Peter Kinsella's Antarctic Voyage Diary
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Monday 5th February 2001, Mawson's Hut, Cape Denison, Commonwealth Bay ( 66° 58.7' S 142° 34.6' E ), ( 66° 49.8' S 142° 25.6' E ) &
( 66° 49.0' S 141° 21.0' E )We arrived at Commonwealth Bay at 0730 hours and dropped anchor about three kilometres off shore. The weather looked surprisingly good, about 15 knots southerly and overcast. So we had a quick breakfast while the crew set up a shore base, then started the long trip to the shore in zodiacs. The three kilometre trip into a now 15-20 knot wind was very wet and the spray from the bow landed in the boat and on us as ice. This was the moment I had been waiting for. All the other huts were special, but the visit to Mawson's hut (No 5), my other hero, would be the icing on the cake. We would make history if we completed the five huts which we believe no other expedition had ever achieved.
In the last 20 years only 457 people had ever visited Mawson's hut. It is extremely difficult to get to. No reliable charts of the offshore area around Cape Denison are available as depths are irregular and unchartered reefs and rock pinnacles are everywhere. Larger vessels like ours have to stand a few miles offshore. Smaller ships can't get in because of the wind and ice. No sheltered anchorage exists and care and planning had to be taken to be prepared for the periods of extremely high winds (Katabatic up to 200 km per hour) that inevitably occur in this area. Commonwealth Bay is one of the windiest regions in the world. The average wind speed for the whole year is well above gale force at 44 knots. Mawson referred to this area as the "Home of the Blizzard". Helicopters were a no-no because of the potential horrific winds, so the expedition staff went ashore first to set up an emergency camp to cater for up 30 people for 24 hours in case the winds arrived while we were there. The wind gives no notice and comes off the polar plateau at 100-200 km/h within minutes. So only 30 people were allowed ashore at one time. We made it and completed the 5 hut historic expedition. We had T-shirts made depicting that sentiment. The hut is looking a bit the worse for wear with still a lot of ice inside, yet it is still in very good condition from the outside. The team working on repairs and restoration had left before we arrived but we could see some small signs of their work. Gadget hut (Mclntyres) is still there and located around the point. History was also made when Brian from Western Australia, stripped off his gear in the emergency tent down to his underwear, walked over the ice and into the water and got under for around 30 seconds. What a man!!! An Aussie did it again. Verner said this had to be a first.
Mawson's Hut (right) with the emergency camp tent (left)From Mawson's hut area we were looking at the great Polar ice cap and glaciers which extend out into the ocean. It is here where Douglas Mawson (Geologist) led the Australian Antarctic Expedition of 1911-1914. As usual on any rocky outcrop there were the adelie penguins, snow petrels and weddle seals lazing around everywhere. They have not seen any, or many humans most of them and come right up to you and are very curious. The 82 who went ashore this day are now part of a very exclusive club of people who have visited Mawson's hut. We are the only expedition ever to achieve successful landings on all five historic huts. We also walked up to the cross on a nearby hill which commemorates Ninnis and Mertz who perished on the journey east from Commonwealth Bay in 1912. Mawson miraculously survived.
We were in the first group ashore and were only on land about 45 minutes or so when we were ordered back to the ship immediately. The winds started to come up and it started to snow, however it died off in half an hour or so, then the others went ashore. The weather was still with us so on the way to Dumont d’Urville we stopped off at the old French disused base of Port Martin. The base had been abandoned since 1951 when a fire destroyed part of the base. It hadn’t been visited for many years. It will be demolished next year. We were just lucky (again) we were there at the right time. We went ashore by zodiac. It is typical of old bases in that there is a certain amount of well preserved rubbish still lying about, but the redeeming feature of this place was the scenery when the sun came out. Although only about 65 kilometres from Commonwealth Bay the weather for us was 1000% better. Virtually everywhere we had been in the past two days had been in uncharted waters. The captain and crew were constantly exploring and charting new information for these areas. That night, we Aussies did it again and performed a couple of Aussie songs in the lecture room for all the other passengers. I warmed up the show with a joke (the snail joke). I'm not too sure if the French, Spanish and Italians understood what was happening but they were all polite enough to laugh at the correct time!
