We decided to have a more extensive walk around the field site today to see what sort of ice situation our other potential lakes are in. There is no way of telling how thick the ice is without testing it but we wanted to double check which might be best to prioritise. We concluded the one we had chosen yesterday (Mateus) is still our first choice. Best to be sure. We returned to base accompanied by strong winds and a horizontal blizzard bringing snow across the cove from the glacier opposite. That put a stop to any further outdoor work today.

Friday night is empanada night – as many empanadas as you can eat (which we did, not realising there was more food to come..) followed by chorizo hot dogs and a huge cake to celebrate and thank the staff for keeping the base running over the winter. The copious amount of food was washed down with Argentinian wine with Antarctic glacial ice, cocktails (for some), then the table football tournament which we signed up to just before we were to leave for bed as we thought it was tomorrow night, only to be told it was now! Dirk’s team managed to make it to the final. Steve got to the quarter finals thanks to Ilona who has been practising hard and apparently spent much of last season here playing (with Nina). I didn’t get very far, though was impressed with myself for even scoring one goal. I can’t even remember the last time I played table football and was certainly not expecting to be playing in a tournament on an Antarctic base! By bedtime the wind was so strong it made walking from the casa principal (food, TV and table football building which is about 20m away from the Dallman building) difficult and, rattling and whistling around the whole building, I was rocked to sleep in my bunk bed.