We decided to have our first official day off today although Steve ended up going back to GPS Lake 15 to drill some more holes in the ready for coring tomorrow. Although it is within the base area this lake is also within a protected and restricted area so without human impact from the base.
Sunday night was empanada night combined with a nice sunset which I went out to photograph although, due to my take away empanada, this invited some unwelcome interest from the local skua population.
Today our fieldwork consisted of searching for rocks that might be suitable for cosmogenic isotope dating to help use better determine the timing of previous glaciations in the Jubany area. This involved a nice walk venturing our furthest yet across towards the refugio the other side of tres hermanos and the peninsula, taking in new bits of scenery.
Being a Saturday it was pizza night. But also with hotdogs this week too! And there was a triple celebration for this weeks birthdays – Anne, Cristian (mechanic) and Louis the base commander. That meant three cakes, plus the extra one that Nina made. In addition, two Polish scientists, Adam and Chris, had walked for four hours across the glacier to join us today. They are working at the Polish Arctowski base and met the rest of the Dallmann crew on the Polar Pioneer and combined their scientific visit and discussions with us with a social visit to help Anne celebrate her birthday.
This morning there was an Antarctic eclipse at sunrise but, unfortunately for us, the sun was not high enough for us to see it. Never the less it was the first Antarctic sunrise for me and very scenic.
The base doctor had gone to the Chilean Frei base today so we weren’t allowed to do fieldwork outside the base for safety reasons. Since Steve and I had been allocated Maria today (i.e on kitchen duty) this was not a problem as we could spend the time between sorting out our data at the base and catching up on some required sleep after our recent energetic fieldwork activities.
Today was the best day yet – the most beautiful sunny day with blue skies, incredible to think I am in Antarctica and can get weather like it was today! Steve, Tamara and I had a very successful coring campaign in the morning, followed by a walk after lunch across the tres hermanos moraine to look at stranger point, spotting seals in the lagoons, enjoying a fantastic view across to Fildes peninsula, also seeing the whole of the Nelson Island glacier and as far as Livingstone island, majestic white peaks in the distance. We could also see the Antarctic peninsula! The views were incredible, the glaciers so white and the sky so blue. We also spotted a ship heading for the peninsula with a whale playing in the sea nearby. And to end the most perfect Antarctic weather yet, the wonderful sunny day was followed by the most amazing sunset. We also had a group of penguin visitors (six gentoo ad two adelie) and I sat with them while the sun went down, being accepted into their group so they didn’t even notice I was there. The sky was an amazing array of oranges and reds I didn’t want to leave but finally went inside at 11pm only because I was starting to freeze and needed to warm up. I was told today was very unusual for King George Island weather and visibility and we were extremely lucky to have experienced such an amazing day.
After lunch we ventured back to Lake Mateus. It was very windy and started to snow as we were half way up the hill. We even thought about turning back at one point but so dedicated are we to our science that we continued on. We managed to collect two cores along our transect, despite the strong winds which almost blew us over over at times. So it was challenging. But at the end of the day the sun came out briefly.
I left the UK 4 weeks ago today … this means I am almost half way through this trip already – how time flies!
This morning we all got up at 7.30am to see Dirk off. The caleta was full of sea ice we thought maybe this would be a second leaving-turn-welcome back. But the Castillo zodiac managed to find an ice free patch of water along at the end of the base so we all trudged through the snow to see him off. Dirk we will all miss you!
Later, Steve, Tamara and I tried out the (now defrosted) gravity corer with all the weights that can possibly be fitted on. But even with all weights attached the sediment is still too hard to penetrate. This lake is a real challenge! It was very cold today (again!) so we had to keep jumping up and down or running around to keep warm. It can be hard work to keep warm, especially when you are already tired from fieldwork. Hot tea and chocolate helps of course and our snow wall around our core holes provides a nice (though chilly) seating area.
Today we tried out the gravity corer but in -12C and windy conditions (as well as wet from the lake water) the coring equipment froze as soon as it came out of the lake. Likewise our gloves froze as soon as we took our hands out of the water. And, if we were unlucky, then the equipment and our gloves froze together. So we finally had to admit defeat and return to base to thaw the equipment out. Such is the challenge of lake coring in -12C.
Today was Dirk’s last day – so he had his second (this time “real”) leaving party (the first became his welcome back party almost a week ago). Dirk is off to Punta Arenas via Rothera and the Falkland islands, aboard a BAS Dash-7. We will miss him, especially Steve and I as he has been with us since our field expedition began almost a month ago and it will feel strange with him no longer one of our team.
We ventured up to Lake Mateus today, through the snow drift from the last couple of days, equipped with shovels. Our ice holes and staked out coring site was buried under a foot of snow but, with the aid of GPS we managed to find them and dig blocks of snow to make a snow wall barrier around our sampling site. We also needed to dig out the equipment bags and crates. It was hard work (let alone being a Sunday morning, post Saturday night/Sunday morning dancing …) and had started to snow again before we had finished but at least it should be easier to find next time …
Visibility was getting worse by lunch time so we decided our next step to take some cores and slice up the sediment in the field would be better put off until the weather improves (which is forecast to do over the next few days – we hope …). The afternoon was instead spent catching up on water filtering and taking water chemistry readings from the lakes within the base area – still quite an accomplishment given the continuously developing horizontal blizzard.
Today was full of blizzard and snow drift, very atmospheric but still not a good day to trek to our lake to do fieldwork. Instead Steve and I braved the elements to have a look at the lakes within the Jubany base area. At one point I thought I was going to be blown away the wind was so strong it almost made it difficult to breathe. But once we were in the shelter behind some moraines it was really atmospheric, the snow drift blowing frantically across the hills and glacier, and blustering around like smoke at the top of tres hermanos in the distance.
We walked back along the beach and were delighted to see some Gentoo penguins so spent some time penguin watching and collecting samples (such excitement at finding fresh Gentooo-pooo!). The things we do for science, hey. Next stop was the lab for some water filtering, and more joy at finding a vacuum pump to speed things up, it’s cold in the lab you have to keep wrapped up and hope you don’t get snowed in, reporting when you are going and when you will be back, radio to hand when working alone.
Saturday is pizza and beer night,- goodness how the last week has flown by – followed by dancing. But the dancing is not optional when the base doctor is around – she kept grabbing people and dragging them onto the dance floor, and she was not someone to disobey. Saturday night dancing is a big thing here at Jubany, apparently people from the Korean base round the next bay also sometimes come here to party. And because we are still early in the summer season it is even more exciting and new as there have not been many Saturdays in the season yet. In the winter apparently since there are no women here, dancing is substituted with playing cards. And apparently cards isn’t quite as much fun.
Today the blizzards returned and for the first time I could not even see the towering tres hermanos rocks from the base. Usually it is at least visible behind the grey snow haze but today it was completely obscured. Not a good day for fieldwork. But after yesterday’s efforts we were quite thankful for an excuse for a lie in and catch up on sleep to recharge our batteries, though Steve ventured through waist high snow drift to get to the gym just a few buildings away which sounded like an expedition in itself.