It is pretty - and it amuses you for at least 5 minutes.

 

Robbie throws boiling water in the air - It freezes instantly.

 

Same shot Today - 28th May - Solid Sea ice all the way to Wilkes.

 

Same shot 17th April - sea ice forming

 

17th March - The Bay is clear

 

22 - 28th May

G’day All
So, what has been happening in the world of “Tracey in Casey” this week?
It has been a long week and I am quite buggard, but now that it is over it all seems to have flown.
A lot of the first half of the week was spent outside in the freezing cold. I had to conduct a full audit on all the radios we have on station. A really crappy job, but one that had to be done. So off I went trudging around in the soft snow and sinking to my butt in some areas, (more than likely because I am so short ;o] ). Falling off the tops of excavation equipment, (soft snow for a big fall is a GOOD thing ;o] ). Digging out blizzed in doors to get inside cold, cold vehicle cabins then pull out radios one by one to find asset and serial numbers. I was so glad to get back to the work shop after hours of that I must say.

Another job we have on is the audit all the Antennas on station. Most of them are up on the roofs so I sent Andrew up on top of the Red Shed to check that out. (It’s good to send the boss out on a crappy job sometimes, evens things up a bit – ha ha ). While he was on the roof I was down below playing in the snow drifts to keep warm. I kept an eye out while he was up on the roof just to make sure he didn’t come to grief at all. It’s what you do. :o]
Next week if the weather is good we have to get out to the Receiver farm and repair two antennas. Hopefully not a hard job if the weather holds for a few hours for us.
I love going out there; it is my favorite place on station. It is beautiful and quiet and the views are spectacular. I spent heaps of time there over summer. It is a nice spot to go for a long walk and spend some time alone in Antarctica.

The end of the week saw me back in the kitchen as slushy Friday and Saturday. Saturday morning is Robbie’s morning off so I started my day by cooking up a big smoko for the boys. Cheesy scrambled eggs, sausages and spaghetti in tomato sauce. Nice and easy and not much mess to clean up afterwards.
This week Robbie taught me how to prepare a full eye fillet (I prepared two of the three used) and we made Fillet Mignon. I also learnt how to skin and bone salmon. Robbie now gives me his knives to use for big jobs, which is a pretty big deal. A chef rarely lends his knife.
I am fast becoming the dessert queen. Saturday dessert is starting to be a regular occurrence for me these days. This week it was Crème Caramel. Robbie simply asks me what I want to make, finds the recipe in his Blue Chefs Cook Book and leaves me to it - Teaching me the finer techniques every now and then for the tricky bits.
So this week’s Saturday menu read:
Entrée: Oysters Kilpatrick.
Main: Roast Potato with Kalamata Olives and Lemon Juice: Sautéed Hyrdo veggies: Blackened Cajun Salmon with Citrus BeurreBlanc: Fillet Mignon with mushroom sauce For Desert: Crème Caramel and Cheese and fruit Platter.
Saturday nights are good nights for food at Casey station. They are the main reason I really watch what I eat the rest of the week as I don’t hold back on Saturday. It is also the only night I allow myself dessert, so I figure I may as well cook up good ones. :o]
My mate Petie has requested Profiteroles; so next week I will learn how to make those with both chocolate and normal custard filling. That will be a Friday night after work and Saturday job. It’s a bit of a time consuming one. Seems like I am taking requests now – Andrew wanted Crème Caramel this week.

Robbie and I were a bit bored this week. After dinner Saturday we played a few games of pool, drank a bit, got bored, played table tennis, drank some more, got bored again, played cards at the bar and drank some more and got bored again. Finally we dragged out some of the boys from their mothers meeting in the mess and at least had some company at the bar. I miss the summer crowd I have to say. Winter is a bit quiet socially and Robbie and I, social butterflies that we are, get a little restless. It’s probably time I got away some time soon.

The Sea Ice has been just opened up, so hopefully I will be able to get out on the quad for a bit of blat very soon. I’d like to go out on a Sunday and scoot over O’Brien Bay and up into the Mitchell then over to Robbo’s. I think that will be enough for my fingers at this stage. They still seem to be super sensitive to the cold most days.
Later in the year when the seals return to pup it will be awesome to be able to go out over the sea ice and visit them. I am really looking forward to that experience. How cool would it be to catch a baby seal being born? Once again, I have to say, this is the most amazing adventure I am having down here. You take the good with the mundane, but really, the good far outweighs the bad and the bad is easily forgotten in the overall scheme of things.
So till next week…

Toodles Doodles
Trace x

Inside the IPS hut. The ionosphere picture.

 

Working out in -25 at the antenna farm. brrr

 

Some of the damage

 

Some of the damage we need to fix

 

IPS Antenna farm and building.

 

May 15 - 21

G’day all.
Well, this week I am very happy to say that I am bringing you a very boring Blog update. It was a completely non-Eventful week. Well, almost non-eventful at any rate.

We have had some major damage down at the IPS antenna farm which needs to be repaired. IPS is equipment that belongs to “Ionospheric Predictions Services”. We look after all their gear for them at Casey station.
The equipment is used to monitor atmospheric conditions, electromagnet anomalies and monitor and compile data on HF predictions, solar flares and fluctuations in atmospheric conditions.
We have 3 transmit Antennas, 150 feet high each and 3 receive antennas, only about 50 feet high each at the antenna farm. The damage is confined mostly to the Transmit Antennas, though the receive antennas were not left completely untouched by recent storms and blizzards. The transmit damage is, of course, way up at the top of all three masts and will require us to spend many hours up the top of the masts carrying out repair work. A crap job in any conditions, let alone when our average temperature is -25 at the moment and getting colder by the day. So we have done what we can this week to keep the IPS people happy and give them a decent signal once more.
Andrew and I spent a very bleak 5 hours down there on Wednesday doing repairs to one of the Receiver Antennas. My fingers went off so quickly! I had to constantly run back to the Hagg and stick my fingers into the heater vents to warm them up before heading back outside for more work. A lot of the work was really fiddly and simply had to be done bare handed – no gloves at all. In the end I disconnected the antenna wire and dragged it into the Hagg and worked on the bits I could in there, then reconnected it all and completed the work that had to be done at the mast. Meanwhile poor old Andrew had to climb to the top and work up the mast. It was only the 50 feet one, but it was still bloody cold up there.
Thursday proved to be a much better day than Wednesday was. We went out to both the station transmitter and receiver farms for some more work and then back to the IPS farm once more. I stayed out in the cold for a couple of hours without my fingers going off at all. The doc tells me that means my hands are well and truly on the mend. Good news.
It was actually a beautiful day on Thursday. The sun came through the clouds and cast gorgeous shades of pink shadow across the snow. Although it was -24, it didn’t seem as cold as the day before. There wasn’t a breath of wind, which makes a huge difference and it was really nice to be out and about. Don’t get me wrong though, it was still very cold, but it just didn’t seem unpleasant that day.
Robbie, our chef, went off to Wilkes for the weekend with a few of the boys and I offered to do Saturday night dinner on station for him. This week in the kitchen I received a lesson on how to use a knife – sounds silly – but there really is an art to cutting that has to be learnt. I now know how to cut properly and have been practicing the technique. Robbie tells me that by the end of the year I will be a master in the kitchen uner his guidance and teaching. Excellent!
For Saturday dinner I did a Chinese night. It is easy and quick and one of my favorites and Robbie doesn’t cook stir fries or Asian dishes often, so it was well received. For desert I learnt how to make Crème Brule, which turned out fabulous. I got to get out the blow torch for this dish. Lots of fun and the end result was a brilliant “crack” on the toffee surface of the Crème Brule. Robbie tells me that is the sign of good Brule.

So, apart from being pretty flat out at work nothing much else happened this week. I got stuck into my lead lighting on Sunday and my first project is coming along nicely. Nearly finished now and it is looking good.

Till next week

Toodles Doodles!.

Trace :o]

Wilkins

 

Nooooooo! Shane, you ran over Elliot!!

 

Bad Elliot!!!

 

The Blue Ice Runway

 

A long way from home

 

At the Antarctic Cirlce

 

The middle of nowhere!

 

Wilkins Runway

 

Sun Dogs

 

This is what 5 minutes in -35degrees looks like

 

May 8 - 14. An update that almost never happened.

II am typing this slowly. I have a pair of Icebreaker glove liners on, which eases the pain in my fingers, sort of. I am currently cocooned in a cloud of – almost – pain relief thanks to a couple of Panadeine Forte and this is an installment that may not have been written if things had have gone just a little differently this week.
My mood is subdued and perhaps a little reflective; though it certainly isn’t a bad thing. Those of you who have known me for a long time know that I can be hard and cynical and tough. Those of you who have only known me since I began this journey probably find those words don’t fit me at all. Someone who is very dear to me, told me a few months ago that I was about as tough as a pink marshmallow and I am happy to wear that description these days. It reminds me of how much I have I changed since I embarked on this journey. I’m not terribly good with what I call “The Human Condition”. For the most part I believe you can only rely on people to A) let you down, B) hurt you or C) use you and discard you and unfortunately over the years my theory has been proved true more often than not. So I usually keep all but my closest inner circle at arms length and don’t often let anyone in. But slowly I am changing and learning to trust a little. At the end of this adventure I will return home greatly changed and hopefully a much better person for the experience. I have had people come into my life in the last 8 months who have touched my heart and touched my soul and at least one person who has done both. And I have made some friends who will remain in my life long after this adventure comes to an end. Perhaps that alone was worth coming for.

So what has lead me to be so introspective today?
The week started as it always does with nothing out of the ordinary. Andrew came back from Traverse to Cape Poinsett and I prepared to leave for Wilkins Runway for a few days to do some work. Wilkins Runway is 72km inland (4 hours in a Hagg in good conditions) from Casey Station. Wilkins is a 42million dollar AAD Project. It is a 4km Blue Ice Runway, the longest in the southern hemisphere. This was my first trip to Wilkins and I had no idea what to expect. Now, after being there I have a new appreciation for the phase “Middle of nowhere” because that is exactly where Wilkins is. You stand outside and turn 360 degrees. In any direction you look there is nothing. It is vast, it is bare, it is desolate and it is empty. No life, no colour, just nothingness. Then you turn to the horizon and the sun starts to creep above the horizon and the colours are amazing. The brilliant blue of the sky simply shines and you feel alive in this wasteland.
The runway itself is an engineering achievement of huge proportions. It has taken 3 summer seasons to construct so far and will be complete in 2 more. The construction consists of 4 km of surface graded down to Blue Ice and Razor leveled flat. It has a slight uphill incline but it dead flat. Once that was achieved layers of snow were sprayed over the surface and compacted into the Blue Ice to bond and form an Ice tarmac. It has been a massive job and has created a bit of controversy in recent times.
There are 8 vans up here that serve as living and sleeping areas and Dieso workshops. During winter we visit every 8 weeks to remove the Blizz tails from the vans, perform maintenance and ensure the gear is ready to be run up and go as soon as the new summer season begins next year.

During our stay here we were lucky enough to see another phenomenon caused by ice crystals in the air. This time it was “Sun Dogs”. This is where there are two sun shadows/reflections, one on each side of the sun and in special circumstances a third above the sun. We were lucky, we saw all 4 “Suns”. It was a beautiful site.
Then at 2am when I was still awake and everyone else slept, I went outside to find a full blood moon and the most amazing star sky I have yet to see. Around the moon was not one halo, but several, rippling out wave after wave. I think, when I leave this place, I will miss the sky the most. It really is amazing down here.
But I won’t miss the cold. It was -35 degrees at Wilkins and after only 5 minutes my eyelashes and eyebrows were caked with ice and I had to constantly blink just to stop my eyelids freezing. The cold here isn’t pleasant. But it is a part of the place and not everything in my adventure is going to be fabulous, as the trip home was to prove.

We set off for home Friday morning in -35 degrees. It was so cold that thermal glove liners and Thinsulate gloves didn’t even cut it for warmth on your hands and two pairs of sox and glacier boots didn’t stop feet from freezing. Inside the Hagg it wasn’t much better. Because it was so cold outside the motor was barely warming and there was little heat coming out of the vents. At one stage I took off my boot and sat like a contorted Buddha with my foot up against a vent to warm it up before returning it to my glacier boot. At the Arctic Circle we stopped for photos and to buggerize around while we waited for John to catch up. He was driving the D9 towing the living caravans and generator van we had used. The D9 drives at about 11km/hour compared to the 15km/hour of the Hagg. We had been outside for about 10 minutes and I could feel the cold seeping into my gloves. My hands were starting to get cold and I had to go for a wiz. But John was not too far away and would see me behind the Hagg so I had to wait for the D9 to catch up and race to the back of the caravan line. Finally, another 5 minute later he was parked up and I was busting. So I raced along out of sight. By now my hands were so cold that in gloves they refused to undo the zip of my Freezer suit, so I yanked them off. One thermal liner stayed on, the other came off with the glove to leave an exposed hand.
Things went pretty well downhill from there. I could barely work my hands and I had moved onto the side of the van where the wind was to stay out of sight. -35 degrees and wind makes a wind shill factor of about -50degrees. In less than 2 minutes I knew I was in trouble. I could barely make my arms work to shove them back in my freezer suit and had no way of doing the zip back up. I could see the Hagg, maybe 50 metres away and my only thought was to get there – QUICKLY. I past Chris, thinking if I run the blood might pump into my hands and help things. I shouted at him that I was in trouble and was going to the Hagg. Later Chris told me that I was not running at all, I was walking past him and muttering something about losing a glove. Hypothermia does very strange things to your mind. It ceases to function rationally, but the victim has no idea they are behaving strangely. Our thorough first aid training told me I was going into shock and I was Hypothermic, beyond that I had no thought. By the time I got to the Hagg my heart was racing so hard and so fast that I thought it would explode in my chest and I was beginning to panic. I fumbled with my sunglasses, dropped them and went into panic trying to grovel on the ground for them when what I should have been doing was getting in the Hagg with the heater. Again, Hypothermic and totally irrational behavior. My hands, by this stage would not work at all and the one that was totally exposed was as white as the snow, the nails blue. I hauled myself up into the Hagg and huddled over the heater vent where little heat was coming out. My breath was the shallow laboring pant of hyperventilation and I was starting to pass out. Thank God that Shane chose that moment to come and get something from the Hagg and saw me huddled over the heater vent violently shaking. He grabbed me and asked what was wrong. All I could say was that I was in shock and I was going to vomit any second. He grabbed me and lead me over to the D9, 10 metres away. By the time I got there I was pretty well fucked. Neither hands would work and the rest of me was shutting down – rapidly. I could barely move. It wasn’t until I got to the D9 that anyone noticed I still had no gloves on. Shane and John hauled me bodily into the cab on the D9, where the heater was turned to its full furnace blast temperature. The next 20 minutes were the most agonizing of my life. I stuck my frozen fingers up into the heater vents to thaw out. As sensation returned it came with wave after wave of pain so excruciating I was nearly blacking out from it. Waves of nausea rolled over the top of me and threatened to overwhelm me and as for my heart – I have no idea how it didn’t actually explode in my chest from the force and rapidity of its beating. It was 20 minutes of absolute hell that I would not wish on my worst enemy and certainly never wish to have repeated.

The next two hours it took to get home weren’t too bad. I felt sick and exhausted, but I was OK and I had no feeling in either hand so that was fine. It was actually, I was later to find out – very bad. It meant my hands were dying. Back at Casey I went and saw the Doc and discovered I had stage one frost bite to all 10 fingers from the first knuckle to the tips of my fingers. Pain had set in by then and things were not good. My finger nails felt like they had been smashed with a million hammers and I could not stand anything to touch my finger tips at all. The doc told me I could expect to wake the next morning with all fingers covered in puss filled, oozing blisters. He also said the pain and sensitivity would last several days at least and we would see then if the fingertips were lost. Even Panadeine Forte did little to ease the pain.
I went to bed, tripping on pain killers which did little to actually ease any pain with my hands in my thermal glove liners. I awoke at 2am in agony, which only worsened as I struggled to pop more Panadeine out of its foil and plastic enclosed wrapping. Not easy when you cant use any fingers!
The next day I removed the gloves expecting the worst and was very very relived to see that all I had was lots of swelling and lots and lots of pain.
Now, two days after the event, I am still in pain but it is easing, slowly.
Hopefully I will regain full use of all my fingers but they will remain extra sensitive to the cold for at least 12 months.
I am bloody lucky. The doc reckons another 10 minutes of exposure for my hands and I would almost certainly have lost all 10 fingers to the first knuckle and 20 minutes more would have meant irreversible Hypothermia, which usually leads to death.
The scariest thing though was the speed with which it all happened. It was less than 20 minutes between us pulling up at the Arctic Circle and me being thrown bodily into the cab of the D9 fully hypothermic and in deep trouble. And I wasn’t even doing anything stupid or irresponsible. In fact I did nothing at all wrong.
If Shane hadn’t decided to chose that moment to grab something from the Hagg I doubt I would be sitting here writing this episode in my Antarctic adventure at all. That was the thing, no one knew I was in trouble and I was obviously too hypothermic to convey the fact to anyone. It was all very quick and very bloody scary.

So there you have it. Another chapter in Trace’s Antarctic Adventures. Like I said, they aren’t all going to be GOOD experiences. But they are just a part of the whole experience. And bit by bit they are changing me into someone who hopefully, emerges from this a better person. One thing that has come out of this is that I have had to ask for help a few times in the last few days. This is something I have never done before. I am fiercely independent and to ask for help has been a humbling experience. Only once before have I done this, not long ago in fact, but that request I was met with silence. You live – you learn.

Hopefully next week I will have something really boring to tell you all. ;o]
Toodles Doodles!

Trace x

Just to compare. This photo was taken from the same spot in Sparkes Bay in February.

Sparkes Bay. The terrain is now all Blue Ice where rocky ground was only months ago and Sea ice is forming.

Grounded Blue Berg in Sparkes Bay at Robbo's

 

At Robbo's. I am so amazed at the moss that NEVER seems to mind the cold. Nature is amazing. I just love this stuff!

 

The Sun pillar. Both above and Below the sun. And a shadow phenomenon of a second sun in the clouds.