Wednesday 28 December 2005
A busy Christmas
Christmas at Halley is rarely a time for relaxation, as it usually marks the arrival of the RRS Ernest Shackleton and the beginning of the annual resupply of the base. This year has been no exception and we have been working round the clock (in two 12 hour shifts) to transfer cargo from the ship to the base since it arrived on 21st December. I'm on the night shift, although that is a bit of a misnomer as we have bright daylight for 24 hours at the moment.
In recent years the ship has moored up at Creek 2 which is around 12 kilometres from the base. Unfortunately this year the sea ice has broken out early, which has made that creek and many of the others unworkable (we need a bit of sea ice for the ship to moor against and to provide space for the sno-cats to turn around). Instead the ship has had to moor up at a site called N9, which is 50km from Halley. That extra distance has extended the length of relief considerably, we are already into our 6th night of transferring cargo with the prospect of a few more days to go.
The ship moored at N9. The natural ramp here provides the means to get cargo up onto the ice shelf. Cargo is depoted at the top of the cliffs before being driven to Halley (the tracks leading off to the bottom left). Photo by Petra.
Once the ship moored up we set up a depot at the top of the cliffs and marked out a skiway for the plane to land. The plane has been making seven flights a day transferring food, beer and and other cargo that cannot be allowed to freeze to the base.
The McDonald Ice Rumples and the Creeks beyond them as seen from the plane during one of the cargo runs. Photo by Petra.
The shadow of the plane against the ice shelf as it comes in for landing at N9. Photo by Petra.
Unloading cargo from the plane at the Halley skiway. Photo by Petra.
Meanwhile the bulk of the cargo is transferred by sno-cats towing large sledges. Before they could start driving a route between N9 and the base had to be checked for crevasses and flagged by our field assistants. Then a caboose was towed to the half way point to provide a rest stop. To get the cargo to base two sno-cats move it from the ship, across the sea ice and up to the cliff-top depot. From there three sno-cats take it to the half way caboose and three more pick it up and pull it to Halley.
Two sno-cats driving the lonely 50km journey between N9 and the base. Each round trip takes about 12 hours to complete. Photo by Petra.
Each shift had several more people to unload the cargo from the ship, depot it on a cargo line at Halley and finally to unpack things and cram them into the various storage areas on base.
Unpacking food boxes in the Laws corridor. Photo by Petra.
At the same time we have been working to remove all the waste that has built up over the year. We have had to dig up a load of empty fuel drums to be sent out as well as packing up everything else we don't need. This is then returned to the ship to be removed from Antarctica and recycled where possible.
We have now reached the final stage of relief which involves transferring enough aviation fuel from the ship to the base to power the generators during the winter. To move the fuel we use transfer tanks on sledges, which are towed by the sno-cats. Each 5 cubic metre tank is driven to the ship, filled, then returned to the base and pumped out into our bulk storage tanks.
A snow cat towing a sledge containing a fuel transit tank. Photo by Petra.
We need about 200,000 litres to supply the base so at 5000 litres per run it will take quite a while before our tanks are full. Hopefully we will be finished in time for New Year and be able to enjoy a good post-relief celebration.
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