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[ I N D E X ]
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[ I N D E X ] ]
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Greetings from Halley.
A whole fourteen months after my interview for the post of Wintering Doctor on Halley Base I finally arrived here in late December 2000. I had departed from Hull in October on RRS Ernest Shackleton and will never forget my truly amazing ten week voyage as Ship's Doctor from England to Antarctica with Captain Stuart Lawrence and his crew.
When I first arrived in Halley I was given a warm welcome by all here, and made to feel very much at home in this truly special place filled with great people. I was instantly bewitched by the untamed beauty surrounding the base, one of the most notable features being the sheer grandeur of the sky due to our 360 degree horizon.Thanks to a very thorough handover from my predecessor Lil Ng, I settled into the routine here very quickly. I was pleased to find the surgery very well equipped and it has a great view thrown in.
Compared with the buzz of last month, February has been a more relaxed month on base with all major projects coming to an end and things starting to wind down for the close of the summer season. The MAMOG party returned safely from Queen Maud Land with copious geological samples and the satisfaction of a successful season.
RRS Ernest Shackleton returned on February 8th and as the sea ice had all broken out at Creek 4, Captain Lawrence expertly manoeuvred her into Creek 6, a very tight squeeze with only a few metres clearance.
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| RRS Ernest Shackleton
at Creek 6. |
With the ship came the very last of our fresh supplies and mail for ten months. We sent out all of our waste for recycling in the Falkland Islands, and then over a few days people gradually began to leave Halley and board the ship in preparation for their homeward journey.
Our last Saturday night of the summer season saw a Birthday party for Stuart McMillan one of our summer chefs. This prompted much dressing up with a very strong "Hippy" theme and no gender boundaries.
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We had the pleasure of some of the ships company that night as Robert Day (2nd Engineer) and Steve Buxton (Radio Officer and one of the authors of the 'infamous' RRS Ernest Shackleton Web-diary) had arranged to sleep in a pyramid tent just off base. They partook in the Saturday evening festivities before braving the Antarctic night under canvas.
On the 12th of February RRS Ernest Shackleton departed with much ceremony. All sixteen winterers said their farewells onboard, then the whistle sounded and we disembarked to see her off from the Shelf Ice. There was much mirth as we set off flares, drank champagne and had our last sight of the "big red taxi & food hamper" for ten months as she sailed off into the horizon.
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Two days later saw the departure of our Twin Otter plane with pilots Geoff Porter and Dave Leatherdale, Air Mechanic Paul Maclean, and Rothera Field GAs Dave Routledge and Dave Ellis. Later that week two German Dornier planes refuelling on their way home from Neumayer marked our last visit from the outside world before the sixteen of us were left to our own devices for the winter. The continent has since emptied considerably of human life as other bases around Antarctica prepare for the Long Polar Winter. Even our resident Adelie Penguins have left us for warmer climes.
The start of our winter has been pleasantly layed back in comparison with the hectic summer season. There are often only twelve of us on Base as sledging parties of four are now spending a week at a time camping in The Hinge Zone led by our Field GA Karl Farkas. This is an incredible place where the Brunt Ice Shelf meets the Antarctic mainland. It is heavilly crevassed and has countless stunning icebergs and windtails making the whole area an interesting place to explore, ice climb and abseil. During our time there Karl teaches us many of the skills required for survival in the extreme Antarctic environment and uses his expertise as a Professional Mountaineer to lead us through the whole area. Some of the features have strange names like "Whalemeat Sausage Berg", and some look strikingly like the scaled down mountains after which they are named, for example the "Eiger and "Matterhorn".
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In preparation for the big freeze we have all been involved in raising our fuel depots to ground level from the ice that has entombed them over the last year. We need these to be easily accessible to feed our generators throughout the long winter. Drum Lines (rows of empty drums marking the Base perimeter and routes out to the coast) have also been excavated from the ever rising snow surface. Paul Sharp our Electrician, Richard Borthwick our Heating & Ventilation Engineer and Andy McConnachie our Generator Mechanic have been busy preparing the Drewry Building (Summer Accomodation Building) for it's winter shut down. This is a considerable task involving total drainage of all water from the system, removal of all showers , thermostats and temperature sensitive equipment, and preparing the generators for shut down.
In his capacity of Fire Officer, Paul Sharp has been training us all in the use of Breathing Apparatus (BA). We all have to be proficient in the use of BA sets and Fire Extinguishers so that in the unlikely event of a fire any one of us can deal with it efficiently and safely.
The Halley Communications Manager, Mark Ryan has installed an FM Rebroadcaster so that we can all listen to BBC World Service around base. This has been a great success and we are all thoroughly enjoying it.
Elizabeth Hudd and Catherine Moore, our two new Meteorologists or "Met Babes" have settled in well to their routine of shiftwork and unsociable hours. In addition they are both showing great talent in Arts and Crafts, and spending a lot of their free time in the dark room developing slides and photographs.
Our senior meteorologist (Chief Met Babe), Dan Carson has been using the new Sonde Balloon and Helikites to monitor the Lower Atmosphere.
Thomas Rieley, the Base Doctor has been rounding up volunteers for the new Halley Medical Research Project analysing the effects of light exposure on sleep patterns. Eight of the base members are now wearing "Actiwatches", wristwatch sized light and motion sensors, and keeping sleep Diaries. The resulting data in combination with the ongoing research into nightshift at Halley should give us a greater understanding of the human body clock and the effects of shift patterns on peoples health.
Over in the Piggot Building Alan Burchell, Neil Farnell, Dave Glynn and Jamie Keir have completed their busy summer projects. This included doing all of their outdoor work in preparation for winter when it will be too cold to work outside for long periods of time.
Our Winter Base Commander, Dave Glynn is settling into his new role and keeping us all in line.
Richard Casson, our wintering Chippy / Honorary Steel Erector has already started the winter jacking process in order to keep the Laws Platform level. Our vehicle mechanic, Gary Middleton has been kept on his toes preparing some of the vehicles for hibernation and servicing all of our field skiddoos between each winter trip.
Richard Turner, our Chef and Deputy WBC has been stocktaking and rearranging his stores to keep us all well fed. Due to the sheer excellence of his cooking, a few of us find it necessary to torture each other regularly with gruelling circuit training sessions in an attempt to keep our waistlines in trim.
Other essential preparations for winter include adopting a Halley Hairdo and therefore some of our more manly members of Base have taken to cutting, styling and dying each others hair of an evening !
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As we lose our 24 hour daylight and the temperature starts to drop we are rewarded by some of the most awesome
sunsets. Sadly, photography cannot even come close to capturing the moment for you all to share with us.
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Thomas Rieley, Halley Doctor.
