Sunday, December 02, 2012

Marguerite Bay, Antarctica

.... science never sleeps. An opportunity came up for Mairi and I to visit our weather station on the Ronne Ice Shelf. It's a long journey, stopping at Fossil Bluff to refuel, then a further 2.5 hours south. Once on the ground our work went well, raising the weather station clear of the accumulated snow and checking all was working as it should. We finished at 7pm and were then due to fly north to Sky Blu where we could camp for the night before returning to Rothera the following morning. However, that night Rothera found itself with every single plane out in the field. At least one plane should always be at Rothera for search and rescue missions. As we had completed our work we were called back to base that night. So from Sky Blu, we pushed on through to Fossil Bluff, then from Fossil Bluff back up to Rothera. Despite the long hours the final stint of the journey was utterly beautiful with the sun not quite setting behind us as we flew the last few miles back to base. To cap it all, the Movember party was still going strong and we were greeted with a lot of cheery people waving from the Boatshed as we came into land.

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