A Very Merry Shipsmas and Casey New Year!

Image by Cassie Therese

First visit to the continent!!! We arrived at Casey while I was asleep, so I woke up to us anchored in Newcomb Bay, in perfectly still weather, bright and sunny. As soon as we arrived, the Casey resupply started, which involved transporting everything over to the station on a barge.

The barge loading up

The next day I was on the last IRB (inflatable boat) over to the station. They let us over in small groups every day so we could tourist around the station, without over running it. As it was just Mar and I on the last boat, Tom and Zane, our awesome boaties, gave us a trip around the ship. Wicked start to the day!

Going for a burn around the ship Image by Mar Arroyo

 After about a million inductions and a torturous session of unloading the stations alcohol supply for the next year (FYI the station is dry during resupply so we could have none of what we unloaded), we managed to get up to the snow petrel colony at Reeves Hill. What a view!! The whole bay and Casey station, the abandoned Wilkes station off in the distance, Adelie penguins crossing the fast ice to their colony, icebergs so long they covered the horizon….  I even managed to find a couple of nesting snow petrels. The nests are numbered and I didn’t realise, I saw the numbers but never thought what they must be, so I hopped over a big rock and next thing the rock started screaming at me. Obviously there was a petrel under the rock. I looked around for the petrel but it must have hidden after I scared the shit out of it. But after I had worked out that the nests were numbered, I went searching for a nest that was easy to spy on without getting too close. 5 meters is the limit for nesting Snow Petrels, which actually feels pretty close. We spent a good couple of hours up there just watching the view.

We did a fair bit of photo shooting around the station, including the infamous onesie photo, which means I am now a full-fledged Antarctic SOPOPPie. I also had a cuppa sitting out on the snow in my plastics pants to keep the wet out.  

Mmm English Breakfast 

SOPOPP onesies: seal style 

My second job for the trip was to rendezvous with last years over winterer, who changed the filters in our air sampler all year, and meet with this years’ over winterer to facilitate the changeover, ensuring everyone knew what they were doing. I needed to talk with them about how to sample for POPs without contaminating anything and make sure the equipment was running smoothly. In order to do that, I needed a trip out to Wilkes Station, where our air sampler is situated. So that first day over at Casey, I made contact and organised for us to head out to Wilkes the next day. Little did I know that getting over to Wilkes was going to be the biggest cluserfuck of the trip.

View from Reeves Hill

I cleared going over to Wilkes the next day with the Voyage leader and my contact cleared it with the station leader. I got up bright and early the next day ready to get my work done, but it took a long time to get over on the boat that day. They were unloading a crane and needed all the boats on hand just in case. No probs, I was happy to wait. I got over after lunch – exactly when refuelling started. During the resupply we needed to transfer fuel to the station along a big hose stretching from the ship to the station. All hands on deck – no one was allowed off station, even for work, plus my contact was involved in the refuelling roster. No Wilkes today. Ah well, that sucks but shit happens. I spent the rest of the day dicking around on the station. I went up to Reeves Hill again with the second group of tourist expeditioners, had a snowball fight, Rhys made face down snow angels, I made face up snow angels and I saw my first South Polar Skua (also one of my favourite birds).

Nesting Snow Petrel
Image by Amanda Dawson

Refuelling lasts 3-4 days depending on the weather. Bad weather and lots of sea ice would force us to roll up the pipe and wait it out. Sea ice could cut the refuelling pipe and lead to a massive fuel spill/environmental disaster.  If the weather got really bad, we would need to pull up anchor and head out into the polynya and circle until it dies down again.  So the next day refuelling was still happening and I wasn’t even thinking about going over to the station. I had thesis writing that I had been neglecting, that I should be doing. Next thing, the deputy voyage leader was telling me to get over the Casey NOW because I’m going to Wilkes today. “Are you sure?” I asked, “Because refuelling is still underway?” “Yes, I just got off the phone with the station leader” Ok. Off I went to get dressed in my plastic outfit and grab my survival bag and headed over. Literally, as soon as I set foot in the station I got a call from my contact telling me we’re not going today as he is still refuelling. WTF?? I was pretty fucking pissed. I was specifically told to go over to go to Wilkes. Anyway I literally got back on the IRB to come home to the ship. Gah.

Mr Reeves cross 

That night was my saviour and made everything worth it. I got the chance to get on an IRB for the refuelling roster from 8-12pm. To stop sea ice from cutting the pipe there were 24hr rosters of boats on the water to push sea ice away from the pipe. I spent the night cruising about the bay doing nothing for 4 hours listening to music, just chilling in a rubber ducky, enjoying the midnight sun. Most of the shift was glassy and amazing. In the last hour, the wind picked up and I got to wrangle some ice. Basically, you try to move little bits of ice away from the fuel hose running from the ship to shore. You get this big long poking stick and shove ice under the hose. It’s awesome fun. I went to bed with sore arms (because I am weak). But it was a fantastic end to a shitty day.

Taking my ice for a walk

Showing this ice who's boss

The next day the wind did pick up and had to leave the bay. Luckily the refuelling finished about an hour after my shift ended, so we had plenty of time to mosey on out of the bay. Out in the polynya we saw Orcas – several pods of orcas! They covered the horizon. I literally died.

"They were so far out in the distance the photos are really crap but I doesn’t matter because I saw orcas for the first time in my life!!"

Two days later we were back in the bay and I was trying for Wilkes again. I got dressed and brought all my gear down. Then I found out the road to Wilkes was closed. Literally gutted. A couple of hours later, I heard that the Voyage leader was looking for me, so I went to find him, and he was like, yeah I don’t think you’re going to get a chance – resupply is almost over. I was like ‘that sucks it’s literally the only reason I came down’.  I guess he took pity on me and we went up to his room to call the station to figure out what we can do. He checked his emails and had one from station leader saying the road is open and I can go! He was like ‘run and get dressed now, Go. Go’. So I ran down got dressed, jumped in a boat and went over. And it was awesome...

Me and a Hag

I had a ride to the sampler in a hagglund which was so fricken cool. It has big conveyor belt wheels. I got to wear a headset to talk to the other guys. During the trip, I got into this habit, whenever I was by myself, I would shout how amazing it is to the sky. When we were coming back from Wilkes we stopped to take picture and I jumped out of the hag, thinking i was by myself i started to shout "this is fucking amazing" but as I started I remembered I was still wearing the headset and they could hear every word!  How embarrassing. Anyway the view from the top of the hill above Casey is incredible. You can see hundreds of icebergs just out of the bay. The ship looked tiny. We drove along this stunning white featureless landscape on a road you could barely see. It snowed the entire day over there. The weather was bleak but made the snow look so white. It was so windy over at Wilkes, I wasn’t prepared. The first few days at Casey were so hot, up to 7°C, which is very hot when you are hiking around in polar gear. We changed the air filters and had a photoshoot. 

Science!

The air sampler 

For the rest of the day I played pool with cristina. We were the only two expeditioners on the station. We had to stay for dinner, we met heaps of nice summerers and on the boat ride home we pulled up next to an ice floe of penguins. OMFG they are so fucking adorable. Fat, little black suits waddling around. One got curious and came over. He was like 3 meters away. I died. It was perfectly silent except for the adelies squawking, it was still snowing and they were so cute. It was a perfect serene  moment, I almost teared up.

A perfect penguin
Image by Amanda Dawson

"Everyday something new and amazing happens. I don’t know how things could get better that what I have seen and done so far on this trip".

I spent real Christmas Eve lying on the monkey deck in a bean bag reading in the sun – it was almost a tropical holiday, expect that I was rugged up to the nines and still freezing. The Grinchy voyage leader cancelled Christmas on the 25^th. It was still a pretty good day. It snowed, so we had a white Christmas and people were still pretty festive.

But Shipsmas is a celebration I will never forget. I have never eaten that well for Christmas – and my mum puts on a great spread, so that is saying something.

Merry Shipsmas

And it was incredible. I decided to skip breakie because I knew lunch was going to be amazing. I spent most of the morning up on the monkey deck and bridge chatting to the watch officer Kirsty, and decided to go down to the bow to watch ice breaking. When I woke up we were passing next to an enormous berg and an hour later, we were still next to the same berg, so the ship turned around (not an easy task in such thick ice) and headed back south west to find a thinner spot. Christmas lunch was incredible. Roast turkey, ham, chicken, pork, beef, prawns, crayfish, prawn cocktails, oysters, a bazillion salads, roast veggies, pav, pudding and the world’s biggest cake. AND alcohol for the first time in a month. It was just cheap shiraz and mercury cider, but I loved it.

Come sit on Santas lap young Jeff

After lunch, we had an award ceremony for awards that we had nominated people for: most mysterious, funniest, dependable, etc.. the voyage leader got laziest!  Then we did Secret Santa. I got a Doctor Who mug, which I promptly swapped for a wodden puzzle game thing and chocolates. Rhys decided to play Twister by himself, then after he left, everyone else decided to play a game. I got out pretty quick. Delphine fell on me but I think Seb pushed her (he's a big old cheater). The rest of the day I spent outside watching us break ice. Its amazing. I spotted a crabeater who was initially shocked by the boat then rolled over on his tummy. I think he wanted a belly scratch from us. Seals seem like aquatic cats, so lazy and sleek.

A few days after Christmas we got stuck in the sea ice. Only for a day but it was still pretty cool. The sea ice team, who drill for ice cores to look for trace metals, used the time to sample some of the floes near the boat.

After that we left the sea ice to head east to the Totten Glacier. It was sad to leave the sea ice, but reassuring to know it won’t be long until we were back in it again.

"I’m trying to capture the feeling i get when watching the ship crash and crack through the ice. How it looks like whipped cream or icing sugar clumps. Like excitement and satisfaction when we break perfectly untouched ice floes, or thrills, when we lose momentum and can’t quite make it through. Sometimes I’m going for the ship, others I’m rooting for the ice to win. It’s so beautiful I can’t really describe it."

Adelie’s quickly became my favourite animal down there (I know I say that about every animal), waddling around over the slushie ice, and the way they throw their flippers out behind them when they run. They quickly realise they are too slow, so they jump down on their tummies and slide along using their feet to push.

Belly travel is the fastest mode of transport 

"I really love watching Ice crack under the weight of the boat. Something about the feeling of destruction that is satisfying, and beautiful."  

Sorry this post is so long. I will write about new years next time