Don
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In the middle of all this beauty Margie stood on the rocks beside
the hut and began singing. The last song she sang was "Ave Maria"
and she hit some really high notes. While she was singing and the
sun was going down there were lots of birds flying around and
coming right up to her, about 3 or 4 feet away. Just as she
finished the song with some really high notes there was about three
seconds of thunder which was really eerie. It was as if she had
upset the gods or something but we knew what it really was. It was
another iceberg falling off. We couldn't see it that evening but
the next day we saw it. It was about 2 kilometres long and it broke
off only about 5 kilometres from us. It is really quite large and
it is now floating out to sea very slowly. We have been watching it
all week and it has barely moved. It may be dragging on the bottom
of the sea. It was a spooky occasion.
STRANGE FOOTPRINTS IN THE SNOW
With all the snow we had on Friday we took a walk over the Mawson's
hut. We were taking photographs of the hut and we noticed what
looked like footprints near the skylight on the roof. The
"footprint" marks were in the clean snow and it looked like someone
was living in the hut. It was really quite weird and all we could
figure out was that it must have been a bird. A bird who was
resting or moving around near the skylight, maybe looking for a way
in to nest or trying to hide something. We just don't know. It was
spooky occasion number two.
CELEBRATING EARTH DAY
Last Sunday in Antarctica, which was Saturday the 22nd in the
United States we had a bit of fun. It was World Earth Day and we
spoke to the Birmingham, Alabama Zoo. They broadcasted our
satellite phone call to all the people at the zoo. The people asked
us questions. They asked us about polar bears! They had just had a
phone call from the Arctic. The people in the Arctic had polar
bears all around them! We reported that we only see polar bears on
the 1st of April, April Fools' Day, here in Antarctica.
DIRTY FUEL HURT OUR HEATER
We've had some fuel contamination in our heater which has created
some problems. We haven't been able to get our heater up to "high."
The flame has been flickering and there may be water in the fuel.
It could be a bit of snow or it could be that the container wasn't
perfectly clean in Sydney when we filled it. We had a combination
of smoking as well as a lack of flame. We flushed everything
through and it seems to be going okay now. I would like to tell you
that we haven't spilled one drop of fuel since we have been in
Antarctica. We are very happy that we haven't had an accidental
spill. We always fill the tanks inside the hut so that if we did
spill any fuel it would only fall onto the timber floor. We could
cope with fuel on the floor but we are glad that we haven't had
to.
FUEL CONSUMPTION
We are currently consuming 10 litres of fuel a week which is still
relatively low. We budgeted for 20 litres a week. It is not just
plain old kerosene, it is ATK (aviation turbine kerosene). Can you
guess why? I'll tell you why at the end of this journal. The sun is
so low on the horizon that it's not putting much power in the solar
panels. We have had to use the generator again this week. The
daylight arrives around 8:30 in the morning and is getting dark
around 4 p.m. We have had a total of four hours of sunshine this
week. The rest of the time it was overcast. For those of you with
technical interest, we are running the generator for two sessions a
week for approximately three hours. This gives us our battery 50
amp hours each time we run the generator.
ICE AND MELT-DOWNS
Yesterday Margie had a big defrost of the hut. There was 10 cms (4
inches) of ice under the table! We chipped it off and it filled a
bucket. We had been wondering why our feet were always cold down
under the table. When the hut temperature gets really warm, up to
15 or 20 degrees the temperature under the table stays around 3 or
4 degrees Celsius. You know hot air rises and the hut is warmest
near the roof. Since we took the ice away, our feet will probably
be a bit warmer. Last night because of the relatively warm weather
we have had over the past few weeks the bunk was really wet. The
water came through to the top of the mattress. It went through both
of our sleeping bags. We noticed it the night before and we just
thought that we must have been sweating during the night. Our
normal body heat sends moisture through the top of the sleeping
bags which makes them damp. With wet from below things were getting
a bit much. So we are trying to dry out the sleeping bags, the
mattress and all the rest of our gear which is really difficult. We
are going to have to cut the mattress in half because it is too big
to put over the heater. Waking up on a soggy mattress is not a lot
of fun.
SCHOOL NEWS AND BIRD NEWS
This week I'd like to say hello to Maryborough High School and
Kyogle High School. Margie's brother teaches at Maryborough High
School and we're glad that they have joined us, welcome to everyone
at Maryborough. Hello Kyogle High School we are glad to be of help
with your project. We'll start next week. Kyogle High has asked us
to monitor any animal life seen around lunch time and dinner time.
We can't see much at dinner time because it is getting dark so
early. Mostly we see birds right now. The penguins are gone and the
seals aren't around very much. There are lots of birds here right
now mainly Snow Petrels and Cape Petrels. Snow Petrels are the
prettiest birds I've ever seen in my life. They are small, about
the size of a pigeon and they're brilliant white with pitch black
eyes and a pitch black beak. They fly around and come right up to
us. We feel as though we can just reach out and touch them. They're
interested in the movement and the bright clothing we're wearing we
think. When we are outside they come over and check us out. "Every
Snow Petrel is a little chip off the frozen environment that moulds
it," Keith Shackleton said in his book WILDLIFE AND WILDERNESS AN
ARTIST'S WORLD.
OUR BEST MEAL OF THE WEEK:
Spaghetti Bolognaise.
OUR WORST PROBLEM THIS WEEK:
No radio at night. There must be a lot of solar activity because we
haven't been able to get Australian or New Zealand radio stations
which we really enjoy listening to.
THE BEST PART OF THE WEEK: 1.
The sunset with Margie singing. 2. The amazing sound of no sound.
When the wind stops and there's not a sound, our ears ring. The
silence is absolute. It's like nothing we have ever
experienced.
THE REASON WHY WE HAVE ATK INSTEAD OF KEROSENE -- ATK FREEZES AT A
LOWER TEMPERATURE THAN KEROSENE. That is a problem I hope we never
have to face-- frozen fuel!
Keep warm,
Don
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