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1 7 t h j u l y 2 0 0 8 : f r o z e n s e a !
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a scene typical of a stunning last week of weather - the best since i arrived at rothera over a year and a half ago. it has been consistently cold, totally calm, and almost clear of cloud except for some patchy fog; rime and hoar frost cover every surface. above is a dawn shot looking northeast to icebergs in the mist, locked into the fast ice which has been thickening recently all around the base.
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...and yesterday, as part of the sea-ice training and testing, a group of three of us went out with ian, one of the GAs, and travelled 2kms north of the base on sea-ice, drilling as we went to test for thickness. we found that the ice was almost everywhere greater than 30cms thick! above is a pic looking back towards the base, which you can just see through the gap between the two bergs frozen into the ice. the moon peeks through a gap in the lefthand berg.
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another basewards photo.. on the far right, ian drills the ice to measure it's thickness.
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here is a point at which the main ice surface has slowly pulled apart, the exposed water freezing as it comes in contact with the air. on the longer established ice at the sides, a carpet of hoar frost ice crystals covers everything. we drilled the newly frozen lead and found it to be already 15cms thick, compared with 35cms either side.
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ian mcnab (GA), ian nightingale (comms manager), and me... close to our furthest point out. reptile ridge is in the background, the base out of the left of the picture. we are wearing wetsuit-like "boatsuits" to keep us dry if we were to fall through the ice, and the sticks we are carrying are called bog chisels (don't know why) - these are for attacking ice to see how solid it is. also we have throw lines, emergency clothing, ice axes and a drill, pulled behind on sledges. i had been looking forward to doing some sea-ice travel since i got here so it was a spectacular event for me to get finally get a taste of it... hopefully more to come if the weather doesn't do anything silly...
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1 4 t h j u l y 2 0 0 8 : c a l m , c l e a r
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above, the met tower which is home to some of the sensors
and instruments associated with my job. and the moon peeping round
the side on a crisp day. rime clings to everything after we had some
fog move through yesterday...
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a view from the met tower up on our little hill, looking
WNW to the base and the ramp and reptil ridge behind. the sea is
freezing quite nicely now... the GAs were out drilling to check
thicknesses today and found up to 40cms in some areas.
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above, looking over the hoar frost covered ground towards
one of the prettier radio antennae and (incredibly!) a clear sky
behind... and below, on the not so nice day on saturday, i put in a
few hours in the chippy shop to bandsaw, chisel & rasp the blocks of
wood in the black & white pic below into something which is starting
to resemble a guitar neck:
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1 1 t h j u l y 2 0 0 8 : g u i t a r u p d a t e
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| i'm once again getting on with my acoustic. i have fitted the top and bottom blocks (the blocks of mahogany that join the 2 sides at the top and bottom) which you can see in the photo. i am starting to glue reinforcing strips around the inside edges of the sides, although due to the lack of suitable clamps i have to do it in lots of little sections instead of in a few goes... that is what is clamped near the bottom of the mould with 2 clothes peg style things there. in the bottom right i have glued blocks together in preparation for making the neck. back on track! nice... rob | |||
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9 t h j u l y 2 0 0 8 : m o t h e r o f p e a r l o f s k y
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quick update - we had some cool clouds this morning, this
is a bit of a crap photo but they give the general impression - they're
much more impressive in real life! you may notice too that the sea
in the background is frozen too, although its a a bit hard to see.
this is looking to the northeast, and most of the sea is covered in some
form of ice which is quite exciting, although the tests that the sea-ice
has to pass before we can travel on it are very stringent. the field
assistants were out drilling test lines today, trying to monitor the ice
growth, and they are hoping to get a hole chainsawed in one of the nearby
coves before the end of the week. luckily its been acting like
winter recently with cold easterly and southerly winds.... winter
trips start in a month and it would make a very large number of my days if
i got to travel on the sea!
another piece of recently recorded music which will be cleaned up for my soundtrack:
(Right Click and Save As...)
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7 t h j u l y 2 0 0 8 : a y e a r o n f r o m n u n a t a k . . .
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below, a reminder (i'd almost forgotten!) that a year ago today was our old band's first and last appearance on the world stage... did Live Earth do anything to help improve our attitudes towards our finite resources? in my opinion (not necessarily shared by others in the band) probably not, and the price of oil has likely done more already to force us towards the greener ways that we need if we're not going to totally ruin our only planet. it was interesting to be involved in the project though, very instructive! anyway, photos are thin on the ground; thin everywhere, so here you go (courtesy of mr. mike mailing i think)... also, i have been working on a 50 minute soundtrack to an old (1961-62) film of the pioneering work of BAS at that time in establishing the hut at Fossil Bluff. Here is a link to one of the pieces of music i have completed so far for the film:
(Right Click and Save As...)
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left to right: matt balmer, tris thorne, me, roger stillwell, ali massey (promo filming earlier in the year) and below : delightful weather for one of the nunatak photoshoots! |
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2 n d j u l y 2 0 0 8 : m i d w i n t e r
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a northwards panorama from a month ago, a nice almost-sunrise.... pics have been thin on the ground recently but this is a nice one, if a bit out of date... |
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| this was taken yesterday during on of the rare clearish periods - in general it has been a horrendous few months of weather. still, it makes these little glimpses of colour and light (stratospheric nacreous clouds) all the more beautiful. i seem to have too many projects going all at once; this is a partial explanation for my lack of updates. in (very) short, we have passed the pschological landmark known as midwinter, the solstice, and we are heading for the return of the sun in 3 weeks time. our last week (sin trabajo) was very relaxing, and included plenty of traditional rothera acitivities like the midwinter BBC broadcast, huge meal, the exchanging of winter presents, a winter olympics day; and there's nothing like a pub quiz, then a pub crawl to make up for the fact that there aren't any pubs here! i'm afraid i am being frugal with my words this night, due to tiredness. perhpas i will be able to scrounge some photos from others of the events of the week, and if so i will post them... for now, hasta luego mis amigos | |||
website by rob webster -
two thousand and eight emedentesathotmaildotcom |
