Today was the most glorious sunny day, really the perfect day for fieldwork. And a long day to take advantage of it – we took a packed lunch and were out for eleven hours, only just making it back (a bit late) for dinner. The sun was out, the sky was blue, there was no wind and it was almost warm, we could not have asked for more. So what did we do? We drilled twelve holes with the jiffy drill, finishing with the hand drill (hard work as over 1.7m of ice in some places!), took water chemistry profiles at 10cm intervals to the bottom of the lake (a bit chilly as you have to sit still holding the probe for over an hour), collected water samples from different depths of the water column, measured ice and snow thickness, and enjoyed a packed lunch in the sun (including Antarctic crushed ice fruit slush – remember slush puppies? Not sure why they were called that but perhaps this should be named an Antarctic slush penguin..?), and biscuits and tea in the afternoon. All in all a very successful days work. And enjoyable too. Plus it was a good work out to burn off some of the recent dulce de leche diet.

Last night and on and off today it has been snowing so we used today as a catching up day – sorting out and logging samples, water filtering and sorting out GPR data. Also it was a nice excuse to rest aching muscles from the copious trips we have made to Mateus lake over the last few days, carrying an assortment of drilling, coring, safety and other equipment, bags and crates that we need for our work, let alone all the work we have been doing once on site. I am hoping that, despite all the food that I am eating, I am perhaps getting a bit fitter from all the outdoors activity. I can’t believe we have now been at Jubany for one week!

Another beautiful day today with bright sun in the morning and absolutely no wind it’s incredible how varied the weather can be. Again we took advantage of the perfect conditions though, for some these are not perfect conditions – the caleta was filled with sea ice which prevents Christian, Nina and Dolores from doing their studies. Today we also had help from the German girls (Ilona, Julia and Anna) who came up to do some ground penetrating radar (GPR) of our lake for us – and Nina who came “for some exercise” and to do some “site-seeing”. GPR is really useful to give us a quick way to get information on the thickness of the ice, the water depth and where the deepest point of the lake is, and how much sediment there is. Steve and Tamara continued with ice coring while I worked in the catchment doing vegetation surveying and sampling. This, as yesterday, was a very productive and successful day.

In the evening Dirk was told he could get a lift with the Argentinian Castillo Navy ship back to Marsh tomorrow at 8am for a flight back to Punta so we decided to have a leaving party for him. After dinner he found out there are no scheduled flights from Marsh to Punta until December 1st so what was going to be his leaving party became his “welcome back Dirk” party instead. Now he has no idea when he will leave but I think is actually not so upset that he will stay with us for a bit longer.

Today was a beautiful day with sun and little wind. We even talked about it being so warm (all relative, it must have still been hovering around zero). Perfect weather for fieldwork so we spent the day setting up the harness and testing the ice thickness at Lake Mateus with the hand drill. It was hard going but the good news is the ice is up to one metre thick. Even with all the asado and dulce de leche that we’ve been eating we won’t go through that in a hurry. Before we can start drilling a core hole we need to determine the best point to take our core. We want the deepest point where the most sediment should have accumulated.

We had a local visitor at the lake today. A lonely lost Adelie penguin which came running and skidding across the lake towards us, obviously on a mission. It stopped next to me before running off again towards Steve and the ice drill in the middle of the lake and stopped next to him, observing him for a while. Then it called out, quickly turned around and set off waddling back from where it had come from. So exciting is lake coring on the ice that even the local wildlife wants to come and join in! We took advantage of the good weather and had a long day in the field, only just making it back in time for dinner.

Today we ventured to another lake, GPS Lake 15, past a basking seal family to test our water chemistry kit and to take some water and catchment samples. Then got more equipment ready for tomorrow – the weather is set to improve…

The wind made the caleta (cove) waves surfable this morning so we couldn’t venture out to continue our fieldwork. Instead the day was filled with catching up with work that could be done inside, though also when the wind is strong there is no internet connection so after lunch some joined in with the movie afternoon in casa principal.

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.

Today was lake ice testing day at Lake Mateus which is located just under the tres hermanos peaks – so a pretty spectacular study site as far as study sites go! We of course have to take extra care to test the ice thickness before we can go on the ice to take samples and Steve is the experienced volunteer for this role which requires strict safety precautions including dry suit, life jacket, ropes and harness. It’s a long process getting ready for the first stages of field work and today was a sorting out day and recce of our first lake site area. With so much snow it is difficult to even make out the lake boundary and you can’t rush out here even if you want to, you simply don’t have the energy to do anything quickly.

This morning we were woken at 7am to be told we had 20 minutes to get ready for our zodiac ride to the Maximiliana. We had already had a few panic station alerts but this was the first to wake us from deep sleep. We were soon waiting by the shore for the zodiac and Brazilian crew who first had to take some emergency medical supplies to the airport. After half an hour or so sitting expectantly in the zodiac we were on our way! A nice 5 minute morning breeze aboard the zodiac woke us up, followed by a hair-raising clamber up a rope ladder to the welcome Maxilimilana above. The Maximiliana is a Brazilian Navy ship but also research vessel with some nicely equipped laboratories and meeting rooms. We were also very pleased to be invited to breakfast as we had had to leave before Russian breakfast time (and you never know when the next opportunity for food might be..) though the medic who was in charge of us on the ship kept apologising for the mess as there had apparently been a big party the night before (and still people sleeping on the sofas). We were told the ship sleeps 120 but last night they were over capacity – and being Brazilian this means if there is no space to sleep then – well, that means you simply have to party instead. Of course.

The journey to Potter Cove and Jubany took little more than half an hour but, as we approached, the weather got windier and we were told it might not be possible to finish the journey and might need to spend the night at the Brazilian base, another 4 hours around into Admiralty bay, and try again tomorrow. While I’m sure it would not have been a bad thing to stay at the Brazilian base we were so close (a few minutes zodiac ride) to Jubany we could already see people gathering at the shore and the zodiac being prepared. I had my fingers crossed that we could disembark – we were so close! Potter Cove is amazing, Jubany’s red buildings stand out against the grey and white of rock and snow, with the towering majestic tres hermanos rocks behind. And all around the rest of the cove huge glaciers come down to meet the sea. Spectacular and remote.
It started to snow and the waves didn’t look very enticing but we were relieved when we were told that, yes, the Jubany zodiac was going to come and get us! The next hair-raising experience was descending the rope ladder, especially when I ran out of rungs and, feet dangling in the air I had no idea how far it was to the zodiac below. Luckily I felt a welcome hand guide me as I jumped down. The wind was picking up and then the zodiac engine cut out – but, after several attempts, we were going at full speed towards the shore where the welcome committee from Jubany and our Dallman lab colleagues from Polar Pioneer were out to greet us, also watched by a huge elephant seal on the shore. Finally, only two weeks after leaving the UK, we set foot on Jubany soil (and snow)! The next zodiac trip collected the famous toilets and remaining kit bags – this time the engine stopped working altogether and frantic paddling was required to bring the zodiac back to shore.

After lunch Steve, Tamara (Instituto Antartico Argentinia PhD student working with us) and I went for an afternoon walk to get our bearings and feel for our field area. Tamara has been here before so is a very useful mine of information (as well as being able to communicate with all the relevant members of the base to arrange additional equipment requirements and transport etc.). The Potter Peninsula field area is amazing, gently rolling in contrast to the tres hermanos and a real contrast in terms of snow content to Fildes Peninsula – here there are actually some patches of ground – a gloopy brown sludgy rock scattered mud pie.

The evening consisted of a huge dinner of soup, asado and tinned fruit salad, biscuits and dulce de leche. And wine. What luxury. Followed by a celebratory welcome beer back in the Dalmann accommodation. We have arrived!

Today after we heard we definitely wouldn’t be leaving today (but definitely manana …!) I radioed the Uruguan Artigas base to take up our earlier invitation to visit the base. It’s only 4km away, up and over the hills and around the coast right next to the edge of the Collin’s glacier (known by the Russians, and Bulat who studies it, as the Bellinsghausen glacier) but it took over an hour of effort to walk there through the deep snow. The base consists of 8 people at the moment and we were warmly welcomed with cups of tea and Uruguayan dulce de leche cakes to revitalise us after our hard walk. We were given a tour of all the offices, communications building, laboratories, meteorological base and accommodation (including en suite shower rooms in some – very luxurious!). Most of the buildings were built in the 1990s though the newest was built in 2006 and in summer the base can hold 30-40 people. Scientists (predominantly working on ocean biology and glaciers) bring equipment for specific projects, meaning that during the winter season (and now, at the start of summer) the labs are pretty empty until the scientists arrive. Although the base is located next to the glacier the weather was so bad we could barely make it out through the mist. We were invited (and tempted) to stay for dinner but, with the weather closing in, decided we’d better make the long trek back while it was still light and for our last night in Bellingshausen.