Penguin Pete's Diary
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27/12/00 - Bechervaise again
No baby yet. I spoke to Ruth this morning, and all is well. Due date is now only a day or two away. Ruth has a plan to keep all the dirty nappies until I get home. Hmm!
The wind finally let up on Saturday, and we decided that the ice was good enough to walk on, so we went out to Verner and Welsh to pick up the gear we had left behind. Walking out was a bit scary, as the ice was very thin in places. We could hear it creaking and groaning under our weight. We were glad to retrieve our skis and spread our weight around. The ice felt much firmer under foot with skis on.
The ice was still good on Christmas eve, so we skied in to station for Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
A big do is always planned for Christmas Day. The meal was big - lobster, beef, turkey, pork, roasted veggies etc., and big deserts too. A tradition on station is that we all draw a name out of a hat, then make that person a present for Christmas Day. Being out on Beche and a little limited in our resources, we really only got started making the things we had planned at about 10pm on Christmas Eve after we had arrived at station, eaten dinner, showered etc. Fortunately, we found a sympathetic carpenter and, between us, kept him up until about 3am picking his brains and skills. Thanks Ian!
Santa was harsh, but fair, and no one got more than they deserved!Unfortunately, Christmas wasn't to be a day off for me. I had received a call on Christmas Eve from the electronics lab in Kingston saying that they were having trouble with a few pieces of equipment that were to be installed on the Aurora when it got into port on the 27th (today), and had decided to replace them with a microprocessor based custom circuit. Could I please send them the circuit diagram and then write the software? Can it be finished by Christmas? ARGH! They did ask nicely though, so I said yes (fool). Writing and debugging software via satellite link over thousands of kms on hardware that is still being built was a bit of a challenge, but we made it all work, and there were many happy faces at the other end of the phone.
On Boxing Day a few (quite a few actually) people went out to Mt. Henderson for the day. 'Hendo', as it is called by the locals, is quite close to station, and is a popular day trip destination. We rode up by quad, and took our skis to see if we could find anything other than sea ice to ski on. We set up a slalom course using our stocks as markers, and spent the afternoon punishing our bodies on the unforgiving Antarctic slopes. It was fun. The day was capped by a climb to the peak of the mountain (about an hours scramble up the scree slopes, then a bit of a climb to the top). The view was spectacular, with Snow Petrels and even some unexpected Antarctic Petrels flying around our heads, the sun heading towards the horizon, and clouds forming and reforming on the distant mountain ranges.
This is not Mt. Henderson (no digital photos from that trip), but near the top of Painted Peak, on the Northern Massons Range.Today we collected some fresh food supplies and more water (there is no fresh water on Beche, nor snow to melt), loaded up our sleds, donned skis, and came home.
Ah, an easier way to travel! Out on the sea ice on the North side of Bechervaise Island.
