Claire of the Antarctic

As I had previously mentioned the Shackleton visit proved a terribly busy time for all, myself included. Upon the ship was Burjor, one of the British Antarctic Survey Dentists. His cruise included visits to Halley, Rothera, South Georgia and Bird Island in order to oversee the pre-winter dental checks for all individuals who were about to commence their winters. In order to see everyone on base and perform the interventions required our working hours were quite extensive, 7am – 10pm. This was the view en route to the ship for 7am, as you can see just a little snow falling.

I apologise that life has become rather out of synch upon my blog, so I hope you do not mind if I rewind time a little such that I may properly bring you up to date with events bringing us into Winter.

The RRS Shackleton arrived back in late March, bringing with it our final deliveries of food and post before Winter, and also providing the big red & white taxi service to remove the departing members from base and to transport them back to the real world.

The ship was on the wharf for four busy days, the chaps worked incredibly hard to ensure cargo was removed from the ship and allocated appropriately to the correct location, whilst also ensuring other items were safely stowed aboard. My own scientific samples for my viral watch study were taken to the ships freezers for their transport back to the UK. Members leaving base were frantically trying to pack up their lives here, fitting contents into personal boxes, wondering how they had accumulated quite so much over the course of their stay, and calling upon Shaun, the carpenter, whether he couldn’t possibly construct another box just a little larger please.

And so we have gone some way to maintain our safe route from Rothera to the all important skiing slopes at Vals. As we skied back down to base the view was stunning, snow has returned to Rothera and hopefully will continue to amass for more winter sports. Igloo construction has already begun in earnest but that I shall save for another entry.

Iain one of the GAs, Beckie the meteorologist and myself skinned up the ramp this afternoon, in order to peform an essential task, raising the flags marking the safe route across the glacier to Vals. Crevasses are prevalent and so our way is restricted to a 15m wide route, linking Rothera with access into the remainder of the island. As the snow accumulates, the flags effectively disappear beneath a sea of white, and so they must be raised. Beckie and I were quite keen for an excuse to meander up the slopes for the afternoon, and three people pulling flags certainly sped up the process!

This photograph is taken from the balcony of Admirals, our accomodation block, looking across the runway and up ‘the ramp’. Following yesterdays snow accumulation a the GAs (mountaineers) and mechanics had a piste bashing session with the skidoos, packing the snow onto the glacial ice below, hopefully to keep the snow in place when the next storms blow in. Perfect piste conditions!

We have received a vast amount of snow of late, which has proved most fortunate for after work skiing. The snow has now amassed so much that we can now ski directly from our front door!

For me the visit of the ship brought a busy period, since aboard was one of the British Antarctic Survey Medical Unit Dentists, Burjor. Burjor supervised me conducting the dental checks and treatments of my wintering team, and also all the outgoing winterers too. For the duration of the dental cases I lived aboard the ship for we ran clinic hours from 7am until 10pm. The Shackleton is akin to an Alladins Cave of fruit and vegetables and so prior to our enforced abstinence from fresh foods this was a delight which easilt recompensed for the less pleasurable aspects of dentistry!

Apologies for rather an abscence of blog activity. Life has been quite frenetic leading up to the visit of the RSS Ernest Shackleton last week and it is only now that I find myself on nightwatch that I have found time for a blog update.

The Summer season closes with the departure of the Ernest Shackleton Ship taking with it the remaining summer and ex-wintering staff. Prior to this though is a hectic period of unloading and loading of freight and fuel. The majority of items transported into and out of British Antarctic Bases is via the Ship.