THE MELT DOWN IN "GADGET HUT"
We had two days of really high temperatures again this week. It was
almost warm, minus 3.5 degrees Celsius. It caused a melt-down
inside the hut. All the ice inside was melting and we got water all
over the place. Some of our books got wet and we had to use a
boating technique to dry them. We took a roll of our precious
toilet paper and placed a sheet between every page. I first used
this technique in 1993 when I dropped a book in the ocean. I
thought it was ruined but a yachtie showed me this toilet paper
trick and it works. Margie got an ice axe and chipped the ice off
the inside of our windows. So for the first time in a very long
time we can see out.
ABOUT BOAT HARBOUR
I reported that Boat Harbour had finally frozen over but I was
wrong. It is back to water again! There was an intense low pressure
system offshore which created a big swell. We haven't seen any big
seas in this area for six or seven weeks. We think it's mainly
because the sea is frozen for quite a way off shore which acts like
a big breakwater. The big seas here make me think that it has
broken up off shore, out at sea. Anyway, we had a very big tide at
Easter and the combination of the big seas and tide smashed all the
ice out of Boat Harbour. There was a full moon during Easter and on
a clear night we looked out at the moon over the water with
thousands of stars, it was an amazing Antarctic night time scene.
It reminded us of home where we have the moon coming up over the
water.
CLEAN PANTS
I changed my outer pants for the first time in three months. That
sounds terrible but there isn't much dirt down here. I've now got a
pair of Mont fibre- pile outer pants on. I've changed mine but
Margie's still wearing the same pair of pants she has been wearing
for the last three months. I also shaved. It is the second time
I've shaved since we have been here. We've just finished using our
second bar of soap since we've been here. One bar of soap we use
for our hands and the other bar we use for our baths. So we have
used two bars in three months which is pretty amazing. We don't use
much water and that's probably why we aren't using up much
soap.
NO EASTER EGGS
We had strawberry creams for Easter which were nicely gift wrapped
in paper with rabbits on it. It was an Easter present packed in our
gear by a friend. There were no Easter eggs probably because the
package was wrapped before Christmas and there were no Easter eggs
in the shops. Hope you had a chance to hear us on the Today Show on
Easter Monday. We really like talking on the satellite phone. We
are hoping that some Australian company will help us make phone
calls to 100 Australian schools soon. We talk to New Zealand
students once a week because Telecom New Zealand is sponsoring
Expedition Ice-Bound for New Zealand.
THE DISAPPEARING DAYLIGHT
It gets light at 8 o'clock in the morning now and by 5 o'clock in
the evening it is dark. We had a total of seven hours of sunlight
this week. It all came in one day. Our batteries were getting quite
low so we had turn on the generator for the first time this week.
The best meal of the week: Tinned lambs tongue with vegies. They
were unreal. Funnily enough, Mawson fed his men lambs tongues
too.
Keep warm,
Don
Back to
Index Ever Onwards