old whaling station of KEP

Drake passage crossing much easier than other times. Only small swells and few big waves.

The start of the sea ice. Hardly any around at the moment and not really causing any slowdown of the Ernest Shackleton as it moves through.

Some science on the sea ice. Snow samples for isotope analysis back in Cambridge and some radar work for comparison with the satellite.

The Brunt ice shelf and a small colony of penguins. No chicks though.

The ES moored up against the sea ice of creek 8. We arrived at Halley 2 days quicker than expected even after dropping people off at KEP which added an extra two days sail. This was due to the factthat there was no sea ice to slow the ship down. The swell that we encountered appears to have brocken up a lot of the sea ice around the creeks.

A small Emperor penguin colony at creek 8. A small window of time to get off the ship and stretch the legs.

Start of a 3 day relief (24 hour shifts)

Summer BBQ

Halley VI

Neumayer station

accommodation in the caboose

atmospheric platform- Spuzo

Penguin trip

Station vehicles

Polarstern relief

life on base

EDEN project for life on Mars

Plant growth

Punta arenas

                                                 Punta Arenas, Chile

                                   
                                         la luna restaurant. First meat in two months.

Heading home Rothera bound

 Getting ready to fly out of Halley with 4 others at the end of January. The twin otter sits on the Halley runway. The temperatures starting to drop as the sun gets lower.

 Flight over the macDonald rumpoles where the Halloween crack was observed in October 2016.

 First stop on the flight to Rothera is the Ronnie ice shelf where the  i- BEAM team awaits a drop off from the ES shackleton which is having a tough time of maneuvering through the dense pack ice.

                                        Now at Rothera and Snowboarding at Vals .

 Doing the loop with nordic skis around the Rothera flag line. Three hours of great ski-ing and near perfect weather.

                                          Rothera from the traverse towards Vals.

Halley move

                                                Summer camp at 6

                     Modules on the move, 23 km to go, now down to 4

                                                The science camp to sleep in

                                                 Big Red about to move