Att kryssa genom havsisen mellan isberg, sälar och pingviner är inget annat är hänförande. Nu är vi tillbaka vid avlastningsplatsen. Vi tycker vädret ser fint ut för imorgon, så hopp finns för både flygning till Troll för upphämtning av bagage, vetenskaplig flygrekognosering och lossning av vår utrustning.
So, we are officially delayed and the mess with missed connections is on. For a while the planning pointed towards flying out yesterday, but that got cancelled.
After a season with splendid weather, we are having our share. Yesterday's weather reports indicate that the weekend is our best bet to leave Wasa.
Now we are scheduled to get picked up on Thursday at 12:15 but the forecast does not look that good. At this moment we have 43,2 knots of wind and visibility less than 1000 meters. But spirits are high, we are warm and we got food.
Last night at dinner we asked our self what technological advances that makes it possible for us to travel to Earth's most inhospitable and isolated continent? Sure, there have been polar expeditions for over a hundred years now, but you do not need to go too far back in the literature to realise that it was made under completely different risks and sacrifices. Its somewhere around where the images changes from color to black and white so see how the conditions and the changes but must have felt both fear and anxiety. There is more than one story about the expedition That Were left on the ice, not just one, but two long winters more than planned.
After another period without a clue of the date it was, we have figured out That it is January 9 today. And it is good to know Because tomorrow will our colleagues be travelling from Cape Town. Just like we did, they first fly to Troll. Currently it is not known if they will stay for a night or fly out straight away. There has been some confusion with flights between Cape Town and Troll. The warm weather has made the airstrip warm, and since it's made of ice it needs go get a little bit harder so that the air planes are able to land. So they have talked about moving to flights till nighttime.
The station is now in full swing and we have to start focusing ahead in two tracks; firstly, the logistics and maintenance of the station and the other is to prepare for the research.
Now, if the trip was two-dimensional last time this one was one-dimensional and then finally dimensionless. Overcast sky disbanded in the horizon by adopting the same white color as snow.
At Neumayer we've got ourself out of bed at 7 for breakfast and then we've got help from two machine operators. Unfortunately I do not know the name of the first operator, but anyhow he is almost excessively tanned. And the second operator was Klaus from Bavaria. He was the one in Lederhosen on Christmas Eve and also the one who opened the beer bottles with a chainsaw on New Year's Eve.
Happy New Year! Ola, Stefan and Calle drove to Neumayer yesterday to get the second batch of cargo. We packed and celebrated New Years Eve today and tomorrow we drive back to Wasa.
Ah, we've figured out what day it is! You think its a joke, but no! Imagine no radio, no television, no newspaper, no weekdays, no meetings and no days off, not yet anyway. You loose track of the time quite fast.
Preparing for the next trip to Neumayer.
Boxing Day = training day!
Christmas third day, ready to go!
Christmas Day - the day off in Antarctica.
Christmas Evening in Antarctica!
No ship today, it is still working to get trough the ice. Instead there was a fire drill.
Good news, the spare keys to the cars are found!
It's not cold here, even below zero, which seems strange. It has been a positive phenomenon, the wind has brought snow up against the edge of the ice shelf here around Neumayer....
Time flies just like we do. Or not because we are now on solid ground, or not, nor for Neumayer is placed on the ice shelf. That is, thick floating platform of ice that flows down to a coastline and onto the ocean surface.
