bruff on the brunt

Sunday 30 December 2018

Antarctica 2018-2019

Capetown for the Gateway to Antarctica

Long street in Capetown

The V&A waterfront tin Capetown. Weather as per usual this time of year, hot.

First Class tickets to Antarctica. Flight time 6 hours to the Russian station.

Antarctica again. Was last here 9 months ago. Where does the time go?

Our accommodation at OASIS, the Russian main station until we can get a feeder flight to the German station Neumayer. At the moment the weather is not great so it might be a while.

A few interest things to see and do though

A day visit to the Indian station MAITRI about a 5 km walk from OASIS across snow and rocks.

The hot room (Banya/sauna) with a nice cold tub for the second stage. Shame it was about 100 degrees when we entered.

Our onward flight to Neumayer (2-3 hours) with 9 winterers on the Basler.

Neumayer III

The daily weather ballon from the top of the building.

The atmospheric research platform 'SPUZO'

Penguin research on the ice

Tuesday 26 December 2017

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.