Don
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Index Ever OnwardsINSIDE "GADGET HUT" LAYERS OF HEAT
The temperature in the morning has been between minus 14 and minus
11 Celsius inside "Gadget Hut." When we are in bed our breath
freezes onto everything. Our books are in plastic bags to keep them
in good condition but now there is ice inside the plastic bags! The
water drums that we use are frozen up. The water inside is a solid
lump of ice so we melt ice for water just as we need it. There is
no use in trying to create a store because everything freezes up so
quickly. The heater is battling to keep up with the low
temperatures. We have it on all the time that we are out of bed.
The best the heater can do is to get the area near the ceiling of
the hut up to about 20. The temperature at eye height is about 12
degrees and at the table where we sit it is about 7 degrees. On the
floor it rarely gets above minus 4 degrees. I guess this explains
our cold feet. Margie sits with her feet underneath her now and I
keep stamping mine on the floor to keep the blood circulating.
FOOD FOR WARMTH AND FAT FOR COLD
We've been eating really well with lots of Shelf Stable Foods and
pasta. We had two roasts this week which were fantastic. We had
roast pork and roast beef. Cooking a roast in "Gadget Hut" makes it
seem homey. I think we are both putting on weight which we need to
help us combat the cold. The wind-chill now is really severe. It is
virtually always around minus 60 degrees Celsius. We have to rug up
and wear our neoprene face masks every time we go outside. We have
used the blow- torch on the windows again. There was a 25mm build
up of ice on the windows again so we got out the blow-torch and
cleared them off. There isn't anything else we can do to stop the
window freezing over. The light will soon be gone anyway so it
won't be a problem after another week or so.
FILMING AND FREEZING
Trying to film in the blizzards for the documentary we are going to
make is very difficult. Snow gets into everything. My hands freeze
and even my eyelids have had ice on them. When the wind dies down
my eyelashes tend to stick together and my moustache ices up. I
missed a good photo opportunity when I was filming. I didn't know
that Margie was blown over by the wind. She fell over a one-foot
ledge down onto some rocks and bruised her leg. Fortunately it was
nothing serious but it happened right next to the hut. She was only
about three metres away. She was collecting ice for water and when
she got blown over she dropped the bucket. It started to blow away
so she had to chase after it in the drift snow. It would have make
a good scene if I had captured it on video.
BATTERIES AND FREEZING
We had to warm our batteries for four hours before they would take
a charge from the generator. We had to work for a while to get the
generator to start too. First we used the flame torch on the sump
and the cylinder head of the generator. Then we poured hot oil down
the rocker cover. Even then we had trouble and had to pull the
starter cord many times before the generator would start. The
temperature is quite low. It has been between minus 27 and minus 22
for the last week. The blizzards get stronger and more consistent
as we head toward the dark days of winter. This week the winds were
well over 100 knots which is almost 200 kilometres per hour. The
wind is still playing the game of dying down to about 40 knots then
suddenly gusting to 100 knots. The COMSAT satellite telephone
system has been fantastic. The quality is so good that Margie has
now taken up singing over the satphone. On the Australian east
coast a radio presenter, Stan Zemanek has a show in the evenings on
2UE (954 on AM dial) in New South Wales and 4BC (1116 on AM dial)
in Queensland. Margie sang to Stan on his birthday on Monday night
and it may have been the "first live concert via satphone!"
SASTRUGI AND DRIFT SNOW
The sun was only out for one hour this week. The entire month of
May only had 40.5 hours of sunshine. The wind is so strong it is
polishing the sastrugi snow. It shines and glistens with really
funny shapes. What is sastrugi snow? I'll tell you. Sasgtrugi is a
common form of erosion that makes the surface of the snow look like
frozen surf. The wind blows drift snow around. The snow crystals
become rounded by the wind and eventually freeze to the windpacked
snow. The wind continues to erode the snow and makes strange shapes
like choppy seas on the ocean and dunes on the beach. A footprint
may stay because the snow is compressed and snow around it will be
blown away. Early explorers used these frozen footprints to retrace
their steps. The lichens which are normally black are turning green
under the snow. It is quite strange and maybe it's because there is
no sunlight.
PARTY PLANS IN ANTARCTICA
The Mid-Winter's party that we are planning is a tradition in
Antarctica. If you go to your library and find books about
Antarctic exploration you will read about some of the parties that
wintering over people have held. They usually involve costumes,
songs and special food.
We will also be celebrating with a phone call to Australian schools
since the AAP Group is launching our 'electronic field trips to
Antarctica' project. In September 2600 American schools are going
to join Expedition Ice-Bound on computer networks. Some of you may
have friends or relatives in Australia, New Zealand, Japan or the
United States. It really make you think we do live in a "global
village" when this same journal can reach students on three
continents. We want to celebrate by finding out how many classes
are following Expedition Ice-Bound.
We would like to receive a card or letter from your class so would
you write to us this week at P.O. Box 778, Mona Vale, NSW 2103,
Australia. Margie and I are going to share our party with you on 21
June. I'll tell you all the delicious things we are going to eat.
Margie is going to be in charge of the entertainment. When you send
us a card you could include a suggestion for our party. Please put
your e-mail address, the size of your class and your teacher's name
on the postcard or letter that you send. The 21st of June marks the
point where the sun reaches the Tropic of Cancer in the northern
hemisphere. It gives the northern hemisphere their longest day and
we get the shortest day. That doesn't quite work in Antarctica
because it will be dark then. We will have no daylight but we will
be celebrating the fact that the sun is now on its journey back to
Antarctica.
Keep warm,
Don
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