A Very Busy Season
Posted on the 30.01.2012 by Alain Hubert
Once our equipment unloaded from the Mary Arctica, the team came back without hindrance to the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica (PEA), and we started working straight away.
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After Crown Bay, back at work
In all the updates I’ve been sending each season from Antarctica, I don’t think I’ll ever point out clearly enough how dedicated the staff can be at our base, hour after hour. Let me just quote one example : the four-and-a-half days of almost non-stop work at Crown Bay, where the Mary Arctica had to be unloaded speedily. Her return to Cape Town depended on this, as sea ice was already closing in.
Back at base, we were of course back at work. I have to point out that this season we’re more than usual on a war footing. First of all, because there has been an 8 days delay when the ship was held up in ice. It stressed all of us, chiefly myself, I can assure you. Then there were the visits by foreign scientists, who seem to apreciate our work, and who come in increasing numbers from one year to the next.
Apart from the Japanese, who came at the start of the season -and who are still here- we also had to install a comfortable base for the AWI research team, who were on mission in Crown Bay before joining us. We’re also looking after a few german geologists from BGR (Bundesanstalt für Geowissenschaften und Rohstoffe in Hannover / Federal Institute for Geosciences and Natural Resources) who are investigating the geological history of the region during the formation and break-up of the Gondwana Supercontinent. They came with two helicopters this year (see the gallery published in the PEA website).
There has also been a very substantial job to fulfill : the replacement of 192 batteries which enable our base to stock in energy (see an article posted in the PEA website).
All of this comes on top of the daily chores in the base. Let me detail a few of these, so the reader can best understand the work done out here.
A mood of frank camaradery
Back from Crown Bay, we first had to unpack the containers. Then came the usual daily work at our base : the maintenance of our vehicles (our skidoos have been running non-stop for two weeks), of our electricity generators, repairing damaged tents, packing up all the rubbish which will be sent to Cape Town next year, plus the daily work done by Jacob on our WTU (Water Treatment Unit), and improvements in our fire detection system ...
Add to this our daily meetings and the logistic planning concerning our next flights, and visits from other scientists who will arrive here in early February.
To sum it all up, we’re working pretty hard at PEA. But thankfully, it’s all in a mood of frank camaradery. The real bond between all of us is the feeling we’re taking part in a quite revolutionary project -a zero emission station- which will bring its contribution to a change in mentalities and to the making of a society more conscious of its environment.
Many scientific researchers came to work with us at the PEA this season
© IPF - Alain Hubert
